Busy Weekend

I've been super busy lately, but it's all been good. :) This weekend I did some freelance (i.e., paid) writing work, which frees me up for the rest of the week. Of course, if more paid writing work comes my way, I'll take it!!

Still sump pumping my basement, which is getting to be a drag. It was finally drying out, but then we've had rain all weekend. Blech.

Learned to knit on Thursday and have been spending as much time knitting as I can. I absolutely adore it! Wish I could spend a lot more time knitting. LOVE IT!!

Made some more soap this weekend to send to my 200th follower - Home in New England - as a surprise. Well, it's not a surprise anymore since I emailed and asked for her address - lol. Wish I could tell what the scent is, but suffice it to say, my home smells delightful. :) I'm enjoying soap making again, though I do want to start experimenting with different looks. Sent some soaps to Sheila at Seasons of Thy Heart in Pear Berry and Tangerine scents. They were sample scents, and I'm definitely going to be ordering a bigger bottle. Loved them. Also sent her some of my prim eggs as well as a little bunny wall hanging. I guess I should add that this was before Easter - lol!

Handmade Soap and Metal Flowers

What I worked on this weekend:

Honeysuckle Tangerine soap:

Tuna can top "flowers."

Busy, Busy - That's What I've Been

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've written in here. I wanted to write more frequently, but sometimes time flies too quickly and before I know it, a week has gone by.

I finally finished up a denim rag quilt I was working on. Need to wash and dry it one more time, and then it should be nice and fluffy - at least I hope so! It's the first rag quilt I've ever made. I can't wait to see what the "finished" product will look like. Last week, I also made some yummy candy cane scented soap. It's not just your usual peppermint, but it smells of vanilla and butter. It's divine! I also made some chubby and grungy looking candles. The grungy part came quite by accident. I'll be posting some pictures of them soon. They smell wonderful as well. Soap making and candle making is a wonderful smelling hobby! Once I finish up the grubby candles, I'll be putting them up on my Etsy shop. Same with my quilt.

I've also been taking art lessons from Roses on My Table. I love the videos thus far. Zinnia is a very capable and engaging teacher and very easy to understand. I can't wait to start my mixed media crafts!

In the meantime, I'm waiting for some fabric from Joann's as they were having an impressive sale. When I got my initial order confirmation email over a week ago, they said it'd take 7 to 10 business days to receive my order. Eight days later, they notify me that they're finally shipping it. Um...that's kinda a long time to wait to ship out my order. No wonder stuff was no longer in stock. And then they charged me twice for the order and didn't credit me for the out of stock items. I'm none too pleased about that, as you can imagine. I emailed them earlier today but still haven't heard anything. Hopefully it'll get straightened out soon. Also purchased some various yarns and ribbons through a site that was having a 75% off sale. I'm going to have my son build me a loom, and I'll be doing some weaving, which I'm keenly interested in.

Hmmmm...quilting, candle making, soap making, weaving, mixed media, jewelry making...sounds like I have A.D.D. when it comes to crafts! At least I'm trying to discipline myself enough to finish up one project before I move on to another.

Tomorrow I'll be going to the second hand store and see what goodies I can find. I purchased some lovely sheer curtains last week and then this amazing, huge pottery plate. Oh my, it's beautiful! I had to send my son to pick that one up, as it would've been too large and heavy for me to carry with my bad back and shoulder. I'll be taking pix of my second hand store loot as well and sharing with y'all.

Tomorrow I'll be doing a whole bunch of writing, since I received a ton of writing projects over the weekend. Yay! Still haven't been paid in full by the woman from Australia, though she did send a meager amount last week towards the balance. At least it's something!

Blizzard Time

We're in the start of a two or three day blizzard. I kind of like blizzards, just as long as the electricity stays on! Wind chills will be getting to about 40 below.

