Today I made...

the last strand of bunting for my Mum... and about 2kg (4lb) of soaps.
I can't really believe that all the bunting is finally finished, I got quite quick at stitching it all together by the end. It also helped that I ordered 25 metres of continuous bias tape so I didn't need to repeat my I-can't-join-these-two-@$%#-pieces-of -#@$%*^@#-bias-tape-together tantrum from last week.

I didn't really intend to make all that soap, it just happened that way. I made reindeer soap, mini gingerbread men, larger gingerbread men (which I am going to gift to the neighbours for Christmas), pond duckies, dragon flies and lumps of coal. Now my house smells divine!


If you want to make some soap too check out these soap project tutorial pages from BrambleBerry and Otion.
Coal Soap
Ducky Soap

I actually love the smell of the coal soap (which is made of real charcoal) because I used a new Cranberry and Pomegranate fragrance in it, so it is a really nice soap.

Today I made...

home made soap from scratch by the cold process method.

Well actually it was Tuesday when I made these but I only got to cut into it today. It was fun but scary to make as I had to use a lye solution to saponify the oil mixture which resulted in soap. I must admit I don't really like the fragrance very much (I think it is called Linden Blossom) but decided to use it in case I mucked up the batch. I am a bit more confident to make the next batch in a few weeks with the other fragrance (the one I prefer) that came in the kit. I didn't add any colour to this batch, but the next batch will have green clay added to it.

It was really fun but I heated the oil a little too hot so it all took a long time to get to a the temperature required to mix with the lye water. Ok so the cutting is dodgy but I am sure this will improve too. Also I'm not sure how much these will shrink as the curing time is when the water component evaporates away. We can also cut the pieces in half later on if they are still too big. The darker marks are loofah shred. DH fashioned me a cutter out of  bamboo and wire fishing trace. Now that I see the photo it looks a bit like a 'kill' kit especially with the latex gloves on the left of shot. I can assure you the ONLY thing we dismembered was soap.

I did lots of net researching and read a few e-books about soap making before I did this project but the best resource was from soapqueen tv. There are four videos in the cold process soap series and I watched them all at least twice before I started.

Now I just need to wait and wait for 4-6 weeks to let it cure before we can use it. Lucky I am getting more patient with age.

Big Fun with Little People

On Thursday we were lucky to have Miss D for a sleep over. It has been ages, maybe more than a year (?) since she came and stayed over night so we tried to make it a big treat.

On Thursday afternoon, after playing for several hours at my Mum's house, we got some shopping and fuelled up the car then we picked up Mr W from school. Off home to cook cookie pressed butter cookies. Miss D made heart shapes and Mr W made Christmas tree shapes. Next it was lots of fun with the neighbourhood kids playing basket ball and hide and seek in the garden. After dinner it was time for a nice long soak in the tub with some Japanese Bath Salts - which start out orange but turn the bath water green. Then it was story time and time for bed.

On Friday morning we made pancakes for breakfast. Miss D asked for mini ones. I made her a very small one and she said 'No Auntie, not small ones, Minnie ones!' Then I understood she meant Minnie Mouse shaped ones. We took Mr W to school and made a big puzzle with some of his classmates because it was Fun Family Friday. We got the puzzle finished before the bell rang so everyone got a token in their jar. Mr W got three because he also got one for each family member he had brought to school.

Back at home Miss D and I made soaps. Lots of mini shaped soaps (about 1.5kg altogether) which were made into hearts, 2 types of fish, flowers, stars and disk shapes. When they set we counted them out and packaged them up into little bags. We made some tags and tied them on with ribbons which Mr W later helped to write the names onto. After lunch we made some lip balm pots. Miss D wanted Raspberry and Chocolate flavoured balms. Next we wrote a shopping list and went to the store for a few things to make a roast lamb dinner.

We got back just in time to pick up Mr W from school and after a play on the monkey bars we came home for a snack. After running around the yard for a while and feeding the chickens/collecting eggs they both settled on the sofa to watch a movie and chat while I got the meat and vegetable ready for the oven. Just as I got everything in the oven (at about 4:30pm) I noticed that the conversation had stopped... Miss D has completely run out of energy and had fallen asleep.

The only thing we didn't get to do was paint Miss D's nails - we'll do that next time.

Soon Seth, Miho and Mr M arrived for dinner and DH came home from work. We ate dinner - we were all so hungry - and then we played a few rounds of UNO (Miss D and I were a team) and Mr M entertained us with some of his new comedy routines. He is so cute and finally beginning to come around to liking to be with me... maybe next time we can have him for a sleep over too.

