Nourish and Nestle

Today I'm talking with Lynn at Nourish and Nestle. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Lynn at Nourish and Nestle. How are you, Lynn? I'm well, thank you. Awesome. I have to tell you, my nickname is Lynn. My given name is Mary Evelyn. Oh, okay. And my...

00:28
and my parents couldn't decide which name was going to come first, and they settled on Mary. And by the time I was like a week old, they were calling me Lynn. So I grew up not knowing that my name wasn't technically Lynn. So when I saw yours, I was like, oh, a real Lynn. Okay. A real Lynn. Yep. All right. So tell me all about yourself and what you do. So this like

00:57
stocks me when I say this, but I've been blogging for about nine years, which is like a lifetime. And I, you know, so my blog is Nurture Nestle, obviously, and it's a basically everything I like to do, you know, I kind of ignored the advice to niche down and I kind of niche out. So

01:21
I like to cook, so I cook. I like to garden, so there's gardening. I like to knit, so there's knit. So whatever I like to do is kind of on there. So yeah, that's pretty much it. In a nutshell, I've enjoyed this blogging journey. I got to a point earlier this year where I was like, gosh, do I really wanna keep doing this? And what I did is I just kind of slowed down and just.

01:49
focused on the stuff I wanted to do. And I really kind of stepped back from all the crazy stuff that, you know, make Facebook happy and Google happy and Pinterest happy. And I'm really blessed that I have a great email, active large email list. So I just started really kind of focusing on them and I'm in a happy place right now. You did all the hard work at the beginning and now you get to make the rules. I think that's great. Yes. Awesome.

02:19
Okay, well, I have been doing my podcast for a little over a year. And at a year, I went through the same thing. I was like, do I want to keep doing this? Because it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work to be a creative and put yourself out there and put the time into it. And I talked to my husband about it and I was like, this five days a week thing is a lot.

02:47
And he said, cut back to three days a week again. He said, when you first started, it was once a week. And then you moved to three a week and then you did months of five episodes released a week. He said, drop back down to three. He said, you have a following now. See what happens. And that's what I've done for the last week or so. And it's fine. So no one's your limits and slowing down is not a terrible thing. And, and there's a, there's a lesson for us all there.

03:16
You know, we're not doing our best when we're not enjoying it and when we're feeling like under the pressure and we're feeling like, you know, I must do this, I must do this. And we're at our best, especially creatives, when, you know, we listen to our heart on that, you know. And luckily, you know, I am and hopefully you are in a position too where

03:42
you know, we don't have to go to the daily grind. I know not everybody is lucky enough to do that. And I'm lucky enough to kind of step back and say, okay, this is what I want to do. And I don't want to do all the other things. So yes. And I'm in the same boat. So whatever it is that catches my eye and the person I want to talk to, if they say yes, I am all over it. And it can be anytime between 8 a.m. Central time and 6 p.m. Central time.

04:09
After that or before that, I'm asleep. I'm done. I'm exactly. I need sleep. I am 55 years old. I spent years not sleeping, raised four kids. And sleep is like my favorite thing next to talking to people on the podcast. You and me both girls. Sleep is my happy place too. Uh huh. Yep. And I have to get in some reading just for me. I'm an avid reader. And if I don't read something for me.

04:36
at least an hour a day, I feel like my life is off kilter. So that's kind of my thing. So we could talk about all that stuff all day, but we're not going to. So I wanted to talk to you basically, because you're all about home and design and creating things and I love it. First question for you is what is your particular style when it comes to decorating?

05:05
I think I would be called eclectic. I don't, and I don't, so with not offending anybody, I don't buy decorations. I haven't really bought furniture in forever. I have hand-me-down furniture and I have, the furniture my husband and I bought when we were married 35 years ago.

05:32
is the furniture that I still have today that I've recovered, obviously. But I'm kind of a... I don't want to say I'm a traditionalist. My poem's not traditional in any sense, but I like to use... I thought of getting rid of perfectly good furniture and buying new furniture. I have my grandparents' dining room table. I have my parents' sofa that I've recovered. I have...

