A Canuck in Oz

Happy 2nd Birthday MScraps!!!!!!!

2012-01-28T01:30:00.000+08:00

MScraps is turning TWO!!!!
So we have prepared a HUGE blog/facebook train with lots of goodies which will land you a gorgeous kit with the theme of Birthdays, but guess what, it doesn't have to be used just for birthdays!!!

this is the kit you'll end up with

Absolutely gorgeous, isn't it??? We have fabulous designers at MScraps! And we love them!!!

We also have a bunch of great party games and lots of prizes to win, I'm hosting the Word Scramble game on Sunday.
Come by our Birthday Bash!!! It goes on all weekend, and you have until the 13th February to finish your pages for our games!!!!!

But ....
I know you are here for the blog train, you undoubtedly came from Erica Zwart's blog. Great goodies so far, eh?

This is what I prepared for you..... a template and a QP.... hope you like them.
Just click on the image or here to download it from Mediafire
(If Mediafire doesn't work for you, here's a 4shared link)

and here's my page with it

Now, head over to another talented designer's blog: Heather T or if you prefer, you can head over to her Facebook Page.

If you have time to leave me a note before the train leaves for the next station, it's always appreciated. :) I hate asking, but the joy it brings is worth your time, trust me! hehehe!!!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'd love to see anything you make with the QP or the template if you do, just come here and tell me about it (my email address is in the TOU as well!)

Cheerio! and enjoy the train....

IF YOU ARE LOST, and you do not know which way to go, come by the MScraps forum, and get the WHOLE LIST of stations on this journey!!!

Happy Trails!!!!!

MScraps turns TWO!!!!!!! and we're having a party!

2012-01-22T08:59:00.001+08:00

Don't miss this Sale at MScraps!

2012-01-06T11:42:00.000+08:00

Very sad to see Ruth leave MScraps, but you still have time to grab her absolutely gorgeous kits and masks....... we'll miss you Ruth!!! But we'll keep an eye on your blog.

Be Quick!! MScraps CT Call.

2011-11-24T07:43:00.001+08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-23T20:23:00.002+08:00

it's iDSD time, and MScraps has a blog train/facebook hop for ya!!!

2011-11-05T01:30:00.000+08:00

Hello and happy iDSD to you!!!

MScraps has a bunch of challenges for the weekend where you can win prizes, lovely prizes too!!! (don't forget to have a quick peek at the rules to be FULLY eligible!)

This is the gorgeous kit you're picking up along the way on this blogtrain/FB Hop.....

If you're doing the hop in the right order (and not back to front as I've been known to do in the past), you've come from Erica's FB page *Erica Zwart Designz*. Gorgeous goodies so far, huh?

I hope you like this QP I prepared for you. I left the word art off it so you can use your own, or some of the fabulous kit you will have picked up on the way today.

Or perhaps you'd like to use something from November Rain, which is free with purchase of $10 or more until November 7th. Or other kits in the shop, there's a 30-50% sale!!!

This is the page I created

and here's your Quick Page. Enjoy it and please let me know if you make anything with it. I'd love to see how you personalise it.

Download it at

4shared

or at

Media Fire

(same file)

Now, to be on your way, you should head over to Heather's Facebook Page.

Have fun!!!
(and if you feel like it, tell me what country you are downloading from... it's going to amuse me greatly, and it's just as fun as reading "thank you"!!!)

if you get lost along the way, go to the MScraps iDSD forum and see the blog train list there!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great iDSD Party Weekend!!!

Coming tomorrow

2011-10-31T07:26:00.001+08:00

Coming next weekend.....

2011-10-30T12:32:00.002+08:00

MScraps Blog Train and FB Hop

2011-08-27T04:00:00.017+08:00

Hi all!

MScraps is having a Beach Party!
There's a fabulous Blog Train and FB Hop going on, at the end of which you'll have a fabulous Beachy Kit in gorgeous colours, a few templates and a few quick pages too! What more could you want? What? Games? Challenges? Yes, we have that too. Just stop by the MScraps Forum and come play with us.....

We've been having games and parties all week long, and it's not too late to participate!

You've probably come here from Ella's blog and you will continue on to Sonia's blog after you are done here. I'm so lucky to be sandwiched between these two talented scrappers.

Here's my part of the party, normally I'd make fudge, or a salad for a party, but for this kind of party, I made a Quick Page, I hope you like it!
The QP is based on this page I created with bits of the Fabulous Blog Train FB Hop.....

And this is the QP I am offering you:

DOWNLOAD LINK

I know you're probably all very excited about getting on with the Blog Train/FB Hop and I completely understand... but... if you make a page of your own with this QP I would LOVE to see it.

Your next stop on the train is Sonia's blog ! Have fun!!!

If you get lost along the way, you can always find your way back at the MScraps Forum

Come join the Beach Party!

2011-08-21T20:00:00.000+08:00

I have a cold, allergies, my nose is all red

But I am looking so forward to pretending I'm on a beach, in the sun, all week, and having fun with lots of Summery digi games.....

Come join us

I've discovered digi scrapping

2011-05-03T17:15:00.002+08:00

Hi all
In December, thanks to Heather T I delved into Digital Scrapbooking (those who knew me as a rubber stamper, yes, I know! I know!!! I know exactly what you are thinking! hehehe!), anyway, I also found (again thanks to Heather) a lovely little nook of the web where I spend a lot of my time, and a few dollars.
In anycase, this weekend they are celebrating InterNational Scrapbooking Day (INSD)
thought you'd like to know:

Hope to see you there!! Click on the image to see the shop, and click HERE to go to the forum.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-16T17:07:00.001+08:00

Hello!!!
The last few months have been busy with my daughters's 12th birthday, mum's visit, end of school performances, assemblies, graduation night (not our year, the year above us, though one of my two was co-hosting/presenting the evening), end of year parties, etc... But a few months back, I got ready for Christmas (well, for the "Christmas presents for the teachers and staff at school"), and this is what I made (straight out of the Soap Queen's Soapdom) :

Mask used in the picture is by the lovely HeatherT (BoyOhBoy kit)
background paper by Shabby Princess (Seasonal Sampler) - I'm sure the SP is lovely too but I do not know her.
I know HeatherT! :) Lucky me! (Hi Heather! Oh Hi JulieK too being you are responsible!)

It was fun, a bit more difficult than I had anticipated, but once I got the right brush, the right temperature and the right frame of mind, it wasn't so bad. I finally ended up using the soap paint in a little oil burner, you know, the ones you use with tealight candles. That worked quite well, but sometimes I had to blow out the candle, and re-light it a bit later as it would make the soap a bit too hot. I don't suggest adding TiO2 as I found it made the paint milky and this was not the effect I was after, but for pastel colours it would probably be a welcome addition. I scented those with Champagne, simply because I love that Brambleberry Fragrance (which I get from AussieSoapSupplies.com.au here in Australia).

I have also delved into the dark side and made a few digital scrapbooking pages! Mostly from kits from my friend HeatherT. She sells at two shops, all details are on her blog. I might post some of my creations, one day.

In the meantime I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that there's only one year of primary school left for my two little ones, who are not so little anymore. One of them is 5cm shorter than me, the other, only three!!! I better start buying platform shoes!

Until next time I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

I tried it, it's fun!

2010-09-22T12:42:00.006+08:00

Hi all! I tried the paper embed soaps, like Anne-Marie (and SoapyLove Deb) did.

Below are three I got right, still trying to get the hang of it. They will be used for raffle baskets at (one of) my daughter's gymnastics competition on the weekend. I scented them with Yuzu but to save me some grief I only scented the white part.

Clipart from TopEndSport used with permission

I bought my paper from Thread Studio in Perth (Dale) but if you're in the "Americas", you can get it from BrambleBerry.

You can find tutorials on how to work with water with this video, or by reading a few illustrated tutorials (illustrated: with pictures) such as the latest tutorial by SoapyLove Deb, cute I *heart* soap moulds used by SoapyLove Deb, Father's Day soaps, single use soaps and if you want to make a bigger soap.

Thanks so much Deb, Anne-Marie (and your crew) for all the wonderful inspirations you bring us!!

So much fun, and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination! Off to try and use the new tip Deb suggested today "Spray hardened soap in molds with alcohol and pour another thin layer of soap on top. Place paper, image side down, into the soap and pour another thin layer of soap on top. Use a chopstick or craft stick to press image down flat. Smooth all corners down. Allow to harden." and see if I can get rid of the fog and clouds I got in some of the other soaps... Nice to create again.

UPDATE: Soaps ready to go, using some of HeatherT's lovely digi-scrapping papers from Play Sweet and Button Speak, which I used in Xara Xtreme Pro,

and of course a pic of my little gymnast :)

For when I have time on my hands

2010-09-18T21:58:00.001+08:00

A list of very cute ideas, just might get around to the koala bookmark soon though because it's just too cute: Wee Folk Art (again, just putting this here so I can find it again when I need it. I couldn't find the spot to "follow" them!). This one too has nice stuff.

Oh, and while I'm here, this is a very interesting post from Anne-Marie from Brambleberry/SoapQueen... "Building blocks of your reputation" - let's just say I'm glad some of the Yahoo!Groups' information/messages is private. ;-)

I'm selling some stamps

2010-07-29T17:39:00.001+08:00

' I love Picasa...
it's easy to use, and it is fun, and I'm even blogging from it. All this to let you know I'm selling some stamps (somehow 30 rocks "imma snitting next to barpo" comes to mind, undoubtedly mis-quoted!)....

Yes, it's sad but I have LOTS of stamps (that is not the sad part) but I have to get rid of some. I have not used many of them in a long time. I'm keeping some, many actually, but I've started listing some I have to part with on my Picasa album. here:
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/acanuckinoz So if you are into rubber stamping, go have a look. International postage is always a bit dear, but some of those stamps are bargains, and the more you buy, the more you save!!! If you want to check out Australia Post's rates you can do so here: http://auspost.com.au/
I hope you like my new-look-blog, got tired of the old one (after a few years, ya know...) and I love the new customisable templates Blogger now offers.

Ok, off to feed the little family now.
[STAMPS UNAVAILABLE UNTIL DECEMBER DUE TO BOX BEING PUT IN SHED DURING RELATIVE'S VISIT, but if you want something, let me know, just don't be in a rush to get it ;)]
thanks for looking!

Banoffee Pie is a Sometimes Food

2010-06-05T12:07:00.006+08:00

As is Toblerone Cheesecake. I don't know what it is, perhaps the onset of Winter, but I've felt like baking, not that I've found a stash of "free time" anywhere, and when I do I'll tell you how it works, but I've baked...
I made scones a few nights ago for morning tea the next day, and oops, read 250 gr of butter instead of 175 gr, and also when measuring the sugar, I thought I was being clever measuring it by weight and just pouring from the large bag, and well, I put in more than I should have, and couldn't recover any as it was a bit blended with the flour!! But I ended up with pretty nice scones, a one-off never to be made again. I've since found a recipe calling for a lot less butter (even without my mistake), and after I tried it once I'll see if I can sub some of the butter with apple sauce.

So, the other week, browsing I found a recipe for Toblerone Cheesecake from the Philadephia Cream Cheese site. I didn't take a picture of my pie, but it was nice!!! Really nice. I made mine with half Light and half regular cream cheese, and used Xylitol instead of sugar. Minor changes, but unnoticeable and every little bit is better than nothing at all. If you don't have ground almonds, I suggest using more cookie crumbs, or coconut, or ground "other nuts" that you like.

Then I decided to finally try something I've been wanting to do for ages: boil a tin of Condensed Milk. It's easy. I've been warned it's dangerous and all but if you stay nearby and watch it, and make sure it doesn't boil dry and that the tin is always covered, it works. I'll do it again (but be warned, it can be dangerous!). I made a Banoffee pie with it... what is a Banoffee pie you ask, well it's a Banana-Toffee pie (also seen as Banoffi Pie, but I prefer the Portemanteau look of banoffee). Apparently made in Australia the first time.
I made up my own recipe as I didn't have everything every recipe needed...

Caramel:
The night before, while making dinner and up until finishing the dishes I boiled a tin of Sweetened Condensed Milk. I didn't use the "light" version because I thought for the first time better try with the real thing. So I used a deep enough pot, boiled water, put the can in (actually I put in the can while the water was still not too hot) on its side, and boiled, and then let boil for 2 hours adding water whenever the level was getting too low. You shouldn't really have any part of the can exposed. When that was done I put mine in the fridge after it had cooled down some, because I wasn't sure I could do the pie the next day, but I had to warm up the caramel. I really should have stuck the tin in warm water for a while, while I made the crust or something. But I'll know better next time!

I made a crust using:
1 pack of Chocolate Ripple cookies, crumbed (and since we ate a couple, I ended up with 225 gr of cookie crumbs to which I added 25 grams of coconut - I stick the cookies in the blender and pulverise them)
125 gr of butter, melted

Add melted butter to the cookie crumbs and press in the bottom of a spring form mould. I always line the bottom of mine with baking paper. I need a 20cm (8") mould but all I have is a bigger one, so your pie is thicker or not depending on your mould.

Stick that in the fridge for about an hour.

When that's cool enough, slice bananas (most recipes say 2, I used 3 as my pan is big, and I wanted the bottom to be covered). I just made sure there were bananas almost everywhere and that I didn't see too much of the crust. Then you pour your caramel over that, spread around a bit, and refrigerate again. Mine was still a bit stiff, so it didn't spread everywhere but frankly, it did not matter :)

Whip 300 ml of whipping cream when the caramel has cooled (I'd say half an hour ought to be enough, unless your caramel is still quite warm when you pour it on top of the bananas, then you should probably wait 1 hour)... and top that pie... I added a dusting of Cacao because I thought it would look nicer. I put it back in the fridge for a bit, while we ate dinner.

I find running a plastic knife, or a spatula, around the edge of the cake helps when removing the circular bit of the spring form mould. I don't like using a real knife because I don't want to scratch the mould!!

Anyway, a really fun dessert to make, and it was nicer than I'd imagined it would be, and quite simple when you think about it (time consuming, but only because of all the boiling and cooling). Don't know when I'll make it again but it would be a nice summer dessert (provided it doesn't sit in the sun for long!)

So, ingredient recap:
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (our tins are 395 gr, they used to be 400 gr I think)

125 gr butter
250 gr cookie crumbs (use whatever you like, digestive, scotch fingers, etc) or 225 gr cookie crumbs and 25 gr dessicated coconut

2-3 bananas
300 ml whipping cream (if you like the whipped toppings, no reason you can't use that)

optional: Cacao or cocoa for dusting, or shaved chocolate, or whatever will make it look pretty to your eyes.

* * * * *

There's another way for making the caramel filling if the idea of boiling a tin scares you:
Source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2350/banoffee+pies

Caramel filling

1 x 395g can sweetened condensed milk
70g (1/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
50g butter

To make caramel filling, place condensed milk, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 10-12 minutes or until caramel thickens (do not boil).

Spreading the Soapy Love

2010-04-01T15:49:00.002+08:00

This photo is not mine, it is ©soapylove and used here to promote a fun giveaway to spread her Soapy Love http://soapylove.blogspot.com/2010/03/wash-my-back-and-ill-wash-yours.html check it out!

Debbie is from San Diego (I had friends there in a previous life, Laura for one, and a few people I worked with, never been though). She is a Melt and Pour Soap Artist, she does wonderful things, shares her knowledge and sells gorgeous soaps too. Go have a look, if only for the eye candy value, and if you're a soaper, wash her back too. This is all to promote her latest issue of Let's Get Soapy.

as for me, I made more half egg soaps last night for the girls at work, made half "Chocolate (AussieCandleSupplies)" and half "Passion Fruit Rose (BrambleBerry), they all smelled so nice, and I had a bit of soap left from each so I have a marble soap for us at home!

I plan on catching up on my sleep this weekend :) a looong weekend! Yay!!!

Cheers and if you are going to have chocolate, enjoy it!!

Food stuff in MP soap

2010-03-29T21:11:00.004+08:00

I'm using Picasa to find some pictures I can't locate on my HDD (don't you just hate when that happens?), and I came across this picture I had taken from a book for a recipe I really wanted to try (beats writing it down and realising I can't read my handwriting, which used to be quite OK, but not so much since I'm using computers so much... which could bring up a whole 'nother topic where a friend told me they don't teach cursive writing, aka running writing, in schools anymore as kids don't write anymore.... that is just insane... but going back to my soap.....) and I made it, and it was gorgeous, and a few weeks later, the girls are washing their hands and one comes to me and says "mummy, i just washed my hands and they smell like vomit", so I figure she's exaggerating again, doesn't like the new FO I used, or what not (kids have the funniest comments sometimes)... so she makes me smell her hands, and it was FOUL! her hands DID smell like some sour milk.... and well, I went and smelled my beautiful looking soap (as per the recipe in the picture to the left) and it was absolutely dis-gus-ting..... I guess the moral of the story is beware what food stuff you put in MP soap as it's not the same as CP soap and can go off...

Now if anyone knows of a way my soap wouldn't have gone rancid with the whipping cream, please enlighten me.

Anyway, it's not just because a book was written and published that what's in it is has been tried and tested. I remember people on a soap forum mentioning a book where the person is showing new soapers how to make soap and tells them to pour the water into the lye.... That is dangerous beyond words. How books like that get published is just negligent.

My 2 cents while I go back to look for the darned pics I lost ;)

Cheers! (below is the pic of the lovely "Tiramisu" soap I'd made with the recipe with cream... looked nice!)
note: I should probably add that this was one of the first soaps I made, about a year and a half ago... coming across the picture reminded me of the story... so I thought I'd put out a little reminder/heads up.

what's keeping me busy this weekend

2010-03-21T00:41:00.001+08:00

Other than the farting around hubby and I have had to do with his car, and with his work, etc... this blog post is what I'm doing to keep my sanity this weekend...

BUT FIRST, this is what happened to hubby's spare tyre a while back (now before you think I can't spell, that's how tire is spelled in Australia, and I always think Canadian Tyre wouldn't have looked strange. This was part of our weekend as well...

The guy at the tyre shop where we went this morning says in hot weather (it happened on one of the heat record days we've had this Summer) he sees a couple such explosions every week from 4WD type cars! Hmmm, interesting.

Anyway, hubby thought his front wheels needed aligning, so the car is at the tyre shop, and lo and behold, one of the front tires is causing the wobbling, and the cause of the wobbling is the same thing (for lack of the technical term because I cannot remember it) that caused the spare tyre to blow up... and would have done the same in a matter of ..... days!!!!! Imagine that!

