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Here are some pictures from our Labor Day this year. Great food and friends/family joined in the fun. Lots of catching up meeting some new people and singing/dancing going on around the grill. Can’t wait till next years.

We had all kinds of salads, chips and dips, desserts, Ribs, sausage and peppers and onion. Plus soda, water, beer and coffee. It was a cool day but overall fun had by all.

October 1st to November 5th, 2025

It’s that time of year again. Time for the walk for talk. This is my second year participating in this walk. I do the month of October as week as the 4 day walk event.

For those that don’t know I have had Mixed Spasmodic Dysphonia for a little over 10 years. It’s a rare voice disorder that cause someone to either have a whisper of a voice or a breathy voice or no voice at all.

Walk for Talk is an annual four-day event to benefit Dysphonia
International. The goal is to bring together our community to
walk, run, bike, swim, or however you would like to participate,
to both increase awareness of voice conditions and raise money
to help us fund vital research to defeat spasmodic dysphonia
and related voice conditions. There is no cost to participate.
However, all donations will be matched, and 100% of the funds
raised will make a real difference today and every day in the
lives of those living with a voice disorder.

To Make a Donation:
Your tax receipt will be sent electronically unless noted
otherwise. Dysphonia International is a 501(c)3 organization.
Our tax ID is 86-3907079.

https://www.givesignup.org/susanspangler25

Would you prefer to donate by phone? Please call 630-250-4504
Or donate by mail:
Dysphonia International
300 Park Boulevard, Suite 175
Itasca, IL 60143

Please note: Dysphonia International utilizes NEON CRM to
process donation transactions on a secure server to protect
your personal information.

Dedicate donations in honor of someone: Susan Spangler –
susanspangler25

Today we are making ribs for our Labor Day Party. There is 6 racks to be done up. We are going to be doing 2 racks at a time. These will be cooked on a gas grill but can be done in the oven as well.

Pre-heat grill/oven to 300. If its a 3 burner gas grill when placing container on grill turn off the middle burner.

First I cut up the racks into 2-3 ribs each. I got some disposable metal turkey pans to smoke the ribs in. Place a rack in the pan and I add 4 cups of water. Then lay the ribs on-top of the rack. Next I used Hickory Liquid smoke, about 1/2 a bottle per tray. Pour into water on each corner and sprinkle some on-top of the ribs. Cover with aluminum foil.

Place on grill/ or in oven at 300 degrees for 2.5 to 3 hours. When time is up remove ribs from grill.

Place ribs either on a cookie sheet or another clean pan. As you are adding them to the second container slather with BBQ sauce on each side I use Sweet Baby Rays. Cover with aluminum foil and place in fridge over night.

Next day remove from fridge and preheat grill back to 300 degrees. Turn heat down to medium and cook ribs on each side for about 8 min each. Add more BBQ sauce as needed.

Remove from grill and enjoy.

Evening everyone, hope this post finds you all well on this cold and dreary night. It's a damp, chilly rainy night here in upstate NY where I am visiting and they just got over the Hot Air Balloon Festival. So what better time to do a post about a balloon in a storm then tonight.

This project is a media and was truly a lot of fun for me. I have done several mixed media in the past but to use so many various in one project is really new for me. For this project the are used: a blank canvas (I cut and put back together in a different design), texture paste, hot air balloon stencil, thin Popsicle sticks, twine,  acrylic paint, mica power and various size paint brushes.

The first step is to lay out the stencil how you want it on the canvas. Apply the texture over the stencil where you want it and how thick you want it. Carefully remove the stencil. I then let the texture paste set for 8-10 hours to harden. Next I drew out the area of the basket and colored it. I then added twine for the mesh siding and Popsicle sticks for the wood base. 

From Here I proceed to paint the background with acrylic paint colors and brushes. I then let the background dry for about 2 hours. I came back to finish the background and the hot air balloon with mica power. The power gives the balloon and background just a bit of shine among the dark colors.

If you like this image you can find it for sale in our shop along with other artwork and various items. And don't forget if you have any questions or just want to drop us a line feel free to contact us.

Let’s make some kids soap today with a surprise toy inside.

First step is to cut up the melt and pour soap into small cubes and melt down over slow heat.

Once the soap is melted we are going to add the bubblegum fragrance oil to the batch and give it a good stir.

Then we pour the soap into the mold. Today we are using a Wilton Shot Glass mold as we will be able to place the surprise toy inside.

Let soap cure for 30 min to an hour in mold or until hard. I removed cups from mold and made a second batch of these for a total of 16 cups.

Next I am going to melt down some white soap and add a little green mica powder and watermelon fragrance oil. I add the toys to the cups and pour in a little of soap into each mold.

I had some left over soap so I also made a few bar soaps.

Let these sit for 30min to an hour or until hard.

We now make the white layer by melting down some white soap and adding a little white/silver mica powder to give it some shine. Pour on top of of the first layer.

We then make the last layer. Melting down the last of the soap, add the watermelon fragrance oil and some pink mica power to top of the watermelon soap. Pour of the top of the molds and let set for 1-2 hours.

The soap is made. Once it set all you have to do it package it up. Unless you kept track of what toy was in which cup it will be a surprise when used.

Hope you enjoyed tagging along and making this soap with us.

Today we are making Strawberry Cream Delight Soap.
We are using the following: Melt and Pour Goats Milk
Soap, Melt and Pour Olive Oil Soap, Mica Powder, and
Strawberry Macaron Essential Oil and Vanilla Essential
Oil.

To start we chop up the soap into small cubes to melt over
a double boiler on the stove.

Once the soap is melted we add the mica powder and essential oils.

We let the soap set for a minute to start to firm up. Next
pour a layer of white and drizzle a layer of pink. Keep
repeating until all the soap has been added to the mould.
I run a skewer through the soap to help with the marbelization of the soap. Spritz the top with alcohol to
remove any bubbles.

I then take a little bit of the white soap and whip it up with
a hand mixer to make it look like frosting and top off the
bar of soap.

Let the soap sit and harden for about 3-4 hours. Demold once
harden and cut the soap up into bars. I get about 10 bars out
of this mold.

Last step is to wrap the individual bars up and package.

Smells good enough to eat and is very soothing on the
skin.

**This is for sale in our shop. $5 each or 2/$8

Today we are making a 5 gallon bucket of homemade laundry soap. You will need the following ingredients:

• 1 C Borax (1 box makes 5 batches)
• 1 C Arm Hammer Super Washing Soda (1 box makes 5 batches)
• 1 – 5.5 oz Fels Naptha Soap
• 5 gal Bucket with Lid
• 5 gal Water

Grate soap and add to pot with 4 cups boiling water. Stir till soap is completely melted. Appoximetly 10 minutes.

Fill 5 gallon bucket 1/2 way with hot water and add soap mixture. Give a quick stir. Stir in 1 cup Borax and 1 cup Washing Soda.

Top off bucket with warm water and stir again. Let set for 24 hours. Stir bucket from top to bottom 1 last time. Ready to use.

** My bucket last me approx. 6 months doing 5-6 loads a week. (approx. 156 loads)
25 Gallons = $20.25 / 5 Gallons = $4.06

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