Hello, Just a few soapy snaps – This colourful lot is a bit of fun. The fragrance, ‘citrus and sage’ is refreshing!
Some more owls… I’d just used leftover mixture so my owls are black and grey this time instead of brown. I’ve used the Oud Wood and Moss fragrance… which is becoming a favourite
I did a double batch of the Rose Geranium Ess. Oil soaps… but one half at a time. So I could get the neat layers without the colours dropping into each other. And a dusting of silver sparkles on top
A ‘shimmy’ design for one of my favourites – Anjou Pear and Lemon Zest
And a bunch of more natural soaps. I’d made a batch of ‘Oatmeal and Stout’ fragranced soap with an oatmeal scrub using the Mediterranean Red Clay as the colourant. I thought it would be cool to have a second batch to complement them but use the Chocolate Mediterranean Clay. My sister Rosemary sent me a set of stamps so I have had fun bashing my name into some of the batches!! Super pleased with those!
Hello. I went to basket weaving properly for the first time this year. It was lovely to see the ladies and a few new faces. People were interested in my new basket and the material I was using.
I am trying to do one useful task each day – yesterday I cleared out the drawers that sit beside the computer. Its tall and has 10 drawers (long ones) and I swear it was more tedious than the above task of cleaning out the chook coop! (todays task)(Although yesterdays task didn’t require an immediate shower)
I seem to be a magnet for useless paper.
Pulled out the nasturtiums from one of the composts and found random potatoes! So grabbed those before putting in the used chook coop straw. These got made into potato salad for tonights dinner.
Still need to fossick through this patch and finish the garlic harvest
And… looks like we might eventually get tomatoes? I think these are yellow pear. Wish they would hurry up!
While all my family was here, we dropped in a Black River Beach to enjoy the wide open spaces, shells, view and the sea air
I found ‘this’
To be honest I am not sure exactly what it is… plant of course, but roots or grassy like stems?
Bless my husbands heart… Jeff doesn’t even blink anymore when I want to drag large weird unruly stuff home from the beach. And cool that I had sisters and niblings to assist.
The rest of the family just laughed when I turned up at the car park obscured by my armful.
I figured it would be interesting to make it into a basket or 10.
Obviously I have not had time to even consider sitting down and having a play with it in the last month, but yesterday I thought it would be nice. I sat outside until Tasmania said no (clouded up and rained blowing into the veranda) I did a little more inside later on – SO messy. I’m using a blanket stitch (inexpertly applied) and it pulls in the mass of fibres well and so far the base is shaping up really well and is mega solid. Its also full of shells that I am collecting to weave into the rim. Plan: create a basket big enough to display the natural goats milk soaps that have no fragrances or designs.
Hello. I’d like to start by saying I really appreciate each and every comment with support, sympathy, stories of loved pets and even a few tears regarding our much loved and missed Pip. It feels rude not answering each comment, but at the moment my tear ducts are on a hair trigger, so this is an out of character blanket message of thanks and love.
I’ve decided for a while to try to just grab a photo or two with short notes on stuff that might be happening, as I really don’t feel too upbeat to blog properly – but I didn’t want to lose touch and let weeks slide by. Get into a little rhythm with it. So… ‘Snippets’
In the background of having family and friends all of January and coping with loss, I’ve still had to try to keep up with my soaping goal You might remember I committed to doing Steamfest in Sheffield in March (11th, 12th & 13th) So… to give all soaps the curing time I needed to have 600 soaps done by end of Jan/first week of Feb.
Yes all those crates are full. As of midnight last night, my total hit 624. I was a bit disappointed re lack of fanfare, but it was nice to be done.
Having filled the pastry racks, I’ve branched out and put soap wherever I could find a flat surface (lets not talk about our lack of flat surfaces at the moment)
Luckily we don’t need the heater this week
I didn’t run any of these snaps through photoshop and I haven’t had time to set up proper nice photos of all the soaps I’ve done over the past 5 weeks… but thought I’d share my efforts with you regardless!
I am working on getting a couple of proper banners made so people can easily see what my stall is all about (and curb some of the disappointment when they realise that I am not selling fancy (edible) cakes)
Anyway, I am running off to do something not soap related for a while (today at least)
For our friends and family who may not be aware, Lisa and l lost our greatest friend 10 days ago. I’m only now finding it possible to put our loss to word. For 14 years Pip brought laughter and love to our little family. Our house feels so empty, without our little blue eye’d boy, he made up 1 third of our family, we are no longer whole. We miss our little boy. ~ Jeff
Today has been tough. Our young friend flew back to Japan yesterday and today the floodgates opened pretty hard. We did our best through our grief to make sure Jin had a lovely time, and despite the awful timing, we really did enjoy him being with us.
Pip hadn’t been well and we got him back to the vets to get to the bottom of his issues… the results were not good. It came down to that horrible horrible choice of what to do.
We went there looking to get a plan and treatment, not to say goodbye So there was a lot of shock as well as grief. We know we did the right thing but the brain makes you second guess everything and our hearts… well they are just in little pieces.
Everything we do here revolved around Pip. I cried because I realised that I didn’t need to save the bread bags to put his kitty litter into. Then laughed because that was stupid. Then cried telling Jeff.
We put the fire on the other night because it turned cold. Jeff pointed out how we were leaving the back door ajar… I didn’t even realise it. More tears. We can shut the door all the way now. But I don’t want to.
We hadn’t told many people or posted about it. We just couldn’t do it. It seems too official and final to admit it out loud. He was the most amazing little cat we could ever have imagined to be lucky enough to have He gave us love in spades
He put up with me dressing him up and taking photos constantly He was the biggest snuggle bunny
I think 70% of my photos of Pip are him sleeping in some impossibly comfortable position.
Jeff misses his morning lap companion.
I miss the taps on my leg at night as I sit here, telling me he was about to jump up. I miss his “MOOFF” to get our attention.
14 years ago I spotted him in a pet shop in Canberra, asked to see him – and he jumped straight into my arms and schmoozled my face. That was a done deal.
Today was the first time I have dipped my toe into the vast waters of Pip photos… and I think I am at my limit for today. Seeing his face I just can’t believe he is gone.
I love how you all have enjoyed my Pip stories and photos… it was hard to work up to writing a post to tell you he was gone. But its part of our lives and he has been a big part of who we are. As Jeff said, we’ve been a family of three for a long time.
I miss my shadow
We were with him right up until that last second. He was peaceful and comfortable.
They offered cremation but we had to bring our boy home We buried him under the cherry blossom tree, and Jeff has been making the area nice, and adding new flowers almost daily. We sat there today and talked and cried and were just … together.
Thank-you for reading, I know those among you that have or have had pets as part of the family are no strangers to this pain.