So we may have saved hubby's life by getting it fixed sooner rather than too-late!!!!

But the fact that his car is unsafe to drive is causing a bunch of scheduling conflicts (oh the busy life we lead when we have children!), which I won't bore you with... some days/weeks seem like nothing will go quite right. What I wouldn't give for a week to be so perfect that it would be boring!!!!! Not just with hubby and the cars, but with all the melo dramas caused by life in general!!

***

Anyway, after reading SoapyLove's Debbie's tutorial for cup cake soaps, seeing the video (below)by the Soap Queen was very exciting, and I'm in the midst of trying this project:

How to make Soap Cupcakes with Whipped Frosting from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

The cupcake portions are setting right now. Can't wait to try the whipped soap for the frosting! Anne-Marie told me (via her Soap Queen blog, and she checked with Debbie) that I can use bubble bath base, which is great because I just got a bunch at Aussie Soap Supplies. I find it makes a great addition to a present basket (see further below) when you add a bit of pearliser, fragrance, and I always like to add a teeny bit of Shampoo Ultra Thick in there, to thicken the bubble bath.

I was at our local The Reject Shop earlier today looking for Easter trinkets (after seeing a doco on ABC or SBS called "Fakes" I don't want to buy chocolate at those places anymore - too afraid they are bad fakes, but I'm happy to buy their trinkets) and I came across these silicon moulds:

They had mini ones as well but I knew if I got the little ones I'd use them for chocolate and gobble them all up, so I dind't get them, but gosh they were cute!!

So I used some Organic MP Base and scented it with Chocolate Milk FO from Aussie Candle Supplies, and coloured with some brown (rich brown oxide dispersion from Aussie Soap Supplies and Cappuccino Mica also from Aussie Soap Supplies). Will show off a picture when they are set.

***

Speaking of gift baskets (well, I did mention it somewhat above when talking about bubble bath base)... This was the latest gift basket effort for a 21st. I made the labels using one of HeatherT's digi kits Little Miss Muffet. The theme was largely Strawberry based, but not all was coloured perfectly (the soap in the front is a loofah soap, and the mica I used wasn't quite strawberry red, but I try to play with what I have) but I tried to keep in the pink/red theme... I had to get some tea too when I saw that package, as it looked so luxurious!!

Below is us three (me and my two not-so-little-anymore girls)

1. Ready for our first 21st, 2. 21st Birthday Basket, 3. 21st Birthday Basket wrapped up

and below are our henna tattoos. Mine was taken one day later, the girls' were taken as soon as they removed the henna. DD2 had a bit of a reaction to hers, it made her very itchy and they were both looking forward to removing them. I put lemon on mine after an hour or so but scraped it off before bed. Mine lasted just under a week, the girls's just over a week.

and finally I have unloaded pictures from my camera... and I present some of the Tie Dye that kept us busy during two very hot days over Christmas.

1. Tie Dye Fun - Tank Top by DD2, 2. Tie Dye Fun - Tank Top by DD1, 3. Tie Dye Fun - bag by me
Created with fd's Flickr Toys

***

Well, this is what happens when you keep getting interrupted, things happen in the background the day ends, and I am now able to present you with little cup cakes, but you'll have to wait a bit for the chocolate egg soaps.

Hope you like them. I'm really happy with the way they turned out! Now to think of a clever tag or sticker so kids (who may win the raffle) don't take a big bite... this might be a problem :)

Yes I'm still around

2010-02-18T21:29:00.001+08:00

been busy, made soap, girls and I did tye die and I have pictures, but no time. soon. soon.

laughing is good for you

2009-12-10T11:11:00.005+08:00

Reading this site: http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/ has given me a giggle (and sigh in desperation too a bit). We've had a few similar clients at DH's business of late, and I've had a pretty long and not so great week, which is possibly not over yet.
But clients from hell really cheered me up!! (in a very strange way)

Oh, I was also quite shocked on TwitPics today, there's random pics on the front page, and the one that popped into my face this morning was one I sure hope kids don't get to see! Another bit of innocence lost (not mine, but that of any child who may have seen this picture...) - i just have to speak out... why is it that men feel they need to show, and share, pictures of their erect (or not) appendages???

Ann has a fun giveaway!

2009-10-23T19:03:00.004+08:00

My friend Ann has been really busy raising funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation and is having a giveaway of her fine soaps!
You have to guess the weight of the 5 soaps, and you will win them if you are the closest to the weight. You can go to her Made It shop and find out the range of the weight of each soap and venture a guess.

As for me, I've been making quite a bit of soap but I have no time to blog about it as my Mum is visiting us and I'd rather spend time with her than on the computer, so forgive me and when she's gone and I'm sad and blue I'll come forget my sorrows by telling you about my suds!

Soap of late (while I'm on hold on the phone with the ATO!)

2009-10-05T16:29:00.009+08:00

RHUBARB AL FRESCO
Rhubarb al Fresco is a great scent, but I think I'd be better off using it in shampoo/conditioners/melt and pour...

My first time with Rhubarb al Fresco in CP went quite well but turned an awful yellow colour. It also traced very quickly and I had to slop it in the moulds quick! Only later did I realise it was a fast-tracer and super-heater (sometimes I think of looking up that information, sometimes I don't)! The colour was awful, I stuffed it in the cupboard and a month later I had a fairly nice soap, and it smelled wonderful, no ash but a few bubbles as it was thick when poured (check pics in this blog post, the 2nd set of dragons to see the change in colour). Then I've remade it, and it looked fine, I only used the whisk, no stick blender but as you can see from pics below, it's got some brown spots (probably FO or something, not sure, not zappy either - but ugly!!)

I'm rather hoping the brown spots are the FO which has already discoloured, as the colour ressembles the first batch I made, but I really thought I had blended in the FO very well... I can only wait and hope that when the curing period is over, my ugly duckling will be a beautiful soap! (well, it's fun to believe in fairy tales!)

VANILLA SOAP FAILURE AND SUCCESS
Then there's my vanilla soap experiments! Yikes, a tested recipe which worked really well as a log didn't go so well in my dragon mould... I think my problem is that I unmoulded it too early, it ashed like mad! -- my coffee and mango lassi soaps are made with that recipe, and they are beautiful soaps. The coffee soap has even darkened a bit more since the picture on that post was taken.

This time it really ashed, as you can see from this picture:
I even lost chunks of the dragon, though this might have to do with the fact that I tried to unmould too quickly, but I didn't want a repeat scenario from when the soap would NOT come out of the mould even after a month of waiting! But not a single dragon was unharmed, they were all missing chunks!! I'm thinking too that perhaps cocoa butter in moulds is not a good combination, I seem to remember the "stay in the mould" soap was also made with cocoa butter.

The baubles I made at the same time also ashed: but the fish (below), which I made in a Ikea ice mould, and which I didn't unmould until a few days later seem to not have ashed So I'm still not sure what causes ash, why it is some people never get it, but I'm looking for ideas of what to do with this soap, rebatch? chunk? grate?

So as this Vanilla Dragon soap was a special favour for a friend of mine, I had to make some more. Her son doesn't like soaps that smell too strong and he also loves dragons, so I'm making her a slab for her to give him at Chrismas (she's a mum from school who helps me out often, like, oh, let's say, when my car refuses to start!!! LOL!!!) so this is the 2nd attempt at this dragon slab:

This time it's curing very nicely, no ash (different recipe) and also turning a beautiful brown with time. Very very pleased with this batch.

TIDAL WAVE SOAP

This is a soap I made using my new colours (from Heirloom Body Care) and some fragrance I was lucky enough to get from Erin when she had a de-stashing moment. I had mica (Aussie Pure Glow) in there, but I have had no luck at all with mica. I'm starting to think too that maybe that mica is not meant to be used that way but just used in make up (oh how I'd love to formulate my own mineral foundation!!!). I was going to use the mica in the swirls but it became very-traced VERY quickly so I poured it with the rest of the soap and mixed a bit with the whisk... I am now, two days later, noticing some white flecks in the soap, which is preplexing as I didn't use any titanium dioxide, I gather they could be the mica (could very well be), but they aren't shiny and they aren't zappy either! Pictures will have to follow in a few days, in case anyone has comments or suggestions about what the white flecks are.

OAT MILK, HONEY and CALENDULA
So it hasn't been a great soaping week for me, though my calendula orange and yellow soap made with oat milk did make me happy

*phew* anyone still reading???

I also had a bit of MELT AND POUR fun the other night

using the double pour method. I'm quite taken by that method. I also tried to make baubles with a strip of a different colour in the middle, it worked well, but not well enough (need to experiment again with that one). So those baubles not making me happy, I cut them up, and put anything with a bit of colour in the colour pot, and the clear bits in the clear pot, tried to re-melt to do another double pour, and I just could not get the soap to stay at the proper temperature so I put everything in a pot, added some more Merlot Mica (ASS) and poured straight baubles, they are quite nice, translucent, and the Pure Glow Mica (ASS) and the soap glitter really add dimension to the glycerine base.

I got the base from Range and I like it quite a bit, I have a feeling it doesn't sweat (testing a bar right now) and I think the problems I had with the 2nd double pour could be because I lost some humidity in the soap reheating it (or it was too cold in the house!). I got some more of that base today, as well as a large quantity of various oils to make more soap.

ATO
for those who wonder about my ATO comment, well, I edited most of this post (and added the title) during my 45 minute wait at the ATO's help line, to get a different BAS form for my hubby's business, only to be told that I wasn't authorised to request that on his behalf and could he please call back later! Well, at least I got a blog post out of it!

If you've read all this, please thank yourself from me!!

1 image = 1000 words, or this is why I love my water filter

2009-09-28T20:42:00.003+08:00

Left is the water filter I took out to clean, right is the portion I cleaned.
But you can't see the chlorine smell it takes out of the water as well. I love my water filter!

Coffee and Melt and Pour Soap

2009-09-20T15:06:00.004+08:00

Coffee soap that is. I might call it "Café avec un nuage de lait" a combination of an old Asterix joke (though in Asterix the "nuage the lait" was in tea, but I digress!)....

Another version of the JMDault Recipe! Fun, it's only coloured by the Fragrance Oils (Turkish Coffee and Vanilla Select from Brambleberry -- I had to add vanilla because I didn't have enough coffee.

And this morning we made this below for a party we're off to in a few moments:

the star is from an Ikea mould. So much fun and what a special present (even if this is not the first time I've made it!) . I also got my SoapyLove book! What fun!

I've made some soap!

2009-09-13T11:14:00.009+08:00

After over two months of not soaping, I've churned 3 soap recipes in as many days, will I make a fourth today? not sure, Sundays are busy with lots of other stuff! Also I'm expecting some soap colours in the next few days so I might slow down a bit, make some lotion for a change (we're out of the one to which I add walnut shells, and we love washing our faces with that one!)....
Anyway, here's what I've been making the last few days:

a remake of this dragon rhubarb soap which makes people very happy (and hopefully it'll turn out as nice as the first batch, this rhubarb fragrance is a bit difficult to soap with!)... all these made with people and Christmas in mind!!
This soap changes colours as it cures, and ends up looking like this one but without the bubbles as I used lower temperatures this time and it didn't go NUTS on me!!! (I'm only posting a link as I've talked about this soap before.

Then I decided to try a recipe discussed in an online forum, and made it a blind swirl with a discolouring FO. I'll wait to post cut pictures as the fragrance is still morphing as the soap is curing.

I added poppy seeds on top, as I had this image below in mind, which Patti Cakes has agreed to me posting on my blog. Click on the image to go to her recipe!

The next one is a gorgeous recipe put on The Dish by JMDault, owner of 3 Cornus (in my beloved home province of Québec).

Then, I felt I was on a roll, on day three I made this repeat of my Chai Tea soap, this is the first slice, on top of the log:

I'd made a mini batch of this a while back and I just love the smell so much, I had to repeat it. This is also a recipe from the online forum, and we're all just making soap with the recipe (it has olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil, which is interesting for me as I rarely use castor oil in my soap!).

Did anyone join the Best Body Challenge? I haven't even had time to take pics (there's something about those pics that's not as fun as melting oils and making soap for me at the moment!)... but I'm re-registering for another month of boot camp. I don't think I have ever, in my life, trained so regularly for such a long period of time... So that's a feat it itself!! I still have heaps of improvement to achieve: baby steps!!

I think that's it for today! (Oh, you can see larger versions of these pictures in my Soap Set at Flickr)

Fit For Health offers a 12 week challenge for people around Fremantle!

2009-08-22T09:09:00.005+08:00

(Update: 4 Sept 09) due to so many things going on at the moment, I've decided to not actively participate in the challenge, as I do not need any added stress, but I will continue boot camp, and continue to try and do all the right things on the path to better health and fitter body :) I just don't have time to fill out the form and take the pics!... and the deadline is today! I do boot camp 3x per week, I walk about 3 km 2-4 times a week getting the girls from school after work, and I've recently started drinking Green Smoothies (not just that but I've added them to menu) so if that doesn't do it, I don't know what will!!!

Hi all
The "health club" where I've been doing Boot Camp (for FOUR months now!!!) is having a 12 week challenge, with prizes even, for people around the Fremantle area.
Ric, the owner of Fit For Health is "on a mission to help as many local folks as possible experience and enjoy real body transformation results."
If you're interested, the challenge starts on 5th September (deadline to register is on the 4th, and all it will cost you is a $20 donation to the Rett Syndrome Research Fund via Fit For Health).
You can register HERE!

I won't be able to attend all the Saturday sessions, but I'm going to take the challenge and use my Boot Camp sessions as my exercise for the 12 weeks.

Think about it, 12 weeks will take you close enough to Christmas!!! :)

I'll be back with regular programming a bit later in the week :) with any luck!!

This below is Ric's email, if you're interested in the challenge...

Hi France,

Congratulations again on accepting the "Your Best Body 12-Week Challenge."

I know you're going to love participating. You'll definitely love the results you achieve.

And that's why I'm writing you today...about results.

See, I'm on a mission to help as many local folks as possible experience and enjoy real body transformation results.

I want everyone to have their Best Body!

Call me pollyanish, but that's my mission.

But I need your help to make that happen.

Will you help me? All that I ask is for you to send a quick little email to all your family, friends and co-workers who live locally and invite them to check out the Best Body Challenge web site at:

Freo Best Body Challenge

In fact, probably the easiest thing to do is just forward them THIS email.

That's all there is to it.

Remember, the Best Body Challenge serves two important purposes:

#1: To help as many local people as possible get their best bodies.

#2: To raise funds for a very worthwhile Charity, the Rett Syndrome Research Fund (because, as you know, everyone who participates in the Challenge is asked to give a small, one-time $20 donation to them at or before the Orientation on Saturday, 22nd August).

So this Challenge is BIG winner all the way around.

That's why I hope you'll help me spread the word by forwarding this email to all your local family, friends and co-workers.

Thank you VERY much, in advance.

Sincerely,
Ric Isaac
Fit For Health

P.S. Don't forget to submit your Best Body registration before the deadline on Friday, 4th September!

Thank You Soaps

2009-08-19T20:49:00.004+08:00

Saw this great tutorial at The Soap Queen's Blog .
I thought it would be the perfect thing to make for a small thank you present I have to make. I decided too that I need more micas! *VBG* they add sparkle to soaps. The rubber stamp is one I got made a while back, with polymer, and it's perfect for this as it has really nicely rounded edges (you should see the way I usually chop my stamps!! Well, actually pretty well, but not as smooth as polymer can be!)

This below is another one I made too.

Anne-Marie could make anyone love Melt and Pour!! Check her out on You Tube - SoapQueen TV too!

Friends have soap for sale!

2009-08-14T09:52:00.008+08:00

My friend Ann has some Breast Cancer Awareness (fundraising) soaps for sale, as she states "these soaps have been made especially for the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation to aid their research, councilling and education services and as such all profits will go to them."
At $2 a pop it's a great buy! Click on the image to get to her shop, or click here. She'll be adding more items to the shop, so please bookmark it and come back!

I found Gabbie (another friend) there too! Her shop is HERE.

Where Did July Go???

2009-08-09T14:27:00.006+08:00

I can't believe it's been so long (now don't all bloggers say that when they have been slack!?) since I put anything up here. Lack of time. And you'll judge by the way this post will go that time is still scarce.
Hubby got a job starting 1 July, juuuuusssst before the holidays, I scrambled to find a babysitter so I could work a bit, I also took a MYOB course during the holidays. I'm not planning a career change but I'll be able to help Hubby in his new venture. It was nice to spend time with the girls during the holidays.
They kept me busy too, they went to a "Mario World" activity organised by a local church and wanted to be dressed up as Princess Daisy and Princess Peach for the picnic (on the Sunday), but as luck would have it, the email I had received said "12:30 pm" for lunch. Little I knew that they had the picnic right after the service on Sunday. I guess that's what happens when you need to rely on others to pick your kids up from activities because you have to work! After a few tears it all ended well, the organisers were really kind to them and they left with each a "green" bag (actually Orange) with Yoshi on it on one side and Mario World logo on the other (if you have kids, they'll tell you who Yoshi is, and they'll also tell you if I spelled it properly!)...
Here's a pic of my little princesses:

I made the dresses, they helped with the fabric picking, and they made their accessories (earrings, pendant and crown). I used magnetic earring backs as neither of them has their ears pierced yet. It worked really well.
I used the pattern McCalls 5135. I used the top from the green one and the bottom of the black one, making it much, much, much longer, and it took lots and lots of fabric!!
I did buy a pattern to make gloves, but it was just a waste of money, I just don't have the patience, and the fabric we had picked was just too curly-wurly at the edges! so I used the fabric to make petticoats as the dresses sort of needed them!
I made them swear they would wear those for Hallowe'en as a lot of work (and money as with anything handmade, really) went into the dresses :)
We'll have to dress up DH as Bowser or Donkey Kong, but he'll probably want to go as the Grim Reaper again!!

Oh, Little Miss C has been really busy making Mario World paper constructions and even started modifying the templates she found on the web to make other Mario World characters. The other morning I made them pancakes for breakfast, so they set up Mario, Luigi and Toad for breakfast, complete with pancakes, syrup (the punched swirl) butter, and knives and forks:

I didn't make any soap in July, on the list are a lot of things, though I need to make shampoo first of all. So nothing new on that front!