Our water went out today, thanks to the mayor of this town firing a state certified water/sewer specialist in favor of her grandson. He doesn't take care of the water and sewer system like he should. When I walked to the post office today, I went by the water tower and saw that no one had been there to do the daily checks. There were no new footprints - in fact, none at all - in the snow, and we've had the current cover of snow for a few days now. Tsk, tsk. At least the water was thawed out within a few hours.

Been busy crafting. I've decided to open my Etsy store on Friday. I can't wait, although I'm a little nervous, of course. There are so many awesome artisans on Etsy, but at least I'm having fun making things. Did a couple experiments that didn't turn out so great today...bah!

Went to the post office today to get a couple different size boxes so I know what to charge for postage. Also sent out some gifts I made for a Christmas exchange through a forum I follow. Sent a couple bars of soap (the cranberry-orange bar and a primitive snowman soap I made yesterday. Forgot to take a picture, but I'm making more)! Also sent one of those shabby chic jeans pillows I made a few days ago. Ee gads, postage costs a lot. My exchange buddy lives in Canada, and it cost $14 more to send it to her than if she were in the U.S. When did postage get to be so high!?! The cost of gas isn't that high, is it? I guess not having a car is keeping me kinda clueless - lol!

While I was at the post office, I stopped by the second hand store and picked up a few things. There was a nice queen size sheet set in a light sage green that I bought. I can use all of it for backing for a lot of quilting projects. In fact, I'm working on one right now that I wasn't sure what I would use for the backing. Now I do!

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving! (Well, those in the U.S. Those not in the U.S. can have a lovely Thursday! *grin*)

Shoulder is Back to Normal

Yay! Not that the shoulder is pain free, but at least it's back to normal! It finally started feeling better over the weekend, so I got back to making things.

Made some soap. Experimented around with adding chocolate and oatmeal to a chocolate brownie fragrance soap. I'm not entirely pleased with results, so the bars are all mine - muhahaha! Love the scent! They're now "imprisoned" in a glass jar. Just threw them in there cuz I didn't have time to wrap them.

Also did a cranberry and orange soap. Ohhhhh, I LOVE both scents, and they're soooo good together. I have two cranberry scents; the spiced one was a NOOOOO, but luckily my other cranberry scent went wonderfully with my orange chili scent. This is definitely a keeper, though I'm not sure I'll add the powdered organic orange peel next time. I figure it'd add a light exfoliation, but once the orange powder hit the soap, it turned slightly brownish.



Here's a picture of my "fixens" that I blogged about a few days ago. Can ya tell which ones I burnt - lol! But I actually like the burnt ones best. I sealed them twice in Oatmeal Raisin Cookie fragranced wax.


Got some clothespins in the mail yesterday. I love the bowl fillers with the rags tied around them. Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen cooking (pet food and beets), I decided to soak some of the clothespins in the beet water after I was through boiling them. They didn't dye all the way through as I had thought, but they look interesting enough.


Speaking of rags, I love crafts implementing them, especially rag balls. I have no idea why I love rag balls so much, but I do. It might have to do with how each one turns out differently, even if you're using the exact same material and same length of strips. I did these while watching TV.


Our town has a little second hand store, and they had a bunch of metal plates and metal trays for sale. They've been there for years, but since I'm now looking at castaways in a different (i.e., crafty) light, I figured these would come in handy. Got them for literally pennies. I was inspired to purchase these after reading a tutorial Ahl Cooped Up did on Old Farmhouse Gathering on how to "rust" things. I figured I could "rust" these little gems. As you can see, though, some of them are already rusting.



I'd like to drill some holes along the top and make a wall hanging of some sort. I'll just have to see if my handy dandy drill actually drills holes, or if it's just a screwdriver type of thingie. (Yeah, can ya tell I'm handy? Haha)!

Anyhoo, there are more metal trays at the second hand store that I'll probably try to pick up tomorrow. I was pretty loaded down when I went to the post office yesterday, and since I have to walk, I couldn't carry too much. (The post office is in the same building as the second hand store). Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the roads won't be slippery to walk on tomorrow. I know we'll be getting colder weather starting tonight - down to the teens and single digits overnight.

