Wonderful Wednesday

It is so great not to have to go to work, I have gotten so much done today!

First up, I tried making soap for the first time, overcoming my fear of caustic soda. Everything seemed to be going well, my mixture turned into a lovely thick cream and I poured it into an old baking tray as a mould. Then out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw it move. I stared at it for a few moments and sure enough, it was rising like a volcano at an increasing rate. What had been my lovely smooth slab of soap was soon Mt Vesuvius. I would have taken a photo but I was hiding behind the door, waiting for the explosion at this stage. Then, just like a volcano, it kind of exploded out the side and a tide of lava began oozing its way out. Then, I remembered the instructions had said to cover it with a towel, so I hastily threw a towel over it and it suddenly deflated. So, to cut a long story short, it did actually turn into soap! I have it cut up and it is drying out on a wire rack at the moment. But they are strange shaped bars of soap.

Next, I organised my bookshelves, and cleaned out a few clothes drawers, ruthlessly throwing away half of everything. Then tackled my wool box/mess and also threw heaps away. I turned this mess:

Into this:

A big improvement. I just wish I had the stamina to even think about doing the same to my patchwork supplies. Then I relaxed in front of a DVD while I crocheted this little cotton washcloth:

And finished this needlecase:

So now I'm going to relax in front of the fire with a book. It is freezing in Sydney today!

Peaceful Tuesday

I spent today weeding and mulching the vegie garden before I lost sight of my poor vegies altogether under the encroaching weeds. I find winter gardening a bit disheartening. In Spring and Summer, it is so exciting - I can go out to check on my plants a couple of times a day and every time something different is happening. In Winter, I can look once a week and can't see any changes. So I tend to get disheartened and neglect the garden, which is probably why my Winter vegies never flourish.

So now I've given them a bit of attention, hopefully they will do better this year. I have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, snow peas, parsnips and carrots in at the moment. I planted them a month or two ago. As well as all the herbs and spinach and silverbeet, which are pretty constant. I ordered some seed potatoes the other day so I need to prepare some garden for them too. I've never grown potatoes before, so that will be fun.

I also made some washing liquid, following the instructions on the Down To Earth blog. I was pretty amazed. It took less than 10 minutes and it has the same look, smell and texture as commercial liquids - I just need to try it out, but I am sure it will work just as well. I also bought some caustic soda the other day so am just trying to work up the courage to make some soap. I need to get a candy thermometer first though.

New Hobby

It has been a while since I last posted. I keep meaning to but I have been really busy with heaps of projects on the go, plus I am taking some annual leave from work so I needed to finish a few things up there. But the good news is I am now on annual leave!


Yay! I have so much leave accrued because we are always so busy, there is always so much work on my plate, we never have enough staff, so it has just been too hard to take leave over the last couple of years. Something just snapped inside me a couple of weeks ago, and I realised that there are always going to be projects that need finishing, deadlines looming etc and I just needed to cut off from work, stop caring so much about it and take a much needed break before I just went crazy.



So, lately I have been trying to use up some of the citrus fruit on my trees. I have mandarin, orange, lemon and grapefruit trees and I can usually use up or give away everything except the grapefruits which no one (including me) seems to like. So first I made a grapefruit and orange marmalade. I don't like marmalade either, so I have been giving it away to everyone I know.

Then I made this grapefruit cordial. It actually isn't too bad. I think I'll try it in summer with some soda water. It is kind of freshing, like lemonade, and not too bitter.

I've also been crocheting. I made this little slipper for myself. Unfortunately, I have two feet so I have to make another one but I started making a crochet cardigan instead, so I want to finish that first. The slipper looks a bit funny here, but with a foot in it, it looks pretty cute.

And lastly, Jeremy bought me a new toy! He decided to give me some early birthday presents to keep me occupied on my annual leave so I now have a stack of new DVDs to watch while I do some hand sewing and even better, my very own electric jigsaw! So that is my new hobby, woodworking!

I've been hoarding some scraps of old plywood for ages, meaning to make a little stand for the TV in the bedroom. Because the TV was really heavy, we couldn't put it on top of the DVD player so everything took up heaps of room. Plus, to make the TV easy to see over the bed, it had been living on top of old phone books. So my first project was this little TV stand.

And this is my second project - a little padded footstool/storage box. So now I can put all my crafty things in the box and rest my feet on it while I do some handsewing or crocheting.

Ok, it isn't going to win any design awards but I am still just practicing. When I get better, I will buy some decent timber for my projects instead of using scrap and will buy some other stuff I need like a nail punch, a router, some files and chisels.

I've spent all this morning painting some lattice around my vegie garden and pulling out some old rocket I'd left to self-seed. My legs are aching now from all the bending and stretching, so I think I will go and test my new stool out.

Giveaway at You Go Girl

Cassie is giving away a very cute pincushion to someone who leaves a comment on her latest post. She is also giving away an extra goodie to the person who refers them. I feel really bad because I read about this at Thimbleanna's blog but didn't mention in my comment that she had sent me - I normally get an error when I try to leave comments on Typepad blogs, so I didn't really expect my comment to go through, so just typed something brief. And it worked! And when I went back to make amends, it no longer let me leave comments! So if someone can leave a comment and tell them Thimbleanna referred them I will feel much better.

Forgot this one!

Here's another little ball I made. This one is covered in fabric with some ribbons and flowers and tassels! (I was searching for something in a big tub full of old craft things and came across lots of interesting and unlikely bits and pieces I had forgotten about - hence the experimental crafts at the moment. Now, what to do with the rest of the polystyrene balls, the wooden pegs, the packet of star anise (which has left the tub smelling wonderful), some bottles, some bells etc etc .....

Some recent projects

I recently made this cute little bag. It is from an Ann Dimmer pattern from an old issue of Handmade. I copied her stitchery but changed the bag to my own pattern.

And just for a bit of fun, I made this little decoration - it is just a painted ball with buttons glued all over!

Winter Solstice Festival at Katoomba

We went for a drive to Katoomba today, for the Winter Solstice Festival - a popular annual street festival on the shortest day of the year.




We left early to beat the rush up the Blue Mountains, stopping first at Glenbrook Markets which are held on the third Saturday of every month. I bought a yummy fresh sourdough loaf and Jeremy bought some cute felted slippers for his neice.


Then on to Katoomba where we browsed all the stalls and antique shops, buying some gourmet puddings to put away for Christmas. The street was packed with visitors (see above).

I didn't take any photos of the street parade because it was so crowded we could barely see it. The locals take the opportunity to dress up in their favourite Celtic gear, or as wizards and warlocks. Even the dogs like to dress up. We met this lovely Boxer Unicorn.

Then we went down the road to Leura for lunch at the Post office cafe. The Country Women's Association had a little shop there too, and I got a stack of US quilting magazines for $1 each and some fabrics, so I was happy! Picklemouse Corner is at Leura too, but I had sore feet by now so we didn't visit.

And then the drive home down the mountain ....