Soap and chairs, newest projects to show off ...

Here is a picture of the old caned chair with the honeycomb patterning and what appears to be someone's foot had gone through it. The second picture is the chair after having recained it. You cant see it in this picture, but I ended up with a herringbone pattern, don't ask me how.

I still have to add the binding cane around the edge, but was so excited that I had to share.

Also, I've recently found my old recipes for making lye soaps which I loved to do a few years ago. I thought I'd try a different process. I started making soaps using the double boiler hot process method, however; I felt that I was loosing too much of the glycerine in the process. After making the base I would then rebatch into several different scents and herbals.

Now I've tried the Crock pot method and I'm sold on it. I found an old crock-pot and give it a go. It takes about an hour from start to finish and I have a dozen 4oz bars when done. This picture shows three different soaps each one batch.

L to R: Goats Milk, Lemon zingers, Oatmeal-honey-goat's milk.

I'm so glad to have had a few hours to play. Yahooooo!!!!

HAPPY July 4th !! What happened to the fore fathers?

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men

who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated,
but they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him,
and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson
home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General
George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed,
and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his
children vanished.


So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many
people as you can, please. It's time we get the word out that patriotism
is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer,
picnics and baseball games.

(sent to me by the mother of a serviceman).