How to Make Paprika and Poppy Seed Soap

Hi my name is Lisa and I am a soapaholic. I seriously love, love, love handmade soaps and lotions.

Since we are fans of hygiene, and I found a very past its prime bottle of poppy seeds in the back of the pantry, I thought I'd make myself a little Happy Mother's Day to me gift of poppy seed soap.

I also turned to my spice rack for non artificial soap dye. Paprika works for dying Easter eggs, let's see if it works for dying soap red (it does! The soap does not turn our skin colors either.)

How to Make Quick and Easy Paprika and Poppy Seed Soap - Artificial Dye Free!

How to Keep Dogs Out of the Garden

I took advantage of an actually-feels-like-Spring day to clear the flowerbeds of leaves and weeds. Like most DIY projects around here it:

1. Snowballing into another project - Operation: Keep Lacey Out of the Flower Beds

2. Required a  trip to the store for supplies.

Why I Bought a Condo

Looks like a free standing house, acts like a condo. The best of both worlds!

Husband and I were renters for a long time before we even considered buying a house. We were busy with lot of outside activities and knew that once we bought a house, we'd be married to the extra work and expenses it takes to keep a house running.  Our landlord never raised the rent which was another incentive to stay put.

Cheap rent that allowed us to buy off a bunch of bills and have money leftover for fun things kept us there longer than most of our relatives thought we should. I lost count how many times we were told we needed to buy a house to "be happy." One well meaning person not so subtly showed us house listings no matter what truth (not now) or excuse (We didn't realize we aren't happy. We were pretty happy on the awesome beach vacation we paid for in cash last summer) we gave him. 

Eventually our schedules calmed down. Husband and I decided it was time to go house shopping. Especially since my steady diet of DIY shows and shelter magazines had me itching to paint/remodel/decorate my home  in any way I wanted and without asking the landlord's permission. The idea of living somewhere where we could banish the white walls Husband and I rented forever influenced us to create an accent wall like this:

My Latest DIY Project!

Sometimes putting off a Must Do that's on your To Do list for too long bites you in the hard drive.

Welcome to my latest (and unwanted) DIY project!

This is my computer and very messy desk.

Yep. That's my computer, or as I like to call it the brains of this blogging outfit.

Instead of buying a whole new computer, Husband and I replace or upgrade the parts as needed. Sometimes we swap components between the two of us because he and I build our computers to do slightly different things. If we can't use it, we donate the old parts to a local charity that uses them to build Linux computers for the undeserved.