On Monday Maddie and I left the washing, the cleaning, the crumbs and the chaos and went to our friend Nic's house for a spot of crafting! It was exactly what I needed! My teaching mentor used to call these kind of days "mental health days" and despite feeling a little guilty about the state of the house it was just so good to be in the company of my crafty friend.
First up was the soap making (you have to make the lye first and then leave it to cool) As a kid I always wanted a chemistry set for Christmas (but I never got one because my Mum was worried my sister would use it to blow the house up LOL!) Soap-making is kitchen chemistry at its best. If you look at all the disparate ingredients you would never imagine that mixing them would make soap!
While we waited for the lye to cool we did a spot of crafting. Nic worked on some beautiful journal covers and I hemmed hubby's work pants (the guilt factor - I figured 3 trouser alterations gave me a few hours of non-suzie-homemaker time!) and then got cracking on my nephew's quilt. It is a bit too mustard coloured for my liking but you have gotta love the fact that the only material I bought for it was the backing and the binding (and that was from The Patchwork Apple's $10 rack)
The girls were so good while we were sewing. I wish I had taken a photo. Jazz had her own ironing board set up and contentedly "sewed" with some fabric scraps and a small pair of scissors (all the while chattering away to Maddie!)
After lunch we added goat's milk, coconut oil and olive oil to the lye and mixed....and mixed.... and mixed...
Then we added some honey, and poured into silicon moulds. Nic turned the soaps out and trimmed them a few days later and now we just have to wait about 6 weeks for them to cure. I found the whole process quite fascinating and I am thinking that the soaps would be a lovely gift with a nice hand-knitted cotton/bamboo face washer. I'm also thinking that we could play with the recipe to use some of the lavender from my garden (mmm...lavender and honey!)
Thanks Nic for a wonderful day (hoping we have plenty more like it in the new year!)
2 comments:
So that's why I never got the chemistry set I wanted either!I probably would have blown the house up though. Save some goats milk soap for me - since I've been preggas I've found it's all I can use. xx Kaz
Oh, what fun! Hope I can do some 'proper" soapmaking someday too.
BTW - you won my book giveaway so I'll have that in the mail to you ASAP.
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