So, I've been pretty busy crafting, working in the kitchen, and also doing writing jobs the past few days. It's been a great few days, especially since the shoulder isn't hurting as much. Yay!

Experiments, experiments!

Well, the past couple days I've been experimenting with quilting and crafting. Mmmm, not sure how it's turning out - lol! Yesterday I was just so frustrated in having to pamper my shoulder and not being able to do much, so I decided to do some quilting on the sewing machine. I love those quilts that have the long strips in them (is that what they refer to as "strip quilting"?) Not having done it before and just going by the seat of my pants, I tried it. Wellllll...I learned I need to cut thicker strips - haha! I do like how it's looking so far, but now I know how to do it much better next time.

Confession: I've always had creative ideas, but I've never put them much into practice. I took a quilting class back in the 1980s and never did get around to finishing that quilt we were supposed to do for our class project. I've only done little quilting projects here and there over the years.

I have to admit to mentally beating myself up over some of the mistakes I've made lately, but then I realize I haven't been a seamstress, quilter, crafter for a long time, so I suppose I should cut myself some slack - pardon the pun!

Today I tried making "fixens," and I think they'll turn out all right. I did have a recipe to follow, but I decided to use up some ingredients around the house that were expiring - like a pancake mix and pumpkin pie filling. Whoof that pancake mix sure raises those little cookies, tiny balls, and hearts! (I forgot about the baking soda in them). I've set them upstairs -which is unheated - for them to harden up even more overnight. Then tomorrow I'll coat them in some heavily scented wax. They actually look kinda cute now. Oh, and I also used some old almond amaretto coffee I've had for years. Made a couple cups out of it...and there it sat...all these years. Blech...I'm just not a coffee drinker, although I love the smell. And I very much love coffee flavored things - just not the real thing.

Also experimented with a soap "recipe" tonight. I'll see how it turns out in a couple hours. Hopefully it'll be worthy of giving to someone else; otherwise, I'll have yet more soap for myself. I did an experiment a couple days ago - trying to make soap balls. I just don't have the knack for it, or I don't know the trick to it. I kept wanting to add flour so it would stop sticking to my hands! Anyway, I have a lot of Oatmeal Raisin Cookie scented funny looking soaps from that experiment.

Tomorrow I'm going to make an orange and cranberry soap. I recently purchased a yummy Cranberry fragrance that I can't wait to use.

TGIF

TGIF. Then again, when you work at home, one day pretty much rolls into the other.

It was a lovely sunny day here on the prairie. It was surprisingly warm, too. I wish I would've known how warm it was going to be because I would've done more laundry! But at least I got a few items out on the line.

The new neighbor has a big rottweiler that he lets run loose to menace the town, and I had a couple encounters with it today. I'm getting a little tired of it, but since he's from one of the "elite" families here, the leash laws (or, dare I say, any laws) don't apply. For some reason, the rottweiler stays away from me when I yell at it or tell it to go away. One day it was chasing/stalking my son, and ever since I came out ready to defend my son and staring it down, it pretty much stays away from me. Unfortunately, it loves attacking other pets in the community, so my son and I always have to be ever watchful and on the defensive when we take our dogs outside to go to the bathroom. Maybe one day I can fence in my entire yard. That would be nice! Even better is to live on a farm somewhere...anywhere from here. Ahhh...dreams.

Well, I tried the pumpkin chocolate brownie soap again, trying to fix the mistake from the recipe. Nope, didn't work. Found another glaring error in the recipe as well. Mind you, this is from an "epattern" recipe I purchased, so I'm none too pleased. Perhaps I should start reviewing epatterns I purchase, but I don't want to be mean. But geez...people purchase these patterns expecting accuracy. Some of the other eppaterns I purchased were disappointing as well. There's often too much vagueness like "use a small amount of wax." Um...define "small." And define "a few drops." Sigh...

