Playing With Paper

Decoupage Bird Eggs

With the dreary March weather we’ve been having I’ve been keeping my fingers busy by making some happy springtime creations.  I started out by taking an old book, one I’ll never read, and ripping it up in little pieces to make my version of vintage shabby chic style eggs that transition well from Easter right into any springtime decor.

Blingy Glitter Eggs

Large Glittery Eggs

Mini and Small Eggs in Carrot Dish

Small and Medium Eggs in Bunny Bowl

I think I had a bit of a glitter overdose while making these.  I’m still finding glitter where glitter shouldn’t be :p  They range in size from just under 2 inches to almost 5 inches.

As I was ripping up the paper, I got thinking, since I have a kobo, does this make me a bad person for tearing up books… I think not, since these books would have been destined for the dumpster and now they’re something pretty to enjoy once again.

Then of course since I have the attention span of a…. Squirrel  I spent some time on Pintrest, and of course got some inspiration… after all isn’t that what it’s there fore?  And this is what happened.

Book Page Wreath

Book Page Wings

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing to keep my fingers busy and a smile on my face.

How do you keep yourself sane… I wanna know

Sherry

My Confession

Folks, I have a confession…  wait, let me do this properly…

Hello, My name is  Sherry, and I am an Addict!!  I admit that I have become a raging Soapaholic!

It happened innocently enough.  I started out making melt and pour soap, tweaking it with botanicals, fragrance or essential oils and colouring it fun funky ways, but that wasn’t enough for me…  I still wanted to make soap the “old fashioned way”, by mixing oils with lye to make real honest to goodness cold processed soap.

So, I bought olive oil, palm oil, shea butter and lye.  I’ve got the pot, I’ve got the scale, I’ve got my recipe, I’m ready!  I don my safety equipment, but I’m terrified of the lye… yes, I watched Fight Club… but I dive in anyway if I’m gonna do this.  I mixed the lye, I mixed the oils, I mixed them together and started stirring… and stirring… and stirring some more.  Finally after about 3 hours of stirring I figure, that’s gotta be enough.  So, I pour it in the mold and insulate it.  I’m impatient, and sneak peeks… is it soap yet.  Nope.  So ok, I’ll leave it alone over night and check it in the morning, by then it should have gone through the gel stage and become soap.  I look the next morning and…. AAAAAaaaaaahhhh, it didn’t work.  What could I have done wrong?  I figured it out that I hadn’t stirred it long enough.  So I re-batched it and yes, this time it is soap!!!  But THREE HOURS OF STIRRING wasn’t enough. So I became an occasional soaper.  I continued making the melt and pour, but I’d make my olive oil cold process soap now and then when I had ran out of the previous batch.

Well, in January it all changed.  You may have read my post Squeeee!  I got a stick blender!!  Well, that was the one piece of equipment that changed everything.  This thing has me all consumed with soap making to the point that I’m probably going to stop making the melt and pour soap altogether!

You see, it’s really not my fault, it’s the stick blenders fault, because now I can make a batch of soap, from the second I put on my gloves and safety glasses, to placing the filled mold in the freezer and walking back upstairs in under an hour!!!  Did you hear me?  I said all that in UNDER AN HOUR!!!

Before, it was a batch every now and then.  Now I’m doing multiple batches in a day!!!  And it gets worse (or better depending on how you look at it)  I’ve got wonderful new colours to play with, and I’m making cutesie soaps like cupcakes.  I’ve become obsessed!!  I lay in bed at night thinking what kind of soap to make next.  What scent and how to colour it.  What other recipes can I come up with…  Oh the humanity!!!

Here are a few pictures to show you how far I’ve sunk into this Cold Processed Soap making.

These Cupcake Soaps were made on Friday.  We had a terrible snow storm, so I came home and since there’s nothing good on TV anymore, I tried my hand at making these.

Vanilla Cupcake Soap

These are my first attempt, and you can be sure I’ll be doing more… and more… and yet even more!!  They will be ready for sale around March 23rd.

Then Sunday I made this.

Lavender in the mold

 

Lavender on the curing rack

Lavender close-up

Luckily for me this entire log of Lavender CP Soap is already sold as soon as it has cured.  I have a couple in town who love my soap so much that they buy it a whole log at a time.

I also made my favorite fragrance Rose Geranium.

Rose Geranium in the mold

I coloured it with swirls of pink and green then sprinkled a little gold dust on the top.

 

Rose Geranium cut end

It was a little too soft to cut, but I couldn’t wait any more to have a peek inside.

Rose Geranium close-up

I’ll finish cutting this log tonight and it will be ready for sale around March 24th.

So there, I’ve fessed up, I am a Soapaholic and I LOVE IT!!!  Beware, I Will Soap Again… don’t try and stop me, I don’t need an intervention, and I can promise that this obsession will get worse

Sherry.

 

 

 

Mmmm Fruitcake!

Ah yes, the much maligned fruitcake.

English: Trappist Abbey Fruitcake from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in Lafayette, Oregon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fruitcake is associated with Christmas time but the oldest reference to fruitcake dates back to the Roman times when soldiers brought it with them to the battlefields.  It consisted of pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and barley mash.

During the Middle Ages, preserved fruit, spices and honey were added.  Crusaders carried this type of cake to sustain themselves when they were away from home for long periods of time.  A good fruitcake that contains alcohol could remain edible for many years.

Each new century brought it’s own addition to the fruitcake from sugar to candied fruits, to nuts.  By the early 18th century fruitcakes were proclaimed Sinfully Rich and were outlawed in Continental Europe due to their decadence.  Luckily that law was repealed

I really don’t understand why people, not just dislike but Hate fruitcake.  Today’s fruitcake is rich and filled with fruits and nuts, history and decadence… what’s not to like?

I’ve heard of people giving a fruitcake so someone they don’t particularly like but are obligated to give a gift to, or that a fruitcake would make a better doorstop or anchor.  How sad is that

All I have to say is I LIKE FRUIT CAKE! and I don’t care who knows it  particularly the darker, heavier kind that has the almond icing on top.  I tend to eat it from the bottom up leaving the little gem of icing for last.  I like it when I bite into a piece and a marachino cherry pops in my mouth!  Just a little sliver is enough to satisfy my craving, and just writing about it now, I am craving some.

Did you know that there is The Society for the Protection and Preservation or Fruitcake?  Well there is and I guess that means I’m not the only person who enjoys it

If someone gifts you with a fruitcake, please don’t use it as a doorstop, or an anchor, send it on to me and it will find a good home with someone who will enjoy every morsel, I don’t mind being re-gifted

Merry Christmas everyone

Sherry