Monday, December 23, 2024

making soap as a hobby

melt and pour soap. using clear and white soaps.
 
 
various colours  using mica, some glitter
added Beans for interest, how sweet is she sleeping !! awake she bites... lol
again more mica colours, this one using all clear soap.

oh, also all each soap batch I did had a different fragrance, some essential oils, some fragrance oils. 

my tutuorials came from YouTube, just look up 'Melt and Pour Soap Making' and you will find a thousand videos... lol


 

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Happy Solstice !!



 
I always look forward to this day, and that we will start to get lighter longer days. I suffer from Seasonal Affected Disorder, SAD  ==  due to not getting enough light, this year was such a dull summer too, so I started to use my Bruer light in the mornings in September !! The light is on for about 20 minutes in the morning while I have my first cup of tea.
some science....

Monday, November 25, 2024

making candles as a hobby

pouring candles
watching them start to set up
nearly cured here
four lovely candles. Two for  me, two were gifted.

I get my supplies from Candle Shack, as they are not too far away to collect from and save postage. 

Wax is EU464. Fragrance oils are Warm Woods and Cashmere and Enchanted Forest.
 

Sunday, October 20, 2024

wax melts

the fragrance oil to make candles comes in 50g bottles... I use 44g to make two candles which leaves just a little bit in the bottle.... what to do with it? so I decided on wax melts. also used a little bit of colour in the wax for the first time.
and here they are, the next morning, popped out of the moulds. I will be gifting them as I don't use wax melts. and for future candle making I will just straight away use the little bit up making wax melts. otherwise all these little bottles sit about taking up space. 

GW 494 wax and  fragrance oils are from Candle Shack . I used Cucumber and Melon, Warm Woods and Cashmere, Enchanted Forest. 

the colours are left over from the first candle kit I used, and the moulds were gifted to me. 

 
 

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

to ripen tomatoes

my little kitchen drawers are just the right size to fit a seed tray, where the tomatoes can ripen. 

after a dismal, cold and wet summer, they are just sitting in the greenhouse and not ripening at all, I've been brining in a hanfull every coupleof days to ripen and eat. now i'm just about to collect in another seed tray full and that will be all of them. 

there have been some nice broad beans to munch on , they are nearly finished now. little turnips early on, and there are nice leeks waiting to get bigger before eating.

not much success with anything else this year.
 

Monday, September 02, 2024

Laundry scent booster recipe. Stop using chemicals to scent your clothes...

 

posting to save.. think its a great idea and would like to try it sometime

Friday, August 16, 2024

greenhouse update

 

the tomatoes are just starting to show a slight blush, maybe there will be one to eat at the weekend. 


Beans has been here for a year now, the greenhouse is not her favourite place, 

not comfortable enough she says. 

she is a nce wee cat, not much into cuddles but will keep you company. 

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Flying out of Castlegar , May 2007

seems a very long time ago. hoping to revisit in 2025

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

spring into mud...


 Monday Mornings... 

well, you have to laugh... there isn't any point trying to brush it off either as some of it is still wet... 

weather is rain off and on, occasional ray of sundhine, more rain. 

a friend said mud is good for the complexion, my reply was that her bum must have the best complexion ever then... lol

Met Office Weather , I have Wednesday off work so I hope its drier. 

Today:

Somewhat cloudy with a few light showers Tuesday morning, perhaps persisting until early afternoon. Generally becoming clearer with sunny spells through the day as winds become lighter. Maximum temperature 12 °C.

Tonight:

Dry through the evening but cloud gradually building from the south. Lower cloud with a few outbreaks of rain arriving around midnight, continuing until dawn. Minimum temperature 5 °C.

Wednesday:

A cloudy morning with outbreaks of light rain. This gradually clearing east to allow some sunny spells in the afternoon. Drier and clearer all day for Argyll and the Isles. Maximum temperature 10 °C.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

time to start seeds

Beans exhausted after supervising my splitting clumps of snowdrops to share some with a friend. they were dug up this morning, bulbs washed and put into damp paper. then transplanted into their new garden in the afternoon. hopefully they will put on a good show next spring
very mild temperatures and a mostly dry day, later in the week its to get back to freezing, and its to be wet most day, hopefully not too windy. 
time to start seeds , a tray of Onion Tosca
and a tray of Leek Blue Solaise
in the greenhouse with plastic propagator lids over the top. these veggies can cope with the cold
I've had seeds from MoreVeg before, they always do well, they are in smaller packets which are perfect for the home garden grower, and very economical to buy. 

the light was fading and those last photos have a funny tint to them. the streetlamps weren't on yet but it was starting to get dark. the days are noticably longer which pleased me very much. I use a SAD lamp in the mornings to try and combat the winter blues. 
 

Sunday, January 21, 2024

whats the weather , greenhouse temperatures

greenhouse on Friday morning, the door was frozen closed most of the week so this high and low covers a few days, dry weather and bitterly cold. bear in mind the greenhouse reads warmer than the outside. 

 this is from this morning , its warmed up. bringing with it heavy rain and high winds, disruption warning to roads etc...