Fluffy Fairy Soaps and Roofing....

What is it when a male sees a woman with a power tool they just have to take over even if they have never used said power tool... ummm something which I thought was limited to boyfriends or husbands has effected my son now.. I planned on taking a few days to redo parts of my kitchen namely the worktops and painting. So armed with my snazzy new jigsaw with laser guidance (so you can see where you have gone wrong) I attempted to remodel my kitchen.. A week later I can finally sit down for a while... It went like this....
1 plug in jigsaw
2 ask a million times for right worktop (no not that one)
3 start to cut
4 jigsaw taken from me (women dont understand these things apparently (took him 20mins to work it out))
5 lose first bit of wall where workbench cut to wide (umm not my measurements)
6 first snapped workbench ( i warned them not to jump on it to make it fit)
7 lost second bit of wall
8 had to redo pipework sons cut out meant sink to far over (i love flex pipes now) no water for 6 hrs now
9 first workbench in place minus several chunks of wall
10 first breakdown of day when studio roof discovered to be partially broken where workbench strangely had somehow hit it when being taken out of the rafters....
Then the mini storm started.............. result.... lost most of roof on studio.... Argh I had a beauty show to do and orders to fill no studio and half a kitchen not to mention the chicken and duck houses to winterise and the million eveyday things to do.. The insurance to fix the roof would take weeks so rather than wait we did it ourselves, we just have a bit to finish now but its safe and drying out..

Awww there's me been desperate to play with my new fragrances and try and finish xmas pressies and I've not made any for 2 weeks now, I think I'm in withdrawal so last night I put the dresses on my Fluffy Fairy Soaps and finished a set of wine glass charms and today until 2pm I'm sitting on my butt felting with not a power tool in sight and definatly not a whiff of male hormones....... When will men learn women seem to work less because we get it right first time.....!! toodle pip...

Swing and Bath Bombing...

Today was bath bomb day, more difficult with all this wet weather it makes my house really humid.
As well as having the floor mop on constant standby with muddy doggy footprints..
But of I went with swing playing really loud on my comp radio and had a really good day.
Making the fizzy bubble bars the other day was the same it can set the fizz off..
So I'm drying batches nearer the radiators.
There's Chocolate Milk Bath Truffles, Snow Bombs, Bleeding Hearts,Surprising Strawberry(shown), Blueberry Blossom and Lavender Spa Balls.
Still totally pants at pictures but I have a solution now a friend is swapping crafts with me as she can take nice pictures and she makes amazingly funny cards I'm working on getting her online I think she would have a great time hehe..
Oh also today I did some more Shower Jelly Hearts and I even put them on etsy, the enchanted one today has little soap blossoms suspended in it, it was made for my niece kitty, hopefully I'll have a picture that can show the blossoms each I took was wobbly and not the jelly.
HeHe must make this a short blog I'm listening to furby and elmo comedy online and it is hilarious but distracting and I need to finish work and get ready to go to kent tommorow..

Hope everyone has a great weekend.... toodle pip

Making Xmas Bacon!

Well I was not going to write this blog today as I really wanted an early night.. But bless her little heart my daughter is making me a bacon sandwich yumm....
So for my friend nigel here is the recipe for the xmas bacon I made last night..
1 glass of wine
Loud Music
Slipping into something more comfortable

oh sorry wrong blog again...


First of all make sure the pork is well refrigerated, whilst in the fridge work on the cure.

Since this is xmas bacon I cure it in a really strong cure, a bit like xmas cake but with pork lol..
So there is heaps of salt as well as
* Cinnamon
* Ginger
* Star Anise
* Black treacle
* Cloves (for studding)
* Brown Sugar
* Orange
* Bay Leaf
* Sea Salt
* Black peppercorns

I grind the dry ingredients up apart from the cloves (these are studded into the pork) and bay then use that as a rub and leave for about 8hrs in the fridge.
The wet mix is warmed and heated for about ten mins before being left to cool. Then it is poured into the curing box and the orange added
.
easypeesy pop the pork into the curing box place in cold room (shed) and wait 4 days!!!!! Argh the wait.. Guess i'll have to make soap lol..

When the pork has cured for 4 days then I dry it open for a few days in the fridge ( I use my fridge in the garage that I use to do certain soaps and hang from the top).

Then slice and enjoy....

This is a combination of several methods and makes for a rich bacon that is not very salty at all even with the 4 days cure, we cannot say how long it would last or keep as we have not got past a few days before it has been eaten or my family have nabbed some...

