Samples from Majestic Mountain Sage!

I received a note on twitter that MMS would be sending me a sample of the Lemon & Basil lip balm that Taylor made on April 29th and I was thrilled because I have always wanted to make a more 'savory' lip balm, but wasn't sure exactly where to start in terms of how much of each essential oil or sweetener to use. Their recipe is a great starting point!

This balm is yet another example that there are many different (and awesome) formulas for different occasions! The balm doesn't go on thick or sticky, so it's perfect for everyday use; smooth texture, very light but still moisturizing. I didn't expect to like the flavor of basil in a lip balm, to be honest- I tend to associate it with our Basil Aromatherapy sticks, I think. But I really liked it! Basil is a complex flavor- you taste a strong herbaceous flavor (not quite "Italian food", but close) first, but that quickly disappears and you taste the "fennel", "black licorice" notes. The last thing you taste is a very mild herbaceous note mingled with lemon. Very nice! I noticed that I reapplied a couple of times to catch the different 'notes' of the flavor- I like that! It shows what a complex blend you could create with a few different 'savory' essential oils. I agree with what Taylor said on the blog- if I made this blend, I'd make the lemon more of the 'main' flavor, with Basil the background flavor. (Ooh, I wonder what Orange would taste like with Basil?) It had the perfect amount of sweetener, too, since it was just used in the recipe as a flavor enhancer. I'll try to remember not to overdo it on the sweetener when I start experimenting. :-)

Thank you again to the lovely people at MMS for sending this sample! We have a really nice starting point to experiment with savory lip balms now!

The second item in the picture above is a lotion sample we received in a recent order. This is very moisturizing for a light lotion and doesn't go on greasy, so if you're looking for a light, ready-for-summer lotion base to fragrance, it's worth a try! I was surprised to find that I like the tropical-but-not-suntan-lotion-tropical Green Mango fragrance in the lotion, even though I didn't like the scent 'out of the bottle'. My boss here at Canfield Crafts loved the lotion and fragrance so much that she stole it and I haven't been able to try it since... ;-)

Want to win $10 worth of free Canfield Crafts products?

We thought it would be fun to host a simple guessing game to celebrate the end of Summer and the start of Autumn! Here's what you'll be guessing:

How many Minis (Lip Balm and Aromatherapy) did we ship from June 1- August 31, 2013?

Only one guess per person, please! Guess as high or as low as you like! We will only give you one small hint: Remember we're still a small business... if you guess in the thousands you'll be too high! 
 
Leave a comment here, send us an Etsy Conversation or a tweet, leave a message for us on Facebook, or send an e-mail with your guess. On October 1 we will look at all the guesses and find the closest one- if more than one person has the closest guess, we will take both names (or all three, etc) and choose randomly between them.

The winner will get to choose $10 of products from our Etsy shop!

** Update: Thank you to everyone who guessed on Etsy, Facebook, etc! A HUGE Congratulations to SW on Etsy for her winning guess! **

Etsyversary!

It's our shop's Etsy Anniversary! Save 10% on all orders for the next week (through 9.18.13) with this code: ETSYVERSARY - http://etsy.me/1eKQhCg

Better news than yesterday!

No fragrance oil tragedies today! ;-)

Wanted to mention that in the past few weeks we passed our 200th individual Etsy sale and our 150th person to favorite our Etsy shop- and today we reached the 50th "Like" on Facebook and the 8,000th blog visit. It's been an incredible year so far, full of challenges and rewarding experiences, and we hope the rest of the year will be just as good! (For all of you, as well!)

Oh, before I forget- be sure to stop by our facebook page in the first days of September to try your hand at our guessing game for a chance to win a few dollars worth of goodies from our Etsy shop!

Mr. Rogers remixed- "The Garden of Your Mind"

This video has gone viral on YouTube, and it's easy to see why! Enjoy!

MMS Swap!

