Another Year Done and Dusted (nearly)

Wow - another year has just flown by! A busy one at that. Lots of things happened this year. In short:
- I decided to teach myself to spin, what a fantastic idea that was :) I love it!
- I completed my first work placement for my study that I started last year - loved it!
- Work placement led to work, only on a relief basis - but I love it! That was a big change as I hadn't worked in nearly 10 years since becoming a stay at home mum.
- I applied for a job (I wasn't successful - but wanted the experience of doing so), so I have managed to get together a decent CV now.
- We went on our first real family holiday. So much fun.

All the normal family things happened as well, and the kids kept growing and changing and surprising us. Our DS was accepted into the PEAC program for 2013 - very excited as it will hopefully give him more opportunities to interact with kids who think more like him and challenge him more, rather than not having peers who are at the same level as him.
Said child also gave reason for the very first trip to emergency - a fractured cheek bone from an incident with a baseball bat at school. Back for a follow up x-ray next month, but there is no reason to believe it isn't healing well.

So for the last line up of photos for this year, we will begin with the cut photos of the lovely soap from the last post.

Kids Christmas presents - Ottobre patterns. Shorts were the same pattern and sizes as last year. Ottobre 2/2005 #32 Safari Shorts in size 122 & 140. Tops were Ottobre 3/2012 #17 for DD, upsized to 128 and #35, size 146 for DS.

I finished the Clapo-Ktus shawl for my aunty - I think she might love it as much as I do. I spun the fiber some time back, and it striped beautifully while knitting - almost symmetrical :) (modeled on me, because my aunty didn't want to ;) )

Lots of soap all packaged up - including some soap bites :)

Some fiber spun especially for another aunty - a polwarth/silk blend (60/40) from Corgi Hill Farm. This was my first time spinning this fiber and it was just delightful to spin - I can't wait to see what is made from the yarn.

Lastly (I think), some pencil cases for friends - I embroidered their names on them (so they are blanked out) and the kids picked the designs for them. They are lined, but I forgot to take a picture of the inside.

So that is all the Christmas stuff, but last night I finished up some spinning - the last lot for the year. BFL in Newtons Rainbow by Corgi Hill Farm. Love it! It is roughly an 8ply/DK weight and about 320m.

I wonder what 2013 will hold?

Cheers!

Yummy Soap

I made two new soaps yesterday. Based on the usual recipe I use, as the last time I tried a new recipe it was absolutely horrible. I know this one works, and is lovely to use.

So I tried my hand at making layered soap this time. First was Vanilla Mocha Soap, using Chocolate and Vanilla fragrance oils. The top layer was left unfragranced and coloured with titanium dioxide. I used coffee grounds for exfoliating. Also put some cocoa powder in to give it a nice rich brown colour - it is deepening as it dries.

The second one was using a new fragrance oil called Coconut Citrus Sorbet. Yum! It is a very sweet citrus-y smell that makes you want to eat it! I did a yellow bottom layer and a green top layer. The only problem was that I didn't appear to mix the fragrance oil in properly to the top layer, so when I cut it, there was a few pockets of the oil. Oh well. Or maybe I just put a bit much in. Next time I would mix it through the whole batch before seperating to do the colours - but I wasn't sure how it would act, so this way was safer first. Betonite clay beads are the exfoliant for this batch.

Both are now drying and I can't wait to use them. We are trying a little experiment and have put one bar of each into the jerky cooker, to see if it dries them better in the hot humid weather we are having at the moment.

Cheers!

Soapy Delight

I un-moulded my soaps yesterday afternoon. The Sunshine Soap was still a bit damp on the top, almost like it had sweated a little, but it appears to have dried now. They have both settled in colour which I am very happy about.



Here you can just see the slight swirling of the white and yellow soap.



Now, I needed somewhere to store my soap whilst it cured. I have no space inside the house that is suitable - airy, dry and out of the sun. Here is where my darling husband steps in! We had the shell of an old microwave sitting around, so DH drilled a hole in the back, and inserted a fan to circulate the air and help the soaps to dry more evenly and hopefully a bit quicker and harder.
The fan runs off of our 12V network (see more on hubby's site here, under Renewable Power: http://bjblaster.com/), and hubby has installed a LED on the front to show when the fan is on or off.