Cant wait for it to be ready....... x

Baby Pumpkins and Surprises.....

What a funny few days we have had over here, what was going to be a quiet time turned hectic again... Oh and profitable..
Thursday was packaging day and designing the new labels I've swapped to vellum after a few misses to start with got the hang of how the printing is not like on my normal pearlesant paper, the results were really nice with a old faded look that is a bit dreamy. I think I may use all the colors I have rather than my first decision of sticking with the antique gold. Then my first surprise!
A random text from my bestest friend who has been out of the country for ages, the last time we hugged was in 2004 ah bless.... The text read..... Have you got a bed for me?
If I didnt have a bed for him I would make one... He arrived yesterday to spend 2 days with me before he flies back oh how sweet, we made up for lost time yesterday and oh I think i'm slightly suffering the conciquences <-- is that spelt correctly? The second surprise of thursday was the apple of my right eye informed me i was to attend her work halloween party and take soaps???
Ok a little confused at that point but for popping up for just over an hour I sold quiet a few and also nabbed myself a new outlet for my products with the local beautician and hairdresser wanting me to build them a website as well as use and sell my products.... oh fun... The apple of my right eye already knew this but kept stum! For fun we took pictures of the babies dressed as pumpkins for my pumpkin recipe lol.... It was a really fun halloween party with dungeon etc and lots of fancy dress.. It was at Joe Smiths Hair Design at sheering and a lot of the village turned out.. Oh dear I cant upload the pictures at the mo.. I have made a whole new range of bath bombs as well eek..
I have seen some fab blogs in the past few days especially laughing purple goldfish and her jumper felting I am going charity shop hunting to try it out.
Right now I'm of to cook a massive traditional english brekkie for my bestest pal nigel ...... have a fab day..x

Oh no not again....

Ok at about 2am this morning while waiting what felt like forever to move my comp files.. little ol me had a brain wave or maybe a total mental deviation...
It is supposed to be my intention this week to rebuild my computer (oh the new case looks like its out of a transformer movie total boy racer with so much cooling and fans it will be like having aircon..) I've had a nightmare redoing this one as i cant seem to stop fiddling and reprogramming it (yep actual reprogramming).. The trouble is I start something and then around 3am need sleep.. ah this is the problem after said sleep my memory has been restarted and I quite often forget the bit of genius I had the night before it's not bad as long as i dont restart the comp, if the comp has restarted i'm in trouble as i never finish what I was doing... I have considered just leaving the comp alone and using it as a user but!!!! I cant arghhhh... throw back to when i was really nerdy and geeky...

So to keep my fingers from roaming and messing up my file system i decided to play about with a fairy website idea.. I've not touched this sort of designing for ages and i'm now relearning the process... comments please about the rather graphically laden prototype it's just a bit of fun really.... Well i have a few hours as my zillion gigabites are fully backed up yawn and the hard drive made ready for the new system ( only built this on a few mths ago)..

Me thinks i should package my spa bars before they do that salt thingy and sweat.. Oh and i have to strip my Kenwood as I think i blew the motor making the salted butter, now that i am gutted about, i had planned on french macaroons and marshmallow making later and hand whisking is not an option, so out will come my trusty tool kit and hopefully its just the bushes or something like that and i can repair it (its the same age as me bless so i cant give up on it)..

Oh my fiddling didnt stop with the comp yep i have a new blog template but the probs need ironing out (lol the only ironing I know how to do I was born without the domestic gene).

My son has very sweetly offered to show me how to photograph my products as i am so pants at it and refuse to sell most of them online as I cant make the pictures look as nice as the products.
My latest soaps I did are curing nicely but the pictures are yeuk... There's Jamaican Blue Mountain (middle -- chefs soap) Paprika sandlewood and mustard and my aunt's fav just in time for xmas for her vanilla, lemon and french lavender topped with marshmallow flowers

Ok of to play with dinner OH was baking with me a few weeks ago and he made chicken pies so its freezer food tonight (and every night for at least two weeks I've ran out of room in my freezers) but with fresh roast veggy's... have a fab day everyone xxxx

The Friendship Around The World Award....thank you

The Friendship Around The World Award.

I am really honored to be awarded this award from Dairy Soap Girl I love her blogs and soap, The rules say to pass it on to 8 people I think deserve the award I really wish I could pass it back as well...