05:58
So, I would say I'm eclectic because nothing like I don't have a colonial. I don't have a contemporary home. I have a home that is really mixed with what was given to me. And then I've accumulated. We've bought a few pieces of furniture, but most of the furniture we've purchased has been like antiques other than our sofa that we bought when we first got married 35 years ago.

06:25
we've bought a few antiques. I like artwork a lot, so I would prefer to spend money on art than furniture. So I would have to say I'm eclectic. I like bright light colors. I don't have curtains on my windows. I like the light to come in. I don't know. I don't know that I'm easily kind of pigeonholed because all my decor, when I look at my bookshelves, art, with books,

06:55
But, you know, family heirlooms, I don't buy decorations other than original artwork. That's kind of my one weakness. So that's kind of what I would call if that explains it. Yes. And I'm going to tell you, older furniture is the best furniture because it lasts forever. Yes. And it has character and it doesn't look like everybody else's. Right. Yeah. And, I mean...

07:25
We did buy a brand new kitchen table, like seven years ago, because one we had was old and it was just not repairable. It was old, old, like over 100 years old and it was just falling apart. My husband, yeah, my husband was like, why don't we buy that one that you saw, that you love, that needs to be finished and I will put it together and you can polyurethane it and then we...

07:53
We sort of made it our own and I said, that's totally fine. So that's what we did. And honestly, had he had time, he probably would have made us a table because he's really good at woodworking. And I've said it before on the podcast that our bed frame, my son's bed frame, and a couple of our desks are made by my husband. He made those pieces of furniture. So if you can't inherit it and you can't get it,

08:23
from thrifting, you might find somebody who's really good at woodworking who can make you furniture, which is always lovely. We've made a few things actually. You can buy legs, you know, turned legs. We bought some turned legs and bought a piece of wood for the top of the table. Anyway.

08:46
For those of us who aren't as skilled as your husband. I picked the right one. He's really good at woodworking, and he's really good at bread baking. So I won. I won the lottery. Well, I don't hope my husband isn't listening, because he's really good at duct taping. That's OK, too. I mean, whatever gets the job done, I suppose. So I'm going to share my decorating style, because I asked you. So I'm going to share mine.

09:15
Mine is very classic and functional and old fashioned things. That's what I love. And we have a desk that is made out of an old Tradle sewing machine base. And then my husband put a maple top on it. And it is my favorite thing he's made. It's so beautiful. And it honors that time frame. Yeah. And I also really, really love beach things because I grew up on the East Coast.

09:45
And so I have like almost like a cartoonish painting of a lighthouse in my kitchen. And I have two small prints of like a beach scene. They're almost exactly the same. And I accidentally decorated my bathroom in our old house like Cape Cod and didn't even realize I had done it. Well, it was it was subliminal, right?

10:13
It was very blue and white and bright and clean. And my neighbors knew we were redoing our bathroom and they came over. And the wife of the couple stepped in and I of course had a sand smelling, you know, suntan lotion smelling candle burning in there. And she was like, I swear I just walked into a Cape Cod house and I know your house is not a Cape Cod. And I said, oh no, no, it's not.

10:43
She said, did you do this on purpose? And I said, no, no, I did not. But I think I might've been quite influenced by where I grew up. So I like, I really like old fashioned classic things and functional things. I also like things that no one would think of. I was in a public building and they rotate their artwork on their walls every six months.

11:14
And there was this like shadow box frame and it had birch branches that were all about the same height, maybe five inches tall. And it was in the colors of a winter sky, the background. And it had like glitter on that background. So it looked like a birch forest where it was snowing. I wanted to buy it and I could not find anybody who could tell me where it came from. And so-

11:43
stems painted or were they actually pieces of birch? They were natural. So you could probably make that. Yes it's on my list. I haven't done it yet but it's been on my list for five years so I'm hoping that maybe this winter I can I can get a frame or a shadow box frame and get some birch stems and some paints and just kind of play and see if I can come up with something like it. You just reminded

12:13
My grandfather was more than just a handyman. He was a builder and he had a tool and die company back in the day. Anyway, so when he passed away, my parents were given and then I was given his old wooden toolbox. It was about the size of a good size toolbox, not one you would carry by a

12:43
few feet tall with all the drawers and everything, but it's just a gorgeous wooden thing. I didn't want to – what do I do with the toolbox? I took it to a metal worker and I had him build a base. Now, this is an end table. I built the base so that literally my grandfather's toolbox is now an end table in our living room. Just like you said, finding unusual ways to use everyday items.

