It's done!

Ok, I dashed home from work, threw off my coat and unmolded the soap. It's all I could think about all day.



I *think* it's ok. It wasn't jelly, or full of bubbles or anything.



I'll need to work on soap photography a bit. I totally meant to take a picture of the soap before I cut it but I was way too anxious for that!

Now I just have to wait three weeks *ahhh!* for it to cure before I can use it.

I'm a soap-maker

Yesterday morning I dragged a friend to a soap-making workshop. It was a two hour demonstration on how to make cold process soap. I've probably been researching soap-making since early December. I've read everything I could find on the Internet and in books about the soap making process. Even though I felt very prepared to dive in and make my first batch, I was really happy to have had the chance to see someone else do it before trying it for myself.

I was so excited when I got home from the demonstration yesterday. I gave Joe the dimensions of the mold that I wanted him to make for me. I had NO IDEA that he would make me the most beautiful soap mold I've ever seen. I must have told him a zillion times how beautiful it is and that he did NOT NEED to bevel the edges!!!!!!!

Anyways, here's the beautiful box he made for me.



So this morning, before the sun was even up, I gathered all my supplies together so I could try my first batch. After I did that I threw a load of laundry in the washer, changed kitty litter and did a little tidying up. I was very scared to actually start soap making.



Once I got started, it was fun!! The first thing I noticed though (and it made me a little scared) was that the lye seemed almost electrically charged and was jumping out of the container.

The process went quite smoothly. Thank goodness it's absolutely freezing here because when I needed to cool off my oil quickly, I just took the pot outside and left it there for a few minutes.

The only other mishap I had was with the stick blender. After I added the lye to the oil, at one point I think I lifted the blender a little too close to the surface and splashed the soap everywhere.

I used a recipe I found online for chocolate mint soap. I decided to get a little creative which was probably a big mistake for my first batch. I added the fragrance oil (peppermint), all the time keeping my fingers crossed that I added enough. And then I scooped out some of the mixture before I added the cocoa. I poured the mixture into the (beautiful) mold and then poured in the reserved uncoloured soap. I attempted to make swirls, but that didn't work out too well.



I covered the soap with plastic wrap and put the lid on the mold.



The mold is now wrapped in two towels and a blanket and the soap inside is hopefully "doing it's thing". I have to wait 24-48 hours before I can remove the bar from the mold. I'll do that tomorrow evening after work. Once the bar is removed, I have to cut it into 1" pieces and let the bars dry for 3-4 weeks before they can be used.

If you're interested in making soap, my advice is to educate yourself. Once you think you know what it's all about, read some more. I have been reading and asking questions for almost two months now and I was still very afraid to do it.

I have NO IDEA what I'm going to discover tomorrow evening when I get home from work and open up the mold. Now I'm scared about that. :)

My town

I had a dentist appointment today. For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while now will KNOW just how much I enjoy going to the dentist.

Anyways, I still had to take my Project 365 photo of the day and right outside the dentist's office was a huge Tim Horton's sign.



Then, since my camera was sitting on the passenger seat on the way home I decided to document my drive. Probably NOT the smartest of moves, but nobody got hurt in the process :)

Driving along the highway:



Waiting to make a turn:



And driving up our street:



Notice the paved lines on our road, up until 10 years ago those were train tracks!

toys, computers and dpn pouches

I've been feeling "not right" ever since Saturday, a little bit queasy, but not queasy enough to stop eating (of course). That's my excuse for being a Project 365 slacker. You heard me. Honestly? I'm amazed it took 10 days. I'm going to keep going (even though I'm TOTALLY tempted to quit). I know it's such a great thing and most days it's fun, so I'm going to hang in there.

Speaking of queasiness. Here's a funny story. Last week I realized I had a TON of Sony points on my Sony Mastercard. I looked online at what I could buy with them and I thought a PSP (Playstation Portable) would be a fun toy. So I ordered it. I bought a couple of cheap games on the weekend so when it arrived I'd have something to play. The PSP came yesterday. Joe and I set it up (I'm dumb when it comes to those things) and I popped in my new game, Practical Intelligence Quotient.

I went through the tutorial and I wasn't feeling so great so I put it down. It's a 3D puzzle/maze kind of game and at this point I was still really excited about it. So...a while later (when I was feeling better) I picked up the PSP and loaded up the game. After about 15 minutes I felt SOOO SICK!!!! I felt like I had the worse case of car sickness I've ever had! It was too bad too, because the game was really fun.

