Getting on my soap box

Look what I got!!! A soap mould! I drew a quick tech drawing of what I wanted and gave it to one of the woodwork instructors at work and he knocked it up for me with a couple of clients. It's made of beech wood and when I asked how much I owed him, he said nothing as the wood was just some scrap he had around. I love it and can't wait to test run it! The measurements are 4" x 4" x 12" so I should get a few bars from this. The ice-cream cartons I've been using as moulds just didn't cut the mustard *lol*

It has straight sides and I'll probably line it with cling film when I pour into it. That'll help the soap to come out again. I'm thinking about making a mould out of a drain pipe cut in half. I'll have to think about how that will work.

I made some cards and stitch markers for LindsayLuu. I went with a vintage theme, so there are 3 with a vintage camera on mounted onto handmade paper. (Onion paper and tea paper.)

And 3 with a vintage fountain pen design, also mounted on handmade paper.

I stamped the back with my name stamp made for me by Hyedie in the mushroom swap.

The stitch markers are vintage green pearl beads with old gold and bronze accent beads.

Again, these markers are multi-functional, Lindsay should be able to use these for both knitting and crochet.

ABC of mememe!

A few people have been doing this and I thought it was a great way of sharing a bit more about me! Today's letter is A which stands for:

Apron - a very rare shot of me! I cheated and made it soft focus *lol* This is my cooking and crafting apron. It's a lovely bright yellow which matches my kitchen

The fabric is a patterned oilcloth and has these cute little cats all over it. Yes, I'm the mad cat lady! I also have a half apron which Laural made for me.

Anklet: I like to wear anklets in the summer, even though I don't really have the best legs *lol* This is one of my favourites, it's a macrame black hemp with little bells in it. Unfortunately the bells are silent *sigh* Looks good though.

This is another one of my favourites. It's a simple beaded chain, with black beads, red, gold and green accents. You can see the tan lines left by my sandals which I wear all summer and yes, I have long toes! My feet are tiny though - I'm a UK size 4 which means that I can buy cheap kids shoes :-)

Aboriginal: My BF plays the Didge, so there's always a stack of didgeridoos and Aboriginal paraphernalia lying about. I bought these from an Aboriginal historian who was giving a talk about Dreamtime art one weekend where M was giving a workshop. Each member of the tribe would have a different spirit animal and they weren't allowed to kill or eat that animal. It was a good way of making the sure the ecological balance was kept. The circular designs represented the tribal hearth and the paths signified the journeys they would take. They were a nomadic culture, so it was a good way of recording where good hunting etc was. The U shapes were people, the ones with straight lines next to them were generally women. It's an interesting art form. They live on my living room wall.

Amethyst: I love amethyst, it's one of my favourite stones. This chunk is on my bedside table. I have crystals everywhere.

Bombs away

This week I have posted a pile of swap goodies and I have received a pile of swap goodies. Thank you to Laural, Velvet Rose and Pretendpeterpan. Karan received her Cheer Up goodie box, so I can post some pictures of what I sent.

Remember the white dominoes I bought at a car boot sale the other weekend? This was the first thing I made with them. I painted the domino with a pearlised paint, then stamped a starry background and embossed a star motif. I them covered it with embossing glaze with some glitter in and finally sealed the whole lot in clear nail varnish.

I made a wire bail for it, them strung it on a beaded chain.

I made some bath bombs last week and sent one of those too. These were made with citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, olive oil, cornflour, dried flower petals and essential oils. They smell lovely, although I accidently put a little too much oil and and had to wait for them to dry out properly before I sent them. Hopefully they'll still fizz though!

As Karan loves stars I tried to make it a really starry themed package, so I also made her a starry picture frame. I love all the textures in this frame!

And some scented chunk candles for a nice candlelit bath. I love making candles! I enjoy melting or burning stuff. I think I'm a bit of a pyromaniac! When I was a kid, my Nan had a coal boiler and I remember chucking sugar in to watch the pretty coloured flames! *lol*

And I have a confession to make. *Hangs head in shame* I went to Hobbycraft and this was on sale there for 99p a ball. 100% pure wool! It's a lovely deep burnt orange! So I have started my Ginny hat. It gives me something to do whilst I'm listening to the Deathly Hallows on mp3. It's knitted in the round and is quite an easy pattern, although the bit she calls an eyelet round is just a k2tog and doesn't make much of an eyelet, but I guess I'll be able to see where to force thread the contrast yarn through *lol* Orange is not really a colour that suits me but this is a darker, more reddy colour, so I think it'll look okay on me.

Oh, yes, I also learned how to make a strike out in HTML! It was something I needed to learn for my 101 list blog, which I have now finished and posted if anyone's interested. The link is on the sidebar on the right. Blogger doesn't provide a handy button for it like it does for colour and bolds and stuff.