13:11
Yeah, so they don't end up in the landfill. Right! Right, right, right. Yes. So, since we're talking about the fact that you can make things out of things, the whole purpose of chatting with you that we decided on was to talk about how to make our homes cozy and welcoming for the holidays. And you had suggested talking about homemade gifts, too. Right.

13:36
So let's talk about how to make homes cozy and welcoming for the holidays. You go first. Well, you know, I think, and everybody's definition of cozy is different, right? So, you know, my idea of cozy might not be anyone else's, but in general, I'm not a clutter person. I don't like a lot of clutter. But during Christmas, we are like clutter-centric. And I am also somebody who, I reuse my same ornaments every year.

14:06
get a new color scheme, I don't buy new decorations. These are the ones that we've had. So to my family and to me, there's a sense of cozy in that continuity of what we've seen for the last forever. But once again, that's just my definition of cozy.

14:30
I'd love to have a fire going. That's my definition of cozy. I mean, I live in North Carolina on the coast and it's not really cold, but having a fire going is cozy to me. I bake a lot. To me, there's nothing more cozy than hanging out in my kitchen baking for us to give. That to me is a really cozy thing with music going on or football, whatever the case may be.

14:57
So I think that everyone needs to define their definition of cozy, but that's what cozy is to us. I always have a puzzle at Christmas time, laying out on the dining room table or a table that we're not using. To me, that's sitting there and just working on it a couple pieces a day. That's a cozy thing. What about you? Okay. I've been thinking about this for a week now.

15:24
is how things smell and how they sound. And part of that is that the olfactory scents and the auditory scents are two of the strongest of our six senses. Okay. And so if you're hearing a song when you're experiencing something, you'll always associate that song with that memory. And if there's a strong smell, like gingerbread cookies,

15:51
You're going to associate gingerbread smell with Christmas if that's when you're making it. So for me, Christmas and Thanksgiving are very much about the food and having like either classical music or Christmas music on in the background quietly. Right. Because the other thing that's very cozy about holidays is getting together and just having conversations with your favorite people.

16:19
Oh, absolutely. Having your kids, neither of my kids are at home. So when they come home, you know, they're not even in the same town. So when they came home, everything changes. It automatically becomes cozy when your family comes in. Yes. Yes. And it's about slowing down, if you can, being able to be in the moment with those people. And for the sense, I was thinking about this a lot.

16:44
yesterday because it's getting to be that time. I mean, Thanksgiving is 10 days away, I think. And I was like, I don't know how to make my house cozy for Thanksgiving right now. Because my house is kind of a mess. So number one, I need to get it cleaned up. First thing. And then how do I want to make it look fall-ish? And then I was like, you know, I don't need to make it look fall-ish. I need to make it feel fall-ish.

17:13
So what I used to do is we have a very specific old pan that never gets cooked in. It is only for water and dried onion, not onion, dried orange peels and cloves and cinnamon. And we make basically a pot of good smelling steam. And I was like, I need to find that pan. That's the second thing on the list because I wanna get that happening too.

17:44
imagery of just that one pan with all that stuff in it. That's only used for that. That's great. Well, the other reason why is because if I don't have orange peels and cinnamon and cloves on hand, I usually have sweet orange essential oil and clove oil and cinnamon oil. So I just put that in the water. It does the same thing. So one way or another, my kitchen will smell lovely whether I'm cooking or not.

18:13
And I was also thinking about cookies because, you know, cookies make every house smell good. So the thing I love and hate about the holidays is the food because I want to eat everything that is in my kitchen and I'm not fat because I can't eat everything in my kitchen. Like I eat half of my plate of food and I'm like, I'm good. I, you know, my brain is saying.

18:42
Yeah, my eyes are saying keep going, but my brain is like, no, you're no longer hungry. You may stop. So I love cooking. I get full on the smells and the sense of cooking. So for me, food is not the enemy right now. And it's wonderful because for a long time it was the enemy. And the holidays can be really hard for people around food. It's very difficult. So cozy and welcoming.