I turned off the PSP (without even closing the game) and ran to the bedroom and tucked myself into bed. The room was spinning and I wanted to die! (I'm laughing at this now). Joe had run across the street to the convenience store when I initially wanted to die. He came in the bedroom looking for me and I asked him if it was possible to get sick from playing a video game. He said it certainly was and it had happened to him before.

I feel better today, but I'll be selling that game, you can count on that!

Next up, my computer issues. I have no idea what happened but every time I opened Internet Explorer I was getting error messages that it had to shut down. I have anti-spyware software and anti-virus software on my computer so I am pretty sure (but not positive) that it wasn't a virus. Joe suggested bailing on IE and installing Firefox (that's what he uses) so that's what I did. I really do NOT like change and I was missing my IE so after trying several more things, I did a system restore, backdating my computer a couple of weeks and all seems to be (seems is the key word there) good again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!!

And lastly, some sewing.

I bought a set (actually 2) of bamboo double pointed needles from eBay during the holidays. I was tired of spending $10.00 a set on them every time I needed a different size. I needed to find some way to store them. Traditional DPN rolls never work for me, I always end up losing needles.

I stumbled upon this great tutorial for DPN pouches and knew that's exactly what I needed.

So today I started on them. In typical Karyn style, the first few I made didn't really work out. I had stamped the needle sizes on some twill tape and I just didn't like the way it looked when I stitched it to the needle pouch so I ended up just folding them in half and stitching them into the seam. I like this solution much better than my first few attempts.



I really like the fact that even when working on a project I can stick unused needles in the pouch. Perhaps now I won't find them hidden in the couch!



Do you recognize the fabric Lera?

Oops!

We woke up on Sunday morning to someone knocking on our front door VERY timidly!

Joe went to the door and there was a young man standing there who mumbled something like "Ummm...I just hit your car". Joe went outside him to look at his truck when the young man said "No, the car". Uh-oh. Joe knew he was in big trouble now!!

So, Joe came in to fetch me so that I could go out and look at the damage. It really wasn't much. The tail light was cracked and that's it!



I think (if I remember correctly) the first words out of my mouth were "I'm very upset that my new car is broken, but I'm not mad at you at ALL"! I was just so happy that the this guy was honest enough to confess what he had done.

My car will be fixed, at no cost to me, thank goodness! I KNOW I was very lucky.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

And I'm sure that I will be really really happy that I've done it, but I'm finding myself fumbling through Project 365.

10 days down, only 355 left go go!!!



I'm determined to improve my photography skills, but I'm realizing that there's so much more than just snapping a photo each day and posting it. I'm trying (somewhat unsuccesfully so far) to actually learn something new or try something new every day. I'm NOT giving up.

I'm very excited about it (even though it doesn't really sound like I am). I think I'm just finding it a little more time consuming than I thought it would be. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

A new notebook

Ok, I've been reading everything I can about digital SLR cameras and I have little bits of paper with notes on them everywhere. I knew I needed a notebook specifically for photography notes.

I stitched this up early this morning. It was a breeze to make. I just have to remember to change the needle on my machine the next time I sew.

The front:



And the back (just for fun):



I've had a terrible migraine for a couple of days now. I suspect it's related to this wacky weather we've been having. It was over 60 degrees here yesterday, that is unheard of for Canada in mid-January!!!

Lucky lucky me!

Lera sent me the one of her "limited edition" super-duper-special, snowflake embroidered zippered pouches. I can't tell you how much I love it.



And some red baker's twine...love that too!

The very best part of the gift is a bar of her homemade soap. THIS is the reason I'm so eager to try my hand at soap making.



She also sent me two cute little candle holders that I left at home on my coffee table. Oops!

Thanks so very very much Lera!

Knitting and candy

At the beginning of the Christmas Break I started to knit a felted bag. I honestly thought it would be a quick knit and I had plans to knit another before the break was done. Well, that didn't happen. Unlike other bags I've knit and felted before, this one is knit on regular-size needles, not great big needles making for a fast knit. I'm just about done the bag and I still need to knit the handles and the pocket. I should be able to finish that in an evening.



For the sake of Project 365 I have been dragging my camera (my Fuji, not my new Canon, it still scares me) around with me. Today I found myself at the Bulk Barn (a bulk food store). Like a dork, I asked the manager if I could take a few photos for a project I'm working on and he agreed.







Ok, it's not candy, but I like the photo...

