Thursday 31 May 2012

The World Spins Madly On.

[summer must be near]
     The speed at which time passes blows my mind. I can.t quite grasp that tomorrow is June and I have been here for 5 months- five challenging months.
     One of the things I have learned about myself in those five months is that I fail at blogging. I love how those of us who venture out from our seemingly safe harbors to explore a new corner of creation all promise to blog and keep the rest of the world updated as to what this new corner is like- and then forget after the first entry or two. [guilty].
      So what have I been up to?
      Well, aside from this crash course on parenting that is nannying, I have recently begun venturing into a few new creative realms.
       About two months ago the overwhelming amount of down time I had in the evenings inspired me to take up the art of quilting. I set out to hand-sew an entire quilt made out of scarves which I purchased on the cheap. After a whole lot of cutting, stitching, failed attempts, re-inspiration, and even more stitching, I am proud to say that my quilt top is verging on completion! [I.ll post pictures when it.s done] Honestly- it.s not my favorite thing, but it has led to the discovery of something new that I really enjoy doing. I am already looking at fabric to purchase for my next, more polished attempt [exciting!]
[Massive chunk of soap!]
       I have also officially set about the operation of making soap! A few weeks back, we were brainstorming as to new products we could put in the gift shop here and I suggested making soap. So this week our 11 pound block of shea butter soap arrived along with various scented oils and the experiment began. It.s super easy and super fun! So far I have made a batch of lemon verbena that smell amazing and have grated lemon skin in it to add a bit of color. I.ve also made sample bars of a rose soap- with crushed rose petals, a lavender & amber soap with crushed lavender in it, and [my personal favorite] fig leaf with crushed fig leaves- everyone cannot stop smelling the fig leaf haha. Hopefully our customers love them as much as we do!
     So there.s a little peek into what I.ve been up to lately.