A year or so ago I gave some of my homemade goat’s milk soap to my friend. She makes decorative sprays to put on graves for Christmas, Easter and other holidays. Apparently this work is hard on her hands. My goat’s milk soap keeps her hands soft and silky.

She ran out of the soap I’d given her so I dug up some more from that batch and she was thrilled. Now it turns out she knows others who would like to buy that soap from me if I make more. Interesting.

I’m wondering whether this could be a lucrative business or not. I know where to get the basic supplies; I’d probably want to look into custom boxes and labels, too.

The major problem, though, is whether I can duplicate that wonderful bar I made over a year ago. I’m just a hobbyist and not terribly confident about my abilities. Other women are so much more talented and knowledgeable than I am.

Once I’m done second-guessing myself, I’ll get to work on another batch of goat’s milk soap. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Last weekend we got a small pool and set it up out back for Kendyll. This week we waited for the temperatures to get above 60. And we waited and waited. It just didn’t get warm enough for a two year old to swim.

Instead, we went shopping. In keeping with the theme of summer and swimming, we browsed the aisles of “seasonal” merchandise like inner tubes, inflatable boats, yard sprinklers and the beloved slip ‘n slide. Kendyll wanted everything she saw. I just wanted the warm weather.

A long time ago, in 1992, while I was pregnant with my only daughter, my husband and I set about figuring how to make our tiny 2 bedroom house accommodate 5 kids. We looked at other property for building, larger homes in the area, even a double wide on 10 acres of beautiful land. Nothing felt right. In the end we decided to take out a loan to renovate the house we had. What began as an addition turned out to be a major demolish-rebuild project. Our house came down, right to the foundation; my husband rebuilt it bigger and better.

The rebuilding was amazing. We were operating on a shoestring budget since we intended to build more than what the bank approved. One corner we cut was blueprints. I drew them myself using graph paper and a ruler. That’s it. I measured the existing house, our lot, the dimensions of appliances and fixtures and beds and other furniture. And I laid it all out. What fun!

I know that if I designed a house today there’s software to make the job much easier. Even better, thanks to my friend Deb, I’ve been using Floorplanner that lets you design your room or your project right on line. Oh, and there’s even a free, personal account that let’s you save up to 5 plans!

So far, I’ve used FloorPlanner to layout the kitchen in Nick’s apartment. Even Nick was impressed. Next up, I’d like to redesign our living/family room to accommodate some type of home theater chairs to make it more like an entertainment room. Okay, what I really want to do is find a way to combine an entertainment area with a play area with a pool table. Yeah, good luck on that, right?

But really, using this great online service, you just never know what I might design. Go ahead over and play with it a little. Design your dream kitchen or your master suite then stop by here and let me know how it turned out.

This is a desperate plea for finding my favorite childhood toy. Even my husband, who is close to my age, doesn’t remember Farfel. Do you?

Farfel was a floppy-eared dog that was part of the Nestle Quick campaign in the 50s and 60s. Okay, I only remember the 60s but I think he was around before that. He appeard in Quick commercials with Jimmy Nelson.

I have a little bendable Farfel dog on a shelf in my office but what I really want is a stuffed Farfel dog. I had one when I was a kid but my mom {gasp} threw him away when I was a teenager. I didn’t know she’d thrown it out and I probably wouldn’t have cared anyway. But I do now. Luckily, she did save my Farfel mug. But still. I want my Farfel stuffed dog.

If anyone happens to find one on ebay or in their travels throughout the internet, please let me know. I have a spot waiting for it, right next to my Chatty Cathy doll.

Like I really need another computer, right? Okay, I just couldn’t pass it up. It was $15 for the 17″ monitor, a K6 computer, printer and scanner. I have working computers here with less processing power and this one would be perfect for Kendyll. So I bought it.

Now it’s sitting in my mom’s basement with the other things we picked up at the community yard sale last week. When I go to get it from my mom’s house, I think I’m going to talk her into letting me have the berndes cookware she got from a neighbor on the next block. My sister wants the table lamp so I think I’ll be able to make a deal. I love community yard sales.

I’m trying to rearrange my family room but I’m having some trouble. I really need an online site to help me to do this, kind of an online CAD or something. I want to put the furniture around to make it look like home theater seating but I can’t get the couch and chairs right.

It seems that there’s always at least one seating position that can’t see the TV. I know the room is odd-shaped. It’s long and narrow and there aren’t enough solid walls. I really need a better way to visualize this because moving furniture over and over is hard on the back. Any ideas about an online platform that does this?

Do you like Mad Magazine? How many have you seen? How about all of them?

That’s right. Doug Gilford has every single Mad Magazine cover online. You can look at each cover or you can look at thumbnails of entire years. Or, if you’re really into it, look at all the thumbnails on one page.

This collection starts with the Oct-Nov, 1952 issue and continues right up to this very month. Even if you’re not a Mad fan, you’ve got to be impressed with Doug’s massive collection and the time it took to put them all online. Nice job, Doug!

I’ve had the fortune of turning my hobby into a job in the past. I love when that happens because if it’s a hobby first, then it’s something I enjoy. I think one of the best days on the job was the day my boss gave me my own business cards. I was so proud of those cards!

My current hobby could become a job, too. This time, though, I probably won’t be “hired.” I’ll have to do this one on my own since my hobby is soapmaking. That means I’ll have to do some homework to find the best business card printing offers on the internet. That will take a little work but I’ll get to choose what I like in design. How exciting!