Laundry Room Drying Rod

This past October, while we were walking home from a restaurant, we came across these bamboo poles on the side of the road for free.  There was no way I was going to pass up these babies.  They were at least 13 feet in length and 2 inches in diameter!  We picked them up and carried them home under the cover of darkness.  Fast forward four months and I finally got around to doing something with one of them.

I come from a family that whenever possible (when it wasn't raining) hung their clothes on a line outside to dry.  Sure we had a drier but it always felt nicer to have clothes dried in the fresh air.  I even have a clothes line in my tiny backyard.  The problem is, what with the rain, I really only get to use it a couple months out of the year.  I bought a drying rack from IKEA and use it in my laundry room for sweaters and other clothes not fit to throw in the drier, but I longed to hang my clothes to dry.  That's why I was so thrilled to use one of these bamboo poles as a makeshift clothes drying rod in my laundry/weight/work/storage room!

To hang the pole I put two hooks in the ceiling about 8 feet apart.  I was able to find a stud in both cases but if I couldn't I would have used a molly to screw the hooks into.

Next I held my bamboo pole up to the hooks and marked where I needed to add my chain on the poles.

I (full disclosure, from here on out when I say 'I' I really mean 'Jeff') cut two pieces of sisal rope about 18 inches long and two pieces of chain about 6 inches long.

I then wrapped the rope around the pole several times very tightly.

After securing the rope to the pole, I threaded the rope through a link in the chain and wrapped the rope several more times around the pole.

I now had the chain tied to the pole and repeated the steps for the other end of the pole.

Now the easy part!  I  hung the chain to the hooks in my ceiling.

Perfect!  Now I have a place to hang my yoga mat and wet clothes to dry!

PS.  Don't judge the weight/storage/work/laundry room.  It's not pretty but it's the most functional room in the house...

Oh, and that large pipe that's stuck through the foundation, that mitigates radon in the basement.  Just an FYI.

Astoria, Oregon

We spent this past weekend enjoying Astoria, Oregon and specifically Fort George Brewing's Festival of the Dark Arts.  This beer festival celebrates all things dark, especially, but not limited to, the beer.


There were artists, dancers, tarot card readers, magician, and stilt walking.  You could get a tattoo, participate in a speed noir fiction contest, or simply watch and drink.

Many of the beers were aged in bourbon or whiskey barrels and all of the beers we tried were excellent.

Some people went in costume.

















Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies and has a rich history.  It sits at the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean and gets almost 68 inches of rain a year!

It's a town full of fisherman, sea lions, antique stores, and bars.  In other words, a fine place to visit!

Sea lions are all over the docks in Astoria.  This has caused great distress to the local fishermen as the sea lions have ferocious appetites for fish.

This lovely group barked all night outside our hotel.

Tickets go on sale for the Festival of the Dark Arts in November and sell out quickly, as do the hotel rooms.  It's best to get your plans made if you want to spend a dark, rainy weekend drinking great beer and visiting with the sea lions.

Five Things for Friday

If you've read my blog this week you could tell it's been a busy one for me.  I finished a few things I've been putting off meaning to do for a while now, such as renaming my blog.  No need to fear though, I'm never to busy to mindless peruse the internet in search of the useful, beautiful, or can't live with out.  Such as....

Got a cat or even a small dog?  Need a Valentine's gift for them (seriously, do people buy Valentine's gifts for their pets)?  This handmade cat cave looks fun and cozy!  What pet wouldn't like to snuggle up in that?  I wonder if it comes in human size?


Now's the time that most stores start putting all their winter items on sale.  That works good for me because we've still got several more months of wet weather ahead.  So, this is a good time to look for boots and here's a pair I've got my eye on waiting for them to drop in price even lower!
 There is simply no such thing as too many pair of boots!

Along that same line, I think this crop shirt/sweater may be too good to pass up.  It's an Etsy find which makes it even better!

Last weekend found me at one of my favorite brewpubs, Culmination Brewing.  Granted there are a lot to choose from in Portland but this one stands out in my mind because of it's wide selection of beer styles all done very well, and its awesome food.  I like the fact that its menu is small yet everything on it (that we tried) is well made with quality ingredients.  This is the second time we've been there and both times I've ordered the tacos.  Excellent!  Try them with pork or the brisket.


I'm still crushing on my new camera,Nikon D3300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR with Auto Focus-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens (Black).

So much so, Monday I came home from work and immediately start shooting pictures of my new Peppermint Soap!  These are my best soap pictures yet!

The soap is not yet fully cured but once it is, pick up a couple bars in the online store!

I've got a big treat for you next week as this weekend we're off to a beer festival in Astoria, Oregon!   Lots of great photos of beer, art, water, beach, beer are in store!  If you can't wait to see the photos, follow me on Instagram!

Hope you have a great weekend as well.

What's in a Name?

What's in a name?  I've been asking myself that a lot lately and I finally decided a name is important. Important enough to change when necessary.  Even when that change affects urls, forwarding recipes, CNames, txt record changes, and includes the risk of ruining a good thing.  I said all that to say, Lora's Beauty blog can now be found under the 'simple' url of simply.lorasbeauty.com.  Lora's Beauty online store will remain www.lorasbeauty.com; no change there.

You can still access the blog from the old url lorasbeauty.blogspot.com, you'll 'simply' (ok, last time I'll do that) be redirected to simply.lorasbeauty.com.  With this change, my hope is to create a more professional, interesting, and insightful area to share not only happenings in the Lora's Beauty Online Store, but also things I find intriguing. They will include, but are not limited to, recipes, links, books, furniture remodels, and photographs.

