WOW! You guys sure love learning how to make soap! Our Soapmaking 101 class is nearly full - we're waiting on confirmation from one person who verbally signed up. SO! If you are interested in learning to make soap...but 1) haven't yet signed up, or 2) want to take the class but that date/time doesn't work for you....let us know. If demand is great enough we will see if Karla can fit in another Soapmaking 101 class. Otherwise, I won't be until June...kind of a long time to wait!

On a related note, there's still spaces available for the Milk Soaps and Hot Process Crock Pot Soap classes. And, we MAY have one space available in our rescheduled March 10th Needlefelting Class...... please email us or call if you are interested!

Our Needlefeling class is rescheduled for Saturday, March 10th, from 1-4. I hope all our original participants can make it!

We had us an honest-to-gosh blizzard! Well, technically, it's still going on. EVERYTHING is closed. By everything I mean businesses, schools, county and national governmental offices...yep. everything!

So - Donna is at work (after trudging through much snow to get from the house to the shop), answering emails and packing up everyone's FREE FACIAL SERUMS (if you aren't subscribed to our enewsletter, you should be! So we can notify you of freebies and specials!)

I (Maggie) am home, working on very exciting things like 1) updating our wholesale price list, and 2) writing press releases. Oh, and updating this blog. I admit, a fair amount of knitting is getting done too. :) But I'm knitting the hat we're going to be making in our March 24th Knit/Crochet an Earflap Cap so it's "real" work....right??? I will post a pic when I get it finished. it's so cute!

In other good news, Karla, our self-proclaimed crazy soaplady , is also snowed in at home (she lives further to the north than we do, so she's even more snowed in!) and making soap like a madwoman. yay!!!

I took these pics from my house. Please note - while they do not look blizzard-worthy by themselves, understand that these are in my VERY PROTECTED backyard. I'm in a very protected part of town, AND have a 6 foot privacy fence. So just imagine what it's like out in the country where Donna is! Snow is blowing everywhere, visibility is practically zero, and the roads are drifted like crazy.

Ahhh...March in Iowa. You gotta love it.

*deep sigh*

More snow is on the way! BLAH!

We'll see what goes on...if the weather is like they're predicting (4 inches of blowing snow, possible ice/rain...yuk!), we may not be able to get out to mail packages tomorrow. We'll let you know....

THIS is why we didn't get to have our Needlefelting class on Saturday. BIG snow. big big BIG wet heavy snow! WIth ice underneath, because it rained alot, then froze, and then dumped snow on top!

These pictures are from Maggie's house. Donna is safe at her place at the acreage where PLH is....hopefully, they will plow her road tomorrow so that Maggie can get into work!

Okay, it's official - our Needlefelting class for today is CANCELLED. We will wait to hear from the instructor about other dates she can come, and will be rescheduling this class.

Sorry everyone!!

WEATHER! GAH.

Well, we've got icy icky stuff here. I'm waiting for the official word that our class is cancelled (we need to get ahold of the instructor), but, I'm 99% sure that today's needlefelting class will be rescheduled.

I'll keep everyone posted!!

Okay. I *think* the site is re-uploaded. If anyone has problems with it, please let me know?

Which brings me to another point - I'm not entirely sure the email is working, and won't know until I get to work tomorrow. So if you emailed us today and we didn't answer...may want to double-check that we got it. You can post here and I will be sure to check on all the comments.

still taking comments on our new prototype site! Tell us what you think!

Well, Mercury Retrograde is in full force....we are having some difficulties with our website. As in, it's not there. Please bear with us while we get it fixed!!!!

So last Friday was COLD, cold cold...we were baking a lasagna for lunch and happened to think...hmm..some nice local wine would go great with this! So we zipped over to Picket Fence Creamery for some Midnight Rain Wine (YUM!) from Madison County Winery (their Prairie Fire is a big fave of ours too).

Some days, it's not at all bad to be your own boss. :)

Whew. The storm rolled past us with out too much incident. Schools were cancelled yesterday, so Donna was home with her 5 year old grandson. Maggie stayed home and looked up new shopping carts. That's right, folks - prairielandherbs is getting a new website and new shopping cart! Do you want to see what it's going to look like (probably?) Check out www.soluscandles.com and see what you think (we're just using that address to park our new site - our actual web address will remain the same.