We got our box today from the Majestic Mountain Sage "Simply Botanicals" Swap and gathered around to smell everything and sample the salves and lotions. This was a BLAST! Next week when I know that everyone has received their goodies I'm going to post again with pictures and details of everything. I look forward to doing more sampling! :-)

Canfield Fair 2011

Every year, Canfield, Ohio has a 6-day craft and agricultural show, and we wanted to post a link for the people who are getting directed here by search engines. (Having people check out the blog is cool, but that's not exactly what they came here for, *l*)

http://www.canfieldfair.com/index.html
Prices and tickets

It looks like SO MUCH FUN! It's over for the year, but maybe some year we can go... it's only 2,466 miles away! ;-)

San Diego power outage

I just wanted to ask- if anyone has a picture (or knows where I can find one) of the power out in Downtown San Diego, can you point me in that direction? Our neighbor rode his motorcycle down Orange in Coronado and said the sight across the bay was a once-in-a-lifetime sight- all of San Diego with no lights! But on the AM news they were advising not driving unless absolutely necessary... and I guess driving down the Strand to gawk didn't count... ;-)

EDIT: I found a couple of photos online- here are the links to the articles/slideshows.
Slideshow photos by Mark J. Terrill - Check here for a larger copy of the first photo! San Diego looks cool in the dark with only the emergency lights on.
Another slideshow of San Diego's power outage- I liked the first photo of the freeway, but it's also interesting to see people just kind of... waiting for the power to come back on.
This short article includes a map of the affected areas, and an interesting first-person description of the power outage and the "block party" atmosphere that it caused. We experienced the same thing in our neighborhood- people were out on their bikes, in their front yards looking at the stars and talking to their neighbors, and generally having fun. You could hear people all over the neighborhood enjoying just being outside in the cool air.

Total lunar eclipse in Tajikistan

I saw this on APOD and wanted to repost- I think very few of us have seen a total lunar eclipse, so my jaw dropped when I saw this. We all love astronomy! Hope you enjoy it too! (And do watch it in full screen if you get the chance! :D )


Here's the description from APOD: "If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see? The answer during the total lunar eclipse last month was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video from Tajikistan. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun, causing the moon to fade dramatically. The Moon never gets completely dark, though, since the Earth's atmosphere refracts some light. As the above video begins, the scene may appear to be daytime and sunlit, but actually it is a nighttime and lit by the glow of the full Moon. As the moon becomes eclipsed and fades, the wind dies down and background stars can be seen reflected in foreground lake. Most spectacularly, the sky surrounding the eclipsed moon suddenly appears to be full of stars and highlighted by the busy plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. The sequence repeats with a closer view, and the final image shows the placement of the eclipsed Moon near the Eagle, Swan, Trifid, and Lagoon nebulas. Nearly two hours after the eclipse started, the moon emerges from the Earth's shadow and its bright full glare again dominates the sky."

Chocolate... essential for all soapmakers

Wanted to save this link:

Ghirardelli's 54-count "build a bag" of chocolate squares

I'm a huge fan of the 60% Dark myself. :-)

How to play Cassino

Wiki article on how to play Cassino

My youngest brother and I heard about a card game called Cassino and looked up the rules, and then played a few hands. Once you get the rules down it's a lot of fun! It's called a "fishing" game, which means you collect and pair cards as you play. It is very much like "go fish", except you collect cards from the table, not other players' hands. You can also "add" cards to other cards on the table to make them equal the number you're 'fishing' for.

I would highly recommend this game, and it seems especially suited for younger teens who have outgrown "go fish" but are still interested in cards. The end of each complete deal is especially fun, because calculating your points can mean a complete reversal of who you thought was doing well!

Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe

I just wanted to post and share this recipe, since it's so popular around here! I get requests for it whenever we have company, even from people who tell me they hate broccoli as a rule! I found this in an old cookbook when I needed something to use up the last bit of a bag of broccoli that was lurking in the back of the fridge, teetering on the edge of going bad. (Everybody seems to have one of those in the fridge! *l*)

Here goes!