Books

These are the books that are sitting on my coffee table right now.



I love books.

I love looking through craft books and sewing books and knitting books and lately photography books too. Occasionally, I actually make something from these books!

I have another gift card to spend at Chapters and I'm trying to decide what to buy. Felicia highly recommends Crazy Aunt Purl's drunk, divorced, and covered in cat hair but I'm sure I have enough to buy a second book. Any great suggestions?

New PJ bottoms

I've seen to have been collecting flannel fabric to make PJ bottoms. Oh, how I love flannel PJ's!!!!!

I managed to sew all three pairs and finish the waist on one pair. I still need to do the waists on two pairs and hem them all. It won't take long to finish them, I may even get them done tonight.



Yay for stash busting!!

My new camera bag

Nothing too crafty happening around here today. I'm mostly just cleaning up, doing laundry and cooking.

I did take a photo of my new fancy Crumpler camera bag though. I plan to tote my new camera around with me and I wanted a very good bag to keep it in. I think I got it!



Edit: I took my first photo yesterday for Project 365 and I learned THREE things about my camera. Yippee!

Welcome 2008!

New Year's day I always find myself thinking about resolutions and things that I would like to change in the new year. I've never ever made a list of resolutions before because I know that as soon as I commit to something in "ink" that it won't happen.

I am very committed to learning about my new camera. I was surfing around looking for tips and tricks and I stumbled across Project 365. The idea is that you take one photo a day for a year. I am really excited about this and I plan to start today.

Fear not. I will not pollute my blog with boring photos every day. I think I'll actually learn how to use Flickr and make up a set or group or whatever it's called where I upload my daily photos. I'm thinking that updating to a "Pro" account might be called for.

Another goal I have for 2008 is to learn how to make soap. I love handmade soap and it's my favourite thing to purchase from Etsy. I've already bought several books and I'm gathering the supplies to make it. I feel almost ready to attempt my first batch.

First thing this morning, while running on less than 4 hours sleep, I decided it was time to sew the cover for my 2008 planner. I am a list maker and the Mead yearly planner with a page-a-day helps me keep my life somewhat organized. I don't like the plain plastic covers so each year I make a fabric cover for it.



Happy 2008 everyone!

chocolate-covered pretzels

Wow!!! That sure was an unintentional blogging break! After not blogging for several days I started to feel over-whelmed with the idea of posting again. I had so much to say! I decided to ease back in slowly, so here I am.

We had a super Christmas, and believe me, I must have been a VERY good girl this year because Santa was VERY good to me!!

I finally got the camera I've been drooling over for over a year now. The Canon Digital Rebel XT. It scares me.

Santa also brought me a chocolate melting pot.



We are going to a pot-luck dinner tonight, so I made some chocolate-covered pretzels to take (among other things). They aren't pretty, but they ARE yummy. I know. I've already had about 6.



Happy New Year's everyone!!! I will not disappear that long again. It actually feels great to be back.

Lazy Gift Bags

Whew!!! What a week it's been. I'm completely "burned-out" and I can't wait for the Christmas Break!!!

I've yet to put the finishing touches on my Christmas shopping. I don't have much left to do, but still, I HAVE to get out there and get it done! I'm just not feeling the motivation to go and face the crowds.

I realized yesterday that I had to deliver my "school gifts" today. I haven't even bought gift bags yet, so I whipped out my glue, buttons and rick rack and made these.





Ok, now I can see that I need to trim the rick rack on one of the bags. Good thing I haven't delivered them yet.

I think I'm going to sit down and seriously make a list of all the things I have to do in the next few days. Maybe then I'll feel better.

Merry Christmas to me!

I found a gift certficate for Chapters that I had totally forgot about. How did that happen???

Anyways, I finally bought myself a copy of Last Minute Patchwork Quilted Gifts.



I had a couple of dollars left after I bought the book so I grabbed a magazine that I had not heard of before, Crafts Beautiful.



Wow! I love this magazine, it certainly lives up to it's name!

I LOVE this Christmas ornament:



And this card:



We are expecting a major winter storm this weekend including up to a foot of snow! This is very inconvenient timing for me as this was the weekend I had hoped to get the bulk of my Christmas shopping done. I have to say though, a weekend spent in front of a roaring fire drinking hot chocolate is not exactly making me sad.

More Christmas Craftiness!

Inspired by these cute little trees I made my own for the library.