It's my 'little' (he's twice my size though!) Bro's birthday today, so we'll be off there tonight for drinks and general merriment. No work today luckily, as I have a million things to do!

Bottle Holders and Skeins

Sunday was so lovely that I was determined to enjoy the sunshine outside, and as M and his mates seemed to be watching the 'Big Game' and other various sports TV, I decided to crochet a bottle holder for this big sports water bottle that I was given free in town last year. I've never used it because it's a litre bottle and too big to hold comfortably in my hand (I'm cursed with tiny pixie hands *lol*). I figured if I had a holder for it I would use it. I wanted something that would have a wide-ish strap that would be adjustable so I could wear it across my body, or on my shoulder or even as a hand length. This is what I came up with. I used purple and pink DK weight acrylic together and a large hook. I crocheted a circle large enough for the base, then carried it on up the sides in sc. I did a couple of dc rows for pattern near the top, finished it in a crab stitch for a nicely chunky edge and crocheted the strap lengthways for strength. I added a couple of d-rings to the other side.

I've been using it for work for the last couple of days. It works really well and is comfortable to wear. I had a few comments about it too.

These are the stitchmarkers I made for DragonsMuse. She wanted a semi-gothy purple colour theme, so these are a lovely purple and silver and she will be able to use them for knitting and crochet.

I posted them today along with the Halloween Jack beanie. Hopefully Royal Mail not withstanding, she will get them soon. I also posted Karan's Cheer up goodie box. It had to go second class in the end, but I really hope she likes it all!

I haven't mentioned the spinning for a while. I finished the mystery fleece the other day - well, I still have loads of the fleece left, but I had spun all I could on my Celtic spindle, which I'm thinking of calling Tailtiu after the Celtic goddess of nature btw. So I wound it onto my niddy noddy (made from an old broom handle *lol*) and set the twist. Then I hung it on the washing line to dry, weighted by hanging the niddy noddy from the other end. I haven't decided if I want to dye it yet. I probably will because then I'll be more likely to wear whatever it is I make from it. And I want to have a go at this Kool-Aid lark!

I'm already spinning the next skein on my cd spindle. I have this urge to call this spindle Kylie (I'm spinning around...) but I may settle for Enya *lol* I haven't decided yet.

I have a really easy sock pattern in a knitting magazine so if this skein comes out okay, I may give it a go *gulp* The pattern I'm looking at has no heel so it should be an easy one to start off on. I love the colours in this skein!

Happy Anniversary to me!

It's my 1st Anniversary today! I've been blogging for a year now and I've quite enjoyed it. It's like writing a letter to a friend regularly *lol* It's also a great way of looking back and seeing what I've done this year.

Anyway, the weather was again very nice (Wow! Two days running. Must be some kind of record ) so I was able to get into the garden and finish the bulbs and candles I started yesterday. The great thing is that when the weathers warm like this, they take next to no time to dry in the sun. These will be for my eBay shop. I've been selling quite a few of the marbled light bulbs recently, so I thought I'd stock up.

The embellished dinner candles are also popular, so I did made some of these too. They're all drying nicely here.

When they're completely dry, I'll wrap them in a cellophane wrapper and tie a decorative ribbon on them. They're quite relaxing to make. I'm currently listening to the Terry Pratchett books on my mp3 player so I had a nice afternoon of painting and story listening. I'm on 'Equal Rites' at the moment. I love audio books and always have a story on at least one of my MP3 players. I keep one on my bedside table because they're a great way of passing the night away if I can't sleep. Sometimes when my mind is in overdrive, I pop my earbuds in and listen to a bedtime story. This can be enough to help me drift off to sleep and I quite often wake up in the morning with my player battery dead and the earphones glued to my cheek :-) I have The Hobbit by my bed at the moment, read by John Faulkner who also used to narrate the Bagpuss stories! Ah Bagpuss, another of my childhood favourites.

In the Craftster Colour Craftalong, August's colour theme is orange which is not a colour I usually wear, but I kind of like this hat that Ginny's wearing. Okay, okay, yes, I have a soft spot for Ginny, I'm a Weasley at heart! And what better way to meet this months challenge than an homage to my namesake *lol* I have a slight problem though. I have a massive yarn stash with almost every colour under the sun except orange! I have a ton of yellow for some reason. I did promise myself that I wouldn't buy anymore yarn till I'd destashed a little, well, alot actually. I might have to overlook that promise and buy a bit of orange with my fingers crossed. Yep, great idea. *Mutters to self* Keep my fingers crossed and it won't count. Cool.