This award was originally written in Spanish but it translates to highlight blogs that are pleasing or special in some way, and also to extend the hand of friendship around the world.

http://ladybugsoapworks.blogspot.com/ Because she has fantastic brains and soaps...
http://morganstreetsoap.blogspot.com another Morgan and she works hard at her fabulous addiction.. and the results show.
http://passitonplates.blogspot.com/ What a wonderful idea so worthy of a friendship award I love pass it on plates.
http://soapswithballs.blogspot.com We have matching dogs and I love his chunky soaps, hats of to mum too for guiding him..
http://chocolateandzucchini.com for some of the most amazing recipes and an unaware helping hand while i was in france...
http://www.realepicurean.com/ for adding so many calories to my diet....
http://lomondsoap.blogspot.com/ Corries soaps are fantastic
http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com/ for serious soap porn...

The rules for acceptance of the award are as follows:

Pick 8 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on their creativity, design, interesting material and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

Congratulations and please pass the award to others who are deserving.

Share the friendship........x

Have you ever...............

Have you ever had just one of those days where you wish you could get away from it all....
Mine normally start with the morning battle of getting the apple of my left eye up for work.... hehe i've even stood at her door when she thinks i'm in my room, what a picture said apple of eye still well wrapped in her covers shouting yes mum i'm just getting dressed....

I had one of those days where everything just didnt go right.... So I randomly booked a flight to france to meet online friends with my bestest girlfriend.. Ohhhh what an experience 2 slightly younger than middle age (we like to think so) women going on a road trip (with a very small budget)....
The mission was to land in france and with just an address we were to find a way to travel to our friends rural retreat.... Umm might of helped if we spoke french!!
It was so hilarious, me trying to look helpless and doe eyed dressed like a catwalk reject including bright green winnie the pooh boxer boots, next to my ultra classy friend who was fabulously co-ordinated and even pay'd extra on the flight to make sure her make up and matching wardrobe could come with us (totally impressed with what she could pack in her case...) So mobiles switched of we battled onwards.

Oh the freedom of just being able to do what you like with just temporary zilch responsibility (and a bottle of vodka) is sooo much fun.. Fancy not telling me because alcohol is cheaper does not mean it is not as strong...arghhh i'm never drinking again till the next time lol.
We had a very enlightening experience with lots of fun thrown in, try belly dancing at 3am in a haunted house ever so slightly tipsy (drunk) I can highly recommend it... But we dont recommend trying to speak to the french cows which wanted to sleep they dont like it.... (we tried to teach them english) The morning after I was so reminded why I very rarely ever drink.

We were made some great food and visited a fantastic little french restaurant which we are considering buying, we need to seriously look at the books though for such a major decision..

The whole trip was about challenge and our motto was.. were grown up we can do what we want... We have both waited so long to be able to do something like this on the spur of the moment .. Both us have been single working mums for as long as we remember and normally it takes logistical planning to do anything... Till now, my two are both working and my friends daughter has settled in uni, and we both have boyfriends to look after the pets...

Next step Morroco.......

Terminal meltdown..... with Octopus soup...

..... computer in terminal overload (err I tried to get a bit to clever) laymans terms it's a bit broke and I've got to pack for an early flight to france in the morning.... eek back in a week....
week in summary..
mon*sent gifts for pink party made cinnamon butter.. (daisy girl I will post recipe and instructions on return thank you millions for award) computer started arguing with me..
tue*flew to germany travelled to spa on train and buses without knowing a word of german (umm only found 2 english speaking people cool)
wed*went to zepplian museum (wow massive floating things) in hogs heaven with all the dirigibles they are bigger than my kites... Paprika octopus
thur*made chocolate orange muffins and goji berry muffins... Octopus soup.. made simmering crystals.. argued with computer..
Fri*Threatend computer with divorce (no effect reported).. made 3 soaps, sandlewood - parika and vanilla, Lavender/Lemon/Vanilla with marshmallow, Caramel Cafe Latte with jamican blue moutain coffee.. computer went in huff!
sat*made unsalted and salted butter.. some freezer food for the tribe while I'm away.. swore and got violent with computer.. beans on toast for dinner
sun*rushed about like maniac as just remembered I'm supposed to be in france in the morning and I thought my flight was at 1pm eek... quickly made edible whipped body mousse with shea butter(promised to my friend), take away dinner hehe... made hugo bubble bars umm not much bubble yet... phew that's the basics... hey heads up for the graduation mr soap with balls lol.... really gotta dash now....x