Lately I've discovered (well, so to speak) Martha Stewart's website... and actually made one of these: T-Shirt Bag with an old band T-shirt that DH had been wearing (Red Red Meat!) and which was completely ripped at the armpits... It's a great way to give a bit more life to T-shirts. I have a few more which will be dedicated to the cause as I'd cut off the sleeves and end up not wearing them a whole lot, also, why is it that white T-shirts go yellow over time? I can feel a bit of "tie dye" envy here!!!

This is another Martha Stewart thing I did!! I used an eyelet (my lovely little Crop-a-dile came in handy, and no, it's not little really) on the wallet leather, and for the cards... This is the Martha Stewart version (membership card organiser), and below is mine:

I've also been enthused by my buddy Ann G to try a "one sheet wonder" type card, you take one piece of nice paper, cut it up in pieces, and end up making 10 card fronts with it. I had a nice piece of Christmas paper, so I'm going with this. I've just started, marked the paper, if it works out I'll give you more details.

I am still doing boot camp (I know, un-be-lievable!!!) and (even more un-be-lievable) I'm actually enjoying it and looking forward to it. My shin splints have given me a break, so I thought "hey, I can run and jump now!!" but they are back a bit, not with a vengeance though, but I need to be a bit careful for a bit, that does mean I don't do as much as everyone else, but I still work hard (well, at least I think so!!)... I also got to meet HazelBlackberry who left me a comment last time I went to a crack-of-dawn workout on a Saturday. That was fun!! (Hi Hazel!!!) I still prefer my end-of-day workouts, it doesn't wipe me out for the day.

here's one more thing I've thoroughly enjoyed watching every week, and which my daughters enjoy watching with me, this is probably the girls's favourite - there's heaps more to view too:

Enjoy the videos!

Gotta run, I have some presents to go wrap and a cake to ice as we're celebrating Hubby's brother's birthday - he's visiting us for the weekend.

Ok, that's it for now, see you soon... or next month!!

--------- the last part of this post has been removed - it was a comp that's over! --------

My Swirl Soap

2009-06-27T10:22:00.004+08:00

I tried this soap swirling method from the Ellen's Essential website

It looks a bit like mille-feuilles my mum used to make (without the pink, and the black was chocolate! LOL!). It didn't quite turn out like I expected it to, but if I don't think about it too much I can love this soap!! Here are the cut bars:

It looks like cheesecake on the inside (though, not too sure what flavour the black stuff would be)

I used the lid of an A4 box of paper which I lined with freezer paper. I undid the lid so the flaps would be on the outside. Which also makes it easier to line.
I think next time I'll try a simple two colour swirl. This one (though you wouldn't know) had three colours added to the cream base.

For the first time I used macadamia oil in a soap! It's considered a luxury oil! I can't wait to see if I see a difference!!

Other than that I'm signing up for a third month of boot camp training with Fit For Health it's been hard but fun. My plantar fasciitis is behaving itself, which is wonderful news after so many years of feet pain and not really knowing what it was. I had my cortizone shots almost two years ago (21 months) and it's still good, but I do have shin splints at the moment, mainly in my right leg, but while I walk while others jog and I shuffle (jog as impactlessly as I can) while others run, I figure doing what I'm doing is better than not doing anyting at all. I had a nice surprise yesterday when the lab coat I wear once in a blue moon at work (mostly during Winter months) buttoned around the hips! It had never buttoned up and the one time it did, it snapped as soon as I sat down! Now, the scales may not show much progress, but buttoning up a lab coat, that's exciting!!! (well to me anyway!)

I'm trying the Flock browser at the moment, and while it's a bit over my head with all the "social networking" aspects of it, I find it's great to add pictures to this blog, or to forums, really handy. I really love Maxthon as a browser as some of the add-ons are just fantastic, but it doesn't co-exist very well with Vista (I love some parts of vista, but there's other that make me cringe!!).

It's been almost a year since I've done any serious rubber stamping, and a bit less since I've done any serious polymer clay. Time just flies. I want to do stuff, but with everything else going on (just regular life stuff) and this soap making, and making my own shampoo, and not wanting to do takeout more than once a week -- it's our Friday treat, the girls get Maccas and Hubby and I get Subway (I get the healthy veggie one!) but the bonus is that one of the Woolworth's I go to (Woolworth in Australia is a food chain, btw, as is Coles, nope, not a bookstore chain here!! though they do sell magazines!!)... anyway, one of the Woolies here has coupons for Subway on the back of their receipts, so when I'm lucky and I buy enough stuff (read: Groceries for the week) I get one, sometimes two coupons for Subway. The coupon is "buy one 12" sub and a drink, get one 12" sub free" so, even though we never drink the whole drink, it's still a 2nd sub for the price of the drink, which is less than $3, so that's a really neat savings, and I don't have to make dinner, which is always very much appreciated on a Friday... they also have coupons for pizza and other things, but the Subway coupons is what we like!!!

Well, here you go, my soap progress, boot camp progress, and how to live frugally tip all in one!!

Oh, btw, Sulea, you won that soap a few months ago and I just remembered you never emailed me back, I'll go pester you on your blog, I have a nice selection to pick from now!!! :)

Images in this post shared with Flock - The Social Web Browser http://flock.com/

Colour changes

2009-06-21T08:34:00.006+08:00

Well, the leaves don't change much here in fall (we're actually in Winter since the 1st of June, but it's really hit last week, cold wet weather, and the leaves rarely turn red! I do miss that about the cold crisp air of the morning, seeing those beautiful colour changes in the leaves...). Well, doesn't matter as my soap is doing a little colour changing of its own. It's not fully cured yet, but I thought I'd show you the colour changes in this soap, in which I used a Pink Ultramarine.
This is the soap when I made it (from yesterday's post) on the left, and on the right, the soap now three weeks old. (Click on photo to see full size versions)

I tried to neutralise the background to a true grey so you get the real colour of the soap (well, for the first picture I did have a square of white to neutralise the colours, but I cropped it out! Irfanview does that very well, btw, both colour balancing and cropping!)

This soap is the Rhubarb al Fresco, it went really yellow (no other colour added to the soap, just the Fragrance Oil (FO).
Again, soap I showed yesterday on the left, and on the right is the soap today, now two weeks old:

Well, whether that is interesting to others or not, I now have this fact documented :)

I'd better go get ready, it's 16°C outside, possibly raining today, and we're off to a picnic, the fitness club with which I have been doing a boot camp style training, FOR SIX WEEKS (*bow* *thank you!* *bow* no, I know, I can hardly believe it myself... problem is I can't run these days as I gave it my all in the first two weeks and gave myself a nice case of shin splints... but still, doing something is better than doing nothing!! and shin splints is better than the plantar fasciitis and heel spurs I've managed to not aggravate... yet! Fingers crossed...)

Anyhow, Fit For Health is having a client appreciation luncheon, on the riverside, it's going to not be too toasty, I reckon!!! But it'll be fun, fun to see what is served at such a picnic (surely not those horrendous red sausages in a slice of white bread!), it'll be nice to see the trainers and other people in a more relaxed athmosphere and it'll be something to do on a Sunday afternoon (as if I didn't have enough to do already!)
(btw, if you are in the Fremantle/Hilton area, and you would like to join, just send me an email... you probably have my email if you are in this area and are reading this?? Or use the link at the bottom left of this blog! There's morning sessions or 5:30pm or 6:30 pm so you really have your pick, though, Boot Camp in July and August doesn't sound too dry or warm, does it??)

Where's my tuque and my mittens???
----------
Wee little update, I tried the Pineapple Coconut soap in the shower this morning with a shower pouf, and WOW! Bubbles galore and my skin feels quite nice too, not dry. Smells sooo nice too (but I already knew that!)
I use a pouf when the soaps are new as the edges are a bit "straight" but I plan on getting a little gizmo to make them look nicer, next time I'm at the hardware store. I'll keep you posted ;) another tip gleaned from The Dish

When you feel your craft is letting you down

2009-06-20T11:16:00.006+08:00

Have a look at this funny blog where people post their craft failures. I probably have a half dozens I could add, if I remembered them. I try to forget about my failures (craft or cooking) but try to remember the lesson learned! :)

I made another batch of soap this week, with my own home made oat milk (milking those little flakes of oats takes patience and dexterity! LOL!) - more on this a bit below.

First off, the coconut soap from the previous post didn't really change much. The colours are a bit more uniform, and not such a big change from the pic below. So I won't bother posting a pic but you can see one here, the brown is a wee bit less brown, but really, not much of a difference.

A few days later I decided to shred all my bits of soap (the ones from the ends of the log, or leftover from when I thought it would be nice to cut small samples for people, etc) and make what is called "confetti" soap... I used a plant based colourant called Alkanet (it's a root, ground up) which is supposed to turn to purple/mauve but yeah, it looks mostly grey... doesn't matter, it'll still wash nicely:

well, at least it's a not-so-girly looking soap!!! :) Funny thing though is the round one gelled and the crinkle cut one didn't, and I can't see a colour difference. Alkanet is supposed to react differently gelled or not.... this is the same recipe divided in two moulds. Strange. Maybe time will tell a different story!

Then a week or so after that I played with my Milky Way Moulds... the things which are impossible to unmould unless you use force!!! But there are other tips I've gleaned along the way... Sodium Lactate is your friend, and silicones too!!!
I've used Na Lactate in the soap, and I also sprayed the mould with the detangling spray I make for the girls, which consists of Cyclomethicone and Dimethicone. I was able to unmould my soaps after an hour... Much better than the last batch I'd made in the moulds where some soaps were impossible to unmould after two weeks (When I decided to use brute force!!)

These are my first successfully unmoulded soaps:

These are slowly turning into an "vieux rose" colour, old-fashioned pink, or think of slightly tea dyed pink... hmmm, I must learn to describe colours better!!! :) These will get a pic update at the end of the month I believe!! Colour IS changing! (oh, these are scented with a Karma Kazi FO which is similar to Lush's Karma! I just LOVE it, while some other noses don't... I think the Patchouli is the deciding factor here!)

I was so excited a few days later I tried another one, the soap is quite yellow, it's supposed to mellow (mellow yellow?) over time. I'll post another pic when it's cured if there is a difference (FO here is Rhubarb al Fresco!):

This week I was highly inspired by a post on The Dish to try and make my own oat milk by soaking 'old fashioned' oats (imo the only oats worth buying!) in water, cook them a little to soften them, and collect the liquid... called "oat milk", and made soap with it. An interesting process, the oat milk when mixed with lye was quite thick, but it soaped really nicely. I also tried to swirl in some mica, went about it the wront way, so my soap looks as though it has bruises! The smell is Buttermilk and Honey from Big Tree Supplies (Karen there is really nice, great service! and she has all the Lush type fragrances you can think of!!! YUM! she also has candle supplies, and reed diffuser supplies too!)

Oh, yeah, so here's the soap:

and here's a close up of the grains, they are not lye (as far as I can tell, no "zap"), I believe they are the grains of oats that I squished through the sieve being a bit too enthusiastic in my quest for oat milk.

For my next batch I might try a really neat swirl method I've read about on Ellen's Essentials.

Nicnas and soap

2009-05-23T14:45:00.005+08:00

Here's a petition dear to my heart:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/reform-nicnas-registration.html
I would love to make a few dollars from selling some of my soap, but I feel I can't cos I woudln't want to be caught and fined!
If the fees were less, I'd pay them (even though I don't think Nicnas would do ANYTHING for me! But I'd love to be proven wrong) so I can sell, in person, or on Etsy.
My soaps ARE nice! LOL! I want to sell them, but NICNAS is in the way, so please, sign the petition to help out small scale soapers like me.

In the meantime I'm enjoying seeing how this soap will change, one of the fragrances I used makes the soap darker, I'll post another picture in a few weeks.

It smells of coconut and pineapple!!! I just love it! I pick it up and smell it frequently!!!!

ah! Lucky that wasn't ME!

2009-05-14T11:21:00.004+08:00

My friend Heather T send me this:
http://www.katu.com/news/weird/44851907.html
I am glad our episode at work (caused by me, see a previous post) is over, the fridge seems to not smell anymore.
I found out ground coffee is great, you can put vanilla essence drops on the coffee (even the cheap stuff), baking powder aka bicarb soda, but also white bread (I wouldn't waste nice bread on that), put a few slices in the fridge and change every few days, DO NOT EAT! Crumpled newspapers also helped! I would also have tried citrusy essential oils but didn't get to that (and tried the cheaper approaches first!)

After a month of not making soap, I have a batch in the freezer, yup, cos I added goatmilk to it I put it straight in the freezer to prevent overheating, let's hope I don't get that partial gel! :)

I have been playing with "bath and beauty" stuff lately, but not much I have time to expand on at this very second. I am however getting a lot of inspiration from Susan's Blog!!!

One fishy, two fishies (I'd rather find the Easter Bunny!)

2009-04-10T10:48:00.002+08:00

OK, the slide show didn't work, so I'm going to try to figure something out. (the slide show won't work at all for me, sorry about that! but since I Was updating you on the fish situation, I'll leave this post here, any advice on the fish smell or the code would be appreciated!)

Well, I thought I'd try this code I found here and update you on the fishy situation. Turns out this new technology fridge is made of styrofoam inside, so you can't really scrape to clean, but I did my best to clean some "stuff" in the foam in the freezer when I was finally able to remove the little vent at the bottom of the freezer part, but it turns out the fridge has "foam" at the bottom, and whatever leaked from the top is now IN THE FOAM! so it's going to smell for a while, eeek! We're trying baking soda/bicarb soda for a while, Whirlpool didn't have any other advice to offer, which was rather sad. I thought we could flush the foam by putting the fridge over the drain and pouring water in the little vent in the freezer, while unplugged... if that's what route the fish juice takes, then I don't see why not water... but apparently "it is not advisable" told me a lady with a very thick American accent (out of which I was trying to decipher some Delhi accent!!!). Another option (which I found on The Dish! They are so knowledgeable there!) is to fill the fridge with newspaper balls. We may have to try this, I'm just very worried about the foam bit under the fridge, there's NO WAY to remove it and rinse it... that I could see, maybe I'll look again and see if there's screws there if the smell doesn't vanish over the long weekend (I have a feeling it won't! *sigh*).
This said, I have a 4 day weekend ahead of me! As most people do, though Saturday we must do the grocery shopping!!!

Well, I hope this slide show works. Let's hit PUBLISH and see!

Overzealous?

2009-04-06T17:06:00.002+08:00

Well, doesn't pay of to try and be overzealous!
On Friday I thought I was being a good employee, turning off the lights and the various power outlets in the kitchen at work. "Leave the coffee machine on" said someone, as another someone likes the machine to be ready anytime, fine, turn the kettle off, etc....
Little did I know... when I came in this Monday morning, I put my lunch in the fridge, and the light was off... I had inadvertently turned off the power outlet for the FRIDGE!!! My boss had some fish (he fishes) in the freezer.... it was MELTED, and didn't smell very nice!
Not a good way to start the week, and definitely not a way to earn brownie points with the boss! *sigh* and that fish is SO nice (I do know!).
Luckily it was only two pieces, but it was two BIG pieces...
You try to do the right thing and you mess up! I hate days like that! :)

Oh, here's one of my pet peeves:

Ann's Bushfire Appeal Items

2009-03-07T11:08:00.005+09:00

Ok, these weren't made by me, they were made by my friend Ann G, and all profits will go to the Bushfire Appeal.

She also made two items for the same cause, offered on OzeBaby:

Black and White Cot Quilt
and an Adorable Wool Sleeping Sack

Have a look, won't you?

As for me, well, not much lately, too busy with other stuff. I have to say though that Ryan finally got his money out of his soap, after extra long baths!
I've made two batches of soap since my last post, one I had to rebatch, had to learn the hard way to beware of floral FO! But the resulting soap is just fine and dandy :) and I made another soap, with almost full water this time as it was another Floral FO (you can use different percentages of water, within certain limits, and the more water you use, the longer your soaps take to dry) and they are a wee bit hard to unmould, so I've decided to ignore them for a few days, eventually, they'll shrink :)

Ryan's Birthday

2009-02-17T20:32:00.003+09:00

Last weekend was another birthday weekend, and we went to a party, and we had to bring a present, and this time it was a BOY having a party... can't make him lip balm and a cute bag.... and I didn't have time to think of a "boy bag"... the invitation said "anything pokemon or $5 for his bank account", hmmm, I had NO time to go shopping (heck, I don't even have time to blog or make soap lately!)... so I thought, and I thought, and we borrowed some image from the web (now I do hope this won't get me in trouble, and if it does, I'll change the picture), made a card, and I was thinking of making a little money soap like on The Soap Queen's Blog, but instead I sort of improvised on the theme... I took 6 x $2 coins (present comes from two children so I figured $12 was good, and went better with my idea than paper money). I washed the coins with soap and then sprayed them with rubbing alcohol to kill buggies.
and I made this:

I should have taken a picture without the glad wrap (would you know it, my little cello bags were nowhere to be found on Sunday morning!!!), but you get the idea. Well, Ryan loved his present, told his mum it was one of the best presents ever! He apparently had a super long shower that night, and also wanted to wash his little sister and made sure Mum and Dad also used his soap. My two and I were in stitches listening to the mum telling us the story, and Ryan was there too and agreeing with everything Mum was saying!!! So much fun!!

Today when I saw Ryan at school he came up to me and said "I got two coins out!!!"... apparently another very long bath last night... Quick and fun present, and useful too, I had no idea it would be received with so much enthusiasm, it just made us so happy!!! And so much better than money in an envelope!!!

I remember when I was younger (all those years ago) there were cards with little slots for coins, so that they would be either the wheels of the car, or some apples in a tree, and there were slots, and sometimes just openings to squeeze the coins in, in different shapes... haven't seen any in a while (hmmm, could be because I haven't shopped for cards in a while)....

Speaking of cards I got a fantabulous one from my mum today (early birthday card, sent from Paris no less, mum finally got to set foot in Europe to visit my cousin and research and climb up our family tree!), anyway, said card was actually bought in Montréal (isn't cute, mum sent her daughter France a card, from France!) and was made by a cousin of mine, Marianne Chevalier... and I'll show you a picture, but if you want to see some of her really interesting weaving style you can visit her site although the cards aren't on there. I'll post a picture of my card eventually, and also post a picture of a lovely painting I received a couple of years ago for my bday and I have never posted to this blog... à suivre as they say in Paris!!!

