Butters, beads and baths

I was so pleased with myself yesterday, I had done loads on my test fan shrug for jjgirl, but then realised that I had slipped into a different stitch and was doing dc's instead of the stitch I was supposed to be doing! Pah! The stitches are quite similar, but that's no excuse! So, I frogged it back to the first row and had to do it all again. I'm back to where I was yesterday though, thankfully! It's looking nice so far.

Yesterday heralded a small break in the rain, long enough to give Joe a much needed bath. We have to put him on his lead and tie him down in the garden because he wriggles about so much. He hates baths! He's looking lovely and shiney and fluffy at the moment though and is much more pleasant to be around. You wouldn't think a dog could make so much fuss about getting wet, especially when the very same dog happily dives into any state of canal water or puddle.


Whilst walking him today I found a cherry tree branch that was just the right dimensions for a wand, so I bought it home and stripped it down with my craft knife. It needs more work, but it's a fun project!


The British Grand Prix was on today, and so was the UK leg of the Tour de France. The BF is a big fan of motor racing and bike racing (of all kinds!), so inevitably I spent most of the day on my todd! So what do you do when left to your own devices? I dug through my bead stash and found a lovely turquoise coloured lamp-work bead, and some turquoise gemstone beads, so this is what I made.

Actually, it looks nicer in real life, the camera flash has taken the details on the beads out.


I also made my first body butter today. It smells devine and was so easy to make. I melted 3 parts cocoa butter to 4 parts coconut oil in a pyrex bowl in my microwave. I made sure it was a very low setting and added some vanilla essential oil when it had all melted. Then I poured it into a Body Shop tub that I already had. It looks like proper body butter and makes my skin feel lovely! I also made some coffee and vanilla body scrub while I was at it!