African Tortoise Skull!

I finally got around to cleaning this guy! 

What I'm currently working on

I got a big batch of fresh heads from a tannery, and I'm so excited to get started on them! My biggest project in this batch is this HUGE Icelandic Ram skull

The horns are fully curled on both sides and are gorgeous. He came with this label saying that he has "weird teeth" so when he's a little cleaner I'll be able to see them better and find out what's weird

I've got him macerating in a tub now, it should take at least the weekend for the tissues to start falling off. 

I also got this awesome Jacob sheep! Jacob sheep are adorable and have wool that's great for yarn, and they can often grow 4 or 5 horns at once! He's macerating in the tub with the ram. Tomorrow I'll pull his and the rams horns off because they can be damaged by maceration. They'll go back on when the skulls are all done. 

The rest of the skulls I got! A beaver, otter, bobcat, coyote, skunk, domestic rabbit, cottontail, gar, and a doe! These are all still in my freezer, but I bought some new smaller tubs and I plan to start a rabbit, bobcat, and maybe the gar tomorrow. 

Framed Bones

Made this with some extra deer parts! I love it, definitely making more like this. 

LIP SHIT!

Yes, that's what they're called, but these awesome little tins are far from full of shit. They're made by the quirky company Blue Q, and they are AMAZING. Each tin is a combination of two flavors, usually a fruit and spice or flower, they are all really unique flavors. I found the Lemonade Hibiscus and Wildberry Chamomile flavors in a store, and I did what any normal psychopath would do and immediately bought the other 10 flavors from their website. These balms have a nice short list of natural ingredients and are suuuuuper moisturizing! Each balm has awesomely adorable artwork on the lid, as well as the flavor name and of course LIP SHIT. I have absolutely zero complaints about these balms, I have read a few reviews where people have said that the lids can be hard to remove, but I haven't had that problem with any of mine.

LEMONADE HIBISCUS As difficult as it was for me to choose a favorite flavor, I decided on Lemonade Hibiscus, probably because I'm a sucker for all things lemon. This is the first Lip Shit I bought, and the one that made me fall in love and buy the rest. This balm smells exactly like a cold, tart glass of freshly-squeezed lemonade. I have to admit, I don't know what a hibiscus flower smells like, but there is definitely a slight fresh, floral undertone to this, but it's not like old lady floral or perfume floral, it's really like fresh cut, crisp flowers kind of smell. It's delightful! The nurse on the lid also makes me laugh for some reason, probably because if I was hospitalized I would make the nurses bring me lemonade.

WILDBERRY CAMOMILE This was the second Lip Shit I bought, and I'd probably say that this is my second favorite (although I really love them all equally). The wildberry has a nice home-made berry jam scent to it, and paired with the chamomile, it smells like some kind of amazing fruity jam and tea concoction. I love the green and purple color combo on the lid art, with the adorable bow-wielding girl scout lady.

PINEAPPLE BROWN SUGAR I love pineapples, but not pineapple scented things, and brown sugar is usually too sickly sweet for me. I didn't think I would like this one, but I WAS WRONG. This balm has a really fresh, almost acidic scent, like a freshly slaughtered pineapple. The brown sugar isn't bad at all, it gives this balm more of a pineapple upside-down cake scent, like fresh pineapple slices with warm buttery brown sugar. The kitten eating an ice cream cone on the lid is also painfully cute.

PEACH LAVENDER I was a little torn on how I would feel about this one. Peach is my absolute favorite scent/flavor/fruit, but I really really really don't like lavender. In the tin, this balm smells like straight up lavender, but it's not overwhelming. On the lips, you can smell/taste the peach a lot better, and it's goooood. If you like lavender, you'll love this. The five o'clock-shadowed fireman on the lid is a nice touch.

POMEGRANATE GINGER This balm is similar to the Peach Lavender in that it smells like ginger in the tin, but on the lips you get more of the pomegranate. I really don't think pomegranate has much of a scent in general really, other than just a tart 'fruit' smell. I love both ginger and pomegranate, so this one is fabulous.

COCONUT BASIL This is one of the most unique flavor combinations, AND I LIKE IT! Coconut scented products often smell like sunscreen and not coconuts. This balm smells like dry coconut flakes, and the basil adds a nice spicy touch! If you wanted to buy a Lip Shit for a man in your life, I'd go with this flavor, I'd say it's the most 'MANLY' scent. This is a really cool flavor, and it has twin guitar playing monkeys on the lid, so you need it.

