Pink and Black

This is the pink girlie bag I made last week.

I had some cheese covered in black wax given to us but didn't want to throw the wax away, so I added it to some beeswax and made a candle :-).

Not done much else this week except start one of the other bags that has been ordered. I did do some of the car mat last week but that still needs finishing.

I didn't go to the counselling either, then berated myself for not going.

Must be the weather - don't like it too hot.

Loads

The Father's Day card I made for my Dad. Things seem to be going ok with him at the moment so lets keep our fingers crossed.

These are the items we received in the GP season swap - a gorgeous foxglove fairy and a dog rose fairy. They are both absolutely beautiful. We also received a display card with the lifecycle of the ladybird on it. Thank you very much.

This was part of the swap I sent out. It's a crocheted sun bowl. I also made a felt butterfly and a lavendar wand but forgot to photograph them.

My Father-in-law fetched some more beeswax from the car boot sale at York racecourse on Saturday. It's surprising how different the colours are compared to the other wax I have. This morning I made 2 candles with them. I think the wicks are had left are actually too thin but I'll give them a go ;-).

My Mother-in-Law brought some fabric square panels that are usually used for patchwork cushions. She's given me 4 and ordered 2 bags from me with the other 2.

I've not done much on the ordered bag this week so I sat and did a bit more last night. Going to try and do a little bit this afternoon while peeping at Wimbledon :-).

A bit of all sorts

Here's the snuggly I made for Claire's bump (thanks for the piccie) - I left it simple so there were no bits that babe could choke on. The velour is very soft and makes you want to stroke it (or is that just me!)



I crocheted this last night - a dishcloth. I also made another one tonight as they are so quick to make and much better than shop bought cloths. We do reuse old fabrics for cloths as well, but these last much longer and seem to wash the pots better too. The dishcloth cotton came from a charity shop a few years back - I think there was 7 balls for £2.00.

It's my brother and sister's birthday tomorrow (they're not twins, just born on the same day) so here's the card for my brother. He's really into Metallica and this is from one of their albums, I think, so hopefully he'll like it. My sister is getting one of the stitched fairy cards as I love them, and hope she will too.

Another bargain I got in the charity shop the other day, and forgot to tell you about, was some candle wax dye for 50p. There are 5 different colours which you then add to 1kg of wax or I supppose you could cut them down if you had less wax. Anyway, I'll try and remember to get a picture to show you what I'm waffling on about :-).

Candles

I promised my Dad ages ago that I would melt down his Yankee candles, that still had some wax but no wick, into another container for him. So, this is what I did this morning and now I have such a headache - I hate the smell of those candles. They are sooo strong. Anyway, another job done off my list that seems to have been on there for too long.

Re-melting candles

Boiling water with a pastry cutter sat in the bottom to stop the glass candle jar from cracking.


Candle happily melting away sat on top of the pastry cutter. If you've got odd bits of candles you could melt them directly into the jam jar you are going to keep them in and then add the wick once you have taken the jar out of the water.

Once it had melted I put on the oven gloves and poured it into this old golden syrup tin (jam jars will work just as well). I had tied the wick to a spoon to stop it from falling into the wax while it cooled, and then laid the spoon across the top of the tin.

To help it cool down quicker I stood the tin in a pan of cold water (not necessary at all).

Voila - one candle ready to use.

Beeswax and soft toffee

I ordered some beeswax off ebay 2 days ago and it arrived this morning. It smells absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully I'll have a recipe for some olive oil and beeswax lipbalm from the GP forum, and I would like to make some walnut candles with the kids that we saw in the Living Crafts magazine.

Here's a photo of the soft toffee that we made earlier. It was really easy but it's not really a toffee texture - not sure we'll make this one again (although I might have a fight with the rest of the family about that).