Spring Fling is Tomorrow -- Red Velvet Cake is Decorated!

Liam and I just finished decorating a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, made from Duff Goldman's wonderful recipe.  The cake is donated to the cake walk at tomorrow's Celtic Spring Fling at St, Aidan's church in Alexandria.  Jeff will also be blacksmithing and it is a wonderful opportunity to chat with him and see what blacksmithing is all about.  Plus, there'll be live music, food, Irish dancing, a petting zoo, crafts, and a corn hole tournament.  What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  Please come and join us! 

16th Fairfax Civil War Day -- Jeff's 1st Demo of the Season!

We have out 1st blacksmithing demo of the season this Saturday at the 16th Annual Fairfax Civil War Day!  Held at Historic Blenheim in Fairfax, this is always a great event.  If you are a student of the Civil War, you will really want to attend.  The house is well worth a visit, filled with graffiti from Union soldiers.  There are also historical lectures during the day, reenactors (my son loves to visit with Commander John Mosby) and Jeff, of course!

 

More Fabric Marbling with the Regina and Dan St. John

 

 

Happy Earth Day!

Fabric Marbling, Day 1

Scenes From Pioneer Farm at Mount Vernon in the Springtime

It was a treat to work at Mount Vernon for a few hours on Saturday morning.  I had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the country who were thrilled to learn more about our First President.  And, at the farm site, we make sure to tell you about George's Washington's love and gift of agriculture.   This time of year, we always speak about the shad and herring that were farmed from the Potomac River.  My clothes from the day have been washed 3x and still smell like dead fish from handling the fish when I would explain to guests about the shad, usually holding a dead fish by one hand....

The shad above are planked and roasting by the fire, and a catfish stew is cooking in the big kettle.

 

Rides around the farm site,

The reconstructed slave cabin.

Fiona Appreciates My Colonial Clothing

 I am excited to work at Mount Vernon in the next couple of days, so Fiona the cat was thrilled to see the wool cape come down from the attic, along with the rest of my colonial clothing.  While I ironed a petticoat, short gown and apron, she made the most of her opportunity!

This Week's Marbled Soap

I've made a few batches of soap this week: Honeysuckle/Bergamot, Litsea/Lavender and Peppermint/Lavender, all marbled on top.  The Honeysuckle/Bergamot (below) had just been poured, while the others were a day or two old,  I'll cut them all in a few days and let them cure for 6 weeks.

Cherry Blossoms

 

New Labels for Soap

We are very excited to have new packaging and labels for our soap.  Many thanks to Carys of Carys Ink for putting together a lovely design for us.  And, she also helped us with my website and our Black Forest Artworks logo, so we are loyal customers!  We worked very hard to package about 10 batches of our soap for next week's Garden Market at River Farm, the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society.  Some of the lovely new marbled soap is with AHS, as well as our favorites -- lots of spring citrus scents, lavender, honeysuckle, lemongrass.... lots of good things!

 Jeff had some puppy help while cutting the labels: