things to make and do

hat

2011-12-06T19:00:00.004Z

Despite having a new baby I still have this idea that I can make everyones christmas presents. I am having a good go, but it is slow progress and we are over a week into December already. Today I managed to make this hat for my god daughter. Another fabulously easy pattern by Made by Rae.

I have lots of fleece from previous projects and loved the way these two colours went together, it's a bit different from standard girly pink. Ever since I found out I was going to be an aunt I have been collecting ideas and patterns for kids clothes and toys. It is only now that I am valuing the easy patterns... anything that can be knocked up during nap time is a bonus!

quickie

2011-11-26T21:19:00.006Z

I ran these trousers up in one of Graces naps! They were really easy to make, I followed this pattern by Made by Rae. I used a smaller seam allowance to give them a bit more room over the big bum cloth nappies and added some length with the lace.

The problem with cloth nappies is that you end up going for trousers the next size up to get the width but then the legs are far too long. As these are so easy, and have plenty of room for customization, I think I'll run a few more up. Assuming Grace ever naps again.....

finished

2011-11-26T20:51:00.007Z

At last I have finally finished the baby book for Grace. I started it the first day of my maternity leave thinking I'd have at least a week to finish it before she arrived. Little did I know that all the talk of first babies being late wasn't going to apply to Grace, she arrived that night. I think all the bending and stretching to get down on the floor to cut things out helped her on her way.

So after 11 weeks of doing one seam at a time in the breaks when Grace sleeps, I finally finished the book. I wasn't very happy with the book I made for Rose, the pages stuck out form the cover. This time I made the internal pages smaller. Even then it was tight and I had to reduce the thickness of the batting otherwise they would have stuck out.

I am really pleased with the designs, they all worked really well. The butterfly has nice soft corduroy on the back of the wing that lifts up and the dragonfly has cellophane sewn into the wings to make them crinkly.

baby gym

2011-10-31T12:57:00.025Z

With the birth of our fabulous little girl Mark and I have been looking at baby toys. We have felt sad that everything is made of plastic and lots of gaudy plastic toys with tinny music just don't sit well with us. So what is the alternative? There are some wooden toys out there to buy or we can be creative and make things ourselves. The problem is, although I have lots of ideas of things to make for Grace, Grace her self takes up so much time there is not much left for being creative!

As Grace is so much more interactive these days, I really wanted her to have a baby gym. It didn't take long to come up with a relatively quick and cheap solution. An afternoon mooching round charity shops and Ridgeons gave us everything we needed. Mark even managed to make the frame the same afternoon.

We bought enough 12mm dowel to make the whole frame but when we got home Mark found some nice thick dowel (25mm) for the top. He used a 12mm bit to make holes for the legs. The legs are at a 46 degree angle (which took much head scratching and trigonometry to work out, to give us the desired height and stability!) and offset so they can be drilled in by about 2cm. They are also glued.

The most time saving idea was to buy some small soft toys from charity shops, rather than faff around making things. It also makes us happy to reuse things other people no longer want. Three of the toys were wrist rattles that I took the wrist strap off and the orange cat has a bean bag bum so there are different textures and sounds for her to play with. They all went round the washing machine before I used them.

The curtain rings left over from another project turned out to be the perfect thing to hang the toys from. I cut the elastic to the right length and zig-zaged it onto a piece of material, catching in the brass eyelet of the curtain ring and stretching it as I went. Then I cut the material to the right width, sewed it into a tube and turned it back the right way using my trusty chop stick. The tubes were hand sewed onto the toys and the eyelets screwed back into curtain rings.

It all came together really well and Grace loves it!

chicken

2010-12-09T16:33:00.008Z

With a baby on the way for the family I have got carried away looking at all the fab things I can make for babies. I was looking for a stuffed toy pattern and when I cam across this chicken I knew it was the one! It is by Melly and Me and was an easy enough pattern to follow but rather fiddly. I think next time I'll make the chicks wings bigger. In fact I might make the chicks slightly bigger in general as I now know how much my god daughter likes sucking the chicks!

