Month: July 2020

Hello!
Going to bed is going to be so easy tonight. I didn’t bother getting dressed today and happily achieved Slothdom.
I had quite the epic soaping day yesterday trying out something I wanted to experiment with for a while.
Lucky I set aside a day as it took about 5 hours to do.

Anyway – above (Dodgy photo haha) was just a quick mix of grated soap from previous scraps and a heart embed I’d made a week or so back.

I also wanted to share with you the ‘shimmy’ soap that I tried again – and got quite a different effect which I loved.

Definitely a pattern I’ll want to continue to use and play about with.

I don’t usually like to trim and nicely finish off my soaps – I hate the waste.
But you can see the difference at the sides between the trimmed and the untrimmed.
Obviously as its used, the bold stripes will appear, but the trimmed version has ‘shelf appeal’

Right… what was yesterdays project?
I’ve watched a number of soap videos about how people create a scene through their loaf and I’ve thought its fascinating. And daunting.

But the very talented lady (Lisa!) from ‘I Dream in Soap’ put up an excellent tutorial with a nice simple design to work with, so I thought I would give it a go.
(If you have soapy interests, check out her tutorial here – She is an insanely talented lady, so worth looking at some of her creations!)

When the cardboard ‘scrapers’ are put together, you can see more what its about – a mountain scene with hills and a road. (Honestly)

When testing if the scrapers fit ok I realised that the last one needed some sides to keep it in line.

Here is one of the scrapers in action. I have poured in the blue soap mixture (sky) and its quite thick, so as I scrape the design across, it’s leaving the correct indents (Hopefully mountain shaped)

Then I’ve squeezed some white into the tips to create snow on the mountain peaks

Then I had to go and have a hot chocolate and a sandwich because my white mixture wasn’t nearly as thick as I thought it was… so I had to wait.

I muffed the grey layer a bit with not enough mixture, so I recut the next two scrapers so they went in a bit deeper.
I then muffed the greens. Too much dark and way not enough light. So the last green layer got a bit mixed just so I could fill it all up.

Waiting to cut was agony.
I wasn’t expecting a super work of art since this was my first go, but I was really pretty excited nonetheless!!

Not bad eh? I rather look forward to trying this again!
Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend!
Cheers!

Ok – sorry but this is going to be a weird post!!

Linda – who – makes -soap… Thank-you!! I got your email!
I wrote an enthusiastic reply but my email was ‘blocked by recipient’

Not being computer savvy much, I am assuming that your junk mail or some filter is not accepting my message? Which was strange because I simply just hit ‘reply’ to your email. So I def. had the address right.
I didn’t want you to think I was rude not replying haha

So… lets work on it 🙂 (Otherwise our email relationship half via blog is going to be funny/weird)

And to everyone – Hope your day was awesome!
Cheers!

Hellooooo – want a garden update?
Apparently the plum trees are ready for spring!
A mild winter so far – I checked the tanks to day… only barely half full!! Normally they’d be over flowing!!

They’ve taken their sweet time but lots of cape gooseberries are ready. I know you can make jam out of them – they have an odd flavour so not sure how brave I am to go ahead and try!

The sweet peas are slowly getting bigger

This cheeky fellow flitted about me yesterday as I ventured outside to do various tasks

Still no mulch. Still no motivation to go collecting seaweed…. soon soon

Regardless… the garlic looks fine!

The beetroot seem to have lost leaves.

Broccoli!! They didn’t really produce a decent compact head but… not bad since I’ve put pretty much no effort into them

They tasted pretty good too (Esp with some butter and my garlic salt)

The lettuce, slow of course but I think looking pretty good. Even ate a few leaves the other night from this plot!

The helbores are out doing their thing.

Caught two of the chooks UNDER the nesting boxes laying eggs. Sigh. So annoyingly awkward.
Today I got in there with a rake to fish out the eggs… collected about 20!!!

Chook-bum!!
This one is like a flea! As soon as I am in the wood pile, she is right there looking for bugs!

Today was another amazing day. Still waiting for a week of horrible weather so I can really sloth properly!
Pip was out on his lead for ages – right at that point he was eyeing off a bunny!
I let him back inside and seriously – less than five minutes and he spewed on the carpet!! He is such a jerk at times!! 😀
All that time outside yet he waits for the ‘opportune moment’

Todays long awaited task.
Leaf mould compost.

Plenty of leaves around to rake up
I decided to empty both the composts… not much left but might as well use it.

I topped up a garden bed and the potato pots

Teeming with worms!

Potatoes before and after

I also spent time sifting some of the coffee grounds to add into the leaf compost

Nice and full – I packed them down but I am sure they will drop by half over the next 6 months.

Time to give a chook a wheelbarrow ride…

This plot has been bugging me for ever – time to clear and bed down the last one in the main veggie patch

I got some enthusiastic helpers

They had a lovely time!
I topped the bed off with a bale of straw that was breaking down, all mushy and wormy

I might be almost ready for spring?

I hope everyone is having a good week!
Stay happy and healthy!!