19:12
You want your house to be warm. If it's wintertime in Minnesota, if you want it to be welcoming, you want it to be warm. Not hot, not cold. Warm. 100%. Yeah, like 72 degrees on a 20-degree day in Minnesota. 72 degrees in the house is lovely for company. Are you in Minnesota? Yes, I am. Wow. Okay. Yeah. But I don't know what North Carolina's like.

19:41
on Thanksgiving Day. It could be 80 degrees here. And for music, lots of people like lots of different music. I really like classical. I like bluegrass instrumental. I obviously like instrumental Christmas music. I don't like lyric Christmas music. I don't want words when people are around. Really?

20:08
I sing, so if there's stuff that has words and I can hear the words, I'm going to start singing along and I don't want to be singing along. I want to be talking with my family. So for me, instrumental music is better. Interesting. Well, I love, I have to have certain, those certain songs with lyrics, but then when I'm working, you know, working, working on the computer, then I just need instrumental. But I have to, you know, there's certain songs we have to hear that...

20:35
certain, you know, all the old ones. Like if I never hear Mariah Carey again, it'll be too soon. But, I'm sorry. Yeah, there's a lot of people in that camp. Yeah, like I want the old, you know, I'm looking for like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby kind of music and the... Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. But if we're, if we're sitting around after Thanksgiving dinner with family and talking...

21:02
we're probably going to have instrumental music on so that I'm not. So none of us are really distracted. If we're like cooking, then the lyric ones are fine. Cause we're all going to sing. Right. Do you have a favorite instrumentalist that you listen to for Christmas music? No, no, I just pull up the instrumental Christmas song thing on Pandora and just let it go. I think that's what I do. Yeah. Yep.

21:29
It's just easier and I hear new versions that I haven't heard before too. So it's kind of fun. Okay. So we've talked about how to make your home warm and welcoming and cozy for the holidays. Let's talk about making things because I have been making things for people for Christmas since I was probably 10. Right. And people, if you haven't actually made something with your own hands and given it to somebody for a Christmas present, try it.

21:56
because the look on their face when they realize that you made it is just precious. Oh, without a doubt. Yeah, and you know, I've had this thing where, you know, DIY that doesn't look DIY. And I think, you know, calling it, their, DIY has such a bad denotation, right? I think that handmade sounds so much better. Yeah. So, yeah, 100%. I'm all about.

22:25
you know, giving handmade gifts. I knit. I used to knit sweaters for people for Christmas, but then my feelings would get hurt when like the styles, like they didn't wear them after a couple of years. And I'm like, you know how much work I put into that thing? So now I give blankets or, you know, washcloths are huge. Everybody needs a washcloth, dishcloths, pot holders, you know, and nobody who has a kitchen doesn't need a pot holder.

22:55
So yeah, anyone who cooks in their kitchen, right? The pot holder. I don't know. Recently, I rediscovered. Do you remember those loom pot holders that we all used to make in like third grade? They come with new colors of those little loops. And they've also come out with a book, like pattern books, to make really cool looking patterns. And those are the best pot holders. They're not too thick.

23:23
And the size I have, the little loom I got is a little bigger. I want to say it's 10 by 10 or eight by eight, and the other one maybe six by six. But I have a long finger, so I like a big pot holder. And those make the greatest gifts. I mean, you can just whip out a bunch of pot holders in pretty colors and pretty patterns with the loom thing that you could get on Amazon now. That's going to be a lot of people in their stocking this year.

23:53
Well, good. You can send me one if you like. Here's the thing though. A lot of people right now are two-income families with kids. And time is a commodity. Time is short. And so what I would say, and you can jump in if you want, is if you want to make something for somebody for Christmas and you're short on time,

24:22
There are things that you can do that are very much of your making that you don't have to sink a lot of time into. And one of the things I've seen is if you know somebody who you care about has a particular hobby that they love, let's say they love playing cards, you know, Texas Hold'em or something, you can get a Christmas bulb, whether it's plastic and it's in two pieces so you can snap it together.

