Busy as usual

I could really do with a few more hours each day, but anyway......Here's some scotch eggs that I made - some of them split but they still tasted ok.

And here's the "experiment" that JJ made while I was making said scotch eggs (egg shells, beaten egg, flour, breadcrumbs and some orange peel he took out of my little compost pot, just in case you wanted the recipe ;-) ).

Trying out flatbreads on my new griddle. Also great for mini pancakes.

More brooches for the craft fair. I've got a huge list of things I want to make, definitely need more hours. It's been a busy week - the builders are now gone, yay, so we've got Aaron and Nathan in their rooms now, which meant a trip to Ikea on Thursday. Remember the Ikea advert on the TV with the car overloaded with stuff - well imagine that with a campervan ;-). We drove home very carefully. The house is in desparate need of sorting out but I don't have the motivation as I just don't know where to start (although the wardrobe and chest of drawers are now out of the kitchen!). The garden needs sorting too.......

......I'm gonna stop there otherwise I'll get depressed. The sun is shining today so we're off to the beach (sorry house). Hope everyone else is doing something lovely.

Busy, busy.

I have just finished the handmade soap tutorial (next post down) - hopefully I remembered everything! It took so long as the soap took 4 days to set. Hope it's ok for you all. Above is some treasures I got on our first bootsale of the year. We also managed to find a proper typewriter for the kids to use for £4!!!! Best buy of the day in my opinion.

Busy making stock for the craft fair - also got red and purple of these nearly finished, then a huge list of things that I would like to get done.

Hope everyone else is busy doing things they enjoy too.

Handmade Cold-Pressed Soap

After weighing out your ingredients EXACTLY as the recipe says, gently melt your fats/waxes/oils in a stainless steel or enamel pan (perfect condition). I put the pan on top of the scales and weigh it straight in. The same goes for weighing the water in the jug.

Wearing gloves/protective glasses and an apron, gently add your caustic soda to your weighed water. BE CAREFUL not to splash yourself or breath any of the fumes in.


--oOo--

Add a thermometer (glass) to each pot/pan. When both thermometers reach an equal temperature between 120F (49C) and 140F (60C), pour the caustic soda solution into the oil.

--oOo--

Stir occasionally until the mixture thickens to the point where you can trickle some soap off the back of your spatula and it will leave a trace line on the top of the mixture. This is called 'trace'. This is the point where you would add any essential oils/colourings/additives to your mixture. Here I added cedarwood oil and a tablespoon of powdered kelp. Mix thoroughly.

Lightly grease your choosen moulds with vegetable fat. Pour your mixture carefully into the moulds.

Cover with an old towel (insulating the soap) and leave to set for 24hours. (It may take as little as 5 mins to set or it may take a few days.)

(This one actually took 4 days)

Once set, (again wearing rubber gloves) remove the soap from the mould. I have turned it out onto cardboard to protect any surfaces.

Trim the edges off to neaten it up and then cut into bars. I have used an old cheese knife for this, you could use a cheese wire too.

Put all the trimmings into a pot to save for doing a rebatch soap or for using in your laundry.

Cover and leave for 4 weeks until the soap is cured (the soap is no longer caustic).

--oOo--

These two recipes are taken from 'the handmade soap book' by Melinda Coss, and they have both worked for me.

Olive Splendour (pictures in above tutorial)

30 oz (849g) olive oil, 2 oz beeswax, 10oz (283g) distilled or spring water, 4 oz (113g) sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), 1 tbsp (15g) powdered kelp, 2 tsp (10g) cedarwood essential oil, 1tsp (5g) diluted chromium oxide (green) (I left this out of my soap).

Coconut Cream Soap

24 oz (680g) coconut oil, 8 oz (227g) cocoa butter, 16 oz (454g) distilled or spring water, 5 3/4 oz (163g) sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), 2 tsp essential oils of your choice

--oOo--

Equipment should be stainless steel or perfect condition enamel. Glass thermometers are great. Spatulas, plastic jugs and plastic pots for pouring your soap into. Digital scales are preferable as the measurements need to be exact. Rubber gloves, protective glasses, apron to protect yourself with.