Cheers
(Pip has a pretty rough life hey?)

My awesome hiking buddy/cousin Fiona has a broken foot and she’s been out of commission for ages.
I finally went up to have a decent catch up and took the soap making gear so I could entertain her a bit haha

We had a great afternoon and made a couple of batches of soap

This one turned out great – we used the ‘Wasabi’ fragrance along with the colours, saffron and chocolate.

The second batch was ‘Kaffir lime and sandalwood’
Its hard to see the colour but we mixed a beautiful natural green clay.

One of my readers, Linda (not Linda from Georgia – Hi Linda from Georgia 🙂 ) has been asking about sharing some of the websites where I’ve learned some new techniques!!
Very happy to do so 🙂 Its quite amazing to watch how some people create their soaps! (I fast forward the mixing bits a lot!)

Linda – I’ve tried to email you with no luck, so throw me a line – lisadyke1@bigpond.com – Love to chat soap stuff with you!
(If anyone else randomly messages me, I’ll probably answer too hahaha)

Ooooo – this is called a ‘shimmy’
Didn’t work the way I thought it would, but I think I know what to adjust.
It would also work better in a taller loaf mould. (Hmmm some soap stuff shopping coming up??)

I watched this very clever lady do a shimmy along with some soap bee’s embedded and I was fascinated with what an amazing job she did!

Check it out here if curious!

Looking forward to trying this again with some different colours and maybe fatter layers!!
Bring on a few rainy days!

Cheers!

Hello!!
Its early afternoon and I am happily in my nightie doing pretty much nothing. Got the fire going so all is right, so far, in my little world today 🙂

Just dropping by to share some photos of the hike we did up Mt Roland.
I am still feeling several aches from our day!!

We really picked a beautiful day to head out there!

Icy icy…

I think ice can be so pretty…. just adds an extra element of being cautious when hiking though.

Basically I had my camera away until we reached the first rest point – I was feeling the pinch of the ‘upness’
Then had to tell myself off a bit – no point carrying a kilo of camera up if you are going to leave it in the bag!

I took lots of ice photos at first because I was all excited about it haha

Stopping to look up every now and again was nice too!

This time, lots of time was spent looking at the ground for safety reasons!

Can’t get a better winters day hey? And no wind!! Bonus!

I think if I had known about the ice I would have grabbed Jeff’s old hiking poles. I am not good with poles and the idea of carrying them irritates me – but the extra stability on days like this would be a huge advantage.
Jeff took up with the poles because of his knees (and his ability to fall over on a flat surface) and has found them brilliant

Going up I need to stop a lot!! Still, was nice to take the time to pause and enjoy the ever widening views

End of the trek coming up into view!
With a few obstacles…

I admit I had to go cross country a couple of times!

I even got ahead of Jeff at one point!

Interesting pinkish colour to the rocks up here

This is the bit where we have to boulder-scramble to get to the trig point

Clouds were half rolling in but we still got some gorgeous views!

I was having trouble with the connections with my lens on the camera – not cool getting to this point and the camera not working!!
Then I accidentally got a photo of Jeff…

😀
Once I got it working again I managed to get a ‘couple selfie’

The sun was so bright – for me it was more of a squinty not a selfie…

Time to carefully boulder hop down

I had the camera packed up for most of the downhill hike… it was a challenge with the ice, but apart from a couple of slides/stumbles, neither of us fell down! Once past the icy tracks we had to pick up the pace as winter means the sun disappears quite early.
I did have to stop and get a snap of the pretty greenery though…

And not that you can in anyway tell how big Mt Roland is from this spot – but here it is, bathed in a winter sunset!

So – That was our trek! So great to get out on a ‘real’ hike. Not just one for the sake of exercise.
I better go get dressed – I think there is some shopping to do and a visit to the post office. I probably want to collect some more firewood before it decides to rain again!!

Take care everyone!
Cheers

Hi!!

Jeff suggested a hike up Mt Roland (which we hadn’t done in ages) yesterday!
The weather has been so amazing.
Wow… Ouch on the legs and feet!!
I tend to gloss over in my mind on how much hard work it is getting up to the trig point!
Not to mention this time we had ice on the path to contend with!! That made the going a bit trickier. So easy to slip. Wasn’t always easy to find a safe place to put the feet!

17km – we were hiking for 7 hours. We were having to move our butts at the end as we were racing the sun to the horizon!
Thats the drawback of winter hiking. 5pm and its about dark!

I’m planning on a slow Sunday to go through the photos so I can share properly

Anyway, was fabulous to get out to a ‘real’ hike!!
I am certainly feeling a few aches but nothing too dreadful considering!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend planned – although I know a lot of people have to hunker down again – we’ve had quite the Covid 19 surge in Australia, especially Victoria. So far Tasmania hasn’t had much happening there as the border is still pretty much closed generally (Harder to sneak in when there is a large body of water in your way)
Distressing watching the numbers in the US soar lately – please everyone do everything you can to keep yourselves safe and healthy! xx

Take care!