And (finally) the winner is...

2009-01-30T17:19:00.003+09:00

Congratulations!
The winner was drawn randomly (I wish you all could have won!)

Thanks for stopping by. Sulea, when you've seen this, I'll send you an email so you can pick your soap :)

I have had a gutful!

2009-01-30T16:59:00.002+09:00

Below is a letter I just sent to Channel 7, Perth. news@7perth.com.au
I'm posting it here as I think it's important to speak up. Some people will say "they'll hear it at school" yes, they will, and we can discuss it with them, but I don't think it's fair that it's pushed upon them as they are enjoying watching a fun kid's show!
If you feel the same, please do something.
I haven't yet written the other Perth channels as I want to write when I hear something, my beef today is with Channel 7.
If you agree with what I'm saying, please do something, and if you don't agree, feel free to leave a comment, I'm open to reading what you have to say (I may or may not agree, and I may or may not reply, but I'll read).
Thanks for letting me air my frustrations :)

Hello

I would like to let you know how horrified I am, day after day, at the news bits you broadcast during children's programming.

Yes, life is life and we can't always shield our young ones from the horrible things which happen in the world, but do you really think it's appropriate to mention, as was mentioned a few minutes ago, during Hannah Montana, the story about the father who threw his daughter off the West Gate bridge in Melbourne???

Do you really honestly think the audience of Hannah Montana need to know about rapes, murders, suicides???

This is not the first time it's happened!

Please take some consideration about that topic, some channels don't even broadcast any type of advertising (be it for their news or other programs, or products/services) during children's programs.

In anticipation of a considered and helpful response.

Regards,

I HAD MY NAME HERE
AND MY TOWN HERE, Western Australia

Gorgeous photography

2009-01-27T21:19:00.004+09:00

Mountain peace!
Originally uploaded by suresh_gundappa

Beautiful pictures to be seen!!!

That's it for me for today, I'm having a bunch of minor health things just bugging the heck out of me, the least of which is my sprained thumb! I remember doing something (can't remember what, either pouring from a pot or opening a jar) this last weekend and feeling one of those electric muscle shock type things (like a funny bone on your elbow), and didn't think much of it until it started hurting again..... sprained a thumb without even doing anything very exciting, EVEN!
So rather than bore you with the rest (and it's hard to type when your thumb is bandaged to your hand so you stop using it and aggravating it!) go see some photography. I'm off to bed with a podcast, thanks to Justine who got it from Patti (Sneaky Patti just changed her blog! no wonder my link wasn't working! She also makes beeeeyuuuutiful soap).

Lorri's having a birthday and bananana!

2009-01-23T17:34:00.006+09:00

haha, more on bananas! I made my banana bread the other day, which requires 2/3 cup oil, and in my not-paying-attention, I put 2 CUPS of oil in my bananas... lucky the bananas had been on sale and I was planning on freezing some for future banana bread, I was able to puree an extra 4 cups of bananas to make up for the extra oil! Funny as usually I use apple sauce for this pair of breads I make, but this time I was lazy..... I think I would have tweaked at 2 cups of apple sauce!!!
Goodness... I made two huge banana breads, a banana bread cake and some banana muffins!!! And I'm happy to report our new oven seems to be behaving!

Could be too that I'm used to large quantities of oil, given my recent soapmaking venture!

Onto Lorri, who owns Scrappindipity with her daughter Bec, is having a birthday giveaway... so stroll on down to her blog to see the rules, and spread the love!!!
Lorri's Blog
The post in question

go have a look around, she's pretty darn talented :)

And I promise to draw my winner for the coffee soap in the coming few days ;) I'm feeling a bit chicken, but I have given some people at work some soap and they seem happy with it (either that or they are GOOD liars!)... Ah, let's make it Australia Day Draw!!! ... see you then!!

Ice Cream Bars are on Allrecipes.com.au

2009-01-20T16:30:00.006+09:00

Filomena at work gave me this recipe, I wanted to check the ingredients as I wasn't sure if I'd missed anything (I scribbled it on my glove at work!) which led to a conversation with Liz at Allrecipes.com.au, which led to this:

Featured recipe for 20th January 2009

A little while ago, the recipe below (which I sort of insisted Liz put up, but being it was taken from the Allrecipes.com, site it had to be copied from there, but it featured my piccie of my little cupcakes ;)

Here's the link to the cupcake recipe.

now I'm going to go test our new (landlord provided) oven with my Banana Bread recipe... WISH ME LUCK!!

Reports on birthday gifts

2009-01-18T16:30:00.003+09:00

I never told you, the day Olivia had her birthday, there was an incident with a watermelon, the dad hadn't put the watermelon in a safe place in the boot (the trunk) of the car, and it fell and cracked, and the mum was rather annoyed, and kept cursing the watermelon during the party (turned out it was quite edible and quite nice) but as I knew her daughter would only open the present at home, I told her "When Olivia opens her present, know that I hope you will find it amusing - this probably makes absolutely no sense to you now, but it will later"! Well, being the funny lady that she is, she got the joke, she sms'd me saying that she now understood, and the cutest thing "Olivia loves her bag so much she wants us to take her to the beach so she can use it"!
And yesterday Sophie's reaction was priceless, she saw the card (an electronically generated card, a bit of a step aside for ex-stamper-papercrafter-and-maybe-soon-to-be-again-but-who-knows-when me) and her first reaction "Mum, look, they made this" turning to me she asks "did you make this?" she was so excited, so it was faring well! She then opens the present and said "I'm sorry if this was expensive wrapping paper, but I'm about to rip it"! I said to her to go for it, that it was HER wrapping paper now. She is such a cutie. She sees the bag and one of the flowers (somehow my wrapping paper turned otu to be not so easy to wrap, and it was cheap paper too!) and again she exclaimed "Mum! look! They made this!!!!" then she noticed something was in the bag, so she carefully unfolded the bag, and opened it and said "oooh! It smells like BATH STUFF!!!", and pulled out the soaps and the lip balm (all in bubble wrap) and without even looking again "Mum! mum, look, they made this!"... it was so nice to get such an enthusiastic response to a handmade present!!!

Here's a close up of the items:

Fun!

Another birthday party

2009-01-17T11:41:00.003+09:00

We're off to another birthday party in a little over an hour, here's the present:

Sophie likes blue. We made her a watermelon lip balm, watermelon soap with embedded cutout flowers, and a nice goaty milk soap with a loofah embedded (that one is fruity scented) and a felted bag!

I am so happy (once again) to put my whim-purchased felting kit to good use!!!

Have a good one!

One Banana, Two Banana, Three...

2009-01-14T17:00:00.003+09:00

go see Pauline's Banana!!!
Anyone else?

Yes, I should think of a better title than SOAP!

2009-01-13T20:41:00.008+09:00

My soap buddy Gabbie has been putting me to shame, she started soaping a week before me and has already made over 30 batches!!!

Ok, since my last lot of pictures, this is what I've been up to...
I did make my tooth soap, and I've even been using it, that soon after making it, and it's just simply wonderful. You have to try to not put your tongue on it too much as it does taste soapy, but I like it so much better than my favourite toothpaste!!!

Then after that I made a great Coconut Oil soap... 100% coconut oil, with a twist... Thanks to my new friend Justine who inspired someone by the name of Irish Lass, who has been singing the praise of Justine's idea!
This is my rendition of it. Yes, I'm still trying that elusive swirl! Oh, and I used a rubber stamp to decorate this bar!!!

I then revisited my first batch, making it a bit different, with no oatmeal (though I do love some oats in my soap!!) - I attempted a 2 colour ultramarine swirl in that one, but something didn't go quite right! Though it looks like it'll be a nice soap if not a pretty one!

And then came the disaster!!!!!!!
It all started with my coconut soap (which I now call Extra Cocolicious)... all went fairly well though I didn't really manage a swirl this time either (the elusive swirl!)... and I thought I'd gotten a really nice gel:

When I unmoulded it, it looked not quite completely cooled down, but still nice enough (and definitely NOT displaying a very nice swirl, but I can live with that)

but when I cut my first slice, oil came oozing out!!! You can see the pool of oil (upper right) above the soap

So I turned to the savvy soapers at The Dish and it turns out I soaped way too hot (it was HOT indeed on Sunday!!!) I forgot to cool my water, my oils were too hot... just one silly little mistake after another which yielded a mistake larger than the sum of its part!!!
So I thought, nothing to lose, let's try a rebatch!!!
That's when you take your botched soap (though some people choose to do this with good soap!) and you cut it in slivers:

and you put it in a crock pot (which ended up in the oven as the crock pot temperature wasn't high enough on LOW and I was too scared to put it on HIGH!

and you melt it in the oven until it ressembles goop!!!
You then slop it in a mould, and well, to my surprise, the resulting soap is not bad! A bit grainy, a bit ugly at the top, but I adore the scent I used (Ancient Sedonia and Vanilla Select, from Bramble Berry, which I get via AussieSoapSupplies!)....

But tonight, I think the Soap Goddess is with me as I made a Goat Milk soap -- they are notoriously difficult, from what I read, as milk makes soap overheat but I figured, after the disaster of Sunday, let's jump in with both feet... and so far, so good!!! The soap even looks really nice!!! I scented it mildly with some lavender oil, took my time, and so far, so good, but it's in the fridge to prevent gel!
Photos will have to be shown tomorrow...

and on a completely different note...

now, why is my banana sad?

can you see the face ?

OH!! GIVEAWAY UPDATE!!! well, I tried my coffee soap, and it's slightly exfoliant, and I am waiting for a couple more soaps to come to maturity so the winner (when I draw the name) will have a bit of a choice, as I'm not sure everyone will like soap with scratchy coffee in it :) it's not scratchy really but you can definitely feel it... so if you haven't entered, please do here.

To all...

2008-12-31T20:26:00.003+09:00

(well, sorry this has little boxes around all the letters, which makes it look like crap! Or maybe your computer won't display the boxes, who knows, but the heart was in the message... So take it for it's sparkles, and never mind the boxes!!)

oops!!!

2008-12-29T15:30:00.002+09:00

Hehehe! Don't you hate it when that happens! I uploaded pictures, and clicked the wrong button (the enter key) and it actually published my blog, with NOTHING on it but pics... so I'm editing it now (again) so stay tuned... and you can have a guess at what the first picture is in the meantime!
(this first picture I refered to above is now the last picture in this post)

---
Anyway, I was going to chat about soap!!

Below is my Chai Tea soap from a few weeks ago (18 December), I made it in a small wooden box. They are about 6cm wide(~2 1/4 inch). Cute! I think this is my new favourite size to test batches.

I quite like this picture, even if it's out of focus (now, if someone has tips for photographing soap in focus... I have one: use your macro setting when you're close!! but also sometimes no matter what, and mostly with melt and pour soaps, the focus just won't take for some reason, must be the see-through quality of the soap? Anyone with tips better than mine?? I like how this shows the soap being somewhat translucent.

This one is my latest, made last night, using MangoLassi... this picture shows what happens to the soap as it saponifies. It reaches "gel" stage, and looks almost translucent. A bit later, after I took this picture, it was gelled all the way to the sides. It's quite nice to see, and to me, an indicator that something is going right! LOL! I wish I'd thought of poking the thermometer in there, to see what temperatures it reaches inside when it's like that! Maybe next time.

and a sliced view, and my terrible attempt at swirling (I know better now, I've been reading yet more!) ... My next batch will be a special project (tooth soap: don't knock it until you've tried it) and then after that I might give the swirl a whirl!

Ok, Julz... thanks for your comment! I just want ppl to know that you posted your comment before I was done updating this post!

It does look nice, doesn't it? like a nice guacamole before all the rest of the goodness is added... but nope, it does have a hint of avocado... it's the conditioner I made, yes, hair conditioner, with Tania guiding me towards a good recipe, and here it is:
and it is absolutely fantastic (even though I had to fudge the recipe a little as my kitchen scales, for a moment, for no reason, refused to measure small quantities of this and that, and I am sure I went over the required 4 grams despite it staying dead set at 0!!!) Oh well, live and learn. I've got a new way to measure such small quantities now!!! I will measure my container, and remove the 4 gr from there!!! Much better idea I think... this said, this conditioner seems to work quite well on us!!

For more soap candy have a look at my Flickr album, there's some soaps on there that aren't on here (and vice versa!) I am particularly fond of my new checker soaps!

Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Serene 2009

2008-12-25T10:39:00.003+09:00

May 2009 be Just Perfectly Fine!!!
Merry Christmas from me and my lovely elves!

Source of the pic: http://www.elfyourself.com/ wish I could remember the blog on which I saw my first "elf yourself" image, so I could credit the man in question and link to his blog... he's somewhere out there, eihter a polymer clayer, a soaper... one of those fascinating crafts!! I'll find him again one day!

Olivia's Present

2008-12-21T21:08:00.005+09:00

Need a present, not sure what to buy? Make one!
I was very excited about making this present for a party to which the girls were invited, it got me to use two of my new hobbies, 1) soap, bath and beauty products, and 2) felting.
I'd never really felted a piece before, but we (the girls and I) planned the design, got cutting and got felting, and I got soaping (while our two girls just played on their computers, they like seeing the end product of somethings but they do not always like to participate!)
So this is what our friend Olivia received:

A tote bag, a little card matching the bag, a watermelon lip balm, watermelon scented soap (with pink, white and green layers), and a watermelon body glittery perfume. I wanted to add a watermelon bath bomb, but didn't have time to make it, and a watermelon candle, but she's too young to play with matches!!

To add to the story, there was watermelon as food at the party, but... there almost wasn't, Olivia's mum was mad at Olivia's dad because of the "packing of the car" for the event, which resulted in the watermelon falling out of the boot of the car and cracking (and maybe even rolling a few feet as there was talk of "bashed and bruised" melon!!!), said melon was eventually cut and served and was quite delicious, but I told the mum that I hoped she wouldn't hate watermelon forever, and to think of me when her DD opened her present! LOL! She did, and she sent me a sms message saying the daughter loved the bag so much that she wanted to go to the beach right away so she could put her towel in the bag. That made our little felting-trio here, very happy!! It's always hit-and-miss with handmade presents, never sure if people will appreciate the thought and work that went into it, and I always feel a bit bad, as a mum of twins, if I don't spend exactly twice the amount I should, since when these people come to OUR party, they sort of are put in a position of having to get TWO presents!!! I am hoping in the end it evens out... I don't know if it does or not.

I'm not sure about you, but I don't know if I'll arrive at Christmas on time!! Too tired to do anything tonight (wrapping, I hope to start tomorrow night!), too tired to think what we'll eat on the day, but I did do some shopping today (my new favourite grocery store was open on Sunday, as was the liquor store!) which is good because now I have two and a half day to remember what I forgot, and that list is already getting long!!! Nothing special on the menu, my salmon mousse, some nutella dip with fruit, some veggies, chips and dips, and veggies and dips, probably some cheese and cold cuts, more fruit, more veggies (I'm optimistic!) and the dreaded plum pudding at the end of the day (usually in place of our dinner)... it's not that I don't like plum pudding, it's that it's heavy, and I do eat it anyway!! *grin* that's why I dread it I think! I didn't buy mince pies, and I will try not to! LOL! as I'm the only one who likes them in this house, so I end up eating ALL of them! YUM! I just LOVE mince pies (hmm, might have to buy some anyway!!! they would go every so well with the chai tea I'm sipping at the moment!)

Pressies for teachers

2008-12-14T22:47:00.004+09:00

finally done.
green: lettuce FO, "lucky lettuce" was the name DD2 came up with
pink, white, green: watermelon
peach/light yellow: peach bellini (champagne and peach)

enjoy, that's all I have time for tonight!
I did make another batch of soap this weekend, but the photos were fuzzy, so eye candy of that one will have to wait, but it looks like caramel and smells like pineapple! YUM!!!

What in the Word???

2008-12-09T19:46:00.005+09:00

no, this is not a typo, it's just my way of expressing how shocked I am at the news that some words are taken out of children's dictionary. Apparently the words below are not worth knowing.

MORE ON THIS HERE

Words taken out:
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe
Dwarf, elf, goblin
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade
adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

While some of the words above are archaic, and not all words can be a condensed version of a dictionary, it's very sad. Not only that but they took away more words than they put back in. I quite like the comment left by PDFitzGerald-Morris who states:
"As George Orwell pointed out, the aim of NewSpeak was to continually destroy words so that heretical thought, so far as it was based on language, became impossible."

as every story, there are two sides, this is the other side. I still think there's a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda.

Bulle envole-toi! (or Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere!)

2008-12-08T17:21:00.017+09:00

Bubble Bubble to wash your body, and face, and hands, and feet, and behind your ears! I love bubbles and I'm on the soap bandwagon! A friend, Tania B, tried to get me interested in soapmaking a couple of years ago, and I was interested, but the thought of lye scared me to death, and I just didn't have much time, but I did manage to rebatch some soap (thanks to Tania), and made these items for Krafty Lady with my soap, I also made a recipe with soap flakes (the white ones)... and made some shaving soap for DH...

Recently my friend Ann G told me that she was going to make some Melt and Pour projects, and other things, and I thought, heck, that sounds like fun, and got some MP stuff...

Well, you can see the results on my Krafty Lady DT page for "Miscellaneous Items", or on my Flickr.

Here's one of my Krafty Lady soaps, to give you an idea: And here is my Tiramisu (Olive) soap. I call it so as I find it sort of smells like that!

BUT, that's not all, I've also started making Cold Process soap, that's when you do it the "old fashioned" way, but I'm not using any animal fats (though if I lived on a farm it might be different, I'm not at that point yet in my soap experience)...
My first one was a very simple supermarket recipe from Lisa's site, I think this will yield a soft-ish soap, which will lather beautifully:

Then I had to try Tania's Salt Bars these are quite hard, and apparently yield a soap that's gentle enough to use on the face. When I first heard "salt bar" I thought "heel exfoliation" or something of the type, but apparently not. These will also be cured in 4 weeks, but are apparently much better a couple months later.

Now that went pretty well, though I won't know how well until at least 4 weeks from now, because soap has to do it's thing until you can use it... that is turn fats and caustic soda into soap... 4 weeks... it's a long wait!!