24:51
or you can get a glass one if you really want to screw around a glass. And you can put like crinkly paper in it and you can fold a card, whatever their, their favorite playing card is. I mean, it could be a joker, ha ha. And you put it inside the Christmas ornament and then you snap the plastic back together if that's what it is. And you can write on it and glitter something to do with their favorite hobby. I mean, it can be that simple.

25:20
And it means something to them. Absolutely. And it would take five minutes. Right. Oh, that's a great idea. And I don't know why I chose, I don't know why I chose Texas Hold'em, but I was just kind of trying to come up with something. Right. But it doesn't have to be, you know, a month long project of making a baby blanket. It doesn't have to be that extreme.

25:49
No, make some vanilla extract, make some salt, put together your favorite taco seasoning, put it in a cute jar. That takes no time. You can whip out a whole bunch of them. Those are things that everybody will use. They appreciate that every time they have taco seasoning, they think, hey, so-and-so thought of me and made this for me. There are so many things you can do.

26:17
Yeah, the kids and I, I have four kids. And when they were small, they wanted to make something for the grandparents. And I was like, what am I going to have these kids make when they're all different ages, you know, my youngest was five at the time and my daughter was 17. And I thought, okay, well, I saw a thing where we could make candy cane Christmas ornaments out of beads and pipe cleaners.

26:46
And I thought, well, that's safe enough for the five-year-old and my oldest, who was the only girl, will get a kick out of it. And so we printed out the instructions and we learned how to make candy cane ornaments for the Christmas tree. Would you believe that their grandparents still put those freaking candy canes on their trees? Sure they do. So it can be something so easy and so not time consuming, but it means so much more than that.

27:15
So many things, you know, get some potpourri and sew a little sachet, you know, there's so many things like that that everybody can use. There's so many things you can do. Yes, and if you don't have the stuff on hand, if you have a Joanne's fabric store within half an hour or a Michael's, there's all kinds of things there that you can get that aren't going to cost you thousands of dollars.

27:45
love it and appreciate the work that went into it. And they're not going to think, oh, this is stupid. They're going to think, oh my god, you really put thought into this and time into this. I mean, you poke purine stuff that you put on your stove. I don't know if you use dried oranges, but to me, like a bag of your homemade potpourri, that would make my day to have something like that. That just would make my kitchen smell good.

28:13
Yeah, and the wonderful thing is, is if you like oranges, if you like to eat oranges or the little halos or cuties, what the heck they're called? I don't know, little mandarins, yes. Yes, if you buy those fresh, all you have to do to get dried orange rind is to peel them and then break that rind up, throw it on a cookie sheet and stick it in your oven at the lowest temperature you have on your oven and just let them dry for an hour, hour and a half.

28:42
dried orange peels and they're not going in the trash. Exactly. I mean, that's amazing. I guess today is all about sustainability too. Who knew? It all wraps up, right? It all ties up. It really does. So I know you make a lot of things because I went and looked at your Facebook page and I want to live in the Facebook world on that page.

29:11
Oh, thanks. Mm-hmm. So tell me about some of the things that you've made. I know you said washcloths. So for gifts, oh my God. Well, I've made napkins. You know, making napkins was something that I enjoyed doing. Well, you could just make napkins and then, or if you crochet, you can just add a little crochet edge to them. You know, little, my mom had given me a sachet once. She went to Italy and brought home this,

29:41
somebody had taken like a fabric, put some lavender in it and then put a wooden bead with this and then painted the face of the stalls face on it. And that was just a little sachet. So I've made, I kind of took that idea and made my own for like that. And you've put me on the spot. I got to pull up my boat. Oh, you know, you can not things, you know, T like coasters and stuff like that, you know.

30:10
You can go to, like you said, Joanne's and buy like goat's milk soap and not have to do the whole lie, LYE lie thing. You know, avoid all that and just pour soaps and add pretty flavors to them, pretty scents. You know, crochet book, for anybody who crochets, crochet bookmarks. Everybody can use bookmarks.