GRAPEFRUIT ROSEHIP I think I've said this like 3 times now about different fruity scents, but grapefruit is my favorite. I love tart, sour, bitter, delicious pink grapefruit. This balm definitely smells like fresh pink grapefruit meat, it is tart and bitter and realistic and delicious. I don't think you can really smell the rosehip in the tin, but on the lips you really can smell/taste it! I love this one, and it has a fancy cowgirl on it, which is always a plus.

VANILLA CARDAMOM I have no idea what cardamom smells like. I didn't even know what cardamom was until about 30 seconds ago when I Googled it thinking it was a flower and discovered that it is actually a spice. Cool. Well this balm is the bomb, it even claims on the lid that it is THE BEST LIP SHIT EVER. I love vanilla, and this smells very vanilla-y and I love it. The cardamom is a nice touch and smells terrific with vanilla, but I still am not quite sure what cardamom is or what it's used for, so for all I know this could smell nothing like it. I'm just going to trust that LIP SHIT wouldn't lie to me about this. Yup.

BLACKBERRY HONEY This balm smells like one of those expensive jars of honey from the farmers market with the chunks of honeycomb stuck in there. It's great. I love honey, but just to reiterate, this isn't cheap sugary honey that comes in a bear from the grocery store. This is top of the line fancy fresh honey that a brave beekeeper risked his life to can for your enjoyment. There is a very slight blackberry scent to this, but it's mostly honey to me. This is a really 'sexy' kind of scent.

RASPBERRY LEMONGRASS I actually do know what lemongrass is, but I have no idea if it's suppose to smell lemony, and this kind of does. It smells like a delicious raspberry lemon cheesecake dessert, like lemon bars with fresh raspberries on top, like a home made raspberry lemonade. It's great and yummy and great for summer (and all other seasons cause it's so good). It's got Little Red Riding Hood on the lid, skipping through a lemongrass forest to bring her grandma a basket of raspberries.

CUCUMBER MINT This balm made me laugh for way longer than I should have because the woman on the lid is putting on her seatbelt and the cardboard packaging the balm came in said "Always wear your lip balm!". GET IT?!? I laughed. Anyways, this is another unique balm flavor, it's very fresh and almost 'medicinal', but not in a bad way, it doesn't smell like Nyquil or anything, I just feel like the cooling cucumber and mint combination is gonna make everything better. It's medicine for your lips and your life. This lip balm is good for you. And it made me laugh, which is the best medicine, right? I love it.

ASIAN PEAR This balm is just called Asian Pear, but I think I smell a little bit of sneaky mint in there too. This is a unique scent (I keep saying that but it's just true) and I really like it. Out of all 12 balms, this one makes my lips all tingly, like there is some kind of minty oil in the balm. There's a weird tiger thing on the lid. I think it's a tiger at least. He's cool, we're friends.

That's all for this review! Hopefully this can help some people decide which of the wonderful Lip Shits they will buy to slather on their faces. Or you could just follow in my footsteps and buy them all cause they're all sooooo goooood. You can buy Lip Shit balms online at http://www.blueq.com/lipshit2/, or if you'd rather buy them in a store, you can find one that carries them near you at http://www.blueq.com/where-to-buy. I've seen them at Earthbound Trading Co., and a few Barnes and Nobles stores. I was not paid in any way for this review, I bought these balms with my own money, I just love them so much that I needed to share it with the world! Leave me comments and tell me which ones you have and love, or which flavors you want!

Cat Skull GRAPHIC WARNING! DEAD CAT!

My husband's cat Church died last Fall/Winter, we found her under his moms house after she hadn't been seen in a few days. I've wanted to get her and articulate her skeleton since we found her, and I thought waiting a few months would be best so that nature could help me out. Well that was NOT a good idea, because like most dead bodies in cool, dry environments, she mummified. My husband bravely crawled under the house and fought off a vicious black widow attack to get Church's body for me, and I brought her home and put her in a Rubbermaid tub with some fill dirt. 

I thought maybe having her in soil and out in the open would attract some insects to clean the bones, but after a few days in tub, nothing had happened. I could have macerated the whole body right then, but I didn't want cat soup cooking in my backyard for a week in the heat, and there are just too many tiny bones I couldn't risk losing since I plan to articulate. The body was so badly mummified that I couldn't remove any bones, so I had choice but to macerate (which is currently happening), but I thought I could do the skull by hand. I pulled off what I could by hand, and then used a pai of sewing scissors to get most of the rest. 

Soft tissue like eyes and brain are always the first to go. 

Removed what I could by hand! Bad photo quality because it was getting dark. 

Removed the rest with sharp scissors, but it wasn't all coming off. 

I quickly realized that this incredibly mummified tissue wasn't going to come off while it was dry. I put the skull in a small, tightly closed container full of water and left it on my front porch for a little over 24 hours. The direct sunlight and 95 degree temperature helped speed up the process a lot. By the time I removed the skull from the water, all the rehydrated tissue had fallen off and I had a clean skull! 

