~ Dancing Grasshopper Giveaway ~

Just want to say hello and how excited I am so many of you have looked at and want to follow my blog! I would like to show some of that love back to you with my first blog giveaway.

At 30 followers I will be randomly picking one of you to win a Dancing Grasshopper Gift Box! 

~ Winner will be announced on the blog ~

~ Take The Plunge ~

~ Some cute handmade swimming finds I found on on Etsy ~

http://www.etsy.com/shop/katep

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MackleyWoodenGifts

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BathingCapBags

My Take The Plunge Etsy Treasury : http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjgzMDIwNXwzODUxMzk5MjE/take-the-plunge?ref=pr_treasury

~ New Soaps Now Available ~

Travel size soap bars now available!

Also new in the shop, oatmeal, cucumber and coffee soaps.

Handmade Olive Oil Soaps by Dancing Grasshopper

 Soap by the slice

~Lemongrass Soap Logs~

Soap Balls

Coffee and Lemongrass Olive Oil Soap Balls

~ What is Nag Champa ?

I am often asked what is Nag Champa? So here is a lovely description of it. This incense is part of a family of Indian scents known as champa incenses, because they are all reminiscent of the champa flower, better known to Westerners as plumeria. Many champa incenses also include plumeria as an ingredient, harnessing its rich, sweet, heavy scent. Nag champa also traditionally includes a resin extracted from the Ailanthus tree, an Asian native, along with sandalwood.

My handmade Nag Champa olive oil soap and Nag Champa candle.

~ Natural Swimming Pools ~

I have this book and love the entire concept of swimming ponds. I highly recommend. "Natural Swimming Pools: Inspiration For Harmony With Nature"by Michael Littlewood.

“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.”

~ Upcycled Vinyl Record Bowls ~

I have so much fun when making these bowls. It reminds me of crimping pie crusts, with all the different ways they turn out.

~ Hens and Chicks ~

Here is some new pictures of our cochin bantams and of the larger chickens.

My etsy chicken treasury:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjgzMDIwNXw0NzU4MTE/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg?index=10

~Don't scare the garden gnomes~

Love, love, my Walls-O-Water, springtime in the Sierra's is so predictably unpredictable. Most of the garden is already planted, lots of little sprouts starting to make an appearance. Hard to imagine the bounty of edibles that will be harvested again with this years plantings. In all those walls-o-water, squash, zuchinni, peas, beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Planted some Black Cherry tomatoes, really excited about those!

The photo below is the bed I grow the bulk of my onions, garlic, chives, and most other kitchen herbs. I do interplant with marigolds to help with bug control and if need be use diatomaceous earth also.

I have had to resort to Fort Knox style gardening to keep out the rabbits, birds, squirrels and occasional racoons.

Here is our greenhouse.

I am going to build a much larger pond in the backyard this season and hope to get a bee-hive going.

~ Gold Shots ~

It was my last year of middle school 8th grade when I was diagnosed at 14 with Rheumatoid arthritis. I grew up at Lake Tahoe, the most lovely and outdoorsy place to grow up. Sports were a passion, I loved volleyball, softball, basketball, and summers were always spent swimming in the frigid waters of Tahoe. Everything changed about my childhood in the blink of an eye. The first times I noticed something was amiss with my body were scary and quite painful experiences. After many, many doctor appointments, I was given the diagnosis of R.A.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) At A Glance
• Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that can cause chronic inflammation of the joints and other areas of the body.
• Rheumatoid arthritis can affect people of all ages. (Learned that for myself)
• The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not known.
• Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, characterized by periods of disease flares and remissions.
• In rheumatoid arthritis, multiple joints are usually, but not always, affected in a symmetrical pattern.
• Chronic inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis can cause permanent joint destruction and deformity.
• Damage to joints can occur early and does not correlate with the severity of symptoms.
• The "rheumatoid factor" is an antibody that can be found in the blood of 80% of people with rheumatoid arthritis.
• There is no known cure for rheumatoid arthritis.
• The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis optimally involves a combination of patient education, rest and exercise, joint protection, medications, and occasionally surgery.
• Early treatment of rheumatoid arthritis results in better outcomes
. The first years were by far the worst, within a few months I was crippled. I could not do the most basic of tasks. I would be up all night with agonizing pains just raking my body. Saddest of all I could not attend school anymore and sports vanished from my life, I dream often at night that I am spiking a volleyball or playing softball. (Albeit pain free) I often felt alone as the whole internet craze was not around then, so finding others to relate to did not happen. Those first 5 years were brutal.
Now at 34 it seems strange to know I have been sick longer then I was healthy. I guess it does make it easier to not have much reference to living any other way. The last three years I have been on the R.A drug cocktail of methotrexate, plaquenil, and sulfasalizine. Honestly it doesn’t seem to work most of the time and if I am still flared at my next visit, we again move to injectables. My previous experiences with gold shots and steroid shots was like having molten lava injected into my body. I have tried most everything at one time or another. For a few years it was 34 vitamin pills everyday and lots of cod liver oils and peanut oils. Other times I rebelled and would take nothing, that never worked out in my favor.
I hope one day they find a cure so I don’t have to live out the rest of my days with it and that nobody else has to either. You can help by supporting the Arthritis Foundation and there continued research into cures.

http://www.arthritis.org/rheumatoid-arthritis.php

I have found many online resources and groups with men and women dealing with the same daily issues associated with a chronic illness and that is truly a wonderful thing. Some informative sites and pages:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/nationalrheumatoidarthritissociety

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sunshine-Lollypops-Bringing-Rheumatoid-Arthritis-out-of-the-Clouds/141439825891393

~ Pickles and Dilly Beans ~

I'm going to attempt and make my grandma's pickle and dilly bean recipe's this year. When you crave something for 10 years, it's time to bust out and finally make some jars.

~Photo of my Grandma's old farmhouse~

My etsy pickle treasury:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjgzMDIwNXw0MzkxMTM/all-pickled?index=4

~ Adventures in Chicken Keeping ~

I always wanted some chickens, and now I am officially a proud chicken mother. Here's a few pictures of the baby chicks back in March.

Here is a picture of their unpainted coop.

And here it is in a much better color.

And, soon I will get some more recent pictures of the chickens with their feathers all grown in and of our other entire new coop and run for our other new chickens.

~The Dancing Grasshopper ~

This is my business that I run from home. Handmade artisan olive oil soaps, olive oil lip balms, natural bath salts and hand-poured soy candles. Handmade women’s accessories and unique vintage inspired goods ~~~~~~~~~ MEMBER OF: HANDCRAFTED SOAPMAKERS GUILD SINCE 2008 & ETSY TEAM RENO ~~~~~~~~

  http://www.dancinggrasshopper.com/

Here is the heart of my business, all my inventory.

The desk, here all orders get packaged and ready to be shipped out.