Today I made...

Roll-on perfumes.

First for some good news... I have beaten the cold bug and feel fine again (my DH has caught a cold though it seems to not be the one I had because he is losing his voice too) and some small bad news... my right elbow is aching (for some reasons unknown) so I haven't been stitching at all for the last few days.

I've needed to do something to fill in my time so I have been playing around with my soap and cosmetic making supplies. Remember a few weeks back when I made lip balm? Since then I've made some solid perfume balms for my Mum (trying to replicate a scent that she loves but is no longer available to purchase) which were packaged in some small lip balm pots. They smelled divine and Mum loved them.

Today I got the idea to make a roll-on perfume. It is packaged in these cute little roller ball topped bottles and I made four different scents. The first was the same as the balm I made last week, and the remaining three were made because I couldn't narrow down the definite scent that I liked the most. They were totally easy to make just a slosh of this a splash of that and pop on the lid. In fact the little labels I made to go on the bottles to about 10 times longer to produce than the perfume did. Weird huh?!

Also today I remelted some of my tubed lip balms from earlier in the month. It was fabulous in the little pots, just the right consistency but a complete failure in the tube that I had been trialling. Actually it feels wonderful on my lips but it is rather soft and will wind up (but not down) and can only really be applied by patting it on my lips and I prefer to smear it on. So today I got a little cosmetic beeswax and added it to the tube mixture. Still not quite happy this time it is a little too hard (and my tester doesn't feel as nice on my lips) so tomorrow I will remelt it again and have another go. The third time will hopefully be a charm.

I also picked up a starter kit for making my own soap from SCRATCH. I am really nervous about doing this cold process soap making as it requires adding highly alkaline liquid to melted fats and oils and then letting nature take its course. I am sure I can manage it but I just don't want to burn a hole in the bench, myself or any other object in my home. I  hope it will be fun and safe to make but I'm not exactly looking forward to the 6 weeks it will take to cure and dry before we can use it.

Today I made...

Lip Balm!!!

All this cost just $10.50 and 15 minutes of my time

After school drop off this morning I stopped at the local chemist to purchase a shower cap. My old one had a rip in it so I threw it out.

Long Hair + Winter + Shower = Head Colds + Sore Neck

I can not believe it was the fourth store I had visited looking for a new one. Don't people use these any more or are they so popular everyone has sold out? I must be old fashioned or really hip... you pick I don't really care both have their merits. 

Anyway... I thought about picking up a new lip balm at the counter when I paid. But then I thought I probably had all the stuff I needed at home because I had purchased a bunch lip balm containers, bases etc last year. So after 10 minutes of looking through my supplies I found all the things I needed and set up to make them.

I used a little bit of pink colourant and some vanilla flavour oil. In less than 10 minutes I had made more lip balm than I can possibly use in the next 3 years and I still have heaps of ingredients left over for another batch. 

The balm feels lovely on my lips too, yippee no dry winter lips.

Day tripping 2

In York we took several trips across the suspension bridge. This brought back memories for me from the period when we lived near the central coast of NSW and we had to cross a suspension bridge to get to school. Mr W was initially wary about crossing and freaked out just a bit when his Dad started bouncing the platform with his big stamps across the platform. Mr W soon go over it because he ran back and forwards over the bridge several time more.

There is also a neat selection of little stores full of books and handicrafts which are made by locals in the surrounding districts. My favourite was the handmade soap store Monet Natural Soaps which is located in a mall that runs off the main street. I can't find a website link to this lovely little store, but it is run by a really lovely lady who hand makes the soaps. The front soap is minty deliciousness, the soap on the left is rose geranium soap which is a scent I just can't resist and the right soap smells divine but I can't recall the name of it. They are made as an olive oil cold process (CP) soap and we had a good chat about soap making and how much we both loved it.

There was a band called Slim and Jim playing outside this store (in the garden of the adjacent pub) which was so loud (and not too nice to listen to in my opinion anyway) we could hear it when we arrived in town and believe it or not we could also hear it droning all the way to the Mt Brown lookout. Can you see the arrow pointing to the area of the pub? It was about a kilometre from where this photo was taken.

The countryside will be green and lush soon (if we EVER get any rain that is) but right now it is suffering the effects of an extended hot, summer... everything is crisped to within an inch of life. Mr W's favourite store was the old-fashioned sweets shop... he made three visits there during the day. He also purchased a book from the Book Lady's store.