In other news? We are *just* about to unleash a brand new product in celebration of Donna's birthday. Facial Serums. Yep...they are AWESOME. stay tuned...they'll be on the website very soon!

It continues to be EXTREMELY cold here. Right now, the actual temp is -1, and windchills are hovering in the -20 degree range. COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great class Wednesday night - the weather was icky and super-cold, and yet everyone still came! Yay students! We had 15 students (kind of a small class for us, through the Des Moines Adult Ed program) and they were great! paid attention, asked great questions, and had tons of fun. We really like teaching classes because we always get to learn something, and the student's creativity is infectious. They always have a new scent blend or new idea that I NEVER would have thought of. And it's really fun to show people how easy it can be to create your own customzied herbal stuff.

Speaking of classes, we have our Hot Process Crock Pot soap class on Saturday. Karla (our soapmaker friend) is teaching it, so basically just have to get the classroom ready for her, and be around in case she needs us to get anything or help. So today, John and I will be spending some quality time in the classroom, getting it organized, rearranged, and ready for Saturday's class. And, most importantly, getting the room heated up!! We keep it pretty cool when we're not in there, so we'll have to bump up the heater before we even THINK about starting to work in there!

It's COLD. really, really, REALLY cold! Well, actually it' s a "heat wave" today...a high of 25, which means the wind chill might actually go above zero. Yesterday we had high temps of, oh, 5, with wind chills -15 and such. On Sunday the predicted high is TWO. gah. It's so cold, we open the door to let the kitties out, and they look up at us accusingly "you want me to go outside in THIS???" Winter sucks!

So, yesterday we all stayed in the shop. John is working on a new, updated version of prairielandherbs.com. It will be a while, but we think we have the basic look and structure down. We're just aiming to make it as clean, simple, and easy to use as possible! Donna filled orders all day (apparently, it's really cold so everyone is staying indoors and ordering online!), and I (Maggie) made oodles of moisturizing things - 4 kinds of whipped shea, and a couple of big batches of shea butter body balm. So, I also made up lots of samples of aforementioned moisturizing things, in nice 2 oz. tins. Our sample basket is full of "Simply Shea" whipped shea, 3 citrus whipped shea, and raw shea butter samples. So if you were to order in the next few days, chances are some of those samples would end up in your box. I'm just sayin.... ;)

In other news: Our classes for Feb. are filling up nicely! Still room for a *few* more in all classes. We have a COOL lineup in the works for March/April/May including: crocheting, Energy 101, Milk Soaps, Dream pillows, and more....we'll be announcing that real soon. :)

stay warm everyone!

I (maggie) am back from mexico, and home this week with a WICKED sinus infection. gah. I have begged several people to cut my head off to relieve this pain but so far...no takers. I am subsisting on echinacea tea and whiskey tea (recipe to follow). It really DOES help, and tastes yummy too!

A class note: We have ONE space available for the Hot Process Crock Pot Soapmaking class Feb. 3rd. If you want to sign up, do it now!


Whiskey Tea (Irish version)

1 lemon
1 teabag black irish tea (Barry's, if you can get it)
honey
Irish whiskey (I prefer Jamesons)
whole cloves
cinnamon stick


Cut a 1/4 inch slice out of the middle of the lemon. Stick 4-6 cloves into this lemon slice, and set aside. Juice the 2 halves of lemon into a large cup (using a clear cup is easiest). Then add a roughly equal amount of honey, and a roughly equal amount of whiskey. Stir whiskey, lemon, and honey together, and add a cinnamon stick. In a separate cup, brew a strong cup of black tea - about 6-8 oz. Remove teabag, and pour tea into the whiskey/lemon/honey mixture. Float the clove-studded lemon slice on top of the entire mixture, and drink quickly before all the "good" stuff evaporates! This really does work to help cut phlegm, soothe coughs and sore throats, make you warm and toasty, and make you feel better!