Hats off to the Girls

I've been grinning like a Cheshire Cat coz I finished my Cheshire Kitty Hat last night whilst M was snoring away (damn insomnia!) It's cute and I know I'll love it when the cooler season starts. The ears are the darker pink on the back and the lighter pink on the front and the pompoms are both colours mixed. It's quite lightweight (DK) so it'll be great in the Autumn. I'm a big fan of Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat is one of my favourite characters. I had the LP when I was a kid which was a musical version featuring Ken Dodd, Tommy Cooper, Kenneth Conner and all sorts of British theatrical greats. This hat is based on the Disney Cheshire Cat but I still love it!

Pah! I just had a look on eBay and they have the LP that I had as a kid but it would cost me about £55!

Well, whilst we're on hats, the weather was so gorgeous today that I sought out a project that I could do in the garden. One of my swap partners (DragonsMuse) had a Jack Skeleton beanie in her Wists, so I thought I'd have a go. Wow! It's all about the musicals today! It turned out really well, I just sort of winged a basic white beanie and added the black detail after.

I love Tim Burton! He's one of my favourite directors.

I've been up to a few other things too, but I can't post them just yet, maybe when Karan receives, so you'll have to make do with gratuitous soap shots:

This is the lavender, patchouli and orange soap with lavender flowers. It seems a little soft, but I hope it's okay!

This is the callunder flowers, mango and orange oils. I think it's the palm oil that makes it such an orange colour. I might try a castille soap at some point, with no palm oil to see what colour it ends up as. I'm having problems finding a pure vegetable solid oil.

This one's chocolate mint.

While I was in the sun today I prepped some candles and bulbs. Here are the marbled candles waiting for final decoration. I forgot to take the bulb photos, but they dried really quickly in the sun so I can get those finished and boxed coz I'm selling quite a few of those lately!

My Very Own Soap Opera

I borrowed this book from the library Making Soap for the First Time by Linda Orton. It wasn't the one I wanted, I'm sure I've borrowed one of Melinda Cross' books from there before and was a little put off because I couldn't find 'Lye' anywhere. I was so disappointed when I got it home and sat down to read it. It's mostly melt and pour stuff. There were perhaps 2 cold process recipes in there. Don't bother with it, it's really not worth the effort of actually even opeing it.
Anyway, I was desperate to get another soap fix in, especially as I have now found a cheaper and convenient source of coconut oil, so I scoured the Internet and found a couple of recipes and ideas. I dutifully measured all the oils n things out but didn't really stop to consider the size of the batch I was making. Throw some numbers at me and I get totally confused. I can't figure out what 40 oz of olive oil is going to look like! Anyhow, I didn't quite have enough of the olive oil so I juggled a few other oils around and checked on the Bramble Berry Lye calculator whether it would work and yes it would, so here's what I used: 5 oz palm oil, 5 oz coconut oil, 15 oz olive oil, 25 oz grapeseed oil, 10 oz sunflower oil, 16.5 oz lye, 16.5 oz water. Okay, this actually makes LOADS! I had to transfer it to another pan as I was adding the oils coz I seriously underestimated the volume of this! (Hopefully it'll still work okay though!) It made enough for me to divide it into several batches and try different fragrances. I made one lavender, patchouli and orange oils with dried lavender flowers in, one with callunder flowers, mango and orange oils, and one with chocolate and mint. They're all insulating now in my insulating bag that I normally take lunches and things in *lol* I won't be needing to make any more for a while. Well, unless it doesn't work of course! I'll take some piccys tomorrow when it's done it's insulating and I'm cutting it up. I have another 2-3 weeks before I can try the batch that I made before.

I've got a date!

I had an interview today. I thought it went quite well. It was for an part-time artwork administrator and seemed quite a good job, the only thing is that they want the same hours as school does and I don't want to give that up. Ah well, onto the next application!

I spent the afternoon refereeing small children at the Craft Club which the Pottery Studio I freelance for runs in the afternoons during the summer hols. One little girl had a favourite catchphrase "You're killing me, you're killing me..."; 2 hours later I really wanted to!

My Cheshire Kitty hat is coming along well, I only have one ear and the pompoms to do now!

I don't really have any photos of things I'm working on at the moment because most of it's for ZaftigMomma and I don't want to spoil the surprise! The 'Cheer up Karan' box is coming along well though!

I'm going to the Yule Ball with Laural! I have a ton of really cool ideas but I'm waiting to see if she has any requests and/or if she wants to be surprised. Sign-ups haven't even officially started yet but I'm burning to start crafting. I may just start a little project! I can see me having to ship several packages to keep postage down *lol*

Anniversary

The 4th of August will be my First Blogger Anniversary. I can't believe it's been practically a year!

Bargains galore

I was visiting my Mum the other day and we were discussing our lists of things to do...I'm in the process of compiling my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (I've thought of 64 things so far) and I was telling her that one of the things on my list was to learn how to knit socks because I've always been a little intimidated by them, which kind of makes me want to conquer them. She told me this little story that her mother told her.