When bones come out of water, they smell. Bad. I soaked the skull in a container of about 50/50 water and laundry soap, which did the job of getting the smell out completely. Normally, this is where I would degrease the bones, but since this mummified, there was no moisture at all in it and therefore no grease. I had to be very careful with the incisors, cats have VERY tiny front teeth in their top and bottom jaws, and the fall out very easily. I removed them all before soaking and when it was dry I used tweezers to put them back in, with superglue of course. 

Those tiny teeth!

This skull went right from the laundry soap bath to the sink for a rinse, and then into a water and peroxide bath to whiten. Normally I'd leave bones in peroxide for two days to completely whiten, but I left this skull in for about 12 hours. It's not as white as it could be, but I like it. After it dried, I glued the bottom jaws and put everything together! 

This skull turned out beautifully, and I love it even more because it belonged to a cat that I knew when she was alive! I have the rest of the body macerating now, and I will pour the water through a strainer to be sure I get all those tiny bones. I plan to articulate the skeleton, so stay tuned for that adventure! 

Dog and cat

Finished Deer Skull!

I found this deer as roadkill in s small field off the road by my house. It was waaaay too gross to take the whole thing, so I took the parts that were the least meaty: the skull, two jaw halves, and the pelvis. 

I got them home and into buckets (metal containers courtesy of my husband who got me about 10 from an abandoned Taco Bell) and covered them in a few handfuls of dirt from my backyard. The skull looks mostly clean in that photo, but the whole fleshy nose and mouth were still there, so I figured a few days buried with some dermestid beetles would help. 

I ended up leaving it in the dirt for about a week total before I got it out and used a knife and steel wool to get the last dried fleshy bits off. 

After a degrease and a wash, I realized that this little lady had some kind of nose deformity. The front of her face was curved to one side, both on the skull and jaw. Pretty cool! After this, I put the skull and jaws into a 50/50 water/peroxide bath and let them sit for about 24 hours (not quite, I'm impatient). 

After a rinse, dry, and a little glue, it came out BEAUTIFULLY! Very proud of this one. I hope to have many more in the future! 

Bankers lamp!

Soooo excited! I found a real antique bankers lamp at Goodwill today for $8! I've wanted one for years and I was thinking of buying one on eBay for $150. Now I feel like a noir movie detective.

The Great Spine Puzzle

I've been trying to decide what to do with the bones from the dog skeleton I got, I really wanted to articulate the spine. I absolutely did not want to glue them, and I don't have the patience yet to wire them, so I just put it off until I could come up with something. While cleaning today, I found some long wooden dowels next to the washer, and they were just the perfect size to fit through the vertebrae! I'm missing 5, but I managed to put them all together in a way that looks pretty good! 

Dog skeleton

A friend of mine, Rob, lives out in the middle of nowhere on a nice chunk of land, and he takes care of animals he finds or who wander into his yard. He's had quite a few dogs that he's cared for over the years, and most all of them live long and happy lives. This dog he had got sick, and while Rob was away working two 12 hour shifts, the dog died, and he found the bones a few days later. He said it didn't feel right to bury him, so he graciously gave the bones to me! 

The bones were amazingly clean for only being outside three days. They had no tissues left, so I just soaked them in soapy water in my kitchen sink overnight. 

Turns out I have an almost complete dog skeleton! I am only missing the tiny bones from the feet, a few tiny tail bones, the axis, and one lumbar vertebra, which were likely taken by small animals. Wild animals like rabbits and squirrels have front teeth that grow forever, so they have to have things to chew on to file them down, and bone perfect for this. 

(Here's an example of what can happen to a squirrels teeth if they do not have appropriate things to chew on. Not fun! People who keep animals with teeth that grow as pets have many options for things their pets can chew on, both store bought and natural. Example from www.na2ure.com)

I put the bones together like a giant 3D puzzle, which was actually really fun, I think I could get into skeletal articulation! I'm thinking about wiring them together, but for now they're still layed out like this on my living room floor. 

The skull is my favorite part! The two jaws and skull were beautifully intact, and no teeth were missing at all. You can barely see it in the photo, but I glued the jaws together in front where they come apart and used a tiny rubber band to hold them together while the glue dried. I set the jaw in place and let it dry upside-down overnight. 

Finished skull! I love it and it couldn't have turned out any better! 

Precious respirator

I heart my respirator! I can sometimes be a big baby about bad smells, and with this I can take my time and get things done right instead instead of rushing it because it stinks! 

Chapstick!

Most of my glorious Chapstick collection! I can do a review if anyone wants one! Let me know!

Deer bones!