30:34
So those are just some to get you started. Let's see, well, dog treats. Like we have a dog, we love dogs and we have lots of friends who love dogs, make a batch of dog treats and put them in a little cute little bag and share them. And dog treats are super easy to make. They're so easy to make. And people with a dog, I mean, that's like such a great gift. They all think they died and went to heaven. So those are just some of the things that we've done.

31:04
Since you said dog, one of the things that is pretty easy to make is the bandanas that go on their collars. Yeah. Because you're just cutting it in, you find material that you like, you buy some, and you cut it into like a triangle, right? Yeah. And use pink and gray so it doesn't ravel. Yeah. And yeah, you have some cute bandanas. Oh, see, now that's a cute idea. You could even like do...

31:32
tie up your little dog goodies in a bandana. That's brilliant. We should market that. Isn't that cute? Yeah, that's a cute idea. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, you don't have to spend a lot of money to do thoughtful things. And then there's the whole time is such a gift for so many people. I gave one year my sister-in-law.

31:57
Just needed help decluttering. So I just went up. I didn't you know, her gift was she had me for a weekend and we decluttered You know Just it which was fun too, you know, so given the gift of time is another Great gift that people Would can really appreciate Yeah, and if you love to cook cooking dinner for somebody or if you're big on kids You can babysit their kids for right on Friday or Saturday night

32:24
Yeah, access service is a great gift. 100%. And we are here in my house, we're really lucky because we're always making things because we're always curious and we want to try stuff. And we started making, um, cold process lye soap years ago. Okay. So that, okay. And so we were trying to do that. Oh, it's, it's really okay.

32:50
I shouldn't say it's really easy because I don't do it. I am really nervous about the lye in the water, but my husband is not. So we talk about how we want to make it and what scents we want it to have. And I'm the one who puts the scents in after he mixes the water, the lye and the oil. So it's already at trace where it's like pudding texture. So I add the essential oils or the fragrance oils because that doesn't scare me. But

33:19
It's really easy. You just got to make sure that you have goggles and that you're really careful when you put the lye in the water together. Just the fact that I have to wear goggles and be that. I mean, you know, the thing is like I can, you know, I water bathed in a pressure can. So I'm like, well, if that doesn't scare me, why does lye make it? But it does. Yeah, and you don't even actually have to wear goggles. It's just a safety measure just in case, you know, on the very small percentage that it splashes, it doesn't get in your eyes.

33:49
And I think those are one, did you give him as gifts? Yes, and I was gonna say, he's gotten, my husband's gotten lye on his skin before, and as long as you spray it with vinegar and then rinse it off, it's fine. It doesn't hurt, it's fine. Okay. So in case you really do wanna try making soap, those are the things I can tell you. So when we first started making soap, we wanted people to try it and see if they liked it, because we loved it. And so we gave our family

34:18
bars of these soaps the first year we made them. And we actually had a couple of people come back and say, do you have more? And so one year we had made a whole bunch of different kinds and we went to the Christmas gathering and we brought just a box of all the different soaps and we brought Ziploc bags and we were like, guys, we didn't know which ones you want. So there's the box. Take turns.

34:48
take a Ziploc bag, put your name on it, pick out like four bars of soap that you would like to take home with you. They had such a ball. They had such a good time picking out what they wanted. Oh, I'm making fun of the wonderful. Yep, it was really fun. And we needed to get it out of our house because we were big into the soap making at that point and we gave it to everybody. So, and we also make lip balms. So I have like, I have 150 lip balms in a box right now that we made last summer.

35:18
And they last forever because I know what they're made of. They're good for at least four years. If they're kept in a temperate place and they don't get too hot or too cold. So people will probably be getting lip balms this year, too. And everybody needs lip balm, especially in Minnesota, I would imagine. But even here in North Carolina, we use a lot of lip balm. That always ends up in my kid's stocking. That's a staple for us.

35:47
little tube of lip balm. So yeah, there's so many things you can do. And the lip balm and like hand balm and foot balm, those are super easy to make. Probably along the same, you know, if you probably know that if you're making lip balm, once you buy all the, you know, the beeswax, whatever you're using, you can make so many different things. Yes, it's kind of wonderful because you can't just buy a little bit of beeswax. No.

