Soapy mood

I got into soap making/witching mood :o) Love the herbal mixes, oil infusing and searching about oils and herbs and their benefits to skin and overall health. I think in all woman there is the witch in side and the possibility of creating your one "wonder mix" during the soap making gives somehow amazing feeling. Besides I did extreme testing to my soaps - by felting my wool slippers. If after 3-5 hours in soapy process my hands feel as being in spa treatment, I think this is a good soap, besides all PH readings are 7 and superfat - from 7 to 10. But these are just numbers, most important factor is feeling of smooth hands ( and every felter knows exactly what I mean). All soaps are made from skin loving oils as olive, coconut, grapeseed, avocado, safflower, sunflower, Shea butter... plus all kind of additional luxury special treatments for the skin : 

 

Whitening - papaya, milk, charcoal     /  Nourishing - Avocado-cucumber, milk

 

Cappuccino - Goat milk, coconut milk, yogurt, whey (coffee, according to article from Skin Ageing: Natural Weapons and Strategies, from US National Library of Medicine, is very strong photoageing product)

Man's spa - Banana milk, dead sea mud, charcoal/ Beer, whey, charcoal

Really treat for our men, besides all the goodies these soaps has additional fragrance oils that strongly distinguish from unisex or women soaps ( fresh marine with warm sandalwood and more).

Soothing - honey, alkanet root infused oil, calendula infused oil, sea buckhorn oil

Camouflage - turmeric-green tee, goat milk, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, activated charcoal, green French clay ( UV protection properties soap)

Antibacterial - sea salt, ginger  - green tea, pine needle infused oil, sea buckhorn oil, calendula infused oil. But mainly importance is - four thieve essential oils mix that gives this soap strong antibacterial/antiviral properties.

silky deodorant - silk, turmeric powder, Arnica Flowers infused oil, alum, carrot pure. Besides the alum that works as natural deodorant I added essential oils the reduce the unwanted odor (as lemon, cinnamon and orange)

And of course I'm in prep mode for Carlisle Country Craft and Old-fashioned Market days and easy easy adding more eco friendly slippers to my collection

 

 

No I did not forget my workbench. Just finished one more tutorial and a bracelet that was waiting a long time and made me feel guilty and all excuses for "not enough time" just not good enough.

And the best news - looks like the summer is coming. To tell the truth I was pretty pessimistic.

Our neighbor's cats are out for sunshine warm and Archie is very very interested in these "strange animals"  

  

In Deep Freeze

So November passed by and here winter is showing the character. Christmas and New Year did come with excitement and troubles. First we got frozen rain and for some people very unfortunately a few days before the Christmas day. Our area was lucky - full functioning electrical system, just a day off from TV and internet, not big deal. My friend got hers electricity back on Christmas eve, some people weren't so lucky, it took more than a week, but for some even New Year's eve was dark and cold.

But doggie people don't have excuses for the bad weather. We with Archie marched into our ruined and broken park right on that bad icy morning. It was like after the hurricane, all big trees broken or half broken. It's incredible what water and freezing temperature can do. The sign was amazing - like crystal tree park.

But then for the Mother Nature it wasn't enough and we got "a bit" of snow. You would think that nature wants to hide all her bad deeds. I think these days were field trip days for the nature photographers, one problem though - pretty hazardous walk in the park.

Meanwhile...

... the New Year's tree was brought into our house and Archie was very excited. He couldn't remember from the last year, and wanted to understand why we brought the tree into the house :o) and why all these "toys" were hanged on the tree. Of course I couldn't pass the fun dressing him for the holiday spirit :o)

....the holiday season and cold dictates the dressing too, so felting was in full swing. Many realise that felted slippers are the best and as a gift and as the item to keep feet warm

and felted soap gives that cozy feeling in the hot shower :o)
 

...  finished a few on standby mode tutorials...

...  and of course metal clay kiln with all it's heat was very welcome detail, so I used it:o)

A bit of everything

So it's been a while. And a bit of everything. Nice autumn colors at the dog park. First frost. Dogs really feel much better and more playful compared to hot days. For us it's not so fun because much more mud in the house. But we (dog people) are thinking positively it's not +30 and not -30 and it's good enough :) 

 Me                                   and mini me

Thanksgiving was very appreciated mostly by Archie. He got full turkey, well... it's the cheapest and best quality raw meat available and the offer doesn't last long. So we cut it into smaller pieces to prolong the pleasure. Such an awful dog's life :)

 

Some excitement came from small, but very cute Cobourg town. The owner of local art gallery/shop suggested to bring in some of my jewelry and slippers. Check this gallery/shop out, really really very cool place. Full of local artists' work, some concerts and exhibitions happen there too. 

Some things from kiln .... 

finished locker from the post below

  

 

forgot that metal clay doesn't shrink too much, instead of earrings, got two pendants, but with beautiful kiln patina

... some experiments. Not sure if I like them or not. Tried a new form and a new closure for locket. Mighty internet has it all. Was looking for 2-3 mm magnet - found it :) here is the result

magnet closure

Felting experiment wasn't very successful :( Apparently my felting table is not big enough for long booties/slippers (that was not smart of me not to think about shrinkage, when constructed table), but I prised myself for being smart and thinking about waterproof basement floors :)

 

And the biggest excitement was - I made my concrete table lamp work. If you remember my attempt of using all kind of leftovers from reno, this was made from bathroom tiling thinset and plumber's piping work leftovers. Metal color spray was applied, lamp cords from ikea, shades made using balloons, PVA glue and jute twine. But the most important question was - how to connect all four bulbs into one connection without blowing fuses. I would say "Don't try that at home", but it wasn't too dangerous as I thought, problem was, that this time internet wasn't too informative or let's say very clear, because that part in high school I definitely skipped out. But anyway, it works, just need to tidy up all connections