Swaps and cards

As it's the Spring Equinox/Ostara today it's the day for opening our GP season swap. This is what we sent to the lovely PixieMama - an appliqued springy picture and a finger-knitted then stitched nest with wet felted eggs (made by JJ and myself).

We also took part in a separate swap organised by Liz - this is what we sent. A cherry blossom fairy and a beeswax egg candle. I've received the gift from Liz but I'm unable to photograph it yet. We got a gorgeous felted bowl and a fabric seal/bird (embarrassingly some of us think its a seal and some of us think it's a bird). They are both beautiful.

Two more birthday cards (on the same theme as the last ones) for the remaining girly birthday's this month.

Finished

Finished the second bag last night. This one seems to have taken ages but I'm really pleased with them. They have been quilted but the pictures don't show that up very well.

I found this book in the charity shop the other day for 25p. Its got some really good bits in it - I don't care if it's meant for kids ;-).

Thank you all again for the lovely comments that you leave me. I find it quite astounding that people that I admire and respect actually like the things that I do. Oh, and the bootsale in York where the beeswax came from is held on the racecourse.

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 :-).

Car boot discoveries

Went to our first car boot of the year this morning - yay. I love car boot sales. Got loads of bargains for the house and boys, but the best discovery/buy, by far, was a local beekeeper selling some beeswax. Fantastic. I now have his address so I can get more when needed - and it's only 10 miles up the road.

Thought I'd best make something for the kids before I start on the next lot of orders I've got to do. Although they use empty tins for the felt tip pens and pencil crayons, I've never actually covered them (shame on me), so tonight I managed to make these 2 - one for the broad tips and one for the narow tips. Just got to do the pencil crayons and then the brushes.

My Spring Season Table Swap

This is the first part of my swap - a beeswax egg candle. I broke the top off one of our eggs (we have chickens) then emptied the contents out. I then melted the wax over a pan of hot water and poured it into the egg. Once the wick was added I just allowed it to cool, then trimmed the wick.

I'm so mad as well because I forgot to photograph the other part which was a blossom fairy. I made it weeks and weeks ago so it got wrapped up ready - it wasn't until I was sticking the envelope up that I realised.

On a roll

So far today I've managed to make some lipsalve and the second part of the GP season table swap. Swap pictures will be up in March, after the actual swap, but these two pictures are from the lipsalve making. I've used beeswax, cocoa butter and extra virgin olive oil - not sure whether I should have but they feel lovely on my lips :-). I think I should have paid attention to how much of each I used as well, but that serves me right for trying to do it while making the lunch!

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).