These were my second and third attempts. Trust me, attempt number one was not a pretty sight. I think they look sweet using the old spools of thread as bases.

And then last night I got it into my head that I needed to knit a mini sweater ornament. I used this pattern.

My first attempt was a disaster. Why can't I ever ever ever ever get anything right the first time??? he he he I blame the fact that I didn't exactly READ the pattern, I assumed what it was going to say and off I went.



I quickly cast-on sweater number two. It took me much longer to knit because I was actually READING the pattern very carefully as I went along. The snowflake on the front is from my scrapbooking stash (yes, I have one of those too!) and the drapery hook was part of an AMAZING package sent to me from Felicia. (Thanks AGAIN Felicia!!!)



Just to prove that sweater 1 & 2 are not the same:



And as if I don't have anything else to do (ya right!). I cast-on a mini hat ornament this morning to match the sweater. I'm crazy.

Workplace Crafting

Yesterday I had it in my head that I was going to do some Christmas deocorating at work. In the morning I made the paper chain garland to decorate the circulation desk.



In the afternoon, I managed to bully two teenage boys into helping make a paper version of these adorable trees. When they asked how many I wanted and I said "a forest" they both rolled their eyes. I laughed. By the end of our tree-making session, they wanted to make more. They carefully arranged the trees in clumps on the desk for me and even taped them down so that nobody would steal them. It was amazing.

A Scrappy Garland

I went into my craft room early on Sunday morning with the plan to do a little bit of organizing. I came across a stack of Christmas fabric that I bought and haven't yet used. I drew up a pattern for a Christmas stocking, but my heart wasn't really in it.

I was trying to decide if I really wanted to make Christmas stockings and I dragged out some red rick rack. A light bulb went off. A scrappy garland! Yes!

I threw out the pattern for the stocking and after a couple of hours of tying strips of fabric to the rick rack, here's my new scrappy garland.



Our living room is way too dark for a photo of the garland in action, but trust me, it's cute.



It even matches my little Christmas trees.

Another button bracelet

I'm all about using my button collection lately. Inspired by this awesome bracelet by Regina of Creative Kismet I made this...



The bracelet is laying on top of my new taupe-coloured hoodie cardigan. I can't wait to wear them together. Maybe today!

I have to say not much crafting has been going on around here. Today is day 4 of a super-duper migraine. I've been working through it, but basically coming home and sleeping away the evenings. I hope this is the end of it!

Have a great weekend!

Easy Peasy Gift Tags

I bought two rolls of wrapping paper on the weekend and I wanted to make tags to match. All I did was snip a strip off each roll, cut it into tag-sized pieces, tacked it onto the tag with a bit of double-sided tape and stitched the paper to the tag. Easy peasy.



In some cases I sewed around the perimeter of the paper, in others I zig-zagged over it. I know it's nothing fancy, but at least now I have gift tags to match the paper (I love that!).

Yesterday my bath bomb making supplies arrived. If my head is better, I might make another batch (or two, or three) tonight after work.

My little forest

As soon as I saw this tutorial I KNEW I had to make my own.



Due to technical difficulties, (the interfacing I used was too light), I had to improvise a little bit. Instead of sewing the zig zag seam along the bottom edges of the cones, I sewed a band of rick rack on. Instead of stitching the cones closed, I cheated in a big way and used fabric glue.

Mid-way through the first tree I was going to give up because they weren't turning out the way they looked in the tutorial, but I fought that urge and kept going. I'm glad I did.

They look less wonky in real life than they do in the photo (thank goodness!).

This was a great little project for a snowy winter day.

Our First Snowfall

Well, let me tell you, the world looks a whole lot different this morning than it did yesterday.



That is the view early this morning from our back porch. Yes, that's my new car all covered in snow!

Thank goodness for snow blowers is all I can say! My job was to clean off the cars and shovel the front and back porch. I've been done for about 20 minutes. Joe is still outside blowing not only our snow, but most of our neighbour's walkways as well.

I had fun with the dogs while I was shoveling the back porch.



Apparently it's fun to have shovels of snow thrown at you and to jump high in the air and try to eat it (if you're a dog).



The black dog is Dolby, he's a Whippet/Rottweiler mix, dumb as a stump. Chinook is the Shepherd mix. She has failing hips although you'd never know it from her antics this morning.



I think it's time for a hot bath (with a bath bomb, of course) and then it's time for a little sewing and maybe even a nap!

Oh, the freezing rain is expected to start anytime now. That will be fun.