36:17
or coconut oil or olive oil or any other things. My next learning project is how to make natural Neosporin. I talked to a lady yesterday, her episode came out this morning and she has beehives. And I was telling her that I need to get a new tube of Neosporin because the one we have is almost gone. And I said, you know about bees, can I use honey and beeswax and olive oil and whatever to make?

36:46
Sav that will do what Neosporin does because Neosporin has Vaseline and it has stuff you really don't want on your skin All right, and she said well, yeah, I have a recipe. I will I will message it to you. I was like yes She sent it to me I'm working on that this winter because I'm really natural antibiotic antibiotic antimicrobial the whole bit. Yes Okay, so that's my next

37:14
Yeah, I love that. Yup. It's so fun and people used to look at me like I was crazy when I was like, I'm gonna try making lip balm. My neighbors were like, what? Right. And then I would give them the results and they would be like, oh my God, it's great. Thank you. So I just don't even bother recognizing that the you're crazy look on people's faces anymore. I just do it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Same kind of.

37:44
When people ask me what I'm doing, I typically don't tell them. Well, I used to be so excited about it. You know, when I was younger, I was like, oh, I'm doing grandma stuff in my, in my twenties, and it's not grandma stuff. It's everybody's stuff. But that was how I looked at it. And they were like, but why you can just buy a tubalip bomb at the store? And I'm like, because I want to see if I can do it.

38:11
Exactly. Which can, like, there is that point at which you're like, you know, you spend a hundred dollars on supplies for a $5 tube, you know, but I, which I've done and, you know, I fully own that, but I had fun doing it. So. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So we're already over 30 minutes, but I'm having a really, I'm having a really good time talking with you. I was so looking forward to this conversation. Oh, thanks. I'm looking forward to it.

38:38
The one thing that I do want to bring up before I let you go is making a turkey. I got myself in a world of hurt talking about how to make a turkey one time. And I won't mention names, but the girl whose feelings were hurt, she was a single mom and busting her ever loving ass taking care of her kid and was very busy and was not a cook. And I

39:07
said something about I don't understand why they're selling turkey breast in a bag to throw in the stove these days. It's not that hard to make a turkey. Okay. And I was like, you buy a whole turkey and you take the wrapper off of it and you pull the neck and the giblets out. You put it in a roasting pan. You put an onion, a cut up onion and a cut up apple in the... There's a word in the turkey.

39:36
And then you melt a stick of butter, you pour it over the top of the turkey, you put some sage, some salt, some pepper, and whatever else you want to put on it. And yeah, put a lid on it. We put water in it. You put a lid on it, you stick in the oven for like two and a half hours. And her back went up and she was like, well, not all of us have time to perfect it. And I went, oh, I just stepped in it. I didn't mean to. So here's what I want to say about making a turkey. Making a turkey is not hard.

40:06
It is not real science. It's just, it's just what I said. And you're probably going to screw up the first one because you don't know what to look for. And again, the olfactory sense is one of the strongest ones. And a lot of people know when food is ready by how it smells. So if you want to learn to, to roast a turkey,

40:31
you should do it because turkey is fairly inexpensive meat and it can be really good at other times besides the holidays. Okay, so I wanted to get that thing about turkeys in because Thanksgiving's coming up, Christmas is coming up, and really if you want to learn to cook, all you have to do is find a recipe book and jump in and try it. That very true. Yeah, everybody was a first time turkey baker at some point. Everybody was a first time something at some point. Yeah.

41:01
No one is born knowing how to do all these things. That's why we have parents who take care of us when we're little babies. We have to learn, we have to grow and when you stop learning and growing, you might as well be dead. So don't be dead. Enjoy your life. Try new things. That's it, girl. That's it. That's what life's all about. Yes it is. So real quick, do you, I don't know, you're a blogger. Do you have a book? Have you done a book yet?

41:30
I have not. Okay. All right. Just checking. If you had, I was going to promote it, but you're not there yet. No. Okay. All right. Cool. Well, Lynn, this was so fun. I have been dying to have a conversation like this since last year. I enjoyed it very much. All right. You have a great rest of the afternoon and enjoy your holidays. And enjoy your Thanksgiving. Bye-bye now. All right. Thanks.