sewing (almost) and candy

On Saturday morning I decided it was time to get back to my sewing machine. I have an army-surplus type bag that I use when we go geocaching that I thought could use a little spicing up. I added a pocket to the front and some fabric to the flap just to make it look a little bit prettier.



Once that was done, it was time to play with melted chocolate. I made some chocolate covered peanut-butter balls. When Joe saw them, he said they looked like "dog turds" when he tried one he was hooked. Apparently both Joe and I liked them because there's only three left. They'll be gone tonight, for sure!!

fancy packaging

Ok, my soap is ALMOST ready to use (the first batch anyways). I'm already thinking about packaging and presentation.

I have NO intentions of selling soap, but I'd really like it to look pretty when giving it away.

Here's what I've come up with so far. I simply wrapped the bar in a piece of pretty scrapbooking paper and glued an information label to it. I think I'm pretty happy with this presentation, for now.

it's funny now

I'd like to dedicate this post to my dear blogging friend Lera.

On Saturday I was home alone watching Lost. I suppose I should explain. Friday was a "snow day", I didn't have to go to work because of some wacky weather and I really wasn't feeling well. I decided to watch a few episodes of Lost that I had on DVD but have never watched. I spent the entire day Friday watching episodes 1-8 of the first season on DVD. I was hooked. On Saturday, I was at the video store 10 minutes before it even opened to rent the rest of Season 1 (which I finished watching by about 11:00 am on Sunday).

Yes, that's 24 episodes of a TV show in approximately 48 hours.

The only reason I'm not well into Season 2 is that I'm borrowing it from a friend who lives about an hour away. I can assure you once I get my hands on it, it will also be devoured.

So, early Saturday morning I get an e-mail from Lera suggesting that I try my hand at hot process soap making. For some strange reason she believes that I'm impatient and that perhaps hot process soaps would be better for me to make because you can use them immediately and not wait weeks for it to cure.

Well, if Lera suggested it, it MUST be a good idea, right??????

So, I tore myself away from Lost and started a batch of lemon poppyseed soap using the hot process method.

I should explain that with hot process soap, instead of pouring it in the mold and letting the saponification take place in the mold, you put the pot of soap in the oven and let the heat from the oven accelerate the process. According to the tutorial I used you're supposed to check on the soap every 15 minutes and give it a stir. At about the 45 minute mark the soap should be done, at which point you add your essential oils and any other additives (like poppy seeds).

So, I put the soap in the oven, set the timer and ran back to the living room to watch more of Lost. The timer went after 15 minutes and according to the tutorial the soap should be thickening up and resemble a nice custard.

Well, I opened the oven and it looked like a volcano had erupted. SOAP WAS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!! The lid of the pot had popped off, the soap was overflowing. Thank goodness I had a tray under the pot to catch any spills. For a fraction of a second I considered finding my camera, but time was of the essence and I had to save the soap.

It was just like a scene from "I Love Lucy". For about 15 minutes I was frantic. I scraped as much soap as I could from the OUTSIDE of the pot, the lid and the pan that was underneath it. I added the essential oil (still not enough I don't think) and the poppyseeds. I squished it all in the mold and crossed my fingers.

Here's the finished soap in all it's glory:



So, uh, thanks Lera for the wonderful suggestion to try my hand at hot process soap making. I think I'll stick to cold process soap that doesn't turn into a volcano and scare me to death. ;)

buttons

I don't know about where you are, but let me tell you here in Southern Ontario we are having one heck of a wind storm!! School buses were cancelled and the winds have been howling all day long!

After work I decided to go to Value Village. I walked out of there with a big old bag of buttons. Do I need them? Absolutely NOT. But they make me so very very happy.

I sorted through them when I got home and quickly got rid of the icky old white shirt buttons with thread and fabric attached to them. Once they were sorted and I could actually see the treasures, I was quite happy.



We're off to the casino tonight to redeem a coupon I have for a free dinner for two. I've been thinking about that all day long! :)

some more soap

On Sunday, my girlfriend Laura (who went to the soap-making workshop with me) came over for the day to make soap.

She made two batches of Lavender/Rosemary oatmeal soap.



I made a batch of Vanilla Oatmeal soap and a batch of Chocolate Tangerine (the photo of the Chocolate Tangerine didn't turn out).



As a brand new soap-maker, I think I've been really fortunate. All of the batches I've made have turned out. I haven't had issues with the mixture separating, the soap being brittle or any of the other common problems that can occur. The thing I do have a problem with is the scenting. I chock it up to being a newbie and not knowing exactly what scents go together or how much to put in.

I'm done with soap-making for a while now (I'm sure you'll be pleased to read that!!!). I want to wait until the soaps I've made have completely cured so that I can try and figure out my mistakes.

Now I'm going to try to finish knitting the bag that I started BEFORE Christmas!! I thought it was going to take me a day or two to knit and I'm still not done! The bag is knit, half of one strap is knit, all I have to do is finish the strap I'm working on and make the other one. Once the knitting is done, it's time for the fun part, felting!!! I might try to finish that up tonight.

I've got the soap-making bug!!

Yesterday I made two more batches of soap.

The first (3 lb) batch is mocha soap. I used fresh-brewed (cooled) coffee to make it instead of water. I added cocoa, a splash of vanilla fragrance oil and some coffee grounds at trace and when it was poured in the mold I sprinkled some more grounds on top.

In theory it sounds wonderful, doesn't it?? (ok, maybe it doesn't, I don't know).

Well, let's just say that if the scent doesn't improve, this batch is headed to the garbage bin. I'm ok with that, I have a LOT to learn.



I got the kitchen all cleaned up, had dinner and then it hit me, I HAD to make another batch, but my mold was already busy. I wanted to make a batch of "manly" soap for Joe, so I dragged everything out again and made a smaller 1 lb batch of "Muskoaka Boathouse" (cedar scent) soap. I used a tupperware container as a mold, it turned out ok (using that mold) but I think I have to beg Joe to make me a small, 1 lb wood mold.

Anyways, I had some serious doubts about this soap right up until the point that I cut it. I'm kinda digging it now. It is quite heavily scented, but I really think that the scent will fade as the soap cures.



On Sunday, my friend is coming over to make soap. I'm sure I'll make another batch with her, I am thinking "Vanilla Oatmeal".

While I had my camera out the other day, I was able to finally get a picture of Jake, she's our 20ish year old cat who doesn't like to be photographed.

roses

I came home from work to find a dozen assorted long-stemmed roses on the kitchen counter. I couldn't assume they were for me, although I don't know why not! (he he he) I called Joe to inquire and he said that they were for me, "just because". AHHH!! How much do I love him?!?!?!?









Let me tell you, after the day I had at work today, it was such a treat to come home to such a special suprise!!!!

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!