Steam Distillery....Uh Say What?

For Christmas this year, my father bought me a wonderful set of 6 essential oils. Very good quality with strong scents. I was perusing Amazon.com for the sister sets when I began reading the descriptions of how the oils were made.

Being a crafty little witch myself, I know how to make essential or flavored oils using alcohol, vodka or a carrier/base oil, like olive oil (both cold and hot). Something always nagged at me though. There has to be a more natural way to obtain the oil. ALL plants have some sort of oily substance in them, to some extent. So, I brought up my favorite search engine and began looking for "how to make essential oils" for about the hundreth time....but hey, you never can tell when you will find new information about an old subject.

Lo and behold I did find something new. A link for making essential oils using STEAM. That's right, steam, in glass tubes and bulbs like some Mary Shelley, Steampunk, mad scientest, lab aficionado.

Count me in!

Now I took high school chemistry and I was pretty good at it too, so this set-up does not intimidate me at all. The hot plate, the bulbous beakers, glass valves, stoppers, etc. etc. etc.....pretty straight forward. Now I really liked this set-up from heartmagic.com because it is designed for the non-chemist, the plant bits or "biomass" doesn't sit in boiling water and it won't burn. They also give a pretty detailed description of the set-up and process and yes, I will admit, my eyes did glaze over for a bit. Get on to the making of the oils, right?!! Well, you still have to read the directions. Duh.

Potential Problem #1: You do need to have running water at a certain rate and temperature (20 degrees) as part of the cooling process. I don't know about you but I don't often measure the rate of flow in my faucet or the cold water temperature but they give you the hoses and it should be relatively self-explanatory I suppose.

Potential Problem #2: I want one! To make my own oils, add to diffusers, candles and soaps and to make tonic waters like honest to god rose water.

Potential Problem #3: It's $400  *CHOKE* Yeah, I wish I was kidding but it is made complete of glass and it has to be strong enough to withstand heat. They removed rubber stoppers and pieces and replaced them with glass components to maintain the purity of the product so really...it should be worth it right? Well sure....but I still don't plan on spending 2 months worth of food budget for myself and my kid on one. Drat....and I was really getting excited there for a second too :(

Penbo the Penguin

Today's random internet search was for "Penbo the Penguin."

What the heck is a Penbo the Penguin, you might be asking. Well, I was asking myself the same darn question which is why I looked it up!

Being a former assistant toy buyer and also being the mother of a 5 year old I figured, Penbo should be old hat. But, near as I can figure, either finally figuring out what I was going to purchase for my daughter (let alone afford) may have well fried my gelatinous grey matter to the point where Penbo being one of the hottest toys of the season escaped my notice.....that is until another parent mentioned it on Facebook (ah yes, FACEBOOK! The beginnings of many a search).


SO, needless to say THIS is Penbo the Penguin produced by Bossa Nova :

Kinda cute, right? Being as my 5 year old adores penguins and this little thing comes in a multitude of colors, including purple, I thought, "Hey...can't be all bad." Then I read what it does. Basically, it's a little robot penguin that coos, blinks its eyes, flaps its wings and then POOPS out an egg. Ok, it doesn't really poop. Its egg pops out of its belly hatch....and then the egg hatches and the chick inside interacts with the mommy Penbo...apparently there are games you can play with it and it is described as cuddly though I can't imagine how cuddly hard plastic could be, regardless if it is covered in fuzz.

Now the first thing that pops into my head is, "Is this really necessary in life?" Probably not and I don't see the educational value in it, except for the nurturing factor but hey....all play does not have to be designed to educate. Sometimes you leave it up to imagination, curiosity or relaxation....at least that's what I tell myself when I am watching programs like American Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History Channel ;) But, like all thirty-something children, I love toys and I can see how my little girl might find this cute though it has a bit of a sad, apathetic look in its eyes and I have random imaginings of pint size robot penguin armies attempting to take over the metro area, with their wide eyed vacant (albeit cute) looking "Bebes" (Good gracious how I hate the slang term "bebe"....I can hear it repeating in my head...grrrrrrrr) at their sides.

I inevitably see this ending up on my daughter's birthday list (her 6th birthday is roughly 2 months after Christmas), though at a $60 price tag it's a bit steep for my budget and I would demand  to see it in action if it even was an option. However I did find different animal versions to pique my interest...namely a dragon (drat! They found my weakness!)....Skylee!

But holy smokes! THAT "bebe" looks like it's gonna eat my soul!!!!! O_O  

In the Beginning.....

In the beginning there was just an idea.....a daydream....a lark.....one nagging question and the compelling desire to find the answer to that question in the most complete and quick way possible. For the average person, this might happen once a week or once a month. For this blogger, it's a serial issue.

Everyday, multiple times a day, through conversation, email, advertisement or non-sequitur thought comes the overwhelming desire to discover the answer to a question, right then and there. That's where this blog comes in.

Through all the web searches, library books borrowed, friendly discussions, and ruminations comes knowledge, an "accidental education," completely separate from formal education, seemingly random and at times a bit crazy....one that you never really intended. You just HAD to know the answer to that question!!!

So grab a cup of tea (or whatever beverage tickles your fancy) and find yourself welcome to join me on my daily journey through this Wonderland of information, questions, ponderings, posings and preposterous propositions. We might just learn something together along the way! ;)