what's keeping me busy this weekend

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!!

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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.

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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 :)

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

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!!

When you feel your craft is letting you down

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.

Overzealous?

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:

Gorgeous photography

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!

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!!

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

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.

What am I doing??

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!

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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!!!)

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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

Jif removes Pledge One Go from Polymer Clay

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!

My Cursed Pen

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!

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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.

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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 :)

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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!