I had great fun looking through my now colour co-ordinated fabric as I knew I wanted all the chicks to be different. Since making the first baby book I have had an urge to sort all my material by colour. I finally acted on it the other day which made choosing the fabrics so much easier.

another baby book

2010-12-09T15:25:00.009Z

After the success of the first baby book (that my fabulous god daughter just loves) I was waiting for an excuse to make another. Luckily my sister has provided me that excuse. As we don't know what the new baby will be I decided to go for an underwater/beach theme this time. I came up with some nice simple fish designs but it turns out that octopus are not easy to draw! And then to complicate it further I wanted to have parts of the book that you could lift up, including two of the octopus legs.

To make the parts that lift up, I stiffened both sides with interfacing, cut the shapes out bigger than I needed then marked out the shape. The shapes were put together right side out, I followed the shape with the zig zag stitch then trimmed it back to the stitching.

The octopus was made in several parts so the legs could overlap.

baby book

2010-03-04T17:19:00.005Z

A good friend is having a baby girl soon. I don't see her much as she doesn't live in the country so I wanted to take her something that was pretty and useful. I have bags of lovely material and have had a hankering to do something with it and this seamed like the perfect excuse.

I wanted to make a fabric book, using lots of different fabrics and textures and thought a combination of crazy patch work and appliqué would work well. I sketched some ideas for the pages and what textures they could include. Then sketched up some ideas of how to put it all together.

Never having made anything like this I wanted to see how other books were made. Using the magic of google image search and cooliris I searched through lots of photos and finalized a design that would work with the fabric and batting that I had.

I wanted to keep the book simple, outside front and back cover, inside covers and four more internal pages. The cover and internal pages were made the same way, one large rectangle of material and two square pieces. The page designs were appliquéd on first then two squares were laid side by side onto the rectangle and sewn on the three out side edges and turned inside out through the center. I hand sewed the center seam.

I made the cover first, mostly as that was what I had the clearest idea of how to make. I covered the large rectangle with crazy patchwork and padded the whole thing so it would be nice and thick. The handle was stiffened with interfacing along with the the appliqué shapes and some of the shapes were also padded with Kapok. The handle was stitched into the seam of the cover so it would be nice and strong. To finish it off I used an embroidery machine stitch to top stitch the outer edges. I used the same colour for all the pages to give the book a cohesive overall feel.

The internal pages were made the same way but without the batting, instead I stiffened all the background material with interfacing. I sketched up some ideas for the internal pages but the time consuming bit was searching for just the right fabric. In fact the back room was an explosion of fabric, ribbons and lace for several days.

The book was sewn together with the rough central seams facing so they were hidden. I made two lines of stitching either side of the centre to give it a nice thick spine, making sure I didn't catch the handle on the out side!

quick valentine

2010-02-13T19:35:00.018Z

Not that this in any way reflects my feelings, just that I was very short of time and he was about to leave work!

I wanted a simple shape that I could use as a background and as the main part of the card. I also wanted to play with new spiro spline tool in Inkscape. The tool lets you make nice curves that are easy to work with and make smoother curves than the beizer tool.

First open an A4 landscaped document and make a simple outline of a rose with the pencil tool using spine set to ellipse. This gives a nice thick/thin curved line. I tweaked the lines a little by editing the nodes. Position the rose roughly where you want it on the page, the A4 page will folded in half to make the card.

Make a new layer below the black line. Draw basic shapes using the pen tool and tweak the nodes to make shapes that deliberately go slightly outside the black lines. Then fill the shapes with a gradient. For the stem copy the black stem, fill it with the green gradient you made for the leaves and off set it slightly.

Make a new layer above the black lines. Group all the black outlines and copy them to the new layer. Arrange them across the rest of the page with some bleeding off the edge. I knew that I wanted to print the outlines on red card, select them all and make them the darker red of the gradient.

By turning the layers on and off, print the coloured layer and outlines on a textured cream card and the background only on the red card. So the red outlines to bleed off the card you'll need to trim the card slightly as printers doesn't print right up to the edge.