So, what's in a name, simply (sorry, couldn't resist that one) everything!

simply.lorasbeauty.com

A Soap Making Weekend

It was a busy, productive weekend!  No bread was made, unfortunately, but lots of soap was made and a lot of pictures were taken.



You may recall from Friday, that I bought myself a new camera.
This weekend I was finally able to put it to good use.   The first photo is of my very popular Warm Cinnamon&Honey Goat Milk Soap.  This is a great smelling bar, packed with cinnamon, and has a beautiful rustic look.
Another powerful smelling bar is my Honey Safflower Goat Milk Soap. 

The natural smell of fennel complete with delicate safflower pedals make up this bar of soap.

We were lucky enough to have a beautiful weekend to take photos so I was able to get many shots outside.  One thing I still need to do, though, is get closer to the soap.

I really like this photo of my Pepperwood Goat Milk Soap. 

This soap contains a cedar and light anise scent to it.  Hot peppers are added to spice it up!  Although I've photographed this on a pink and blue crochet doily this is really a quite masculine bar.

Patchouli Cedar Sage Goat Milk Soap is also a masculine bar.  It has the warm scent of patchouli and cedar and is packed with dried sage.

This being a more rustic bar, I like the photo of it outdoors with the plants in the background.

I replenished my stock of Mug-o-Beer Soap this weekend as well.

 Audrey couldn't resist the sweet smell of basil and citrus emanating from this bar!  She hopped up on the window sill so she could get a better look!

This bar cut really beautifully, although I'm not happy with this photo.  I need to get closer to the soap!









And finally, a camera phone photo!  This is my latest Peppermint Goat Milk Soap.  It's not yet in the online store as it still needs to cure.  I experimented a little with this bar and embedded some soap curls on the top of it.  It is colored with all natural Brazilian Clay and Activated Charcoal.  Wow!  This bar packs a powerful peppermint scent to really get you going on a slow morning!

This bar will look even nicer once cut!

Well there you have it, my weekend in soap and pictures!  All these bars, except the Peppermint one, are available at the online store for only $5 each!  Free shipping is available for those orders over $30!

Five Things For Friday

I'm just going to start this blog off by saying NEW CAMERA!  That's right, as a birthday gift to myself I splurged and bought a new camera!  I've been toying with doing this for some time now but finally pulled the plug.  Lucky you!  No more camera phone photos!  Instead my new Nikon D3300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II Zoom Lens + 2x Professional Lens +HD Wide Angle Lens + UV Filter Kit with 24GB Deluxe Accessory Bundle (Certified Refurbished) will be used! Seriously, what an upgrade!  Look at those vases!  They are one of my favorite things this week since they were one of my first photographs with my new camera!  Unfortunately, I can't refer you to the site where you can get them as I picked them up at a craft market a few years ago, but appreciate the photo.

Did I mention my birthday?!  That's right, I celebrated my birthday this week.  My son and I made this awesome Refrigerator Cake.  We used skim milk to make the pudding and substituted lite whipped topping.  After refrigerating it for a day, I cut it into squares and froze it!  

It's like an ice cream sandwich, or a pudding cream sandwich!  It's great and makes a nice low fat dessert. 

Last week one of my favorite things was online grocery shopping.  Don't worry, it's still a favorite of mine, but here's a funny little artifact from it.  Basically, online grocery shopping works by you filling out your grocery list online and paying someone $5 to shop for you.   That someone, at least in our town, is usually a teenager. They take your list and walk around the store and pick up the items on your list.  This works great for most items, it gets a little murky when you ask for 2 onions, small sized or a piece of ginger, medium size. Even then, it works most of the time.  A few weeks ago though, I asked for one ginger root, medium size and came home with the largest piece of ginger I've ever seen!  It was obvious the teenager who was filling my order had no idea what a ginger root was.  Anyway, I'm not complaining, I still love online grocery shopping and it's almost like Christmas when you get home and see what amount of produce you have!  With my copious amount of ginger, I've been making fresh ginger tea.  It's a great bedtime drink!  I just slice a few (5-6) pieces of ginger, add a teaspoon of raw sugar, pour hot water over it, and let it steep for 10 minutes. 

I discovered this little bud on my Haworthia Attenuata, Zebra Zebrina Exotic Rare Succulent Cactus Plant Cacti 2"this week.  Can't wait to see it bloom!  Has kind of got me in the mood to force some bulbs inside.

These Red Ceramic Ziva Paperwhite Holiday Gift Growing Kit, Deluxe Edition. Includes a Rustic Red Ceramic Pot, 3 Large Paperwhite Bulbs, and Professional Growing Medium would work great!  Paperwhites are the only bulbs I've had much luck in forcing.

I hope you have a great weekend!  I plan to take some awesome photos of my soap!  Check the online store for the new photos!

Sunday Morning Bread

I managed to get a biga (bread starter) made on Saturday, so Sunday morning we had homemade Italian bread!

This bread takes two days to make because once the biga is created (right) then it needs to be refrigerated overnight.

Early Sunday morning the biga is removed from the refrigerator, allowed to rest at room temperature for an hour, then is mixed with the the rest of the flour, yeast, honey, salt, and water.

The final product, after a few more hours of rising, makes for a very tasty bread!  It also makes two decent sized loafs.  One I gave to a friend for his birthday and one we devoured before dinner!  I actually had to buy bread in the evening so we'd have some with our soup for dinner.