Idle Hands? No!

Welcome to the end of August!

As I type that, I'm finding it hard to believe. It's been a hot summer filled with a beautiful garden (which means lots of canning), visits to and from family, sewing, crocheting, and lots of studying for a course I'll be teaching this Fall. 

I hope you haven't felt too neglected and that your summers have also been awesome! 

I'll be honest...I feel a little guilty, but at the same time, life happens. I've even thought of ending this little blog, since I don't make any money with it and haven't had time to do tutorials, which I would've loved to do and which I know gets traffic. I'm actually quite good at that sort of thing, if it weren't for the time it takes.....

I'll see how this Fall goes and if it happens...if not, I'll reconsider what I'll do with the blog at the end of this year.

So I'm just going to show you what I have been doing. Within the next 2 weeks I have to do up some digitals for a couple of sites that are sponsoring my work. I'll be sure and do up a freebie for you then. Promise.

My computer isn't working well right now...my screen is black. I am typing this with an additional screen off to the side so that I can see what I'm doing. Annoying, to say the least, but it is what it is for now.  I'm sure there are bigger problems in the world. 

First my garden. It started out like this........

And ended up like this....see my granddaughter's head? Most of the tomatoes (in the back half) just exploded and are leaning over. We can't figure out a way to stake them high enough. They're really producing though.

I picked a bunch of the basil a while back...

and made Pesto. YUM!  I have enough basil out there to make more now. 

See below for the recipe.

Here are some of the tomatoes. I had opted to have lots of Roma's, a few eating tomatoes and maybe one cherry tomato....but my husband helped. I ended up with about 4 cherry tomatoes, 3 Roma's and 6 eating. In the end I decided, hey...they're all tomatoes. In the pot they go! 

I turned them into stewed tomatoes. These are great in my spaghetti...I'm known for my spaghetti. 

Those green things on the bottom of the picture. Well, they were supposed to be long english cucumbers. We kept waiting for them to turn dark green...until they began turning into monsters. 

Then we realized what we had were Armenian cucumbers. 

They're not bad...much like the long english but a lighter flavor.

Remember all that fabric I was given? Kai wanted some shorts with pockets. 

What Grandma would say no to those big brown eyes of his? 

I also made this little dress. It's the La Jolla Bow Dress. Google it, it's a free pattern. Easy and cute! I added the band at the bottom as it wasn't in the original instructions. 

It was my first time shirring with elastic....turned out pretty good considering. 

And it's just about time to start making soap again. However, my DIL and I decided to start with these lotion bars for her little ones. One in particular has very dry problematic skin and this bar is all natural. Easy to make too. I kept a couple, then gave one to my mom, so I have one left. I keep it in the fridge because it is very soft. They hardened to a lighter color than in the photo below. 

See below for the recipe.

Here's the Sock Monkey Hat I promised to make for our littlest grandson, Cooper. His mommy picked out the colors....I love them! That's keep his noggin' warm up there in cold Ft. McMurray, Alberta! 

We also made some things this summer. Here's a little balloon bracelet we made. You're supposed to use the long animal balloons, but all I had was water balloons. It kinda worked. The kids didn't seem to mind too much. It was just something to do to keep them busy while babysitting.

Oh, and remember the studying I've been doing. Here's my notes and some hand outs for 9 chapters out of the 11 or 12 we'll be covering. There'll be more handouts as well. All neatly typed out and ready to copy for the students. Yes, I've been busy! 

Basil Pesto Recipe

2 cups fresh basil

1/2 cup parmesan

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 cup EV olive oil (I used just virgin)

2 cloves garlic

juice of 1 whole lemon

1/3 cup pine nuts (I used walnuts...all I had on hand)

In a food processor, finely chop the garlic.

Add basil, chop until fine. 

Add cheese, nuts, salt and pepper. Pulse until it looks coarse and pasty.

Slowly add olive oil while the processor is running. Keep running until well mixed. 

Add lemon juice slowly while running processor. 

Mixture should be a bit wet/oily.

