I'm Such A Neophile (Like My Niece Was)

 Calling myself a neophile sounds snooty - and it's not entirely accurate. Neophiles "have a love of things new and trendy". I have a love of things new, old, or forgotten - trendy or not. Maybe "dabbler" is a better term. I'm a curious dabbler. Yes, that sounds much better.

One reason I like to learn about new things is that it's a way to keep my brain occupied and active. One of my first doctors told me to always find new stuff to think about and do and he thought of it as exercising a muscle. The way I see it, an idle brain makes you old.

Anyway.

In the past year, I have looked into using camel hump fat for skin and hair care; learned about floral waxes; started using boar and bamboo bristle brushes; started making my own perfumes, and now I am making my own tonka bean and vanilla bean oils. 

It wasn't Xmas w/out a 
Gabby-made treat

My family sometimes says I can be childlike in my curiosity. I take that as a compliment. I love learning about new stuff. If I were wealthy, I'd probably spend all my time traveling to different places to see how other people think and play and work and just go about their lives. 

Gabs did a chair makeover

My younger brother made me feel wonderful once when he said that I sometimes see things differently from anyone else he knows. He said this to me when we were browsing a local thrift store. I spotted a beautiful old buffet cabinet and said that it would look great in my living room. My brother was confused until I explained that I could set the television on the top of the buffet and use all the little cabinets to display plants and photos and little bits of decor. It would be something old blending with things new. He thought that was a great idea. (Unfortunately,we couldn't afford the cabinet but I think about it often.)

Her first cake for a cousin's 
birthday. Everything edible
 but the truck!

Laugh at me if you want but I have usually managed to impress my family and friends with the homemade gifts I've given them. My sisters-in-law and nieces still look forward to getting a new perfume from me. Every batch is original and, since I wing the recipes, they cannot be duplicated - even by me. For the coming Christmas, I will be giving all the men boar bristle brushes for their hair (or beards) and the ladies will be getting floral wax balms to use on their face and lips.

The only other person in our family who shared my love of dabbling was my late niece Gabby. She was far more creative than I and she was great at crafting. She made beautiful cakes for the children's birthdays. In memory of her, I have scattered this post with photos of just some of her earliest creations.

When people were making those baby shower gifts crafted from diapers and other cute objects, my niece outshone them all. Just before she passed, her boyfriend had gifted her one of those Cricut machines. She never really got to use it but I was so excited to see what she would have come up with.

A baby shower gift.
Everything useable.

About fifteen years before she died, my niece made handmade Christmas gifts for every one of the family living in Alaska. All the ladies got a box of lotion bars. Some were in the shape of the state flag and some were shaped like the state flower (the Forget Me Not). She had scented them with lavender, peach, lily, and other lovely fragrances. She was an amazing, creative, thoughtful, and generous woman. I miss her presence in my life every single day.

Another baby shower gift
A plane.

I truly believe that God blesses us with our sense of imagination and wonder. Those are the best forms of entertainment there is. I rarely let my brain run idle. My thoughts are sometimes jumbled which can result in hilarious journal entries. And if you guys could see these blog posts before I clean them up...

I'm pretty excited right now to put together these homemade gifts for my family. As I said, I am using floral waxes to make moisturizers and lip balms for the ladies. Since the ladies so loved their perfumes last year, maybe this year, I will make scents for the guys in the family - maybe some colognes and beard oils???

Another thing about being a dabbler is that it staves off depression. I am already prone to that mental nuisance but right now, waiting to get my dentures and watching the weather turn gray, I know the blues will take over if I let them. 

At any rate, I'm going to keep on keeping as busy as my health lets me. Making the balms should take some time and I know I have to be patient with the vanilla and  Tonka oils. My next thing is to start another Bible study. I haven't seriously done a study since last year. 

By the way, as I was going through photos of Gabby's creations, my mood lifted. Just thinking of her makes me smile. Our family get-togethers won't be the same without one of her treats. Here are some more:

I can't remember the occasion but it was perhaps a July 4th celebration. She made these little edible hats -

 

- that held more edible treats inside! Fantastic, right?!?

This cake was for an Uncle's birthday. He had a sweet tooth and M&M's were a favorite of his. Gabby did it again.

BTW - that stick is not holding
up the M&M bag; it's just something
on the table Gabby was working on.

This is for another get-together - for someone's birthday, I think. I know it was for someone who liked gaming.

Gabby is gone now and until I see her again, I have some really good memories of her. Like her, I want to always keep curious and interested and dabbling. Maybe I will leave something behind that my loved ones can have as a tangible memory.

Peace

--Free