I also made a small purchase at the sweet shop. They were on special for about $3.00 as the chocolate inside was out of date. I tossed out the candy inside because I just wanted the boxes. They are the perfect size for small projects on the go.

I was just going to buy the Reece's tin but I was worried it wouldn't be large enough... I was right, it didn't fit my bias tape. I'm glad I picked up the Hershey's box too, I think I'll use the small tin for Kanzashi flower projects in process which are currently being stored in a small Tupperware container.

Goodness me it's three thirty

It's been a few days since my last post. I have been busy working on a few projects and my real life has been busy. (Happy birthday to my baby brother, you have been an excellent brother for 36 years and I love you to the moon and back.)  

On Saturday night I went to bed at 3:30am... I hadn't planned to go to bed so late but I was really was into stitching my temari project and hadn't noticed how late it was. Therefore not only did I miss Earth Hour but I kept my light burning until the wee small hours.

I have been making a series which I have called 'Revolution of Thought'. There are two S10's, three C10's and a 32Center temari. Now I need to work out how to display them together to show the progression (evolution) of the design. I am thinking suspended between two discs of acrylic sheeting or an acrylic ledge with cut outs to let the temari rest in sequence. More thought required on that.

I was also making soap, and playing around with embedding. Embedding is where you enclose small items (such as soap pieces or rubber ducks etc) inside a larger block of soap. The soaps are nothing amazingly flash and are just for our own use but I like how they turned out. The photo doesn't show the nice purple mica colour of the main part of soap but never mind. It is really nice to use and we all smell delightful!

All quiet on the temari front... but.....

Not too much temari happening the last few days.  I am working on a Stitching Challenge so I prefer not to start any other temari projects while this one is on the go.  Pic above is the ball ready to be stitched. Of course that doesn't preclude (yes I am using My Word Coach on DS :)...) me from meandering through an array of other crafty persuasions.



This week I have made:

 A new handbag from a Nicole M design.  Nicole is a Melbourne based designer that sell hat and bag patterns (and other stuff too).  I discovered her work when I hit the 'make a month' button on MaMercerie recently.  I really like it but this one was just a practice run because I plan to make it again using some fabric I just love that I ordered from Japan.  I have been holding this fabric for a while (2 years actually) waiting for a worthy project to come along.  I am glad I made this practice bag because now I realise it is just a smidge too small for me and I will need to add about an inch and a half (or now i think about it - in metric about 5 cms to the length) so I can fit in all my junk.  I added the optional flap and gusset.



I also have a hat pattern I really want to try out but I will need to re-read the pattern a few times to get the process cemented into my brain.  I'd like to make my hat like the one modelled on the stand.

6 tote bags (only 5 more to go) for my son's soccer team buddies as part of my Morsbags campaign (yes I am a sociable guerilla bagger).  The team colours are of course black and white and whilst I wanted a stripe fabric I am happy with this look even if it meant I had to buy 2 different fabrics and make the stripe my self.  They look a bit too stylish for 8 yo boys... I can see some mums will probably end up with them.  I have been part of the Morsbags program for a while now but only give the bags to people I know... I am too chicken to stand in the Mall approaching strangers and asking them to take one of my bags. I have a set of 5 bags for myself that I made from a cute floral fabric.  They are really strong, (can carry 3 bottles of wine) machine washable, (in fact that's where they are right now getting their quarterly wash) and identifiable (so I always know I've picked up my own bag full of shopping and more importantly no one else have picked it up).

The final two panels on my IKEA curtain tracks... yes I did begin them 6 months ago but there are 12 panels.

10 Black Skull Soaps for my son's birthday party bags and a bunch of other baby duck and penguin soaps.  I also made the invitations for his party which people had told me they were quite stylish due to the fact they were machine embroidered to card stock... until of course I admitted I was too lazy to go ratting through my scrap booking stuff looking for double sided tape and I had the sewing machine already set up. I shouldn't be so honest... it is damaging my craft cred.

Next week I will be painting...  it wont be anything amazingly artistic (although with a 2yo in the house the floor is sure to end up looking like a Pollock), just the sleep-out at Miho's house... we all love green just not 70's mint green when it is on every single surface in the room.  I am sure that I will be back to temari after the painting is finished.

Thank goodness school is back in session.  I actually have enjoyed having a few guilt-free crafting hours!!!


じゃね　さようなら！

See ya later! (working on my My Japanese Coach on DS too)