Cut the cream card to fit, put some foam tabs on the back so it will be raised and finish it with some ribbon.

15min project

2009-06-17T21:01:00.015+01:00

In the midst of doing several other things Wednesday I decided to make the glass that I am using as a pen holder into something a little more special. So I dug out the glass paint, found some suitable stickers and and within minutes it was done!

Spray glass paint gives a really nice finish over large areas as you don't get brush marks and stickers work really well as a mask to create patterns. I used a frosting spray rather than coloured glass paint.

How To

Clean the glass with soap, and dry it thoroughly
Arrange the stickers and make sure they are stuck down well
Spray the glass, I did 2 thin coats
When it is dry peel the stickers off

Tips

Follow the instructions for how long you need to shake the tin and how far to hold it away from your glass.
The biggest mistake is to hold the spray paint too close to the glass, that makes the paint too thick and then it runs.
I have found with glass spray paints it is much better to do a couple of thin coats, that way you get a nice even finish without runs
Stickers work really for making patterns as they are regular and they are all ready sticky
Ware gloves - you will get it on your hands!

This really did only take 15mins, It took me longer to take the photos and write the blog!

bag workshop upate

2009-03-27T20:55:00.009Z

The last bag making workshop went really. I am always really pleased when new people turn up and we made another 4 bags to add to the Sew n' Sew total.

Githa brought some lovely material and had some great ideas. In the end she settle on a denim bag with a panel made out of antique kimono. The denim was from an old skirt and we use the panels that it was made from a feature and guide for the panel. She also altered the handle length so it could be used over her shoulder. Putting a gusset in the bottom tested out combined knowledge and in the end I called the oracle. Getting 3D sewing instructions over the phone was just as much of a challenged!

Melanie brought an old sweat shirt, which we turned into a surprisingly nice bag. Stretchy knit material it not a good one to start with your unfamiliar with a sewing machine as it stretches, and it is definitely not what you want to use for handles! But with the addition of some cotton handles in a contrasting colour Melanie made a really fantastic looking bag and because the pattern used french seams it will be strong too.

We have been lugging the laundry down the garden to the line in a a variety of carries bags than never last long. So after everyone went I made a huge bag for laundry that is big enough to get in!

It was a really creative workshop with everyone making something new and bringing their own personality and flair to the bags they made. The shopping bag pattern is very versatile and I loved getting my brain round how to modify it and help everyone realise their ideas.

almond face scrub

2009-03-24T20:37:00.008Z

For some reason I have a spotty chin! I want remedy this so I looked for a recipe to make a face scrub but in the end I made one up.

I always loved face masks from Lush, they felt home made, which satisfied my need for natural, chemical free products, and they felt somehow luxuriant. Maybe that had something to do with the price but partly I think, it was because they were obviously made of 'real' things, like fruit and chocolate.

I've had a recipe book for making beauty product for a while and got another for chritsmas. Somehow I could never bring my self to make the products as it always seamed such a 'waste' of good fruit!

I have reframed my outlook on making beauty products over the past few months. I am enjoying the creation process as well letting my self use good quality food for cosmetics. Making this quick easy, face scrub, for a specific reason (my spotty chin) was a real eye opener. It is so easy and it felt very every bit as luxuriant to use as anything from Lush

This recipe is really quick to make and is made from ingredients you are likely to have in the store cupboard. It has honey for its anti bacterial action, milk powder for a moisturiser and almonds as a mild exfoliate to loosen grime and dead skin cells. It makes your skin feel really soft and smooth and if you have chapped lips you can gently rub this over your lips too.

level tsp ground almonds
level tsp milk powder
level tsp honey

Mix all the ingredients into a past (you might want a drop of water depending on how runny your honey is) massage into wet skin for a few mins and if you have time leave for 5mins then wash off with warm water.

If you want to make this as a real treat your could add a splash of rose water.

next workshop

2009-03-13T15:30:00.005Z

sociable sewing

Come and learn how to make reusable shopping bags and recycle some old fabric while you are at it!