But then, like any soaper will tell you, you're looking for the NEXT recipe, well, for me, it had to be this one, Turkish Mocha from AussieSoapSupplies with a bit of added chocolateness. It is curing at the moment and smells just wonderful!!! Below you can see a few slices and the chocolate on top (and there's some cocoa in the soap too, and some ground coffee for a gentle exfoliation -- and as the AussieSoapSupplies site mentions, coffee in soap is great to remove smells, like onion or garlic, from hands.

and a single slice: Yum, it's really tempting, like a rich fudge!!

I'm currently planning my next recipe... it's hard work! LOL! What's hard is trying to find WHICH one to make....

Julie VO also makes soap (she's also one of the temptresses of my new found passion).

oh, I've also made a calming stick for a friend who loves Lavender, a headache stick for myself, some lip balm, and a new shaving soap for hubby!!

Hope you enjoyed your trip here today!

Oh Heck, I'm going to do a giveaway... why not, seems to be the thing to do these days, only problem is you'll have to wait a month to get your prize, but on the UP side, this will give more people time to enter, and me time to get organised. This is open to any country where I can send soap! :) I'm going to give away a 100 gram (that's roughly 3 1/4 oz) Turkish Mocha Soap Bar... To be fair I will find a fair way of deciding the winner... It's either going to be a Random Generated number picker that's online, or I'm going to put all the names in a hat and get a third party to pick one, blindfolded, with their left hand, or maybe their right, haven't decided yet :) If you really hate coffee (some people do, believe it or not) we can negotiate a different bar. I also reserve the right to change my mind on which soap I find (but I'll let you know before I mail it, in case this mocha bar goes all wrong in the next 4 weeks!) - Cool, my first giveaway! :) I'll draw the winner in the first week of January. Ciao!

this giveaway is closed - winner announced 30 January 2009

Save the Net

2008-11-26T15:52:00.004+09:00

Sorry for not showing eye candy for a while but THIS is IMPORTANT, IMO!
===========================================================

Did you know the Government is proposing an internet censorship scheme that goes further than any other democracy in the world?

I've just signed a petition to prevent the scheme that will make the internet up to 87% slower, more expensive, accidentally block up to one in 12 legitimate sites, will miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and is very easily sidestepped. The government of the day may add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist under the scheme.

Our Government should be doing all in its power to take Australia into the 21st century economy, and to protect our children. This proposed internet censorship does neither. Can you join me and take action on the net today to save the net?

Click here to read more about this.

thanks.

A friend is having a blog candy giveaway

2008-10-26T15:08:00.003+09:00

No, I haven't been busy crafting (I wish I had)... but lucky Myléne has.
Myléne is on the Krafty Lady DT with me and has a blog, and she's doing a giveaway

ALL you have to do to enter is click on the image below to get to her blog, and leave a comment:

Good luck!!!

France

Hubby found a recipe site!

2008-10-21T16:36:00.004+08:00

My darling hubby sent me this site: Ward Street Bistro
And when I saw the recipe for the Angel Food Cake
, and the pictures, I knew it would be a site I like, so I am sharing here (and also so I can find it easily myself in the future!). I used to always request Angel Food Cake from one of my relatives for my birthday (my step-grandmother, if there's such a thing... my grand dad's second wife, as the first one passed away a year before I was born). Anyway, I haven't had this cake in ... many many years!!
Not sure I'm going to have it anytime soon either, not until we have a different oven (and mixer!)... this is too difficult a cake to make!

I feel clever :)

2008-10-19T21:16:00.003+08:00

Because
1- I finally figured out, all on my own, what page Chris McL was talking about, and it's THIS ONE and yes, my cup cakes are/were on there!!! I saw them! hehehe!!!
2- Because I added pictures to yesterday's post
3- Because I had my first solo outing today and it feels great to drive oneself to the grocery shop (even if I still don't like doing groceries all that much)... I am starting to feel like my old, younger, self!!! And it's great! (well, only because I've driven from the time I was 16 until I moved here... other than that bones are still feeling old, and feet, and brain!!!)

I tried a new recipe from Allrecipes.com.au (which they borrowed from the American site). Strawberry cake(which IMO is more of a loaf)... And this is what I managed to achieve...

muffins for lunchboxes, and a loaf with the rest because I got lazy.

Recipes

2008-10-17T20:51:00.007+08:00

Ok, so I don't think if you go to my profile on Allrecipes.com.au you get to see what I'm up to, so here's the recipes I uploaded there:
ANZAC Slice
Salmon Mousse
Quick Cinnamon Fudge
Chocolate Fudge
yeah, so, I like fiddling with fudge recipes :)
and
Banana Bread:

clicking on the image above will bring you to the recipe.

Anyway, if you try any of them (and some people who have tried them did like them) do post a review, and some stars (well, 5 is nice, but be honest, even if you like me!)...
And of course the other two I mention in my previous post...

And now, here's the recipe for this quick I-don't-feel-like-cooking-but-my-family-has-to-eat recipe:
DUTCH BABY

For each egg:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar (US or Australian Tbsp, doesn't really matter - I use raw sugar, I've used Xylitol in smaller quantity, I've used white sugar, and brown sugar... and you may like to put more, or less)
you can add some vanilla too if you like, maybe 1/4 tsp for each egg.

I normally make this with 8 eggs for the 4 of us, and it's our dinner.

What you do: well, as you may know, from a previous post, I use my blender for this one :) Chuck the eggs, sugar and milk in the blender, blend a bit (WITH THE LID ON!) and then add the flour, blend, and then stop the blender, remove the lid, scrape the sides PUT LID BACK ON, and blend a wee bit more. If there's a few lumps it doesn't really matter. You can do this by hand with a whisk, or with egg beaters, whatever, doesn't really matter.

I use a 8x13 inch glass (Pyrex) pan (er, that's 20 x 30 cm I think), I put about 1 Tbsp butter in it, and make it melt by placing the pan in the oven while it heats up. I "paint" the butter on the sides and bottom of the pan, pour the mixture in there, and bake at 160-ish°C for about 20-30 minutes, until the sides rise (now that I put a picture you can really see what I mean). The sides will deflate when you take it out of the oven though, don't worry, it does that.

I serve it with fruit, sometimes apple sauce, or yoghurt.
It's a "sweet" dinner, but still nutritious.
You could make it for brunch by sprinkling it with icing sugar (confectionner's sugar) and maybe serving with chantilly cream or whipped cream... haven't done that yet :)

This is what it should look like:

This is a strange one which rised in the middle, we called it a ski hill:

So there you go!!

have a great weekend!
This post was edited on 19 October to add pictures, and a title to the Dutch Baby Recipe. Now as to why they call it a Dutch Baby, I dunno! If you do, leave me a comment!

What am I doing??

2008-10-16T20:48:00.004+08:00

Well... Chris's comment here started something (nice to hear from you again Chris (and Pauline too!)...

No, I hadn't seen my picture on the front page of Allrecipes Australia... and I still don't think it was :) I have seen it on the front page of Allrecipes Canada, and in the competition on Allrecipes.com for the picture of the day that day, up against another 89-or-so pictures!!!

But Chris gave me an idea. I had just joined AllrecipesAU and I thought "why not upload my photo", mostly just for the fun of it, and because I was a wee bit proud of our cupcakes!

Well, lo and behold, I get an email from someone at AllrecipesAU asking if I could "translate into Australian" the two recipes I used from Allrecipes.com to make the cupcakes and I quote (without permission but I hope no one will mind - and a couple typos corrected too - and hyperlinked for ease of enjoyment! tee!hee!) "We wanted to compliment you on your beautiful photo of the cupcakes you made for your daughters's 10th birthday!
We see that you have referenced a cake and icing recipe that you used from allrecipes.com
If you have the time and inclination, we would love you to upload your version of the recipe to go with the photo. [...] but we thought it was such a great photo that it deserves a recipe!"
Well, wasn't I chuffed (and thankful for Chris's mention of having seen my pic, even though Chris, I'm still wondering where it was as it was not uploaded before I did upload it, but it doesn't matter, does it as it's there now!!!)

So I sent them my version of the recipe, but it was too similar to the original on the US site so I wasn't allowed to upload it, but Allrecipes.AU were, but it's funny, they uploaded all my comments and suggestions too, so you can compare for yourself.
Cake original: Fudge Cake
Cake on Australian site: Chocolate cup cakes (a few corrections were made by the editors, like vanilla essence instead of extract and plain flour instead of all purpose and icing instead of frosting but the text is mine!!! Yay me. I guess?! Oh, and not to mention that in my International Melting Pot of a kitchen I measure butter in cups and spoons, and measure flour in cups too... I don't have a good kitchen scale! So yes, a lot of editing, I guess, on Allrecipes.Au's site but still, a bit of me behind there.....)
Same with the icing
Frosting: Decorator Frosting
Icing: Cheerful Butter Icing (my version edited by them a wee bit.)

I've since uploaded a few more recipes which I consider mine as they have had a few alterations from the original... I think you can see those if you go here, I'll have to try it when I'm not logged in, I hope you can see all of a person's recipes and reviews, as that's one feature I quite like from Allrecipes.com.

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Cadbury Schweppes got back to me about my bag of mixed choc chips (see previous post) and I got a gift card... Might save it for Easter :) though, any day is a good day for chocolate!!!

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Since I've last posted, and if you read this post you'll be pleased to know that I now have a Western Australia Driver's Licence and that I'm no longer afraid of Roundabouts and almost no longer afraid of "Give Way" signs (though my instructor kept telling me I don't need to completely stop at them!!! *sigh* that's what you get from being a polite nice Canadian!)... and BONUS, no log book, no P plates, even though my Canadian permit (I had my last one, my Ontario one) expired in 2000!!! I was so clever to bring it with me, and my marriage certificate (to explain the change of last name!) etc... it all went very smoothly!!! Yay... but still no car to drive, the computer chip blew up in ours, thus its demise last Saturday...

Yesterday I had the evening from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.....
I'm in a rush to make dinner as my two took too long with showers after school and well, I was still detangling hair, and it was time to make dinner. So I made my fave on such occasions, a Dutch Baby (I'll post the recipe later, another day, it's a great "save me I don't want to cook" type of dinner!)...

So I proceed to put my milk, and add eggs one by one to the blender jug. Then I place the blender jug on top of the blender in order to make room on our small kitchen bench to get the flour out to add to the mixture (yes, a Dutch Baby is made with those ingredients!)... well... someone most likely yours truly left the blender in the ON position (I must've been in a rush last time and just took it of without thinking... it happens sometimes, I just forget to think!)... well, even the split second it took me to put it in the OFF position wasn't enough to prevent a big egg mess all over my kitchen bench, the floor, the toaster, everything else that was on the counter, the floor, AND ME!!! And if you've ever had to clean egg up, it's not easy!!!

*sigh* well, I cleaned the kitchen as quickly as I could before I started hearing some "mummy! i'm hungry!!!" sounds... and tried to guess how many eggs had flown out of the blender, and how much milk I had lost, as I wanted to recuperate what was still inside the blender jug!!!
Well, it turned out to be a beautiful Dutch Baby.
BUT...

My "cool pants", not as in they are so fabulously fantastic that they are "Cool man" but in that they are not hot, and it's been hot here the last two days.... were dirty, they are the only pair of pants which survived last Summer and which I can stand when the thermometer rises above 30... they were eggy, to say the least... so I thought washing them before bed would be a good idea...
I've been going to bed around 10-10:30 lately, just too pooped to burn the midnight oil :) but last night I got a bit sidetracked and at 10:30 I realise I was ready for bed, but I hadn't washed my pants..... so I go for the short cycle, they aren't super dirty, just need a bit of a wash (seriously, I couldn't even see the egg stain anymore -- but I KNEW it was there!!!)...so I check all my pockets, and throw in a black top I like (again, not too hot, and it needed a bit of a pick-me-up as well)... keep myself busy for half an hour while the cycle runs its course... and get ready to hang the pants and shirt so they are ready this morning... what do I see? I can't believe my eyes, those darn cargo pants... so many pockets, I must've missed one... because... it snowed tissues in my washing machine..... millions of specks of tissue everywhere on my pants, and on my shirt!

I can't help but laugh a bit, and go show DH. By that time I'm in my nightgown, I go outside to hang the clothes, and when I come back inside, I realise my nightgown is inside out...

I figure there's only one thing to do: GET TO BED as soon as I can before something else happens.

This morning I wake up and feel a bit "not quite there", I manage to get the girls ready for school, and DH drives us to school/work in our cheapy car rental (can't expect much for $16 a day), and I'm grateful to not be walking or bussing this morning because it starts to sprinkle when I get to work. I'm tired, I don't feel too cheerful, and I have to go to the other office (sort of next door, actually,r eally next door) to finish a little dust job I was doing, and I have to unlock, and I manage to get the key completely and utterly stuck in the door. I think to myself, this is silly, this can't be... so I go back and ask J(one of the guys there) if he can help, and lucky for me, and I think he actually made my day, he told me that it's the lock that's hard to open - Yay! it wasn't my fault... my day went a wee bit better from there.... and I think, maybe, my stroke of bad luck is over.... I HOPE!

===============================================================

Did anyone watch the first episode of Season 9 of CSI? (the Original Las Vegas one?)... goodness, soppy... I cried. (Oh Crap! Julie K!!! Oh no... you'll know exactly what that means, concerns Miami CD which is still HERE and not on its way to you! I am such not a good friend!!!)

===============================================================
I feel guilty leaving you without any graphics, pictures, or any cool stuff...
but I can leave you with a cool tip. I found some really well priced Essential oils on eBay from Sally who is from Western Australia too... I love essential oils. Just wish I knew more about what to do with them... other than smell them!

That's it for now, enough already!! Hope I made you smile, as that's an important thing to keep doing!!!

Be well, be good, be nice.

France

4 Cs

2008-10-12T10:35:00.011+08:00

CAKES

After trying many different cake recipes during the holidays, to the delight of hubby and progeny (or should I say progenies?), we settled on Fudge Cake cupcakes and Decorator Frosting, from Allrecipes.com for the party.

I really had my heart set on Cupcake Cones, but my oven being so temperamental, the edges of the cones would burn on some, not on others, etc... quite the experiments, and some recipes don't "dome" as well as others.

So with the help of the recipes above, and a gizmo I had picked up from Multix at Woolies (I think?!) I set off to make little cupcakes...

I found the candles at IGA.

The great thing about this icing is that unless it's left in a hot car for too long, it remains pretty stiff, and does not stick to plastic wrap, so it's perfect for cakes you have to bring somewhere!!

My photos did make it on the front page of Allrecipes as 'newly added photos', probably because I picked Canada as my location - if I had USA they'd be drowned by other "new photos". I had picked Australia before as my location, but it would give me measurements in grams, and I am very much used to cups, if I have the choice I prefer cups -- also the fact that I don't have a kitchen scale for food doesn't help!; and if I pick Australia now it goes to the new site, for which I did register, but which seems much more demanding on my computer, for some reason, I'll have to email them about that!!! See the *** below.

The cupcake photos are mine, and the iced ones are on there twice, once submitted for the frosting page, and once for the cake page, haven't yet found a way around submitting the same pic twice, I'd rather have submitted one pic for the two recipes, since it was the same pic? Dunno... sometimes things make no sense to me :)

CARS
Sometimes you wonder why things happen the way they do... I guess in the end there's always an answer to be found, but we don't always find it... Yesterday, on our way to the party (which we ended up having at Tropical Twist) we're about to turn the corner, just very near our house, and our car died! AGAIN! (though now we think we have a better idea of what's wrong with it, which is not what we previously thought was wrong, so maybe it can get fixed for good this time. Let's hope!!). Luckily my phone was charged up, and I called one of the other mums and asked her if she could come rescue me and the birthday girls! On the way back we got a ride with a different mum (the first mum had committed to bring other kids back home) and when we got to our house, her daughter wanted to come for a play, and the three girls had a wonderful time, so maybe that's why our car broke down, so that little Miss M (I avoid putting other kids's names on my blog) could come have a play with my two little Misses...

Still, we really could have done with a working car this weekend :) if only to finish the birthday present shopping! Hmmm, maybe we'll need a second car?! :)

CRAFTING
Anyway, and nope, haven't touched stamping or polymer clay since July... still... and won't today as I have to get yet another cake ready for the actual day :)
hmmm, which one to make..... Maybe cake making can be considered "crafty"?

COMPLAINTS
Oh, yeah, the *** above.... well, if you're not happy about something, you should politely let someone know... A couple of weeks ago we went to Maccas (yes, even good parents sometimes need Maccas!) and 1) they were out of the Littlest Pet Shop toys, disappointment but we can survive 2) one of our nugget Happy Meal was missing a nugget (well, that's annoying but we can survive), and 3) we asked for BBQ sauce (though seeing what that sauce did to some coins I had in my bag one time when such a BBQ container decided to leak in my bag, and yes, good parents might take their kids to maccas twice!!) I wonder why I let the girls eat that stuff, but anyway, we asked for BBQ and we got Sweet and Sour which the Happy Meal eaters in this house don't like. Ok, we could survive, but three "not too good" things on the one meal sort of got me annoyed... so I wrote a letter, and in return we have received two free happy meals (hmmm, am I still a good parent if I take my kids to maccas 3 times? 4? )

And another similar thing, I bought some dark choc chips (see above, been trying a lot of recipes lately) and when I poured them in, there were dark choc chips, but also milk choc chips... now, if I wanted milk choc chips, I would have bought milk choc chips.... so a little email went to Cadbury telling them about my experience (well, yes, chocolate is chocolate but the point is that I expect to receive what I pay for, not a substitute, specially without warning -- that goes for the sauce at maccas too!) and I was told I would hear back from them via mail, so I'm waiting :) Free chocolate for a year? probably not, but a coupon for a replacement pack would probably be fair compensation for my distress! LOL!

I hope you all had wonderful school holidays, I played Working Mum while DH played Stay at Home Mum. Oh well, the progeny is kept happy, that's all that matters!

Cheerio!

White Gum Valley Primary School Spring Fair

2008-09-28T20:11:00.003+08:00

A local primary school is having a School Fete.

Something silly I found in my emails!

2008-09-24T20:08:00.002+08:00

I found this tonight, pretty much by fluke, and thought I'd post it here so that I can find it if I ever need it again, and also as it sort of reminded me of my life at the moment, when I'm not running around at work, I've been there over a year already! Time flies! And yes, I still like it -- just in case anyone from work reads this! tee!hee!!! (I do still enjoy it!).

Ok, so this is all I have since I've not been crafting at all (I hope to change this a bit soon!)

