No New year's resolutions methinks....

...and so a New Year is upon us...

Quite something folks...we are indeed living in historic times. After all the Mayan apocalypse hysterics, it seems we are to still trudge through the same-as-usual New Year's resolutions quicksand...I can safely say that my enthusiastically envisioned resolutions for 2012 died a quick and (in retrospect) merciful death...
It feels like a lifetime ago that I posted about the great plans I had to do more of this, and more of that, and even get this and the next thing done during 2012...hmmmm...



This year I will not make any New Years Resolutions...instead I think I will try to make an effort to achieve ONE thing a week...a DO-ABLE thing, something non-earth shattering that may be good for me/my family/others...something possibly unnecessary, but if achieved, very satisfying.
Life is so full of surprises and so unpredictable, that achieving even small things could be a big win :)

Are you planning New Years Resolutions? What do you think will make you achieve them?

Perhaps my goal for this week is to finish writing up a pattern I have been working on...a cute and fun knit...

Whatever your take on resolutions, I wish all my blog readers a healthy, blessed and calm 2013...

♥

Happy Valentines...and a Hearty Hexagon Pattern

♥♥♥♥♥Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow!♥♥♥♥♥

I have spent the weekend working on my Hearty Hexagon Pattern, hoping to have it ready for Valentine's Day, and happily, here it is! I must say, that when you have read a pattern a thousand times, and the words and symbols start blurring into a mass of scattered lines, then you need to have a break and step back...so please folks, if you buy the pattern and find a mistake, or typos or generally any things that aren't clear, please let me know... :)

Here is the link if you would like to buy a pattern:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-hearty-hexagon-crochet-motif

I spent weeks trying to find a design that makes a clean, clear hexagon shape without any distorted features or edges. I have a hundred half crocheted hearty bits lying around...my house looks like someone yarn bombed it :)

I hope you all have a Happy Day tomorrow, and get spoiled and appreciated by your loved ones :)

♥Heidi

Versatile Blogger Award

So today I opened my gmail and saw an email from Helen over at 26 minutes Past. She has awarded me a Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you Helen! Until now, I had never heard of this, being suspended in space between work and wanna-work stuff (I seriously need to get out more folks...), so it came as a happy surprise :)

There are rules to abide by when accepting a Versatile Blogger Award, and they are as follows:

1. Add the award to your blog
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.
4. List the rules.
5. Give the award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog .

Okkkkkkaaayyyyyy...so.....

Random thing No 1.

I LOVE almonds! Yes, l♥ve them...I will eat an almond every-time if given the choice between them and other nuts...

Random thing No 2.
Believe it or not ...one of my middle names is St John!

Random thing No 3.
I once had a total stranger ask me if I would be willing to do a photo shoot, of JUST my hair (it was for hair products).... (I said no...)

Random thing No 4.
I used to be quite involved with a form of hand to hand combat and self defence, called Kalah (loosely based on what the Israeli special forces use...). I don't have the time for it nowadays...

Random thing No 5.
I have an incredibly strong sense of smell, and become quite overwhelmed if anywhere near smokers or in a place where there are potent smells...

Random thing No 6.
I am totally, utterly, irrevocably creeped out by Parktown Prawns... they are like the spawn of hell...it's also almost impossible to kill the gross things! They jump at you and poop a black pooey substance...

Random thing No 7.
I am the very definition of easily bored...I have to do ten things at once (mind you...enjoyable things, like knitting, crochet, painting etc, not the daily grind stuff...)

Righteeeoooo! Time to nominate the 15 Versatile Bloggers!

The Adventure Blog
A Sonoma Garden
Natural Suburbia
Do you mind if I knit?
AC Engineered Knits
Little Cotton Rabbits
Colourspun
Petitefee
Haken en Meer
Vignette Design
The Inspired Room
Untangling Knots
Le Monde De Sucrette
Adventure Journal
The Cottage Home

All of these blogs are an inspiration! Go and check them out :)

On another note: the last few weeks have been bad for blogging...I just have too many distractions and happenings at the moment. I hope to have a surprise release for Valentine's Day...see you all soooooonnnnnn..........

Have a great evening folks!
♥Heidi

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap...easy as pie!

I spent yesterday morning experimenting with making liquid handsoap...yes, I was distracted by the allure of mixing and whipping and pouring and generally making a mess of things, and didn't complete the editing for my Happy Hexagon Crochet tutorial...so I am sorry dear readers, and will get on that asap in the new week...BUT, I think I have unvented (don't you just LOVE that word? Thank you EZ!), a very easy, all natural method of making liquid handsoap, without having to use lye and long cooking times... As you all know, I am totally smitten by the cold processed soap that I had learned to make from Rhonda's lovely blog, and since that, I have only made soap, never bought commercially available soaps again. My kids and husband love it, and Gerry even uses the soap to wash his hair...so all-round a big hit!

I really like liquid soap next to the basin in the kitchen, because it's so easy to just squeeze out some from a pump dispenser when you want to wash hands, and it stays clean and contained...however, the daunting prospect of making liquid soap in the traditional way with cooking in a crockpot, and watching it, and having to use KOH lye etc led me to trying to make the liquid soap using just my cold processed natural soap that had been "curing" for around 3 months.