Store in airtight container and keep in fridge for up to 1 week. 

Pesto can be frozen. I poured my leftovers into an ice cube tray and covered each one with a bit of olive oil. After frozen, I removed them from the tray and put them into a ziploc bag for later use. 

All Natural Lotion Bars

1 cup coconut oil

1 cup cocoa butter

1 1/3 cup grated beeswax

2 tsp. Vitamin E Oil 

I melted the first three ingredients together in a double boiler slowly and added the Vitamin E after. I then poured them into silicone molds. 

They were very soft, so I put them in the fridge after about 4 hours and left them overnight. They came out solid. They melt with the warmth of your skin and are perfect for the little ones. 

I wanted to keep these all natural and they smell like chocolate because of the cocoa butter. Kai says they smell like vanilla. He must be smelling the natural beeswax. 

You could add essential oils if you wanted to, but why?

I will be keeping mine in the fridge when not in use. 

September is just around the corner and life should settle back into our regular humm again. In the mean time, have a great long weekend and be safe on the roads!

Blessings,

Carmen

In Between Time...Post Christmas

Welcome to my post Christmas post! 

I've been very, very busy over the last few months. I made all my Christmas cards this year, as seen in previous posts, and I made some Kahlua/Coffee Liquer as well. Here are a few more things that I was busy doing. Some will have links to free patterns or paid patterns. 

This first one is "The Baylie Bear Cowl" purchased through The Velvet Acorn on Etsy. Made for my granddaughter. It is actually made using the Lion Brand Thick & Quick, which is a nice thick bulky yarn. It's really quite beautiful in real life...the photo really shows the white through it, which you don't normally see. I wish I had a photo of her wearing this...if you check out the Velvet Acorn, you'll see how it looks.

This is my 5 way Braided Infinity Scarf. My inspiration came from Sewing Daisies  Rapunzel Scarf. Unfortunately, mine is black, which makes it hard to photograph. I didn't have a pattern but just tried to figure it out myself. In addition, her scarf isn't braided all the way through, but does up with 2 buttons. Mine is braided all the way through without a break and goes around the neck twice. I will be working on a pattern for a 7 way braid infinity scarf over the next month or so...with a better photo!

I made up a few of these Minion Hats to give away. The pattern is a free pattern by Damn it Janet, Let's Crochet. It is a good pattern that works up fairly quickly and is easy to follow. However, you cannot sell anything made from her patterns, which is too bad. I actually did make the eyes from another free pattern by Crochet by Jennifer, on Ravelry. She offered three sizes of eyes, so I used the larger one.

Here are some Boot Cuffs I made up. These worked up quite quickly as well. The free pattern is created by Vanessa from Crafting on a Dime. 

Anna, from Frayed Knot Crochet Patterns offers this pattern for free on her blog. She calls it her "Easiest Headwrap Ever" and I just love this. I made it in this blue, but will make more for sure! The first picture shows the front and the second the back. The flower is included in the pattern as well.

My grandson is sporting the Sir Knight Helmet Hat I made him...all his pictures look like this because he doesn't stop moving!! The headpiece moves down to cover his mouth and chin when it's really cold out there...which it tends to be here in Kamloops this time of year. This one is a paid pattern from Cute & Crafty Crochet on Etsy. I did have to make a few adjustments to get it right, but it ended up pretty cute! 

Here's some soap I made for this Christmas as gifts and for myself. This first one I called 

"Christmas Cheer"

This one is "Three Wise Men"...English Rain scent. Both of these had a bit of body safe glitter on them.

Here are the two bars above with a 3rd bar. The Rose Clay Spa Bar has rose clay and activated charcoal added to the base. It should be a really good cleansing bar..especially for people with oily skin. 

The Pampering Massage Soap Saver was from a free pattern found on Moogly Blog. I found it a bit difficult to follow...my bobbles seemed to go a bit crooked, but I still like it. 

Here is another Soap Saver (Back side) from the same pattern along with a cold process bar of Chai Spice soap. Note the thin layer of cocoa in it. This one smells amazing!! I'm so happy with it!