My Nan was the youngest of 13 children and spent a lot of time alone with her Mum as her brothers and sisters had grown up and flown the nest by the time Nan was born. Her mother taught her to knit at a young age and they would often spend evenings together by the fire knitting. Apparently my Nan always had problems turning her socks and her Mum would tell her to leave them by the fire when she went to bed and the sock fairy might help her out. So my Nan would go to bed, leaving the hardest part of her sock project on her chair by the fire, and when she woke in the morning, the sock fairy would have visited and turned her socks for her. Isn't that a sweet story?

Mum and Dad have just treated themselves to a new set of wooden garden furniture and offered us their old set, which is brilliant because ours cartwheeled down the garden during the spring gales and kinda broke the table. We haven't been able to afford a new set this year and this will do us for a while, especially as I hear that August promises better weather (yippee!) Don't they look great?

I shall certainly use them whilst I read through this little stack of books that I got from someone on our local Freecycle group. If you don't know about Freecycle, its a really eco-friendly idea - anything you don't need any more you offer to the group and give it away free, and you in turn can ask for anything anyone else offers up. Recycle, reuse, repurpose! Most areas have a local group, so why not join and do your bit for the planet.

The same lady was also giving this big bag of fabric scraps, lace, ribbon and stuff, so I grabbed that too *lol* I think it's been in a cellar or a loft though because it smells a little musty, so I'm going to wash it and air it all well before I use it!

Today was an unusually sunny day compared to the weather we've been having lately, a little windy but, *shrugs* can't have everything. M and I decided to walk the dog across the fields to the football ground where there is a big car boot sale held once a month and there was some great stuff. I held back a little because money is tight till M gets paid, but I treated myself to the Completed Illustrated Stories of The Brother Grimm, a great little book about the wild herbs of Britain and how to tell what they are, what's poisonous, what's not, photos, their uses, and how to prepare them. I'm a bit of a Hedgewitch at heart and I use natural herbs and remedies where ever I can. I have a small herb garden, but I haven't used it much this year because the caravan's in the way.

I also got three balls of yarn which are lovely and a set of dominoes which I plan to use for jewellery. Since seeing all the lovely domino jewellery on Craftster I've been keeping my eye out for the white dominoes and they're not easy to find round here! We mostly have a black heavily embossed domino, which I think is made locally.

My latest crafty endeavours have been a Cheshire Cat hat based on the Kittyville hat. I've done the crown and one ear flap so far. The colours are much deeper IRL but the flash bounced!

I don't claim the original idea for this, the lovely Catpants did one for the Fairytale Swap on Craftster and I've been coveting it ever since!

Hooks and Hallows

The last couple of days have been a sort of come down. I've read the last Potter book in the series and there is no more. Well, no more apart from the Harry Potter encyclopedia that Rowling has 'promised' which will fill in the background to alot of characters she was only able to skim over in the books, and will probably fill in those annoying gaps at the end of the Deathly Hallows. She apparently has realms of notes on each character. I did love the book though. I read it solidly on Saturday, determined to finish it before I encountered any spoilers. My brother texted me Saturday though telling me 'the owl did it!' Pah! Little brothers eh? They never grow up.

The BF is enjoying his new job. He took a First Aid certificate yesterday, so he is now a qualified First Aider! *Eeekkk!* Anyone need the Kiss of Life?

BTW, if anyone is interested, I have posted a tutorial for the body butter on Craftster.

Since ZaftigMomma has now received her OWS swap parcel from me, I can post what I made her. She wanted a crochet hook roll and stitch markers, so I made her a set in her favourite colours and in a fabulous velvet fabric.

Here it is rolled up

Here's it opened with the pretty butterfly lining showing.

Front unrolled

Inside with flap down

Stitch markers

I have at last finished the Fan shrug I have been pattern testing for jjgirl. I love the lace detail, and thought the pattern needed a little tweaking here and there because I made it a little bigger than the pattern she wrote, it all went smoothly, with no confusing bits, so I'll e-mail her tomorrow and let her know.

It seems as though most of the UK is currently under water. Luckily, we've escaped the worst of it this time, though as a past flood victim, I know exactly what they are all going through. I'm not that materialistic, but to lose all your possessions is not nice. The sentimental stuff was what I regretted the most. Photos, certificates, phone books, vinyls, stuff that was irreplaceable. We lived for 2 1/2 years in a semi-derelict house because we had no dependents and therefore didn't qualify for rehousing or any other help. We had no cooking facilities, no heating, no fridge or freezer, no washing machine, and lived upstairs in two rooms. The ground floor had no flooring, the floorboards were taken up to aid in the drying out. We were given a camp stove and a kettle and that's what we lived off for 2 1/2 years. We also lost the phone, the gas, the car, all our furniture and possessions....Oh yes, and the BF lost his job too because the place where he worked was flooded and never re-opened. Times were very hard. Our thoughts are with them.