Ok.. I'm adding a few more-- Success with Gardening collection, Landoll's/1996. 571 pages. I purchased this book from a garage sale, its in nice shape. The binding is in gold. The book reminds me of a school textbook, its that large. Climbers and creepers, fruit trees, geraniums, your garden pond, hanging baskets, herbs, houseplants, roses, spring flowers--are all the indexed chapters. I also have a tape "Best tips and techniques for quick country quilting--Debbie Mumm. A Rodale video. 50 minutes. I've watched the tape once. I wish I had time to make quilts! A Country Christmas-Lorenz books, festive foods, gifts, decorating. Hardcover, 192 pages. If you have any questions, please ask! I could go into more detail about the book. And email you pictures if needed. Deb

You may not be aware soil in the western U.S. from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean contains a particularly high count of Type A Clostridium botulinum spores, the type of spores that produce the toxin most dangerous to humans, and Colorado and other states in the West have higher per capita rates of food-borne botulism than other parts of the U.S. This time of the year we get peaches from Colorado and I'm always careful to wash them carefully as soon as they get home. This is a concern because you may get windfall fruit that has been sitting on the ground where it can pick up the bacteria spores. It's not that many years ago we were cautioned NOT to can pie filling at home because of safety problems. Dr. Stan Wallin, Food Technologist at the University of Nebraska, developed safe recipes and procedures for home canned apple and cherry pie filling that are acidified with lemon juice. If your recipe doesn't include lemon juice, you may want to up-date it. Dr. Wallin also cautioned windfall apples should NOT be used due to bacteria picked up from soil. So you NEVER know.... You just need to do what you can, and that includes proper handling, washing, and preparation. -Grainlady

I've been making candles for the past 25 years and the one thing that I can tell you that you will hear again and again is TEST TEST TEST.. and it's truly the best advice to give.. Bitter Creek Candle Supply (http://www.candlesupply.com/) offers good things for newbies.. they sell sample packs of wicks, and wax in 10-11 lb slabs, and their shipping is pretty good.. and the prices are reasonable I've tried some of their fragrance oils and they are pretty good, if you like B&B Work type fragrances then it's TonyÂs Fragrance Oils hands down, they are a little higher on some things but they ship their oils in Boston Rounds not plastic! And you can use the empty bottles for mixing your own blends I also use them for room sprays http://www.tonysfragranceoils.com/ Hope this helps, tori~

I make candles- have only recently began soapmaking. I purchase my candle wax (Astorlite J223) from candlesandsupplies.com. I get all of my supplies there, with the exception of fragrance oils. Although I purchase fragrance oils from several different places, my main supplier is Bittercreek (candlesupply.com). A lot of fragrance oils are safe for wax and bath and body products, but you have to read and make sure. I try to purchase oils that are wax and body safe. I have found that the oils will smell different in soap than they do wax. (I do melt and pour soap.) In soap, the fragrances are pretty much the same as they smell in the bottle. Wax alters the fragrance some, and so do certain soap bases like goatsmilk and oatmeal. You cannot use the same colors for soap as you do candles- you must use a soap colorant, and most are water based whereas the wax colorants are wax-based. I use food coloring for my soap. As far as adding botanicals to the candles- I have never done that so I don't have the faintest idea about that subject. I am including a link to a great newsgroup called "The Scent Review". I have learned ALOT by reading it. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: The Scent Review