I have seen many references on the web to using commercially available soap, grating it up and melting it in water and adding some glycerine to thicken...I went through the whole process of trying this method, but using my cold processed soap instead, and it failed completely! I even tried whipping the liquid with a a hand-held blender and it didn't thicken at all...
This made me wonder what they put in commercially sold soaps that makes it thicken with just water and a bit of glycerine? I guess it may be the same basic process as making the liquid laundry soap...if anyone knows, let me know what the "thickening " ingredient is :)

After much experimenting and some messed up batches, I have come up with the following process, and it really made the most beautiful, moisturizing liquid soap I have used :)

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap Recipe

Requirements:

240g of grated cold processed soap (made with olive oil and coconut oil)
2 Liters of water
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of beeswax

Handheld blender
Large stainless steel pot
Glass bowls
Double boiler

Start by grating your cured cold processed soap. I arbitrarily used 240g of soap as my starting amount.
Pour 2L of water into a large stainless steel pot and place on low to medium heat. Add the grated soap flakes and stir until all the flakes have melted.

The mixture will make some foam, so try not to whisk it, just stir gently ...above you can see the clear golden liquid that results.

In a double boiler (or in my case, a Pyrex glass bowl suspended on a steel pot with some boiling water in it), melt the coconut oil and the beeswax pellets. Use low heat...you don't want it to get super-hot...just hot enough to start melting the beeswax.

Above you can see the melted mix...when I see the beeswax pellets beginning to melt, I turn off the heat. The rest will melt in with some gentle stirring.


Let both mixtures (the soapy water and the beeswax/coconut mix) reach around 60 degrees Centigrade (I am not sure if this is critical...I usually make sure that any mixes are at the same temperature...).

Pour your beeswax/coconut mix into your soapy water, slowing adding all of it while blending with a handheld blender (I used the high speed setting on my stick blender). It won't thicken, just mix all of the ingredients very well...

You will now have a milky coloured watery liquid. I poured it into a large glass bowl and put it in the fridge to cool. Over the next couple of hours, I checked in on it and found that the mixture separated out into a clear golden liquid at the bottom, and a white layer on the top.

I gently mixed it back into an all milky colored liquid using a hand whisk. Next time I checked, there was less of a separation, and I again gently swirled the lot with a whisk. I mixed twice in about two hours then left it in the fridge.

When I got up this morning, I found that it had gelled into the most wonderful, thick milky liquid! It is really lovely stuff...it didn't leave my hands dry as I think the coconut oil is probably adding a moisturizing element...

I decanted the liquid soap into a pump dispenser and it works well...no clogging or blocking up...

Please try this out and let me know if it works out well for you?

Next week, the promised Happy Hexagon Tutorial!
Have a lovely Sunday folks :)

♥Heidi

Overheard in a French Restaurant....

I read something hilarious today...I wanted to share it with you...go take a look :)

♥Heidi

Bearmaking 101...any interest?

The Danish translation of the African Flower hexagon Tutorial is now up...initially I had lots of trouble editing the original post , with "Error 400" popping up frequently...not sure what that was all about, and I couldn't get much help from the Blogger Forums, so if anyone out there knows what this error is supposed to mean, please let me know ! Suffice to say, the tutorial is up and once again, Thank you, Irene :)

Today's post is about something completely different...
During my varied travels through the world of crafting, I came across a lovely book on how to make miniature Teddy Bears. I love Bears, collect them as well and wondered when I saw this book, if it would be very difficult. I bought it, read it and made my first bear in just a day.
Of course, being miniatures, the bear was completely hand sewn, and if I recall, was about 3cm tall! It was a round bottomed Roly-Poly Bear that was weighted , so when you pushed him, he bounced back and forth...very cute!

This led to eventually designing miniature bears, and at one stage I was selling them to a local Bear Shop (yes, believe it or not...a whole shop dedicated just to bears!). Sadly, the South African bear market for really well crafted, unique OOAK bears is pretty poor. It may be that (as in knitting and other handmade items), people don't realize just how much work went into creating them....
There is certainly a thriving and incredibly talented bear making community in South Africa, but unless you sell your bears internationally, you are being underpaid.

It was inevitable that I should graduate to designing and making larger bears, which from a purely practical point of view, are sewn my machine, but handmade the rest of the way. The biggest challenge was to develop a style of bear, which showed unique features that made the bear instantly identifiable as a certain Artist's. My biggest influences came from the early Steiff Bears, which are of course, now incredibly scarce and unbelievably expensive! Steiff is a German company (still operating today), that produced their first Teddy Bears in the early 1900's. The were a huge success (as you can well imagine...I mean, on consideration, what did kids take to bed for comfort and company when they were little, before the advent of the teddy bear?...sheep?...somehow not quite the same, Watson my dear...), and since those early years, Steiff bears (especially antique bears) have become coveted by collectors all over the world.

The history of Teddy Bears was one of my favourite reading past-times...if you are interested in such thing s, there are some excellent teddy Bear Encyclopaedias available on Amazon.

I used mohair fabric almost exclusively, although expensive, it is certainly the best "fur" imitation you can find. You can also find some wonderful long pile Alpaca fabric (unfortunately even more expensive than mohair), which makes the softest, fluffiest bears imaginable!
Don't be put off by the cost...you can make a small bear for a very reasonable cost, and once you have been bitten by this bug (again, just as with knitting and crocheting...), you will think of buying mohair, as you think of buying Kidsilk haze :)

I have been thinking about expanding the kinds of tutorials I post on my blog, and would like to ask my dear readers if Bear making would be something you would want to learn how to do?
My blog is mostly dedicated to knitting and crocheting, but perhaps it would be good to have some different stuff as well...please leave a comment if you are interested in this :)


Some other news...I am repainting the inside of the house, and will post some photos when it's all done!

Sweet dreams, folks!
♥Heidi