One cotton shopping bag can eliminate 100's of plastic ones over its life time. Bags are easy to make; I'll provide sewing machines, help and instructions, thread, material and cups of tea - you'll bring your self, a sense of fun, old material (if you have some) and some biscuits to share.

Saturday 14th March
Cambridge, UK
13:00 - 17:00

Leave a comment on this post and I'll send you details (if you don't want me to publish your details on the blog let me know)

Silk Tie

2009-03-12T19:46:00.016Z

Last year I got some silk paints for Christmas. I had a little play with them and have been looking for something else to try them out on. Marks birthday gave me the excuse I needed.

I had a blank white silk tie and an idea for fish, in a Japanese water colour style. So after researching some images from the web, I drew around the tie so I had the exact proportions and tried out a few sketches.

I wanted a flowing shape and the soft watercolour techniques work well with silk paints, but the paint spreads a lot so you need to use special outliner. It comes in a tube and stops the paint spreading. As I didn't want it to look like a kids drawing with a heavy outline, I thought about what parts of the fish I could get away with not outlining. The body needed to be out lined but the fins only needed a hint of shape, it wouldn't matter if the colour for them spread. In fact I let the spread of the paint dictate to some extent the shape of the fins, you can always add more details with the outliner once the paint is dry.

I penciled in the rough outlines of the fish then used the outliner. I didn't bother penciling the blossom as I was happy for that to be free hand. Start at the top and work down so you don't smudge it. When it is dry start adding colour into the fish. I tried out a few small fish on the back (thin bit of the tie) to see how it all worked!

The background was done with a big brush and I mixed the colours as I went adding water with the brush to dilute it in places. In some areas I sprinkled sea salt crystals over the wet paint to draw out the colour and give a speckled effect. I did the background pretty much in one go so I didn't get any hard edges in the colour.

Once it was all dry I added a few tiny details to the fins with the silver outliner.

Colours
I used a silver outliner for the fish and purple/silver for the blossom. I used only burnt orange and yellow for the fish, pink and a hint of lavender for the blossom, dark blue, green and burnt orange for the background water. The orange brings the blue and green down a shade and ties in the orange from the fish. The blossom was kept very pale.

Draw the main shape very lightly in pencil
Apply the outliner in long even strokes and let dry (be patient and resist poking it!)
Apply paint, starting inside your shapes and with light colours, then moving to darker colours and the background
Add any more defining detail with outliner when it is dry
Iron on cotton setting. I put a cloth over the silk when I ironed the front to protect it a little. The heat sets the paint and makes it washable.

Before getting started I consulted the oracle as she had made some lovely ties as christmas presents. So here are her tips and some things I learnt along the way.

Tips

Dip your brush in clean water first then shake out. This stops the paint going up into the ferrule and being wasted and makes the brush easier to clean.
You can dip your brush in clean water and use that to "push" the paint around on the silk and dilute colours if need be. It can also make a nice dappled effect.
Colours can be diluted with water. Either mix them on a palette, use a wet brush to pick up the colour, or spray the silk with clean water first.
The paint spreads, so put your brush near the edge of the area to be painted not right up to it.
The paint will spread a lot further on wet or thin silk
Colours will bleed into each other and mix. So use an outliner to create clean shapes and keep colours separate. Use the bleeding to your advantage to create mixed colours and patterns.
Use small pots or jar lids to mix the paint in
If you use the outliner too thinly or there is the slightest break in it, the paint will bleed.
Wet on wet = mixing ie wet paint next to wet paint will bleed into each other.
Dry on dry = harder edges, let one colour dry before painting another next to it if you want harder edges without using an outliner. There will still be some mixing.
Use a fat brush for big areas
You'll find some colours act differently. My burnt orange has a high pigment and 'stays' put where as my pink bleeds and spreads not matter what I do.

Silk painting is like water colour painting, it is loose and fairly abstract so don't worry about it spreading into unexpected places, jut go with the flow!

Inkscape paper portrait

2009-02-04T16:55:00.015Z

When I was younger I used to make pictures by cutting it out of layers of coloured paper instead of using crayons or paints. I've been scanning all my pretty papers and decided to try out the same idea using Inkscape instead of scissors.

