Awesome Avery Orange

Funky, spunky and with a personality that sparkles as much as her eyes, Janette will surely surprise and amuse you.

I met Janette in Oregon at the Hometown Photographer's Workshop...where we instantly became friends. We laughed and giggled and stayed up way too late. Beautiful and confident, she was a natural in front of my camera. But it wasn't until learning of each other's broken mother hearts, that we realized the depths of our bond.

You see, Janette's son Avery passed away unexpectedly just a few short months ago. Oh those freckles, those glistening eyes, and that red hair...be still my heart!

 Avery loved his family including all of his siblings.

He loved to play the piano, play on computers, everything Pokemon and the color orange as it was his signature color!

 Avery loved spending time with his Dad

 and going on fun vacations with his family.

 But Avery really loved his Mom. For every boy's first love...is his mother!

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." 

-Christopher Robin to Pooh

Avery's memorial jiggystick designed and created exclusively as a gift for his family and not for sale.

Awesome Avery Orange jiggystick...for Avery, for his family, for his friends, and especially for his Mom. 

Thank you Janette for sharing your photos of Avery and allowing us to honor your sweet boy while celebrating his life and legacy! 

Dorothy Doodle

Dorothy Doodle came to town,

riding in a car,


Stuck a feather in her hat

oh wait...I mean her collar.

Dorothy Doodle sit right up,

Dorothy Doodle dandy.

Mind the Grandpa

kiss the boy...

And with the cows

have joy!

Excited to celebrate Thanksgiving...Dione and Dorothy the puppy made the drive all the way from the big city of Los Angeles home to The Garlick Press.

Dorothy had so many adventures that growing up as a city pup just doesn't allow. Don't worry this was post Thanksgiving dinner...so these turkeys were all safe!

Olivia and Henry have grown up with puppies stepping on their toes, jumping over their heads, and licking up crumbs they leave behind. Playing with Dorothy was right up their alley!

It's no secret that this family is a pack of dog lovers...every single one of us!

So welcome to the family Dorothy Doodle Doo...we're happy to have you! And thanks for bringing Dione home with you.

Embracing It

Today is my birthday.

It seems the older we get, the less we want to celebrate birthdays. Truthfully, I 'm guilty of telling people for years now that I'm 29. But I'm stepping out on the ledge today to expose my age. It's not one of the milestone birthdays that society tells you to celebrate with black balloons and depressing wise cracks about drooping skin and other body parts. That birthday comes next year.

Today I celebrate my 49th birthday and the first day of my 50th year of life. I plan on embracing this 50th year with all the hoopla, excitement and passion I can muster. I will not dread the passing of time until I turn the big Five O! I'm determined to anticipate and adore each and every sunrise, chirping bird, raindrop, snowflake, friendship, family member, laugh, tear...right down to every tick-tock marked on the clock.

So, I've made a list. Fifty things. Comprised of spending time with the people I love, places I've always wanted to go, favorite things, dreams I've always wanted to fulfill, and some just plain absurd and nonsensical things. Dean has coined my list "The Filthy Fifty." It's growing on me...I think I'll keep the title! For now I'm keeping the list to myself. Let's just say that an instrument, a foreign country, pie, and my camera are included. Of course I'll blog about every single one of the Filthy Fifty.

To start things off, if you happen to be in Anthropologie this afternoon...I'll be the one with lots of shopping bags. As an Anthropologie shopping spree is the first item on my Filthy Fifty List.

Jiggybars

The jiggystick team has been very busy here at world headquarters.


It's such an exciting process to watch an idea come to fruition. After months and months of planning, crafting, designing, ordering, testing, etc...the "idea" is ready for production.

Mixing and weighing


following the formula precisely as our chemist crafted it.

We had a mold motif designed by our talented graphic artist and then sent off to a lab for specialty molds made to those exact design specifications.

Mango butter, macadamia nut oil, and this gorgeous hemp butter

are combined with beeswax from our apiary along with jojoba, olive, and fragrance oils.

Mixing is very precise...right down to the tenth of a gram.

It's all very exciting at this point.

And the smell is simply divine!

Each bar must be filled to the exact

specified weight.

The engineer and the chemist look for bubbles in the lotion bars that form around the tiny bee in the mold.

Once cooled, the lotion bars are unmolded and then carefully wrapped up, and placed in hexagon containers.

Add a label and there you have it! Jiggybars! You can find them at jiggystick.com.

That was a great idea you had there Dean. 

Fakes-giving

My absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving is cooking and baking with my daughters...I think they both feel the same. Since Cass will be celebrating the holiday with hubby's family this year, I thought it would be fun if we had our own early "Fakes-giving!"


Discussing pie recipes, Dean jumped into the planning details and suggested we make a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. He's always FULL of good ideas and so helpful when it comes to pie!

Surprisingly...though I am known as the pie queen, I have never made my own pumpkin pie puree. Cass and I did some googling where The Pioneer Woman assured us it was super easy and totally worth the effort!

Ugh...I always inadvertently leave my cabinet doors open when I cook.

Grown specifically for baking, we carefully cut the perfect pumpkins into halves...

maybe enjoying the cutting part a little too much!

Convincing Dean that this is the part he's always good at, he helped us scrape out the pumpkin guts.

This was probably our least favorite part. I use the word "our" loosely since clearly I am behind the camera and not elbow deep in pumpkin guts!

Ready for roasting!

After roasting the chunks for twice as long as The Pioneer Woman instructed...the pumpkin was finally fork tender and ready to puree.

Puree...and puree...and puree some more!

We were so proud...practically Pioneer Women ourselves!

As for the results...yes! One Hundred and Ten Percent yes! The flavor, the texture, the pie! Absolutely worth the effort and I would do it again!

Thanks a bunch Dean...that just made Pie Night more intense and complicated!