Making lotion bars and trying to keep warm

Gosh that wind is bracing - it strikes right through to your bones.  What is the forecast this week I ask myself? Well a bit of everything by the look of it but cold, so cold......

Well I'm grateful for lovely central heating! Will and Alex have a wood burning stove which was blasting out golden heat yesterday.  Quick pick of Will cutting kindling outside in the arctic blast.

Little Zula was stretched out in front of the fire purring gently completely oblivious to the cold outside.

The lotion bars! I've been looking forward to making them for a while now and looking forward to making them with Sal, Alex's friend  -  who was as lovely as she sounded. I've been trying to add her  blog  (rerootyourself.com) to my list but am having a few technical issues. Her lifestyle is a shining example of caring for ourselves and our world.

We gathered all the ingredients together (as it turns out not that many),

• Equal parts of Beeswax and Shea Butter or Coconut Oil
• a few drops of essential oils - my favourites were orange and lavender

We also tried some with a little olive oil added.  

The oils and wax were simply melted (in saucepans from the pound shop, dedicated to the purpose) and poured into little moulds, again set aside solely for lotion bars and maybe soap. But that's for another day!

They began to set almost immediately

 So we quickly added some essential oils

and left them to harden.  Then we got a bit adventurous and added some cocoa powder and orange or peppermint oil to another batch.

We were excited and impatient to see how they turned out

They actually looked like little chocolate truffles.  The tea tree oil was quite strong but I loved the orange, especially with the cocoa. The rosemary was lovely too but quite strong. I think the volatile oils will disperse quickly so it'll be a matter of experimenting to get the right balance.  You wouldn't mistake them for sweets, luckily.

The shea butter bars set a bit harder than the coconut oil bars but they are designed to melt on contact with warm hands thereby dispensing the correct amount of lotion. We'll have to find little containers to hold them in the summer otherwise we'll have little puddles rather than pretty shapes.  In this weather though, warm hands and sunny windowsills are few and far between. It's hovering around freezing point at the moment, but that wind makes it feel much colder.

We had a lovely roast lunch, chicken for Will and nut cutlets for the girls. Alex makes amazing roast potatoes and has a steamer which makes perfect vegetables. I'm spoilt.

My hens only got a quick refill of food and some mealworms and a quick hello before I retreated into the warmth of the house. It's amazing how much cold you can tolerate when there is no wind but how uncomfortable it is when the wind is howling straight off the North Sea! The hens were fluffed up in the warm corner but came down for mealworms and sunflower seeds before retreating back to the warmth. Sensible girls.

I was spoilt again at tea/supper time with steak and chips cooked by John, served with pea salad and broccoli.

I'm not a big meat eater so I was pleased I'd had nut cutlets at lunch time! After washing up (John uses every utensil available) I settled down to a lovely evening of knitting.  It was a really lovely weekend with the family.

Now I'm sitting in the quiet of a Monday morning after the mad rush to get children ready for school and peeps ready for work. (I was keeping out of it whilst Steph and John went through their frenetic morning ritual).  The sun is shining brightly from the east on a gunmetal grey sky to the west but I can see bright blue emerging too, highlighting the skeleton trees a beautiful bronze.

It has been much easier than I expected having an extra four people in the house.  Steph spent a few hours on Saturday with her mother, cleaning and washing at the new house whilst John and I were at work. We went there after work and John pulled up carpets and I took Max home for some quiet time. He gets upset when it's noisy. It is going to be another couple of weeks before it is decorated and new flooring is put down.

I finally got the Sew Demented Bag sewn together and, after spending most of the construction time cursing it, I love it and, dare I say, am going to make a couple for presents?

I'm really pleased with the colours of this - choosing them from my collection of Sandy Gervais Autumn designs which I'm gathering together for a quilt.

It's about the size of a pencil case with a zipper that extends over the sides to form handles.

Inside there are three zippered compartments which then create four other spaces

You can make the outside plain although I chose to add a strip of squares.

Once you've made one and can see how it is constructed (the pattern is not good for this but there are a few tutorials on YouTube), the next attempt should  together quickly, but you need a strong machine to do the side panels. Joanne at the class broke two needles on her Brother machine. I didn't attempt it on my Singer but went straight to the Bernina which sailed through the thick parts with ease. I did put a larger needle in to be sure though.  I think I'll make one for Karin in Japanese fabrics and a linen and lawn version to go with the other sewing things I've made over the past few months

Well I've got three hours before I need to set off for work. So I'm going to give the washing machine some wellie and take a shower with maybe knitting a couple of rows of my cowl added in for good measure. I want it finished this week as Alex, Carol and I are going on a Natural Dye Workshop on Saturday. Socks are on the agenda for this yarn. It's something I've never knitted before but Carol assures me are really good to knit and wear.  Somewhere I need to fit in some time to write a pattern for the class this week. OMG - where will that come from!