By using the trace bitmap function in Inkscape the picture is broken down into layers that can be "cut out" of scanned paper.

The first thing is to find a nice picture, you want some shadows but not big areas of dark shadow. To make the finished picture clearer remove the background, I used the Gimp for this. Then open the picture in Inkscape.

With the pictures selected, go to the path menu, and choose trace bitmap. This will bring up a new window, chose brightness steps, make the scans 4, check smooth and stack scans. Click update for a preview and ok when you are happy it.

You will now have a new set of black and white layers on top of your photo. Click un-group, then separate the layers. You can delete the photo if you want or just move it to one side.

Open the first paper that you will use for the darkest layer (obviously make this a dark coloured paper!) and put it over your darkest scan. Your paper needs to be below the scan so click page down to lower it.

Select both the scan and the paper, then go to the object menu, clip, set. You'll now have your scan cut out of the paper.

Do this for all of your scans.

Put all the layers back on top of each other in the right order, darkest on top. Then to align them easily select all of your scans, then open the align dialogue box by going to the object menu, and choosing align. Make sure you have relative to: selection chosen. Choose centre on vertical axis and then align tops to get all the scans aligned.

Select all the scans and group them together. To finish the picture I used another paper for the background and made a frame. For the frame, make a rectangle of the size you want, turn off the fill and make a thick stroke, I chose 40px. To give the frame some interest I filled it with a gradient.

To make the inside shadow copy the frame and move the copy to one side so you can see what you are doing. Duplicate the frame then change the colour of the new frame to black. Blur the new black frame by about 8%.

Lower the blurred frame to the bottom by clicking page down, then with both frames selected, go to object, clip, set.

Now align the shadow with the frame, do this by hand, bringing the shadow up above the picture and background layers if necessary...

...and there you have it!

new bath cube recipe

2009-01-23T12:26:00.013Z

I have always loved one of Lush's bath bombs that has coco butter in, so I thought I'd make up a recipe of my own.

1 part citric acid
2 parts bicarbonate of soda
small chippings of coco butter (as much or little as you want)
essential oils (roughly 2 tsp per cup of bicarb)
heather flowers (if you want!)

First thoroughly mix the citric acid and bicarb together then chop the coco butter. I found if I used a sharp knife and cut it thinly, it kind of crumbled into fine pieces. I also cut some into small chunks. As I use an ice cube tray as a mould, I wanted the chunks to be small so they still stuck together. If you use big moulds you could have bigger chunks.

I guessed the amount of coco butter. I didn't want them to be very oily, just enough to make your skin soft. I think 2 tablespoons per cup of bicarb would be fine. Mix it into the citric acid and bicarb mixture.

Add your essential oils and mix them in thoroughly and quickly. I love the smell of coco butter and think it works well with vanilla, but if you are not using much coco butter it won't add much smell to the mix. Getting the texture right can be a bit hit and miss, I press the mixture with the back of a spoon then cut it with the spoon. If it leaves a solid mass and doesn't crumble it's damp enough. Other wise spritz it lightly with some water.

Work quickly to press the mixture into ice cube trays. In this case I stuck with a regular shaped tray, I wasn't sure the lumpy mix would work with stars or other shapes.

Half way though I had a bit of a brain storm and put a thin layer of heather flowers into the bottom of one cube, then filled it up with the mix. I wasn't sure the heather would stick but when I turned them out it had made a really pretty layer of flowers on the top. I wish I had made them all like that now!

tagging

2009-01-05T12:07:00.009Z

We took our decorations down early to get some decorating done, so I thought it was time to make the Christmas cards into tags for next year. I really enjoyed using last years home made tags.

It is really nice to reuse cards and not just put them into the recycling. It is also a nice process, as Corrina said, it's great to take time and to get into the detail of the cards. You don't need to use the whole picture, maybe just the words or a part of the pattern. And you don't need to stick to squares either. I have great oval cutter that is just the right size, but you could make round tags by drawing around a jar and because a jar is see through it will be easy to position where you want.