At least the epattern I purchased for a makedo looks accurate and not at all vague. I need to get some supplies before I make it.

Tonight was another beautiful sunset on the prairie. Those cotton candy pinks and blues were reflected on the stream out back, so it was really nice. Spent the evening watching Farscape and cutting and rolling a couple dozen rag balls. I don't know why, but I love rag balls. They're so beautiful in their simplicity.

I've got pictures!

Here's a pic of the soap. I used a recipe from an epattern that I purchased. Ummm...nope...gotta tweak it because the brown sugar "crust" did not turn out at all the way the recipe directed. In fact, it's quite crumbly. So I'll try again. I think I know how to improve it. I must say, the scents are divine! I used a pumpkin pie spice scent with a chocolate brownie scent. Yum!



Here are a couple photos of the stockings I worked on last week. The one with the buttons is the one where I used the trim of a denim shirt for the cuff. I added a bunch of buttons because I like the look of them, but wow! It sure is time consuming sewing all those buttons on. The other stocking is a big oopsie! I definitely need more trim along the side, and the bunching up is driving me crazy. I tend to back stitch, and I think that's what caused it. Not back stitching made the buttons stocking smoother, though I can still see some bunching up.



Here's a picture of a rag wreath I made, as well as the rag garland.

Cotton Candy Sunsets and Yummy Smells

I never appreciated sunsets and sunrises until I moved to ND. Perhaps it was the sheer beauty of ND sunrises and sunsets that made me finally take notice. When I briefly lived in NY a couple years ago, I didn't see any sunrises or sunsets because there are so many trees that you can't see the horizon. Here, it's relatively flat, so at least there's one advantage to flatness. (I have to admit, I'd prefer to live in hilly country - like West Virginia).

This evening, as I was heading out to take down my laundry from the line, I had to stop and just behold another beautiful sunset. Cotton candy blue was on the horizon, which looked very beautiful against the pastel yellow of the wheat field. Then there was a thin band of darker blue which then gave way to cotton candy pink. Above that were thin bands of various shades of lavender. It was all topped off by an off white that filled the rest of the sky - kinda like one of those snow globe worlds. Beautiful. What makes it even more beautiful is when the sunset is reflected in the stream we have out back. Simply breathtaking at times.

I suppose if sunsets had a fragrance, it'd be a cotton candy fragrance - at least this one tonight would.

Speaking of fragrance, my house is smelling like pumpkin pie and chocolate brownie because of the soap I made. I can't wait to use it, although it does need some tweaking. I'm going to take some pictures tomorrow of various things I've made over the past week and will include the soap.

I See Grass!!

Yes, the snow has finally pretty much melted from the blizzard of last week. There are still patches of snow here and there, but at least we're having a reprieve until we get hit with the cold, white stuff, and it sticks around for several months! For the past two days, it was surreal hanging clothes up on the line with snow still on the ground.

I finished making a couple stockings and started on a table runner. Also starting to make a rag garland, though I need to take breaks doing that. I have a bad shoulder and tying all those knots wears it out. I like the look of rag garlands, though, so I'll just take my time.

Have had some writing work the past couple days. My main source of income - someone I freelance write for in Australia - is two months' behind in paying me. She keeps saying payment is coming, but I've been hearing that for several weeks now. Because of that, I'm not working for her until she gets current with what she owes me. Unfortunately, this means my income has dropped about 70% in the past couple months. Somehow I'm keeping afloat, though the next couple weeks might get dicey if things don't start picking up. I believe they will soon.

Got some supplies in the mail today for making soaps and candles! I'm soooo excited. I used to make soaps and candles a couple years ago when I lived in NY. I had a couple shops I sold them at. I really enjoyed it, and it doesn't wear out the shoulder like quilting does. I plan on making some soap tomorrow. I can't wait!