My cold process chocolate soap also had an incredibly delicious fragrance!! 

One of my friends gave her DIL a bar of my chocolate soap which she thought was fudge...Yup...she took a big bite out of it!! It smelled that good!!

This soap was my FAILED bar...it cracked on me!! That is usually caused by overheating, which I think was the case here. It is, however, a lovely bar of soap with gorgeous mica tops and mica throughout.

Last, but not least, I made up a few of these Birds Nest Necklaces. They were really fun to make! See Sarah Ortega for a tutorial on these.

I hope you've been able to find some inspiration here for some gift ideas. I realize many of them are crochet projects....and I highly recommend you try crochet...it's easy, rewarding and quite popular right now.

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of 2013!!

I wish you all a truly Happy New Year!!! 

May this year bring you clarity, focus, warmth and true happiness!

Thank you all for being such loyal followers, especially through the last few months while I've been trying to figure a few things out. I appreciate the time you've taken to leave me all those wonderful comments over the last year.

Many blessings!
Carmen

Catching Up, Cards, Soap and Crochet!

Hi there!

Today is the first day of Spring! I celebrated by walking around the park--and got pelted with little ice balls three quarters of the way around; got soaking wet and then had to put my jeans in the dryer as soon as I got home...even my socks were sopping wet! The good news? I walked around the park--and it's Spring! Lol.

I seldom get around to doing that as I love to stay at home and create. However, I've decided I need to get out more and take care of myself a little better. So I'm happy I did that and I actually enjoyed getting caught in a hail storm! It was fun and refreshing (well, except for the iceballs in the face part) especially since I was with my bestie! 

Anyway, to get back to the creating part, here's what I've been up to lately:

It was my girlfriends birthday, so I made her this card. We went out for lunch to Sr. Froggy's, it's always good. Then we went out for our very wet and eventful walk! :)

Yesterday I got busy and made some soap. My sister is going to Holland and I promised my Aunt I would send some soap along with her. Here it is in the mold...I went a little overboard! Lol...

Here are the cut bars. It's scented with Mango and Champagne. I called it Mango Mountain.

I also made this loaf of soap:

Here it is all cut up...the picture is a bit washed out, but you get the idea. Tutti the Frutti.

And, last but not least, my last loaf was this Seabreeze one, more of a guy scent. This one is actually kind of special because I topped it with Ancient Canadian Glacier Sea Salt. So good for the skin!

Plus, I've been crocheting some more. These adorable baby booties are all 0-3 months.

Side view...

The Lion Booties are a "Two Girls Patterns" pattern from Etsy. 

These little sweethearts are the Crocodile Booties. They are found at "Bonita's Patterns" on Etsy. Both these Etsy shops offer discounts if you buy more than one pattern. I'm not promoting them, just giving credit where credit is due. 

Well, I'm going to watch American Idol tonight while I'm doing something else....it's good background noise. Plus, I might just take a nice hot soak in the tub with a bath bomb...seems like the thing to do after being caught in a storm!

Have a good week! 

Blessings,

Carmen

Some Soapy Goodness

I finally got some more soaping done. 

Today I made a loaf of glycerin soap that combined Pear, Apple and Gingerale. I'm not sure what to call it, but it smells good!

They're kind of fun looking, aren't they? Almost like a nougat. It's my first attempt with whipped glycerin on top. I'm not terribly impressed, but it's still useable. Back to the drawing board!

Here's one held up to the window with the light shining through some of the clear soap. Fun!

I also made up small samples of some soaps for my girlfriend to take into work. Since I'm not a company or anything, it's fun to just play with these. Hey, if I can make some money on the side, all the better.

I've only have one bar of Satsuma and one Aloha glycerin soap left, and I didn't even have any Satsuma for samples. So it's time to make more of those!

 

Well, that's all for today! Hope your week is going well!

One more thought:

Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit in me!

Psalm 51:10

Blessings,

Carmen

Father's Day Digital Stamps

Hello!