The other thing you can do to jazz them up a bit is use scissors that cut patterns, I have some that cut a scalloped edge and some that make a ziz zag. You can normally pick them up cheap in the kids section of craft shops or stationers. You don't even have to use them on all of the edges, I made some long thin tags and did the zig zag on just one short end.

If you are punching holes into them for ribbon remember to leave room when you are cutting them out! I leave the ribbon until I come to wrap the presents, I never know what colour to use until nearer the time.

table decoration

2008-12-24T16:02:00.007Z

The winter solstice got me thinking about bringing some holy and ivy into the house. We have some decorating our yule log and in the wreathe over the fireplace but I wanted to bring some to my parents on Christmas day.

I haven't done any flower arranging before so it was all a bit trial and error. I found a small terracotta plant pot and brought a round piece of oasis that fitted in the top. I was hoping the glue gun would secure it but that wasn't a great success. I think a bigger piece of oasis so it can be pushed right to the bottom of the pot would be better. I pushed the candle in the top then used the glue gun again to make it a bit more secure.

I cut lots of holy, ivy, rosemary, and lavender in longish lengths, most of which I ended up cutting down so it didn't get too mad.

I started at the bottom of the oasis and worked up to the top where the candle is. Starting with the holy, then smaller ivy sprigs and finally filling in the gaps with smaller lavender and rosemary.

Keep turning it round as you go so it looks good from every angle. I also left one sprig of holy longer than the rest so the whole thing had some shape rather than being round. One really handy thing to do is cut some individual big ivy leaves because they can be placed exactly where you want and fill any holes.

As all the red berries have been eaten I made my own by threading red beads onto wire and pushing them into the oasis in random places so it doesn't look to regular

more bags

2008-12-16T14:08:00.007Z

On Sunday I had another meeting of Sew n' Sew, the bag making workshop. Again my belief that the universe provides if you know what to ask for was proven right. I advertised on the Transition Cambridge mail out and knew I had a few people coming. The problem was material, I was starting to run out and with Mill Roads push for going plastic bag free there will be lots of opportunities to run more work shops.

So what to do about material? I've asked in a local curtain shop if they had off cuts but apparently not. Then on Saturday a lovely lady called Gerrie called me to say she couldn't make the bagging but that she had lots of material to donate! So I now have a huge bag of all sorts of material, some big pieces for bags and some cut into squares for patch work, which has got me thinking about patch work bags!

I ran up three bags on Sunday all made out of several different colours, but was thoroughly out done by Jo's technicolour bag!

bath bombs

2008-12-16T12:37:00.007Z

Well bath cubes really

I been having a bit of an experiment with the bath cubes. I ran two small workshops last week where everyone brought some different shaped ice cube trays to try out. It seams that lots of shape will work, especially in the soft rubber trays. But to get them working really well you need to wait until they are really dry, a good couple of hours.

We had pretty good success with hearts, fish and stars.

Tips

The texture needs to be just damp enough to hold together when you press it with the back of a spoon
I've noticed that a little too much water means they stay a bit soggy in the middle and wont come out of the tray. Just leave them for another couple of hours until they are thoroughly dry.
I made a batch the other day that had a really lumpy texture on the top. The only thing I can think was that the house was very humid from making marmalade!
Work quickly to fill the trays otherwise the mix starts to dry out and wont hold together. Some of the trickier shaped trays meant filling them took longer

jellyfish

2008-12-11T22:39:00.004Z

It is not all cosmetics and sewing. yesterday was the NHM learning departments Christmas party. renown museum wide for the fancy dress costumes the theme this year was under the sea.

So armed with a second hand parasol for a baby's buggy, the plastic sheeting that the bed came wrapped in and an awful lot of bubble wrap, I set about transforming it all in to a jelly fish costume. After taking the fabric off of the parasol I cut triangles of the plastic slightly bigger than the original, and stuck them on with sellotape. The bubble wrap was cut into to strips, mostly straight but wih some curvey ones for added interest (thanks Mark!) and stuck to the inside with tape. No need for glue or sewing the tape worked really well.