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D.- Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:
I decided to wash my car. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the rubbish bin under the table, and notice that the rubbish bin is full.So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the rubbish anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the bottle of juice that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the juice aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the juice is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the juice a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the juice down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I had better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, we will be looking for the remote, but nobody will remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day: the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm bottle of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one cheque in my cheque book, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Flus and Colds and Sniffles, Oh My!!!

2008-08-17T17:26:00.007+08:00

Doing a bit of research online to figure out how to stop one of our two little ones from coughing incessantly -- though, at the moment Robitussin seems to be doing the trick, I always prefer natural or homeopathic medicines whenever possible...
So while looking around for Aconite (this is indeed the name of a homeopathic medicine, don't go and eat the plant!! Thanks Danielle for your comment which made me think not everyone would think of homeopathy reading this!), as suggested to me by my very cool pharmacist (who seems to believe in natural/homeopathic therapies) I found these two sites which I wish I'd found earlier.
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/ offers all sorts of tips and recipes for cleaning your home, using homeopathy and essential oils, amongst other things.

http://www.andreacandee.com/
She has a small but very interesting Ask Andrea section, found new things to do with bananas and cayenne pepper of all things! She also has interesting articles.

As for Art... well, given the above, there hasn't been much time for it lately, although I did manage to update the Krafty Lady Gallery this weekend!!
Your best bet is to go to this page: Design Team Section - Latest Additions
and this one: Customer Gallery - Latest Additions where I had the pleasure of adding three pieces by talented local artist (and friend) Carmel Trigwell.

Sorry, no eye candy from me this time, but if you want some, I suggest this wonderful site, where you can read all about an amazing adventure by two young Australians: The 1000 Hour Day, an expedition in the North of Canada done during the Northern Hemisphere's Summer, I'm only halfway reading it as I became aware of this when it was on its last days. You can also see more eye candy by viewing pictures from Chris Bray. Chris and Clark were the two guys in the expedition, and no I don't know them but I just love the writing, the pictures and the adventure! Nice to see young kids with good brains! :)

Fun(d)Raiser

2008-08-06T22:34:00.006+08:00

I'm selling four items in my Etsy shop, as a means of raising funds for OrientalStampArt's new website. OrientalStampArt is a Yahoo!Groups community for Rubber Stampers who love the Asian/Oriental style of images. The group has been around for many years and has some of the most enthusiastic members around!

Affiliated with the group is a fabulous website, I invite you to have a look: http://www.orientalstampart.com/

That website is so jam-packed with information and artwork that our current server cannot handle the sheer amount of goodness we have to offer, and it has to be upgraded. This costs money.

Selling these items I made is my contribution to the cause.

All proceeds of this sale will be going DIRECTLY to the website upgrade.

Postage on this item is FREE to the buyer.

For more information on OSA see this glorious review by fellow Australian Carole Meisenhelter

Here are the items up for grabs:

That's all I have for today.
Yesterday I celebrated 10 years of landing in Australia for a "new" life.
Tomorrow, we'll see what tomorrow brings :)

The Maneki Neko necklace has been sold already as has the magnet with the Geisha holding an umbrella.

Faux wood, rice pudding, and a preview

2008-07-28T15:44:00.009+08:00

I've been having another faux wood/scrimshaw attack... months after I actually made my turtle necklace (see previous posts). A technique can be very addictive when you enjoy it, I try to use it as much as I can!!!
But first, I'll point you towards Julz's Blog as she tried this technique and her results are wonderful. I've yet to bring myself to actually texturise the wood...

Oh, and you MUST SEE Kim Cavender's wood cuff, oh and this one too, they are absolutely gorgeous... When I grow up I want to clay like that!! Have a look at the rest of the cuffs while you're there (and the rest of her work. If you're not familiar with Kim's work, you should be!!).

And these are my latest "faux wood/ivory/scrimshaw" efforts:

I've also done some colourful playing, assembling some casts I'd made a little while ago. I used some oval jump rings for this. I'd probably need to hammer them to make them stronger! I'll get to that eventually. I even made the little clasp but it didn't fit in the picture.

I just love this mould. It's called AM019 Med Etruscan Shield and you can see pricing on this page near the bottom. This is the mould used in the top pendant too. The round pendant was made with AM332 X5Lge 7 UP (prices available on bottom of this page). You can order these moulds through various people depending where you live. If I get myself organised, I plan on bringing a few pendants to the next craft meeting, we're having a pre-loved sale, and a "bazaar" of things we make ourselves, if nothing else, it'll be great eye candy for everyone to see what everyone else has been up to :)

Here's something else I made with the Etruscan Shield:

And with two products I've been wanting to try for a while, some Sheer Heaven Vellum, and Tim Holtz's Adirondack Alcohol Inks!!! I've been using Pinatas, and quite like them (bought them before the T.H.A.A.I. were available) but, like many, I am a sucker for the colours in the Adirondack range! Specially Terra Cotta and Butterscotch!!! *grin* That stamp is one from The Stampsmith, which I hadn't used in a looooong time!!! I think I stamped it in Russet, from the Archival range (also from Ranger).

I'm also hoping to be shown the ropes of Felting, by Kylie Mell who has been playing with felt a bit. I saw her do ONE DOT and saw a gorgeous little calico bag she'd made. It's contagious! I've used the back of one of my calico bags to experiment on, so far, added 3 felt hearts (cut out from Spotlight felt) and even made a freelance flower with a stem, with fibres I felted myself. It's not perfect, but it's satisfying somehow... yup, all I need is another craft! Though, anything that is quick and yields good results is what I prefer these days as my time is limited and evenings are usually spent preparing something for the next day's lunches. My two are a bit ... how can I put it, particular about what they like and don't like, and I can't make anything with peanut butter, due to allergies (I respect that, but it does make my life a bit difficult as pb, but... I'd really hate to be the parent who sent a pb sandwich to school and killed a child!!!)

Speaking of food made me think of this recipe which I quite like on cold Winter weekend mornings: Creamy Rice Pudding, just make a bit more rice than you need for dinner, and you have the perfect excuse to have that the next morning! I made it without the egg the other day as we were all out of eggs, and it wasn't as thick, but it was still delicious. It did have a strange-ish but pleasant taste but that's entirely my fault as I went to pour in some cinnamon (I love cinnamon, I add it and nutmeg to the recipe) and realised, only too late, that I'd put cummin in there! I scooped out as much as I could (I don't think I love cummin in the same quantities as I love cinnamon). I kidded myself that it was an Indian breakfast! I did enjoy it. The girls didn't want to touch it, and by the time DH got up, there was none left ;)

I still haven't received my copy of Altered Arts Magazine, in which a tin I made is published, so I'm giving you a sneak preview anyway:

Hmmm, well, I can't wait til the postie brings this mag home!!!

Wire weaving bug

2008-07-14T19:10:00.003+08:00

I got this bug from Carmel... after seeing her beautiful jewellery, she mentioned a book on her blog, and my local library (Fremantle) just happened to have it on the shelves! So I borrowed it and I had to try (having had a quick but informative demo from Carmel) and I did.
This is the wire work

and inspired by what Carmel had done but not having the same little gizmos, I finished mine with a Krafty Lady mould (of course)... I rolled a ball, pushed the wire in it, and pressed it into the mould. I'm very happy with the design.

Well, that was fun, I then had to try with three wires, and wider! Well, nice, but sheesh, mistakes show up quite a bit, and it's not as easy to undo as knitting!!

Anyway, it's been fun, still I have no idea how to finish the copper one... and I'm sure the "mistakes" won't show as much when it's a piece of jewellery!

You can see Carmel's wire creations here and here.

Electronic Copy of Beads Etc is available!

2008-07-07T10:41:00.007+08:00

If you subscribe to the newsletter you can see the whole magazine for free, and have access to past issues too!
The mould is from Krafty Lady.
Although I did mention it when I sent the article to the magazine, they didn't print it (well I didn't see it when I read it quickly, must read it more in depth, but then I wonder why since I wrote it, after all!)... the idea for using only two colours to get the look, came from this faux scrimshaw tutorial. I credit the technique throughout the Krafty Lady site! So apologies to my inspiration, I did try to give you credit in the article!

A picture is worth a thousand words

2008-06-26T18:57:00.004+08:00

Beads Etc. Coming out in July! I am so very excited!!! The turtle necklace (upper right) is mine :) made with a Krafty Lady mould. Didn't they do such a great job with the photography!!!

Below, page in June 08 of Vamp Stamp News (also very excited)

The Egyptian, Paris, Blue Kimono and Daisy pieces are mine.
Stamp credit:
Egypt: Non Sequitur
Blue Kimono, Daisy, and Paris: Inkastamps
Moulds by Krafty Lady

the necklace is mine, this was on the back of Vamp Stamp News (June 08). Beads are stamped polymer clay, stamp from About Art Accents, focal bead is from Krafty Lady.

And I also have a tin coming out in Altered Arts, also in July, but don't have the magazine yet. What a busy month... and I haven't submitted anything since so that'll be it for a while in that field!!

Time, that elastic thing.....

2008-06-18T20:20:00.003+08:00

Ever wonder what happens with time? Sometimes I am here, sitting at my desk and it's about 8-8:30 PM, and the next thing I know, it's past 10:30..... and where did all that time go? What have I done with it???
Usually, I have no answer to that question, but the other night, I managed to have something concrete to make up for my time, which for once, wasn't "lost time" (and no, I don't think I'm being abducted by Aliens during that time, and I don't mean to laugh at the subject either, as I do believe something weird is indeed happening to some people on this planet!!)
But, as I said, the other night, upon reception of some new rubber from About Art Accents I found myself inspired, and made a few ATCs.
Here's one:

You can see the others either in the AboutArtAccents Gallery (It's not there tonight, Heather, the Webmistress is very busy, so it'll be there eventually!) or in my Oriental Stamp Art gallery in the album called "2008 Art Made".

So unlike other bloggers, I either create or I blog, and lately I've done none of one, and a wee bit of the other... One day I'll grab a nice big cuppa and go visit all my "friends" I haven't visited in a while.....

Frangipani

2008-06-09T17:19:00.003+08:00

Oooh, I've been having fun!!!

With my Frangipani Mould from Krafty Lady

I made a skinner blend plug (I think it's called a plug, though it might be more of a bullseye cane, yeah, that's what it is! A bullseye cane!)

I cut a part of it which I reduced further, and cast them in the Frangipani Moulds

Yes, my skinner blend needs a bit of work, you can see rings, but it's good enough for me! Aren't they great? I'm thinking with yellow buna (if that exists) or even white or even black... (I'm not picky, I love black!) and the little frangipani either for earrings or as a toggle on the back!

Just oh-so-excited!!
For more ideas with the frangipani mould, have a looky here! And when these are baked and made into something, you'll see them there too!!!

Edited to add a nice picture of Frangipanis, found on the El Yunque National Forest site

Choc chip & oat slice

2008-06-08T18:53:00.005+08:00

Photography by Chris Court

Loved this recipe, great treat to add to lunchboxes for a special treat. I didn't want to lose it so I am posting it here. Just click on the image to get to the recipe.

I've been busy lately making samples for Krafty Lady just click on that link and look for my name there, you'll see what I've made. There's more to come shortly because I haven't had time to put them up yet. And look at everyone else's work, it's all pretty nice!!!

Work, cold/flu, sleep, and taking care of my little family.... that's what my days are made of, but I squeeze a bit of TV in there, and some craft, lucky I "watch" tv on my computer, and craft at my computer desk, so I'm double-tasking. Loved the last House, love that I found a source for Hotel Babylon Season 3, and that I found a friend to swap CSI Miamis with!!!

So there you go Julie K :) that's about it (thought I will email you soon!)

:)
have a good week!!!

Guessing Game?

2008-05-08T18:59:00.003+08:00

What are these made of?

If you haven't been to my Flickr album yet, what would you say these are made of?

Give up?
Come on, what do you think?

Plastic, yes, not polymer plastic, like polymer clay, but Friendly Plastic! Yup!!!
It was big in the 80s and is now making a comeback!
You can view more here, on the Flickr Friendly Plastic Pool

If you really like it, and know what it is, or have some stashed away from your youth, you can join the Yahoo!Group, dedicated to Friendly Plastic.

I'm still experimenting, but if you want some "how to" tips, go to Liz Welch's website.

Those of you who are under the impression that we're getting a new car (Danielle?) we are not! LOL! We're just getting ours refurbished! We bought it third or 4th hand, and it needs a bit of TLC :) but maybe it will smell new, who knows?

That's all for now, nothing very exciting to report other than Friendly Plastic (and we just got a call, our car might be ready by Monday!! Wahoo!!!)

Fun facts and a friend's digi shop

2008-04-29T07:59:00.007+08:00

For all you papercrafters out there, I have a good e-friend (Heather T) who just opened a digi shop, she sells beautiful digital kits she made herself.
Her shop is here: http://oohlalaartsy.wordpress.com/
her blog is here: http://oohlalaartsy.blogspot.com/
She's got some gorgeous stuff and I think it's really reasonably priced! it can even be used for non-(s)crapbooking applications!!! LOL!
Now i have to learn Photoshop!!
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Another interesting piece of news (well, it's not new news, but it's new info to me!) fancy my reaction when I found out that Crocs started in my homeland of Québec!! (oh yeah, don't mind, I think sandals are spelled "sandals" but the journalist spelled them "sandels". There used to be a time where spelling was an integral part of a journalist's tools? I make typos all the time... but I'm not a journalist ;) bee in my bonnet, that...
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Last night I got a good reminder to not believe everything I read on the Internet, that everyone who publishes on the 'net has their own agenda, some people's agendas are quite simple, share, have fun, etc. Other people's agenda is to incite you to believe in what they believe, and slyly do so... I got really upset last night about something I read on a website, about some policy (yes, I should know better!), then reading further than that one page on the site, I realised that the website in question seemed to have an agenda, and that the article that got me so upset might have been written (it was also translated from another language) in a way, and using words, to make us tend towards a different understanding than what was actually written. I do hope that's the case for that site as the article was quite disturbing. Anyway, thanks for letting me air this out... and remember, it's not all true, but the truth is out there somewhere... it's just very hard to find.

Again, the Internet, for all the crap and smut it serves up, is also a great place for information, inspiration, and opening our eyes to new concepts. New ideas. So Freedom of speech/expression does have it's place. Just check your facts, or scratch the surface a bit, if you're about to get upset about something :)
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SOME OLD, SOME NEW
I'm uploading some stuff on Etsy, hopefully all month, a piece a day: DESTASHING!!!
My last upload was a fun pair of toad earrings, which I called "Handsome Prince Earrings"... for $5! And if you are in Australia, and you ask (just say "I read on your blog that I could pay in Australian Dollars" or smoething), I will let you pay postage and all in Australian dollars. Not a huge discount, but it means you can DD without having to worry about currency conversion. Sadly this is good only for australian addresses.

ON THE CAR FRONT
we got a great deal from Tony's Car Hire in Fremantle... it's not a cadillac, but it runs and it's cheap and it'll do us good while our car is getting all fixed up!!

Ok, enough rambling, just really wanted to tell you about Heather's shop but I got carried away. It happens :)

Oriental Pendant

2008-04-27T18:40:00.004+08:00

I just uploaded this to My Etsy, part of my efforts to destash and fundraise for our car (it needs a bit of a repair! it doesn't run at all at the moment)! *sigh* I hope to list one item a day for the next little while. It's a goal. We'll see if I can persevere.

Yes, our car died yesterday, and they announce rain all week, it's back to the "old fashioned way", gotta do the grocery shopping by bus again. Good thing I always knew this could happen and I still have my little "old lady bag on wheels" :)

On the upside, I found a friend (Hi JK!) who shares a guity passion for CSI:Miami so we're swapping episodes! Fun!

Nothing much else to report. So I'll leave it at that.

Earring Caddy

2008-04-25T17:20:00.001+08:00

earring caddy
Originally uploaded by France : acanuckinoz

I've been wanting to make one of those for a while, and now I have!
I used to buy chicken/rat wire, and hang a large piece on my wall, and hang all my earrings from there. At the bottom, I would have S shaped hooks that you get from Ikea, to hang necklaces. My rack stayed in Canada when I moved here, and since we rent, I haven't even thought about asking permission to put in nails in the wall, but I'm working on an idea for the wall...
I have so many missing pairs of earrings, or singles, it'll be nice to have one place to put them all! Still working on a way to make the base a bit more sturdy.
I've been in touch with Stacey to see if she'll repost the instructions for the caddy, they are fairly simple anyway, you can sort of guess how just by looking at the pic.

i've made a few more things lately but since they are off to being submitted to VampStampNews, I can't show anything just now.

I also recently purchased some Aanraku bails and am in the process of making some very simple pendants (yeah, I keep thinking "Etsy" but I never quite get there!).

Ok, better go make dinner. And of course, the day wouldn't be complete, according to the girls, without Anzac Slices, a recipe based on Anzac Biscuits. We don't have relatives (luckily) who were in the war, or any war that I know of... but it's still a day where we have a thought for all those who lose their lives in these needless conflicts. I think it takes a very special kind of person to join the army, kudos to those who do, and thank you (I just wish the people in power wouldn't send you off to war!)

I've been tagged (again) and I finished my faux ceramic pieces!

2008-04-21T16:57:00.010+08:00

I've been tagged by Zeborah Loray
This is how it goes:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.5
. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.
Here are my 7 random facts about me. They pretty much are still the same things I would say now, except maybe I'd add that I loved Hotel Babylon and had to find a way to watch Season 2 as Aussie TV hasn't put it on yet, and also have had to find a way to get my hands on episodes of CSI Miami cos it's been cancelled everywhere in Australia other than Victoria (where they have a blackout of Underbelly!) - so I guess, I'm addicted to a couple tacky shows ;)

Now, to tag 7 other bloggers:
Can't do that *grin*. If you do want to be tagged however, do let me know and it'll be my pleasure to do so :)

This said, I'm glad Zeb tagged me because I didn't know about her blog, and through her blog I found Annette, Barb, and AfterMidnight's blogs!!!
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I've been busy with Faux Ceramics (edited as I'd previously called it Porcelain. Go figure!)!! Finally finished my set of Krafty Lady Christmas Decorations!!! Yay! I'm pretty happy with them, and am finding that I'm getting the hang of the technique now, better than that necklace I made!! But I still like the necklace. :)

Anyway, Santa's eyes leave a bit to be desired, but I was never really good at painting, but overall I'm really excited about the results! If you want to learn about this, see my posts tagged "faux ceramic" (in the list on the right) I did cast these with Sculpey Ultralight, which I find, pound for pound, to be less expensive than regular polymer clay, and I find it works quite well for me for this technique (though I have no idea of long term results!) - they will all go up on Krafty Lady but ... here's a sneak peek of my Christmas set!!