Hi!

I couldn’t resist trying another polka-dot soap.
This time I used some small dowels – and the last of the straws.
The dowels worked fine… I think I need more dowels/straws than I first imagined

Plus – I should get a little more scientific and measure out each 6cm block to arrange the dot displacement better haha

My friend Sam suggested pink and yellow dots on a cream background! So I thought I’d give it a go!
I think its rather cute!

I’ll tidy the edges when they harden up a bit.

The last slice was a lot longer so I cut it into three bars instead of two.
I’ve been watching soaping videos again so I am keen to try a couple of other ideas!
The days are still beautiful – so we are outside, keeping up with the hiking!

Hope you are all having a great week so far!
Cheers!

PS – Pip waves hello…

Back out to walk off the excess!
Found a newly fallen branch where we park! Had to move it off the track before we could drive in.
Glad we weren’t under it!!

Turned out to be a rather nice afternoon – great to see some blue skies!
As you can tell… I took my camera along to get a few snaps today

The below downhill track is pretty slippery!
Like hiking on ice!
Still… eventually we made it down in one piece

Down near the river steam was rising out of the bush! Looked pretty cool but failed to capture it in the photos… Oh well

Some of the offshoot tracks looked a bit… damp.

Checking out the river area

The big Man Fern still standing!

Enjoying some easy hiking on the flat area

The track up here is really rough… I can’t imagine taking a vehicle up or down! (Clearly someone is having fun!)

Anyway – I put the camera away to concentrate on this bit of ‘up’ which had my thighs yelling at me by the time I got to the top!
Jeff is in there for scale but still can’t quite capture the effort required haha (Was super steep!)

So – we only did about an hour out there today. Hoping tomorrow to do a couple more. Got a few things on my ‘to do’ list.
Once I get procrastination out of the way!

Hope your weekend was great!
Cheers!

Hello!
Jeff and I have managed to hike daily since we decided to remove the ‘iso muffin tops’
Today was a good couple of hours up and down the logging tracks of Oldina.
I thought it was going to rain so didn’t take my camera…
Not a drop to be seen! (Of course)

A few pretties in the garden.
And my hothouse lettuce are going along pretty well!

The potatoes are reaching for the sky!
Poor things looking for more light I suspect… but they look happy enough

Really have to pick these… will have to buy a few as well.
We are out of sweet chilli sauce – which is a bit sad really…

And check out Tentacular! He needs a severe haircut

While doing various end of day tasks, I find this madam out in the wrong side of the yard!
She often is!! And she knows exactly where to take her feathery butt when I tell her off. I just open gates and through she goes!

The girls are laying pretty well, despite it being winter

I’ve got one last silverbeet in the garden (that just self seeded) that I get to feed to the chooks every now and again, so they are happy with some fresh greens

Happily we are still foraging fresh greens for us too

The cape gooseberry really is over reaching onto the herb spiral!!

Oh – during our walk we found some timber offcuts. Looks like someone helped themselves to a tree and did some milling.
The leftovers looked like the outside of the tree…
I am not sure how dodgy it is that we decided to ‘clean it up’ and add it to our stash of firewood!!
Its really green – heavy stuff! Will have to wait a season before using.
We often see evidence of people helping themselves to wood. Pity we can’t just go into the areas where they are harvesting wood to collect the stuff they just end up burning or left there to rot. Apparently its hard to get a permit to do that.

Its also all a bit long for our fireplace. Eventually we’ll need to cut it in half.

Speaking of fires…
So cosy of an evening! I’ve got another load of washing happily hanging up on the new hoist! Its so convenient… and because its rather high Its not really in our face as laundry hanging about (so to speak)

Hello from Pip.
He likes to sit on the chair headrest behind where Jeff sits. Just to keep Jeff company I think!
Mind you, right now he is wrapped in a warm towel, snugged up in his new pet bed which I picked up yesterday which is all nice and soft and squidgy!

And check this out! I found an orange calendula!! Dunno how I got one of those!
I’ve stopped wondering deeply about a lot of the plants that appear. I just say thank-you and enjoy!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Cheers

Hello!
Another amazing sunny winters day here today!
We even got out for a hike this afternoon! (We want to keep this up better as the lazy slothing and chocolate bikkies are beginning to show as muffin tops.
Well… more like bread tins…)

Anyway – so cool re my polka-dot soap! Cut it today and totally want to do this again.

I might use pencils or thin dowel next time… A bit of experimenting to get the right reusable tool!

They’re quite a big soap too. But I like the substantial chunky look 🙂

Harnessing my husbands new writing skills further!
I might like to put these in a shop somewhere one day – but I don’t want to plastic wrap them.
This seems a rather attractive way to be able to label them – plus somewhere to stick a price on (on the back of course! Wouldn’t want to mess up Jeff’s good work!)

Jeff even came up with a monogram for me!
And a bit of my never ending supply of washi-tape to stick it all together!

Anyway – best not get to bed too late!
More hiking and less muffin top planned for tomorrow.
Cheers!!!