It also wafts the gorgeous scent of the drying soaps around under my verandah :)

Cheers!

Soapy Goodness

I have been itching to make some more soap since my DH made me some soap moulds way back here http://lizardslittleluxuries.blogspot.com/2009/05/too-much-stuff-not-enough-time.html
but I never quite got there. So after receiving a soap book for my birthday, I made sure that I went through and picked out the recipes I was really interested in. I bought the oils and fats that I needed and set to it this weekend. Both of the recipes I used were from "The Handmade Soap Book" by Melinda Coss.

First up was Pink Lavender & Lime Soap. It was my first time using an animal fat - dripping for this recipe. I will pass judgement on the use of the animal fats once I have used a bar of soap containing it. As I was weighing the lye, it looked slightly odd - like it was too much. So I looked at the recipe to confirm, and that is what it stated (turns out that it WAS too much - making the soap lye heavy. I am unsure exactly what properties this creates to the finished soap, as it was only 16g too much. Important note - ALWAYS run your recipe through a lye calculator first!! Turns out many of the recipes in this book are lye heavy, so I went through and recalculated every recipe and pencilled the changes in. Luckily I worked out the correct amount before doing my second batch).
I also used colour for the first time - wheee - that is so much fun lol I added bentonite clay beads to the soap to give it slight exfoliating properties. It was bright blue going into the moulds. Hopefully it will subdue somewhat.


The pink is the clay beads.



The next batch I did was Sunshine Soap. It used lard as one of the fats. That stuff does not smell pretty when melted! So it may very well be the last time I use that - unless of course the soap that results is the best stuff ever! lol
I used a fragrance oil called Sea Salty Breeze for this soap, and the yellow colouring as it suggested. Now, why I didn't use blue or green colouring to match the scent, I have no idea "duh". But that is why it is called learning I suppose. Anyways, I took a small amount of the un-coloured soap out of the pot, as I wanted to have a go at swirling it in. When I added the colour I nearly choked! It looked like pumpkin soup! Argh - not a good look. Fingers really tightly crossed that it fades well. It also looked a little chunky as I poured it into the mould, so I suspect that I traced it slightly too much.



I will update with their progress out of the moulds very soon! Off to check them.

Cheers!

Too much stuff, not enough time

So here is a quickie post with few words and lots of pictures. This is just some of what has been happening around our place lately.

We needed some new chairs for the kitchen, but kinda like our table, so didn't want a whole dining suite. I picked these up at the Op Shop for $10 for 4.



They have new covers now and a fresh coat of paint.




School pants for DS from Ottobre 6/2007 #23 with several modifications. I used the pockets from 3/2004 #20. I did forget to add the side pockets, so the next pair or two will have them added.



I also made a pair of Jazz pants for DD for school from 1/2008 #19. Unfortunately I don't have a picture yet - but they were super simple to sew up.


A certain boy turned 6 this week. As he is having a small party tomorrow, he wanted cupcakes on his birthday. Vanilla with choc chips and chocolate icing with sprinkles was requested!



He is also in love with frogs right now, and draws some of the most gorgeous pictures of them. So I tried to capture one and put it on a top I made him for his birthday. Ottobre 1/2008 #27.





Also one with a dinosaur - a dinosaur that needs an eye apparently! lol (the dark spot is water, I forgot to remove a pencil mark).




They both go with a pair of froggie pants from Ottobre 4/2008 #24.



Needless to say, he loves them all!


And our DS gave us quite a scare just a few weeks ago - he went bum first through our bedroom window! They are floor length, and he some how did a somersault between the bed and the window and went through it! Scared me big time. Yet I pulled him out and he had not a scratch on him. Thankfully. It was also a very good lesson of why they are not allowed to fool around in front of the windows.




I was looking at buying a soap mould before doing my next batch. So DH offered to make me some. And he did a fantastic job!



I think that is about it for now :)

Cheers!