I've made two more pieces, even including some rubber stamping! It'd been a while since I'd gotten out my stamps, it felt really nice, but I also felt like it's taking a while for my muse to be awake... But I had fun, and that's the main thing!
I'm submitting them to a magazine, so if they don't get accepted you'll see them here, or on the Krafty Lady galleries (Design Team's or Main Gallery).
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Better get in the laundry before the sun sets, it's been getting cold here lately... all of a sudden Summer is gone and it's Autumn! (though, really, Autumn officially starts here on 1st March!)

Again, thanks for stopping by :) It's really nice to see people from all over the world on my Feedjit map! Even if you stop by only for a brief moment, it's nice to know YOU were here!!

Lost little froggie

2008-04-17T16:11:00.004+08:00

This little guy, made by Christen Jo Fraser, went walkabouts at the Sydney Easter Show. It won second place, and I have a feeling it didn't run away by itself, I think he was frogknapped... so if you do know where he is, can you contact me at france @ iinet. net. au (you'll have to copy and paste this and remove the spaces.
Jo wouldn't mind getting him back!!!

I will spare you a long dissertation on how I feel about these walkabouts.... and I'm sure most would agree with me, except those who do such things!

Yet more talk of Faux Ceramic and some eye candy

2008-04-15T20:04:00.007+08:00

After scouring the web to find a "free source" for a technique similar to this tutorial I bought on ePattern Central, a few weeks ago, as a friend wanted to know the technique and I didn't feel too right sharing the paid-for-tutorial-in-a-pdf-with-a-password-even, two more posts about Faux Ceramic popped up on the blogosphere! I just had to post about THAT :) good things come in threes!! I guess.

Crafty Goat who links to Laura Griffin who credits Patricia Kimle for the original tutorial in Step by Step Beads magazine... well... Patricia Kimle is the author of the tutorial I bought on Pattern Central.com (Bright Light Beads)!!!

Today we went to Point Walter and saw up to 9 black swans at some point! Some were funny, they'd swim with one leg, having the other one sticking outside the water. The first one I saw like that, I thought had a broken leg, but then I saw three of them do it, then put their leg back in the water. Strange habit ;) I think I saw a dolphin fin too, but never saw it resurface... then again, maybe it was the Loch Ness monster *VBG* (I'm pretty sure I saw a dolphin's fin!)

It was a beautiful day with a temperature of about 26°Celcius! Just so relaxing!!!

I uploaded a few new pieces on the Krafty Lady website:

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Now I don't know if any of you got alerted to many new posts by me today, I'm sorry if you did. I decided to close my other blog (Stampamajiggies) where I planned on having tutorials, and place the posts here on this blog. This blog is such a mish mash of my whims and fancies that structure is the least of my problems, and then people don't have to go to two places. I still intend on updating (well, as up to date as it was about three years ago) the magazine index, to have it here on the blog as it's on a website that I don't even know if it exists anymore.... but that is SO different than what goes on here, that it's ok to keep it separated!
So they are all moved, all nine posts (as many as the black swans!) so this should be the end of mayhem! I hope :)

Another Faux Ceramic Tutorial!

2008-04-13T11:23:00.004+08:00

Yay! Love it when things happen like that. Just yesterday I was posting about a Faux Porcelain/Ceramic tutorial and today, while reading Parole de Pâte (in French, with some English Translations), I find another tutorial I'd stumbled across before but couldn't find!! I remembered the picture quite vividly and thought I'd seen it in a book, but couldn't find it! It's HERE!!!

FUN!!! There's one more way to make porcelain looking beads on Parole de Pâte and this one has been translated in English.

Ooops, gotta run, it's Sunday, laundry to do, polymer clay to bake, grocery shopping to be done (heck, if they are opening shops on Sunday, I'll procrastinate Saturday, of course!)

Enjoy the school holidays!

Beads and moulds

2008-04-12T13:24:00.007+08:00

I found neat tutorials for wire here and I subscribed to the newsletter.

There's the "dailies" (or would that be dailys?)...
Of course, we all know about Polymer Clay Daily, but there's also Beading Daily and I also found Polymer Clay @ Craft Gossip, they gossip about other crafts too:

CraftGossip Homepage, Knitting News, Crochet, Bath And Body, Candle Making, Jewelry Making, Scrapbooking, Recycled Crafts, Needlework News, Cross-Stitch, Indie Crafts, Felting, Stamping, Quilting, Polymer Clay, and Sewing ! Now, that ought to satisfy just about everyone!

I was particularly happy to find this post (linking to an old tutorial) because I bought a tutorial from ePatterns.com on how to achieve this effect -- it wasn't very expensive, but I didn't feel right telling the secrets as I know those authors make money from the sale of their instructions and I hadn't been able to find the same instructions for free elsewhere on the web, so I felt a bit bound by copyright issues, kwim? So now that I found a tutorial, I don't feel wrong pointing to it. I'm not giving away all the secrets of the project, but now you can achieve the glazed look... ;)

I did find however that this technique doesn't leave a rock hard finish, but rather a rubbery feeling finish... Maybe I'm doing something wrong. This was my first necklace with the technique:

I have another few WIP (work in progress) with this technique... I quite like the effect of the blue!! Looks like old porcelain or something.

Something else I liked finding at Craft Gossip was this post is about Amanda, a local Western Australia clayer! That was neat!

Ok! It's public now!!! There are new Art Moulds© on the Krafty Lady site! See here (AM332 to AM340), and here (AM341 onwards).

This little pic is just to whet your appetite, go to the site to see more!!!

Pain in the butt (and a post sans-eye-candy)

2008-04-07T22:01:00.009+08:00

Yes, that was me yesterday, started on Saturday afternoon, went on through Sunday... I have NO idea why, but all I know is that I had a lot of pain in my buttocks, on the left side, middle of the gluteus maximus... and it sort of went from my calf to my waist... Must've slept weirdly or sat in a strange position for too long on Saturday (did lots of work on the computer, for a certain update on a certain mould site)... but OUCH!!! Hurt when I sat down, or when I got up, wasn't too bad if I was just sitting or just standing, but doing the grocery shopping on Sunday was painful... never knew how much I use my butt muscles when I stroll around with the trolley!!! Also never really noticed how people tend to get in MY way! LOL! I always try to have a good attitude when I go shopping as most people are in a foul mood and also always in a hurry, but on Sunday I found most everyone very annoying (pain in the butt, remember??), I stuck to my left, like any good Aussie should but people still got in my way!! Did you know not every country goes to the left when you meet someone in a hallway or on the sidewalk!! I found that out the hard way!! *grin*

Anyway, on Sunday evening I had had enough... I wanted to go to work on Monday, I wanted to get better so I could take a day off later in the week when I could run my errands, or at least walk them without pain rather than take a sickie! (Sickies are SUCH a waste of time!!)

I bought some wheat a while ago, and finally got around to making my wheat bag! I wanted to know how long to microwave it for, so I looked around on the web and found this website, loved the instructions, though I made mine my own way with what I had on hand. There's also instructions for neck warmers there, and a few other "warming" things... Might make a nice one for the girls, as we had a bit of a sad accident last year when one of our waterbottles leaked, with rather hot water inside... NOT FUN!!!

Not sure if it's the wheat bag's heat, the panadol, or a good night's sleep but I felt back to my regular self (still with plantar fasciitis and heel spurs and all, but at least no more pain in the bum!). If mine had been as nice as Angela's (and I do mean the wheat/corn bag, and not my bum!!), I would show you a picture, but in the meantime, go see her site and think about it... I heard you can make them with buckwheat too, and even add lavender to the mix. I also found this site from NZ Consumer Affairs, which talks about the dangers of such bags and precautions to take (for instance, I had no idea they could burn - i.e. combust!!).

Onto things beady..... I found Beading Time, where there's a few beading projects -- beading AND wire -- under Beading Project, and nice close up photos... now I know what to do with those charlotte crimps... all those things I needed to learn are there (or the ones I was aware of not knowing all that well)...
There was another tutorial site I'd found via an eBay shop... but I can't find it for the life of me. I think I found the URL but the site has all changed... *sigh* what a bummer... Anyway if/when I find it again, I'll try to remember to bookmark it (and post about it). In the meantime, I think Fire Mountain Gems have pretty cool tutorials.

Another fun tutorial I found (after Easter, but which I'm making sure I don't forget for next year!!) is this dyed eggs one. And while you're there, check out the bread pudding recipe. Looks delicious! She's got more eggs here

Still no eye candy today (wish I could show you some of the upcoming KL moulds... but I can't!! Join the group if you want to be amongst the first to see them!!, I'm still working on the same swap... and I realised that when I start blogging, I start thinking about things, and wanting to share links, and it takes me forever to find them sometimes (and sometimes I dont even find them at all!!!) and I forget the initial reason for my coming here to post. :)
hmmm, I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say... guess it'll keep (if I can remember it!)

Quick card for last minute present!

2008-04-06T14:28:00.004+08:00

A very quick post today...
Last week was really busy, and the girls had a birthday party on Friday evening, at 4PM, and we got back from school at 3:30 and I kid you not, I didn't have time to wrap the present or make a card (or get them to wrap the present) until 3:31 PM on Friday!!!
Luckily I had some spare $1 a sheet wrapping paper, from places like Red Dot...
Picked one that was nice and cheerful, and cut out a section of the wrapping paper for the handmade card (anyone who has made cards in the past probably feels the same way I do about buying a card, to the point where you almost wished you had because you're running out of time!). So this is what I came up with... stamped Happy Birthday randomly on the background (not even stamped that well, but in that case I figured it didn't matter, I am not one for "imperfect images" usually but sometimes it's got to do!!)... It helps too to have envelopes handy (which I did, I stamped Happy Birthday inside as well, the girls wrote their greeting, and off we went!!! We were the first ones at the party! LOL!)

Also I found out today that Inka from Inkastamps has a blog! And she even has giveaways on her blog. She is one of those "rubber stamping" person that you just can't help but love, she's generous, funny, and also a lot of fun to hang around. SHe used to have a Yahoo!Group, and it was just a hoot... anyway. I had to mention it.

Thanks for the nice comments (they are all friends of mine so far! LOL!) on my previous post!!! It's nice that notes I made (yes, I often will jot things here so I don't forget about them) are interesting to others... I'll try to ramble in that way more often.

I don't have much to show, all my spare time (whatever little I've had) was spent wrapping birthday presents and making cards :) or working on the Oriental Stamp Art swap.... Really, Seriously, Truly... oh, and how can I forget... working hard to update Kristine's Krafty Lady site!!! Of course!!! ;) better go, grocery shopping is calling, yet again!!

Welcome one and all!!!

2008-04-05T08:06:00.005+08:00

I installed a little Feedjit gadget to my blog recently after seeing one on Tina D.'s website. Curious I guess, wanting to know how people get here, and if anyone came!
WELL!!!! I had NO idea! I've seen places listed that warmed my heart, some that surprised me even! Today I started with a new counter, just for fun. Why not?

Welcome to all of you! I hope your visit is worth it, I don't blog very often, but I try. Thanks to those who link to me, that was really nice to see to "arrived from..." but even the "left via ..." were great to spot, nice to know people are following some links I thought were worth a mention!!!

Following on the Freebie theme from last time here's another one I forgot about Whatever . . .Whenever

Here's Artella's Free Treasure Chest, with goodies for papercrafters and a free e-Artella too as the first free offer on that page.

Dover, makers of clipart books, also offer freebies. Each week you get a newsletter with previews of their books, and there's free downloads, in all sorts of categories, from recipes to origami!

Pate'n'roll, another France doing polymer clay things (she does really lovely things, but if I'd said "Another France doing lovely polymer clay things" it would have sounded a bit conceited! :) ) has an amazing list of Polymer Clay links to tutorials, the list is in French, but it links to French and English tutorials. Just go to her Blog and click on the menu on the side which states "Bible des liens vers tutos". While you are there, have a look at her gorgeous little Kosheki dolls tutorials. If you don't have Polymer Clay handy, I'm cure you can improvise... marzipan sounds good!!! :)

Kokeshi Originally uploaded by Pate'n Roll

Julie has some beautiful new stuff, go have a look!

While I'm here, I just realised (to my utter deception *grin*) that Beads Etc is bi-monthly, so the issue in which I will have the priviledge of having my necklace published, is not coming out next month, but, according to my very (un)scientific calculations, it's probably going to be out at the end of June or sometime in July.... it's going to be a long wait, but if my (un)scientific calculations are correct, I think there's also going to be a project by Lisa Henderson/Lily Briar Studios in the same issue.... To be continued.....

Altered Arts Magazine's Altered Tin I submitted might be a few months as well, so I'd better learn some patience... REAL QUICK!!!!!

Off to bake some polymer clay to finish a few items for a swap on Oriental Stamp Art and finish working on the new graphics for the new Krafty Lady Moulds!!! Wait til you see them!!!!!! They are not up yet, but you can see new items by the Design Team if you want to go have a look around!

Again, thanks for taking the time, even if only a few seconds, to stop by my little blog!!!

Forgot to mention, freebies!

2008-03-29T17:15:00.002+09:00

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that Altered Arts have a free electronic issue every month, the information is on their website, but this post by Clara Stacko, the managing editor of the magazine, has all the details (I think it's so cool how the staff of the magazine have their blog).

Another place where you can find free magazines (thanks to Ev for that one, but I think she's got a blog and I cannot find the info right now, so I will get back to you if/when I find it), is Creative Living Media (Formerly known as Pride Publishing). When you subscribe to their newsletter, you get access to 6 electronic issues of a magazine of your choice.

That's all I can think of at the moment... If you know of other such cool freebies, do let me know!!! I like free! Free is good.

Working hard for the money!

2008-03-28T20:43:00.009+09:00

Well... busy I have been....

Work is still good, been working a lot for the past month, but still enjoying it, and managing OK with the juggling! Ya know... mum, wife, crafter, worker :) and... writer.
I have had the "get your stuff published" bug again. Submitted a few necklaces to Beads etc... and one was accepted! I had about 4 days to finalise that one, over Easter, but I'm so excited!!
I also finished the instructions for a piece which should be published soon in Altered Arts.
So that makes me happy!! You know, if you have something you think is ok for publication, you should try to submit it! I love sharing that way. I had some tutorials on my old website, btw, but yeah, free websites, free good webhosts I should say, are hard to find, so I've moved my old papercraft tutorials to this blog. Along with some experiments and links to other sites... I was going to move some part of my life on that blog, and keep some on here, but then ... things do not always go according to plan.

I've been playing with some technique, which is new to me... The Watercolor Technique, developped by Maggie Maggio, and trying a few different variations, for my own enjoyment. When all that's done, I'll be showing you more, but in the meantime, you can feast your eyes (does that not sound pedantic??) on this Easter Pen Set:

You can see a few more images from them on my Flickr.

I've also recently been made aware of ICraft.ca where I will try to sell a few items. If you list anything by the end of the month, you pay no monthly fees and no joining fees. You can list your items in Pounds, US $, Canadian Dollars, and I think Euros... can't remember that one for sure off the top of my head. Anyway, always fun to try something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg (though I do love Etsy, even if I have nothing listed there at the moment). I have to list a few more things... Oh, if you are in Australia and you want to buy something, lmk, you can have it in Aussie dollars, and postage would be a lot cheaper than what is listed!

Here's a stab binding notebook I made, following a very interesting demo by my friend Ann G.

Of course, I had to add a Krafty Lady mould on it!

Well, that's it for me for now. Have a good weekend!

Happy Anniversaries

2008-03-06T06:35:00.002+09:00

Hi everyone!
Good things come in threes (bad too but we're concentrating on the good today)

Today, my blog is three years old.
Today, I have been at my job 6 months.
and
Today, it's Natalie B.'s Birthday (Happy Birthday Natalie!!)

I say "Cause for celebration!" :)
I may be daggy but I'm bringing a cake to work today (even though I brought one last week for my birthday, and rarely ever have more than a coffee for morning tea) because ... well, because I find 6 months is a great excuse for a cake! Yeah, I know, it's not even the length of a pregnancy, but ... no one's going to complain about that!

I finished my brother and sister's 40th birthday present (nothing extravagant, don't hold your breath!) only two weeks late. Now I have to mail it! Once they have received it I will post pictures, though they never come to my blog that I know of (too busy and they get news by email).

Altered what???

2008-03-02T21:28:00.009+09:00

Never thought of altering THAT! Not that I would know where to start! That's such a lovely computer (just so you want to go click and have a look, not sure how many pictures I can "borrow" from there!!! Retro, and not...
The Nagy Magical-Movable-TypePixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine™

MP3 Player where I particularly enjoyed the quote "Now if he would just get a tripod to hold his camera still, we could get a good non-blurry look at his gorgeous work" :)

I am not sure what is going on here but this blog seems to have an editing mind of it's own tonight. I lost two pictures, some text... I wanted to show you this Laptop too, and this is the third time I'm uploading this pic:

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I had to remove the mosaic of my artwork that was here as I've decided to submit one of the pieces to a magazine. Even if the mosaic was only showing a portion of the item, I though it best to remove it entirely for now.

Daddy Long Leg? No, it's Mummy!

2008-02-19T13:43:00.005+09:00

I wondered, for a few days, why Daddy Long Legs had fat round bodies here in Australia. I was sure I'd seen more "Canadian" looking ones, but this one, in the corner of the ceiling, looked not quite right, with a big fat round belly. Hmmm...

A few nights later I noticed it had caught a bunch of midgies (miniature flies for those who don't know what midgies are)... interesting I thought to myself... must've left the light on and there must've been a bunch of midgies around, strange, but I give it no further thought.
The next morning, whilst wearing my glasses, I marvelled once again at the amount of midgies, and, all of a sudden, noticed that this Daddy Long Leg didn't have a big fat tummy anymore... hmm, maybe it was a Mummy Long Legs... ???
INDEED IT WAS, and those were NOT midgies!

I wonder if the "dry" looking one, at the top right of the picture, is the Daddy one! Spiders can be cruel!!