Oh my gosh

One of the littlies and I went to visit a local wildlife centre today and while we were there we saw a sign advertising their next craft fair. Mm, I thought...lets just ask for a bit of info! I'm now booked to stand at my first craft fair on the August bank holiday weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to get public liability insurance and then I'm all set, well, apart from making enough stock to cover 2 days of (hopeful) sales. Eek

-x-

The above is the other fabric box I made yesterday. I contains my hairbands and is made from one of my Nan's old kitchen curtains - I love it. Everytime I look at it I think of my Nan. I also made my second batch of soap today, so tomorrow I should have a tutorial to post up for you.

Rags

I made another fabric box which I'll take a piccie of tomorrow, but I wanted to show you this as I was really pleased with it. A drawstring bag to hold the cloths for the bathroom - when the hook is on the door it will hang on there. I also made two small lavender balls to go inside to keep them smelling lovely.

Procrastinating

I should be painting some bedrooms but I really can't be bothered! Instead I've made this fabric box and.....


.....added this trim to a hand towel for the new bathroom.

This is one of the bottles blackcurrant, elderberry and rhubarb cordial I made. I also added some star anise and cinnamon to the pan while it was warming. It's lovely with warm water added to it.

Eager

Back again as I was very eager to try this - antioxidant olive leaf clay mask. When I saw it on the programme I thought it looked so easy I just had to try it. It was really hard to mix it so mine is a little lumpy, but as it's for me that doesn't really matter. I also added 1/2 tsp avocado oil as well.

Naughty, naughty!

After reading Pippa's blog the other day I thought I'd take a look at the website she recommended - Blooming Felt. There is some gorgeous stuff on there, as you can see from these pictures! 3-d felted hearts and stars above.

Plain and fancy felted balls.

Felted strings (3m long), ribbons and waxed cord.

My Baldwins order also arrived this morning too - oh I'm going to be busy. Alot of these bits are to be made into christmas pressies later in the year, some are replacements for ingredients used and some are new things to try.

Empty jars ready for potions.

Oh, and I made this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to show you - a necklace or bracelet, depending on my mood.

We are now using my soap - it is absolutely divine. I am quite astonished at how creamy and moisturising it is. It lathers up lovely and you don't need to use much at all. I will definitely, definitely be doing this recipe again.

Doh!

Well, here's the brooch I made to go with my outfit on Sunday - which I then forgot to wear!! I did manage to wear the headband which I will have to show you later as hubby is on nights and the band is in the bedroom.

I had an order for some cards over the weekend too, so I made a few extra to go in the shop. Must get my sister's door curtain made too - it's been on the list far too long.

Mmmm

Ginger cordial all bottled up. Rather than waste the ginger root that I used, I put that in a sterlised jar with a little of the cordial that I'd reduced down further to make it more syrupy - no waste with that recipe ;-).

I've been watching Grow Your Own Drugs again - what a fantastic programme and book. He suggested putting lemongrass in some water to root it - so that's what I've done here. Also put my lemon rinds in with my white vinegar to try and impart some of the scent into it. I've ordered a few supplies from Baldwins so I can try some of his other concoctions, and I've been in the garden planting some new herbs too. My aim is to make most of my own Christmas presents this year so I'm building up supplies now.

Quick picture update on my dreads. The roots are rather messy - hubby is trying various ways to try and tame them for me, but it's not really succeeding. We'll keep at it though.

And lastly, a piccie of our hard-working cats!

-x-

Actually, I'm quite nervous/excited as we are going to a wedding tomorrow (haven't been to a wedding for years) so I've had to buy a posh frock. Don't really do formal at all - there's even heels involved! Off to make a card, a brooch and a new hairband ready (fingers crossed it keeps my mind from thinking too much about it ;-) ).