Soaping, Quilting, Blogging

Going by the dates of my posts, I am the worst blogger in history. Since blogging hasn't been around THAT long, at least it's a short history to be the worst of. I did read a cool article (somewhere) recently about not putting too much pressure on yourself to blog, but I guess a little consistency isn't a terrible thing.

I have been working on a ton of crafty things in the last couple weeks. I made 8 batches of soap over the course of two days about a month ago. It's now nicely cured and I need to label it. Ick. Labeling is probably the worst part of soapmaking. At least it's the final step before gifting or selling, so that is its redeeming quality, I guess. I am coming up with new labels, which incorporate fabric, scrapbooking paper, and possibly yarn or crochet thread. They are much fancier than the old labels, but I have increased the time it make to complete them at least three-fold.

What's a blog post without pics?

Soapy Soaps!

I was getting ridiculously low on soap...I had probably less than 2 dozen bars that would be reasonable to swap or sell, and I have had several e-mail or Craftster pm inquiries lately! So I got myself into the soapin' kitchen (it's my regular kitchen actually) and got to work. 4 hours and 1 frantic call to my friend Jen later, I had 4 batches of soap! 82 bars altogether.


The following day, Aidan "helped" me cut them and put them on the curing racks. I have an awesome professional cutter that cuts a whole log at once, and after I positioned the soap log he pushed down on the bar to slice them. He's a good helper. :) He also said that I'm a "good soap cooker." I don't cook my soap, it's cold process, but compliments are always appreciated! I love 4 year olds!


Calendula Green Tea, with dried Calendula petals and green tea powder for a light green color (that will fade to a brownish green) with a light, fresh green tea fragrance.




Unscented Oats 'n Honey, yum! I actually put in a little less oats than usual, but I think that's ok. I've been out of this for soooo long, but luckily I had a nice bar from Jen that was similar, but also contained egg yolk!


Lavender! This is wonderful for sensitive skin, and I love the light purple swirl in it.

And my absolute favorite bar of all time~Shea Luxury! This is 60% unrefined shea butter, without any colorants or fragrances. Yeah.

Crafting and Dieting!

My mom and I are eating healthy via the Flat Belly Diet! After an initial 4 day "Jump Start" of 1200 calorie days to de-bloat and get the salt out of our system, we're both down 4 pounds. Even though that's probably mostly water weight, that's ok!

Besides being low-salt, this way of eating is kind of Mediteranean based. The focus is having a MUFA (mono-unsaturated fatty acid) with every meal or snack to get a healthy fat in that provides a feeling of fullness. Yummy things like avocadoes, nuts, seeds, olive and canola oil, and olives are all required!

I realized that I need to get my crafting into high gear. I have a swap to go out Oct 30th that I have, oops, two different partners for! Today I think I just finalized what I am sending. Luckily each one is only 2 mediums and a small, so I should be able to take care of that, as long as I get started soon. Some of the projects are crochet, so if I meet up with the Portland Crafty Vixens tomorrow I will have a portable project to take along! No details yet since I don't want to spoil the surprise if my swap partners are stalking me!

My friend Kim shared some awesome patterns with me for toddler pants, so Sandora and I whipped up 3 pairs the other day for the boys. We have a bunch more fabric to make into pajama pants but wanted to get it right before we cut out too many of them. They turned out really well except Dane and Aidan's are a wee bit low rise! Oops. Oh well, I already adjust my home made pattern pieces for next time! Although when I saw Dane last night he looked inches taller than the last time I had seen him (a week ago!) He can now reach on top of the tv, as demonstrated by his ability to bring the remote to grandma! I'm going to measure him carefully before I finish any more pants for him, don't want to dress the poor kid in high waters!

Serger Breakthrough

Today I had a breakthrough~I finally got my serger threaded! I have only had it for like 6years, but every time I tried to thread it I wanted to cry, it was so frustrating!

I have been doing a little sewing lately, a few pouches for swaps, and I need to sew a big U shaped pillow for the boys' bunk bed.

After a 4 month swapping hiatus I am back on with several, two of which I am ready to send out and another that I am organizing. Sometimes it seems like a lot of pressure, but other times it is good to have something to work on and keep me going.

I'd like to take a beginning quilting class, but the dates aren't jibing up for me this month. Also this is a bad time, money-wise.

Projects:

Ninja Turtle Outfits (started)

U Pillow (materials bought)

____ for Friends Swap )1/3 done

Soap for upcoming IYP swap--2 partners (need coconut oil)

Curtains for birthday swap (need material)

Projects!

Projects to start:

scarf for me out of that sport weight yarn I like

wall organizer for me (have fabric)

purse for me (have fabric)

purse for Amanda (have fabric)

play mat for the boys

Current projects:

semi-complicated scarf for my mom, I lost interest a little when I had to frog it and re-start with a bigger hook. It works up fairly quickly, but it's not really a pattern I can do in front of the tv. It's gonna be awesome if I ever finish.

inchies! nuff said, for some reason have to be really in the mood to work on these

scarf for a swap, she wants blues and blacks. I think Iwill do some kind of a wave/ripple pattern with color changes every 4 or 6 rows or so.

random crocheted and other projects for wishlist swap

sewn project for swap, don't have partner yet

getting recipes together for a swap "healthy kit" have everything purchased

Finished projects:

Just finished booties and calorimetry for a personal swap with my friend Kim


These are her pics, I spaced on taking any!



wall organizer for swap