Father's Day is on the horizon, so I thought I'd better get a little something whipped up for you that isn't soap! Seriously...I've got soap on the brain lately! Anyway, I'll show you that at the end of this post, here's the digi's:

Hope you like 'em!

OH right! Here's my soap. My brother in law bought some beer while he was visiting. He left about 5 bottles behind. Well, I'm not a beer fan, unless I'm making soap that is. Beer adds lather. That's right, it does! 

This lone little bottle is wondering where all his friends went...Mwahahahaha!!

Here's some cards I made with the tie image, also featured at Do It Yourself Soap on a Rope Gag Gift with some instructions.

This next card is brought to us by Ruth Bowler who first shared it with me on the Beyond the Fringe Crafts Facebook page.

Have a good week!

Blessings,

Carmen

What I've Been Up To....

Hello!

I hate to keep saying it, but I've been quite busy again the last week. There's been overnight company, shopping with my DIL, babysitting grandkids for a day, a Fundraiser, more shopping, and soap making for two days! So, I thought I'd show you my soap anyway. Enjoy!

These are the two glycerine soaps I made a week back, packaged and ready to go. The one is a nice fresh scent, and the other a Satsuma type scent. 

These are my freshly cut luxurious 'Rose Geranium and Silk' cold process soaps. The bars are about 4 oz. each and smell incredible! They contain Coconut oil, Olive oil, Sustainable Palm oil, Castor oil, Hempseed oil, Aqua, Sodium Hydroxide, Silk, Fragrance, Colorants, Mica, and dried mini roses from my garden. The color really changed on these (looked almost purple yesterday) and will probably change more over the curing time. 

This Glycerin Bundt Cake soap has an amazingly appealing soft scent reminiscent of vanilla, coffee cake and spices. The chocolate glaze is a wonderfully deep scent that goes well with the cake. Sugar sprinkles on top. This bar is over 4 oz...it looks small because of it's shape, but it isn't! This is the first of my cake soaps this year. 

Here's one cut up...

Oh, and I made some Beer Soap today too. This one will probably change quite a bit over the next little while. Here it is in the molds.

"Spellbound Stella"...made with Stella Artois Beer!This, sure to be a lathering cold process soap contains Coconut oil, Palm oil, Stella Artois Beer, Sodium hydroxide, Castor oil, Shea butter, Soybean oil, Canadian Ancient Sea Salt, fragrance oil, GSE and colorants. I'll be cutting it in the next few days, but it'll need to cure 4 to 6 weeks after that.

As you can see...busy, busy, busy. I also made a few single bars of soap, but didn't take pictures of them.

My dried rose collection is growing as well. They look so pretty, and there's something rewarding about taking them out of your own garden! Did you notice I used them on one of the soaps? :)

Well, that's it for today! Have a good week!

Carmen

Free Sentiment Digi's and more...

Hello!

First I would like to welcome all my new followers! Thank you for following, and I really hope you enjoy stopping by my little corner of the Web!

This post is going to be a hodge-podge of a few things. First, here's where I'm at with my Teacup Mirror. At this point it's a matter of placing and moving things around. I have less than a week to complete it. I'm hoping it'll be a quiet weekend so that I can get it done! 

I've been making more soap as well. This one is a glycerine bar that has a wonderfully clean, fresh scent with a tiny little touch of sweetness. I love it. I don't have a name for it yet, but that's okay.  The bottom two bars are my attempt at a layered soap...it wasn't working so I decided to swirl it a bit. In the end I guess they look okay.

Plus, here's a few sentiment freebies.

Hope you like them!

As for things around here...I'm no gardener, but we did get the yard fertilized (well, my son did it).

We hung up some of my mini rose buds to dry (well, my hubby did it). Now that the weather has heated up, they should dry fairly quickly.

I'll be using them on my soap (and yes, I'll definitely be the one doing that!!) :)

Anyhoo...that's it for now! Enjoy the weekend!

Blessings,
Carmen