A few finish touches of strips of pink pvc and it was all done in record time! Completly recycled and with a total cost of 60p it was bargain costume

cold cream

2008-12-07T17:34:00.007Z

The other thing I have been wanting to make is some face cream. My skin is getting more sensitive as I get older and like to stay away from chemicals but I have been finding it hard to find a recipe that doesn't use something harsh as a preservative or a chemical emulsifier.

In the end I found a recipe for cold-cream. Made in the 16th century it originally used cole-seed oil, and was called cole-cream but the name eventually became cold cream. The recipe uses a small amount of beeswax, almond oil, a herbal infusion and a few drops of essential oil. It also uses a 1/4 teaspoon of borax as the emulsifier. Borax is a mineral that has lots of uses about the home and was used as an emulsifier in creams long before the chemical industry invented chemicals like steareth 20. I feel happier using borax over man made chemicals.

The recipe said to melt a tablespoon of beeswax in a double boiler. That seamed like a bit of a faff for such an small amount so I used the microwave which was much less fuss. Just make sure to check it every 20 seconds or less and once it has mostly melted keep stirring until it has all dissolved. I chose to add a marigold infusion (petals soaked in hot water) and geranium oil. Marigolds have soothing and healing properties and geranium is very balancing so all in all I thought this would be a good mixture for my skin which is currently suffering from the effects of the cold and is a mixture of red, dry, flaky and oily patches! Also the marigolds were ones I had grown over the summer and dried.

The tricky part of creams is mixing the oil and water phases together. Beeswax has a high melting point so if the herbal infusion is too cold the beeswax tuns to sold lumps before you can mix it in. I found it easier if the infusion was quite warm, then it is just a case of drizzling the infusion in with one hand and beating it all together with the other - easy!

It has made a nice creamy texture, it's a little oily when you first put it on but soaks in well. I think it will be a lovely night cream.

I scalded everything I used with boiling water first and boiled the jam jar that I poured it into. By keeping it out of direct sunlight it should last a few months.

bath melts

2008-12-07T16:26:00.015Z

This morning I finally had time to try out a bath melt recipe that I have had for a while. Instead of using bicarb and being fizzy, this recipe uses coco butter and makes a solid oil cube that melts in the bath. As well as the coco butter it has creamed coconut, honey, ground oats and almond oil and I chose to add a little vanilla oil too. I think vanilla is perfect with the warm chocolaty smell of coco butter.

It was an easy recipe, just melt the coco butter in a double boiler, add the creamed coconut, mix everything else together and add it to the coco butter. The only trouble I had was that the gluten in the oats went goopy so it didn't mix in very well, just made a sticky layer at the bottom. In the end I poured the oil mix into an ice cube tray and scooped in the goo at the end. The only trouble with that is when I turned them out (after chilling them in the fridge) they have a darker sticky blob on the top that doesn't look appealing. Oats are soothing so it would be a shame to leave them out, perhaps I just need to be quicker with the mixing next time.

webby stuff

2008-11-26T21:38:00.008Z

Well despite saying I couldn't design a website I have had a good go at modifying this one! With help of course, but even so I am rather pleased I could follow along with the HTML. The heading photo is of a flower that sprung up in the garden at the beginning of the summer, no idea what it is but I liked the colours. Then with a combination of blogger, gimp, agave and Marks brain we made the picture the right size and edited the colours in the rest of the blog

I think I could spend a lot of time fiddling with the colours...

first steps

2008-11-25T21:10:00.012Z

A couple of weeks ago I took the first steps towards sharing my creative side by running a workshop in making shopping bags. Inspired by www.morsbags.com I had an open house and 5 lovely people made six bags between them.

It was a really lovely day. I enjoyed being able to pass on my skills and enable other people to gain some confidence using a sewing machine, and make some damn fine bags! On top of that I have been inspired to think up a design that has a pocket after helping Suzie to make a pocket in her bag.

It was also a great learning experience for me in how to co-ordinate people and resources and how to make sure everyone gets something from the day.