When you buy essential oils in bigger quantities (this is 5 kg, or approx 11 lbs), you get them in these KICK-ASS sexy aluminum containers. We're getting quite a stash of these built up. I wonder what we can do with them once they're empty??

So, the other day, I got to make some catnip toys. Get out dried catnip, place in bowl. Place bowl on counter. Go to kitchen to get muslin bags. Come back to counter....and laugh hysterically at the huge cat that has stuffed himself IN the bowl, on TOP of the catnip.

Yep, Sassy got in the bowl of catnip and claimed it for himself. Furthermore, he SLEPT in the bowl, for several hours. We moved the bowl from the counter, to other parts of the shop, numerous times...not once did he get out.

Silly cat!

here's a delicious white chili recipe given to us by some of our favorite friends! :)
enjoy!

Lora's White Chili

2 size #4 cans great northern white beans
1-3 chopped onions
2 lbs ground turkey
2 cans salsa verda (about 14 oz total)
2 cans copped green chilies (or cut up fresh ones)
1 small bottle La Victoria green taco sauce
2 cans (about 32 oz) chicken broth
1 tsp cumin or to taste
1 tsp oregano or to taste

Fry turkey, onions, cumin, oregano together. When fully cooked, add other ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes or until ready.

Enjoy!

BEESWAX! We get our beeswax from a local fellow - he's super nice, and has GREAT beeswax. And we love to support our local farmers. Here is what it looks like when we get it. It's fairly clean, but there's pollen and bee bits and stuff in it. This is what about 100 lbs of beeswax looks like.


We put it in a biiiiig pot we have (purchased from our local secondhand store, and kept used just for this purpose) and melt it over low heat. Everything smells SOOOOOO good when we do this! The smell of warm beeswax is one of my most favorite scents in the world.

Then we strain out the ooky stuff from the melted beeswax, using very high-tech tools such as cheesecloth and an embroidery hoop. :) We've read that actually used sweatshirts make fabulous straining material - we plan to try that as soon as we get to Goodwill to pick some up.


This is all the stuff we strain out from the beeswax. Aren't you glad that doesn't end up in your lip balms or salves? :)


And here it is cooling in metal loaf pans. The large ones hold 2 lbs of beeswax and the small ones hold 1.

This is what our shop looks like about 4PM, just before we head to the post office. :)



And this is what our shop looked like Tuesday mornign when we got to work, after Paul, or fabulous UPS guy, delivered to us late Monday night. You are looking at: 250 lbs. of soywax, boxes full of organza bags and cello bags, about 600 solid perfume tins and shrink bands, 300 soy wax melt containers, 144 - 2 oz. tins, about 30 deodorants, 11 lbs. of eucalyptus oil, and a few other things which I've now forgotten. All in boxes and bubblewrap and peanuts of course.

Here's a little post about our birdie (and human) friends at Iowa Parrot Rescue. Mike, who runs the rescue with his wife Abi, says this:

"We currently have about 45 birds in care here. 9 are permanent residents. 4 are refugees from Hurricane Katrina...their home was destroyed and they're here while it waits to be rebuilt. One is just visiting while his family is out of town. The rest are awaiting adoption. We get them from people who can no longer care for them, from humane societies, and recently we got 36 from the US Govt. They were part of a seized illegal import shipment. People find us via our web
page at _www.mikebear.org_ (http://www.mikebear.org) , or by word of mouth. People who want to adopt birds must apply and visit here for an interview, and then have a home visit by us. We have to make sure that the birds will have a stable permanent home, in safe and healthy
conditions. We don't charge any adoption fees. We are funded partly by donations and partly
from our own pockets. Depending on circumstances, it costs anywhere from
$500 to $1000 monthly to feed, maintain, and care for the birds. We are an Iowa
non-profit corporation and a 501(c)3 tax exempt charity under federal law.


_Iowa Parrot Rescue_
(http://www.mikeoso.homestead.com/rescue.html)
"


What he doesn't talk about is how much work he and Abi do to care for these birds! Abi (who runs High Prairie Fibers) gave up her studio for most of the summer, so her 36 birds would have somwhere to live! They do great work, and could use a little extra help. So visit their website, and maybe donate or purchase some of their bonky balls, candles, or other goodies.