No housework to be done until next week?

See, those snowflakes up there? I made those....with a pattern....ALL by myself.....I read a crochet pattern!!!!!!!!!!! :o). They're from Attic24, such a wonderful blog, very easy to follow instructions, with pictures too. I'd seen some stars somewhere else so I thought I'd have a go at those too - no pattern, just looking at the pictures. Once all the yule crafting is finished there may be a minor snowflake flurry in the house.

These, along with a crochet snowflake (think I may have mentioned those all ready ;o) ) are my season swap. Don't know if the person I've sent them to reads this blog but I couldn't wait to show you.

On with the yule crafting then. Here we have the finished bath bags. So easy to make as they take minutes to put together. I made lavender ones and chamomile ones, so I just put a handful of oats and a handful of dried flowers into the middle of a square of muslin, then pick it up by the corners so you can make the bunch then fasten with ribbon. Easy peasy. The sugar scrub was even easier. 2 cups of soft brown sugar, 1/2 cup sunflower oil, 1/4 cup of jojoba oil and 1/4 cup of sweet almond oil, then 40 drops of essential oil of your choice. For this one (as my sister loves sweet smelling things) I've used cinnamon. Mix together in a bowl then put into your chosen container. When my shopping arrives I'm going to tie a couple of cinnamon sticks onto the jar as well. This smelt soooo good I nearly licked my fingers once I'd scrapped the last bits off the spoon!!!

On and off throughout the day I managed to make 12 more gift bags. These ones were super easy as I just cut a rectangle out of fabric, folded it over to make the bag the stitched all the way round. These will be fastened with ribbon tied on them or around them depending on what's in them. The two bundles at the front are the cocoa butter hearts wrapped in muslin.

I must tackle some of the washing today as I can't find the corner of my bathroom and the kids keep asking me for clean pants. I probably should clean the bathroom too, and maybe hoover the house at some point, as we also have a birthday in the house on Monday, which means guests will be in and out all day. Erm.....

Frustrated

Hubby made a joke earlier about the lack of decorating going on here - my mood plummeted dramatically! I think my Yule gift list is starting to look a little daunting - trying to find the time and space to make some of the items with the children in the house is very frustrating, the house is still in need of some serious decorating since the extension at the beginning of the year. Heck, even the housework being done would be nice!! Maybe his comment was the kick up the butt I needed to give myself, so this evening I've got the fruit steeping in brandy ready to make the christmas cake tomorrow. I've made 3 of the 5 (only got 3 tea cups at the minute) tea cup candles for the pamper hampers. I've got some bath melts setting in the fridge.

Hubby has now gone to work so I'm going to go to bed with my book, my blankets, and a couple of candles. Here's to a new day tomorrow.

Handmade Birthday

First of the birthday presents and cards this month. Since I have a few female cards to make I thought I'd make two of these. Got the fabric in the charity shop last week (double sheet for £1), mounted it onto yellow felt, then added buttons to embellish. The bath melts are cocoa/mango/shea butter with ylang ylang essential oil added to it. The bath salts are a blend of epsom salts and sea salt, with olive oil then lavender essential oil and dried lavender added as well. This is the first time I have given these as a gift and they were very well recieved so I was pleased.

These I made while I was doing part of my season swap gift. I've been saving the empty tea light holders to use with local beeswax. After burning one of them I don't think I'll be doing it again as the wick with this wax burns too quickly and doesn't use all the wax up.

More hearts

It's been a good day today - I've managed to do the heart bath melts as well. The sprinkles actually look really good. I've added lavender essential oil to some of them and left some plain for those that don't like lavender.

I've actually made a hat for myself...and it fits!

I think this is the fourth hat that I've knitted for myself but this is the only one that fits...wooohoooo. I've knitted it with the Twilleys freedom wool that I got a few weeks ago. It's lovely and chunky - I had to knit the hat with 10mm needles but this meant that it didn't take long to knit at all. I think I might make a felt flower brooch to pin on the side of it.

I tried finding some red glitter today but as it's not christmas the shops don't stock it - aargh. Someone on the GP forum suggested adding it to the heart shaped bath melts for Valentines day. We did manage to find some mini heart-shaped confetti shapes so we might give that a go. We also got some more air drying clay from ELC to make some heart-shaped t-lite holders with.

I'll hopefully also get the walnut shell candles done tomorrow as I got some tabbed wicks off ebay.

I love knitting

I sat down yesterday evening and decided I would knit myself some handwarmers with some of the wool that came in the bag of bits from Lucie. I managed to get one finished and another one started (I had to force myself to go to bed). I decided that my second pair would be thumbless, so following the pattern mentioned, I cast off the four stitches then carried on knitting. On the next row round I cast on 4 stitches using the backward cast on method. The wool is gorgeous and just makes you want to keep knitting. I finished those this afternoon and then started on DS2's pair (I got told off yesterday because I hadn't started his after I'd finished Ds1's warmers). So I got that finished and have now started on the second one. Must photograph the other handwarmers as well.

While sorting out all my stuff over the weekend I found this bag of rose petals that I'd been using for making cards. I'm going to use these smaller ones in some more bath melts with some rose essential oil.

Melts update

Just to let you know that cooking vanilla extract doesn't work in bath melts ;-). I blogged a couple of weeks ago that I was going to try it in them when I made them, and I did, and it doesn't work - the cocoa butter solidifies and the extract doesn't.

Oops...got carried away

Ooops....I got carried away slightly 'cos they are sooooo easy. Here's some vanilla hearts and some plain stars. Must go cook the tea......must go cook the tea ;-).

I've made bath melts!!!!!

sprinkled the lavendar and added the essential oil

the lavendar essential oil and the cocoa butter

melting (did it bain marie style so I didn't burn the butter)


poured into the tray (I even managed to get the purfect amount of cocoa butter for the moulds)

After they've been in the fridge for 20 mins

That was so easy and they look fabulous......thanks again Mamauk.

Bath Melts

Cocoa butter, lavender Essential Oil and dried lavender flowers (or other dried flowers)
~Melt the coco butter very gently.
~Using a silicone (pop out) ice cube tray fill the shapes half full with dried flowers (use rose petals etc if you have them instead) pour the liquid coco butter in and add one to two drops of your essential oil to each mold.
~Pop in the fridge until set. ~That is it! Easy peasy! Throw one in the bath for luxuriously soft skin!

Now I can get on and make my bath melts

My silicone mini moulds arrived today. I bought them off ebay £10 for the 3 including the postage so I was quite happy with that price. The shapes are stars, hearts and roses. Now I can make my bath melts (thanks for the recipe mamauk).

Cards and Scarf

We've had a busy day today. We were supposed to go swimming but the weather was so miserable we didn't fancy it, so instead we made cream toffee, I made 14 Christmas cards and then this evening I finished the scarf (they'll be a photo of that tomorrow as ds1 took it to bed with him). Now ds2 would like a scarf too - this is great as he isn't usually bothered by things I make at all. The kids also want to make some different sweets to give as presents so that's another one for the list.

Also, one of the lovely mamas off the Green Parent forum has posted a recipe for bath melts (with coca butter) so I might just have to add them to the list too.