On the crafty front, I've finished, yesterday, the third attempt at making polymer clay pens nice enough to give to my brother and sister for their 40th birthday (yes, they are twins). Attempt #1 became beads - I'll blog about them when the pens are done, attempt #2 were nice, but just not "nice enough for a birthday present", but I think attempt #3 will work, if I don't carbonise them in the oven.

Other than that, I just joined this Flickr group:

The fun thing about it is that it is colour based, and it's open to ALL Crafts!!! Join in!!!

A Change Was in the Air Indeed

2008-02-10T11:52:00.000+09:00

A change was in the air indeed, little did I know about it.
Seems February brings changes in me, the new year has settled in, a birthday is coming up, and I remember 4 years ago, giving my old website a face lift right around this time, now my blog gets... a bloglift!

Good bye old blog...

Now, I'm still doing maintenance, so some of my favourite links are still not on the side bar, but they will come. Baby steps!

my bracelet, finished!

2008-02-09T21:21:00.001+09:00

Well, dunno what's up with me, but I've been creating and I can't seem to stop (though I will have to to do laundry and the groceries, ... eventually!!!)
I got highly inspired by this blog and decided THAT was the way this tiled bracelet needed to be put together.

I made the tiles using the Krafty Lady domino set (AM245) and just love the way they look. The translucent doesn't look great in the pictures, it's a bit better in person. I got to use all sorts of odds and ends (Julie K, if you do stop by, you may recognise those charms!). I wish this was candy, because I am sure it would taste really nice!!!
I had a heck of a time with my jump rings, sometimes I think I need to make some oval ones, rather than use store bought ones (I got lazy, took me long enough putting it together without making my own jump rings, though I did make "some" of them... but yes, sometimes odd shape rings, oval or rectangular, would probably be a lot better than trying to force a round ring through the drilled holes on the side of those tiles. I still think I need to take a course in "proper" jewellery making!!!
ciao for now.

Picture for "Change is good"

2008-02-09T09:05:00.001+09:00

Originally uploaded by CrazyFast

Ok, turns out I'd only SET my blog, and not SENT the image, just sent a test post, which I turned into my "change is good" post. Thanks for putting up with me. This is a very nice picture from a very young photographer which I discovered on Flickr. Her pictures appeal to me. She also finds great quotes to put below her images. This one was titled "let's get out of this town" but I didn't want people to think I was leaving to go anywhere, I just thought it illustrated change very well.

Change is good!

2008-02-09T08:57:00.001+09:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.
Hmm, I tried sending a picture to my blog from Flickr, but it's not quite working.
I was going to post a picture (I'm still trying) and say that I've changed the settings on my comments. I now approve all comments (so they won't appear right away) and I've done that so people who do not have a blogger account can post comments (you know, not everyone wants a blogger account). And I wanted to let people who post here (all 4 of you! LOL!) about the change because there's no huge reason behind my decision, just "freedom of speech"! :) if I do need a reason.
I'm still on a high from my clay experiments from last night, and now am looking around for things to buff!
Still need to tackle another one though, bake white clay without having it turn cream coloured (yes, check temperature, bake slightly lower... but I heard baking at lower temps might not "bake" as well, though it does work on my home oven!)

Tis all, now to find that elusive photo which was sent here.

One amphora, two amphorae

2008-02-08T20:00:00.000+09:00

Yay! this was so much fun to make!!!! An Amphora Necklace!!

With a tutorial from Tina at beadcomber.etsy.com, scrap clay, a mould by Krafty Lady (AM330) and a whole lot of patience!!
I also used a buffing wheel made today, as per the instructions on Desiree's Site, wahoo! What a shine!!! I'm going to make a second one soon, I can just feel it!!! I did however supaglued/crazy glued the discs to each other and pierced a small hole in the middle so my mandrel could securely screw in. I saw that tip in another tutorial, but watch out to not glue your fingers!

I've also made those when I was in my Faux Bone Craze (I still am, I just ran out of the mix. Will have to make more)

I've been in a very creative mood lately and tried to make a bit of time to make stuff!!!

It feels good!

late addition: my other Faux Bone can be seen here

Jif removes Pledge One Go from Polymer Clay

2008-01-30T15:35:00.000+09:00

did you know that?
Jif, I think it's known in Canada as Vim (at least I think it was when I lived there!), removed the Pledge One Go from my pen...
How did I make this discovery? Well, today, I was not happy with the prospect of binning my pen just because it didn't work, so I tried removing the tip (I noticed somehow the supaglue/crazy glue I used wasn't that great and the eyelet could be rotated).
So I pulled, so you know the story (read yesterday's post to see what happened AGAIN!)... I tried removing the plastic bit with a tiny screwdriver, no go... then I thought "A drill bit!!!", well that worked fine (see, learn something new every day!). Messy, very messy, but it worked". I also now know that toothpaste is good to remove ink stains from white plastic vanities (we rent, so we don't have a say in what we get).
Finally got the plastic bit out, and today I bought some BIC pens! Sorry PaperMate, but Bic didn't let me down the last time I made a pen (following a Donna Kato Tutorial) and it won't let me down this time either (I HOPE!)...
OK, so the opening was a bit too small for the extra bit Bics have, so I drilled it out a bit to make it wider, and it fits fine, but it's a "short" pen, so I had to cut the ink well again! But my other pen didn't cause me any trouble.

There, my memory gets a bit blurry as to what I did... but I noticed that the operation I had to perform on the pen (again, read yesterday's missive) didn't quite work as I had anticipated!

There was a .... GAP!!! and from that gap, it seemed something was escaping: INK!!

*sigh* and *blerk* ... sooooo, I take the pen to the bathroom, tried to clean it with toothpaste (that's where I stained the sink with the ink, so used toothpaste and an old toothbrush, and it finally took the stain out, and I hope, no scratches!) but no dice, the ink stayed on the pen... so Jif came to mind, and that worked pretty darn well (also almost got rid of the stains on my hands!). Yay, clean pen, gaping wound running the risk of oozing more blue goop (aka: ink), almost clean hands! Dry the pen... and think of a solution to fil the gap! Then, I noticed, my pen wasn't shiny anymore... the cap was, but the bit of the cap where I had to scrub (oh yeah, stained THAT too) wasn't shiny either... ergo: jif removes pledge one go!

hmmm, and what will I do about the gap.
Well, the gap has been fixed with some super duper electrical tape -- so my pen now has a black band around it, where I had to cut it! Reminds me of my old pair of Doc Marten's when I was in college - my hippy/granola/"nature" period I guess -- held together by duct tape!!! The things we do when we're kids (I only did it cos other cool kids were doing it, well, kids which were cool in my eyes!).

Now I have to decide if I re-Pledge it, or not... I had to use tape, I did, because I had visions of that pen popping it's back end in my bag and the mess that would have made (not that my bag is not usually a mess, but you know, you try to prevent these things when you can!).

Well... other than that, I cleaned up some "will be earrings" bits (while I had the old toothbrush out) after sanding them. Got my pasta machine out of the garage (for a technique I can't wait to try) and I'm working tomorrow and Friday, hmm, school starts Monday *Evil Cackle* (Seriously, working during school holidays was a bit hard on this mum, and the holidays went by way too fast because of it!)

And here (eye candy) are some tiles I'm going to make into a necklace. I found an inspiring way to assemble them, now to find good jump rings that don't come apart!

Australia Day 2008

2008-01-29T22:43:00.001+09:00

Photo sketch at dumpr.net

From a picture taken on Australia Day, up atop Monument Hill in Fremantle. It was a windy evening, but they were fun fireworks!

My Cursed Pen

2008-01-29T18:08:00.000+09:00

This turned out to be a long post, and rather than make it three different posts, I've divided them in sections.

1) My "Woe is me" story :)

I tell you, sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to!
Yesterday, I decided to have fun with Polymer Clay. It had been a while, and I had been inspired by this display and by the tutorial "Covering Pens with Polymer Clay: Bamboo Skewer" here on Youtube.
So I get some clay out, the purple and pink are right there, as is my translucent and pearl, sounds like a good mix. Looking good. Tutorial instructions are good, I'm doing great, baking goes well, nothing burns (Yay!), I take the skewer out (no problem there) and place the first "ink pen bit" inside to see what it'll feel like... ok, feels great, let's remove the "ink pen bit"... OH HORROR!!! The METAL bit of the "ink pen bit" comes out, but not the plastic bit containing THE INK!!! it is starting to come out - oh, and yeah, I'm right in the middle of making dinner at this point and have meatballs about to get a bit too cooked. Ok, don't panic, put the pen on some (hopefully) scrap paper, go and turn over the meatballs, and insert a skewer to see if the plastic bit will just get pulled out by some kind of magic, why not, my logic is wood bit inserts into plastic bit, sticks cos of the gooey ink, and it all comes out a treat. NO! IT DOES NOT! And I didn't use a crap brand, I used Paper Mate?!
what can I do, it's disgusting..... I have visions of the mess!!!
Ok, CUT a bit off the pen at the other end, and push the plastic-inky-bit out...
Get my blade out, try to do a nice straight cut so that it'll be easy to glue back.
OK, cut is made, and oozing blue ink (YUK!), push out the plastic bit, ok, put it in the bin, make sure it's in the big bin, the one lined with a plastic bag, and thankfully it's rubbish night that night!!!
Ok, check on dinner, all's well, nothing burnt, I try to rinse the pen shaft and yeah, looks like the water comes out clear. *phew*... serve dinner, eat dinner, yum yum yum...
after dinner, glue the bit I had to cut off back on, with Supa Glue... I am scared to death each time I pull out the Supa Glue! I won't want to end up looking like Edward PenFingers or anything like that! Ok, that works well. Can't think of any elastic I have on hand (nor could I find any I would have thought of) so I opt for a Buna cord to tie the lid. Good idea. Ok.
Sand, first off to sand off the ink on the OUTSIDE of the pen! Luckily it works great. Sand, Pledge One Go, one coat, two coats, yup, I'm on a roll.
Pen assembled, little eyelet glued on too, though I hesitated there because I wondered ... how long my pen would last. IT promised to be a kilowriter, i.e. to write more than 1000 words (hmmm, well, in this age of computers, it's not too bad? maybe?), oh well, it'll last as long as it'll last and I'll probably lose it before the ink runs out!
Wow, it works great, I showed it to hubby and I got a "that looks like stone or something" rather than the "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say" when I present him with strange projects like an altered bottle (I can't blame him!).
This is my pen:

Well, this morning, I take it out of my bag to make a phone call (need to take notes during this particular phone call) and, you'll never guess what, it is not writing words anymore! nope, none, nada, done, dead... AND SUPA GLUED IN THERE!!!!! *sigh*
That's pretty much the end of this story. I now have a gorgeous pen that I can't even use!

2) My "My Megalomania Inspired Me" story

Well, you know, sometimes you're just in a funk, you can't create, you create and things like the story above happens, or you just don't have time to create, or even maybe you question why, having no time and no inspiration, you still don't want to pack everything away or put everything up on eBay. Other than the fact that 1- I'm too much of a scavenger/pack rat, and getting rid of my supplies would mean I wouldn't "have" them anymore, and putting them away in boxes would frustrate me if I ever want anything from out of one of those boxes (let me tell you my new storing method is not making me very happy, even if it has cleared up a bit of the kitchen! I always have to go to the other end of the house to look for something I've put away (seriously though, it is an improvement, but it doesn't have to always make me happy, does it? at least now we have room for our dishes in the cupboards!). Anyway, having everything packed far away would not suit me, and my other reason is that if I don't have time to create, why would I have time to put my craft stuff on eBay? And if I'm going to have time for eBay, wouldn't I be much more satisfied if I took this time to create...
Anyway...
Another angle to this story requires me explaining that I wanted a screen saver for my computer because my screen was too bright, and given the position of my computer and the position of the hallway and our bedroom, it was bothering me to see this bright screen when I have insomnia. Yes, I can turn the screen off, but those new screens can also stay on all the time... (some argue that turning off the comptuers for the night is also a good idea, but not when you have downloads trickling in!) ANYHOW... that's when I decided on my current screen saver:
I have all my scanned artwork in a folder, so I used the Microsoft "Slide Show" Screen saver option (don't quote me on its name though), and pointed it to the folder where I have my artwork. At first I thought "hmmm, isn't that a bit weird, having your own artwork up there?" and then I thought "it's the only organised enough folder to be able to do this with!".... well, seeing my artwork when I get up, or when I've not been at the computer for the amount of time it takes for my screen saver to kick in (dunno, can't remember, but it's adjustable) I get inspired, seeing old creations, recent ones, ones I'd completely forgotten about, seeing stamps I'd forgotten I'd owned, stamps I sold and was happy to have done so, background and stamping techniques I'd forgotten.

example, this piece from February 2004

or this one below from October 2003

Hmmm, I do like brown tones, I guess!

These little Collections squares from the end of 2006 bring back memories

and this bright cheerful About Art Accents card from the same period was also fun to see because of its simplicity and cheerfulness:

I have found it very inspiring, and it has motivated me to try and find time to create. So yeah, sometimes a little bit of self-centered-ism can be a good thing! Although every now and then I think "ooh, poor so-and-so, I remember sending them this awful card... didn't seem awful at the time, but that was years ago" sort of thing! Keeps me modest.

3) My work

Many of you are curious about the type of work I do. I am an Assistant Analyst (that's what the job's advert said)and I work for Mining Industry Consultants. I do a LOT of work with Excel, play with LOTS of numbers, and also I receive samples which I have to prepare to send to laboratories, most of which are Iron Ore, I see very pretty colours, though most of it is of a dark brownish red colour. I get to wear a lab coat on the days I play with the pulverised rock, and a mask (so I don't breathe too much in). I feel like I am in a hospital, or that I'm part of the CSI team! LOL! Hmmm, the original CSI probably? Dunno. TBA! hehehe!!! I don't do much analysis myself at work, but I do prepare things for analysis, and once in a while they let me read a report, it's been almost 5 months! And I'm still enjoying it. So I hope that answers your questions, dear friends :)

As a silly segue and to show some eye candy, here's my "rock", a ring, made with polymer clay, and the small one of AM236 XXLge Oval Set from Krafty Lady. That one was made with Pearl, Translucent, and Maroon clays (Sculpey III), and some Duo Red-Blue Pearl Ex, and my trusted Pledge One Go (if only I used it on my floors! hehehe!)

The ring looks crooked but it has been glued on straight. It was just a wee bit big for my Hand Model this morning, so it sort of slid to one side.

I think I'd better press the "publish" button now!

where does time go

2008-01-21T19:16:00.000+09:00

Here's where some of the time goes!

I thought I'd let you know about a great little tripod I bought myself to go with my brand new Canon A550! Not top of the range, but what it can do for less than $200 amazes me! Anyway, the tripod is great, but I don't know why Canon decided to put the tripod stand on the side (under the camera, of course) opposite where the batteries are! This causes the camera to topple! Not a good look! But I tried it with our old Kodak CX7300 and it works a charm!

Got my tripod from autionmax. Those Hong Kong sellers have a funny philosophy, low prices, but high postage, but in the end, the final price is still pretty good!

This is a portion of one of the pics I took with it (I've taken heaps, doing many tests to figure out all the options!)

It's one of Julie's Arches from a shadow box I made for Krafty Lady. I'm pretty happy with the abilities of the camera :) The article by Ken Rockwell has great information and is what really convinced me to buy that one, that, and the fact that my Mum has one and I was able to play with it a bit, and that my Dad, who has been into photography since before I was born, thought it was a good model to buy (he's got the A540, and a couple others! hehehe!!!).

It's nice too because it's light, so I try to always have it with me. I've been taking pictures of just about anything I find pretty, and ended up making making some wallpapers for our computers! You can help yourself, they are for a wide screen, but you can crop however you want (please play nice with my images, they are not to be used for profit - although I'd be happy to custom crop one for you if you wish!). They aren't prize winning pictures, but they certainly add joy to our screens! And they are fun to send to canadian relatives so they can see what grows around here. I can't wait for Birds of Paradise Season!!!!

I might try to print some of those, as SnapFish is having a promotion at the moment, and you can get cheap prints there at any time, and I've seen some neat "altered photo" techniques... something else to try!

Other than that, cortizone shots for my heels seem to have worked ok, though losing a few kgs would certainly help even more.

My job is still great! I passed my month's probation after a few days, being, they said, I'd been hired on 8h/week, and I'd done more than 32 hours already, so they agreed to keep me!
It's so wonderful, because ...
1) they have a killer coffee machine!
2) the people are really nice
3) I enjoy the work I do, some is computer work, some is hands-on pulverised rock handling
4) the hours are flexible,
5) it's on two of the three bus routes which are close to our house,
6) it's on the bus route that goes by our school,
7) the pay is good
8) I can wear just about what I want (except my Nirvana t-shirt which has bad words on the back! which I never had the guts to wear)
9) it's a nice 10 minute walk from the bus to work (from any of the buses I can take) which is great when it's not raining! and it's a half hour walk from my house, when I feel really healthy (and my heel spurs aren't nagging me!)
10) did I mention the coffee? *grin*

I'm sure there's other reasons, but these are the ones I can think of right now!

I've been putting in a few hours extra over the holidays as it's kinda quiet for DH in the IT business, so he's playing Mr Mom, and I am playing the role of The Working Mum! Which reminds me, got to plan something for lunch tomorrow for those little starving growing girls of mine.

I think this is about it for an update, oh, and my mum's visit for October and November... that's another factor that kept me away from the computer. I will spare you the details, but will say that my mum, who is 24 years older than me, put on roller skates and skated with the girls at Rolloways! I don't skate at the moment, the skates are very painful with heel spurs for some reason. Also, I am still shell shocked from the last few falls I had! LOL! Though, when I'm not falling, I have a great time!!

Well, one's got to do what one's got to do, and for now, my priorities well... they are'a'changing.

cheers and be well until next time! (oh, and I do want to give this blog an overhaul, a bit tired of brown!)

Work is good.

2007-09-11T07:09:00.000+08:00

Just very quickly to let you all know that work is good!
Scary in a way as you have to make very few mistakes, which is sort of normal for just about every job, though there, I have to enter some long strings of numbers, with some letters, and sometimes I feel like the numbers are playing tricks on me!
Looks like there's plenty to do and that I will be able to reach my 15 hours no problem, at least for a few week, so if I can pass the first month's probation I should be a very happy chickie!!!
Ok. that's all, short and sweet... for today.