Craft something each month

Well, I’ve been crafting…sort of….let’s see….had to help son make a 3-D salt dough map of Missouri, a scout derby rocket, a scout pinewood derby car, and a 3-D salt dough map of Italy….

not exactly what I have envisioned for this goal, but nonetheless, I’ve been crafty!

Castile soap (pure olive oil) and a Green Tea & Tea tree oil soap with lavender and peppermint notes.

The soaps are still curing in my kitchen. I came up with the recipe for the tea soap myself, it was quite an experiment but I’m really happy with how the scents mingle. My kitchen smells like a good cup of tea and if I take a deep breath, same relaxing sensation as when you drink tea.

No picture, because it came out fugly as hell.

I realized it was the end of July and I still hadn’t made anything for this goal. So I took an empty olive oil can and cut it down the middle. Turned on it’s side, it’s a soap mold for when I make olive oil soap.

That sounded so easy. It wasn’t. I’ve never cut metal before and used some unwieldy sheet metal sheers and a hack saw. Made a crooked mess of the whole thing. Then I used pliers to turn snipped pieces of the edge over so it wouldn’t be sharp.

Very crooked and not pretty. But the part that holds the soap is just right and I think will make soaps with a lovely curved edge.

I made the Bath Bubblers this month. They turned out quite nice. I also made a batch of Lavender soap, experimenting a bit with the amount of scent and colour.

Turned out marbled with Grey-blue rather than the purple I was going for. Maybe I can claim it as “for men”? A lot of guys I know like the way lavender smells, but it usually comes in a girly form.

Oh yeah, and I put in baseboards in my dining room. That falls under “craft” I think. The strange things I did to make it look right on my uneven floors and nonsquare walls, could be called creative.

The soap I made for a fundraiser. Vegetarian, all natural soap, coloured with french pink clay. One batch plain and the second batch I cubed some vanilla soap I made and marbled it through. I like the way the mold turned out.

A bit of a cop out, because this was part of another goal. But I did make the girly-girl math set . So I’m calling that my April project.

Now, hmmm. What to do for May. Might reupholster my dining room chairs.

I have decided my first project for May, will be cloth napkins. This will help save the environment and money at the same time. Plus they are great for gifts, and add personality to the dinner table and lunches.

Easy to make. I like that.

Next step, pull out sewing machine and check for needles and thread. Then go get some fabrics!

I’ve had waay too much time on my hands to do nothing being sick, and I have been drooling over all sorts of crafty projects. I even made a list of potential crafting subjects on my lists. I am thinking I really could have a jump on the Christmas season if I start NOW. The only reason I don’t do them is because it is too easy to dream about doing them. I need to stop dreaming and just do!

I was so pleased with my bath bomb effort earlier, it made me realize I just need a good swift kick to get going.

I have a BEAUTIFUL sewing machine that is not being used just sitting in its case. I have scrapbook materials, fabric remnants, a grave yard of paint and art supplies, a heap of yarn and needles, and many books sitting there doing nothing.

I have not decided yet on my first project, but a few I have in mind I’ve been thinking about a lot are:

1. a homemade tea wallet that holds teabags in your purse

2. assorted cute homemade cloth napkins…to reduce waste, pack in lunches, and use at dinnertime. I figure these should be pretty easy with remnants, and they are earth friendly and easy to sew, so that might be a good project to get me back into using the machine….I could even make some as gifts potentially.

3. outdoor fabric cushions for my outdoor room project

4. painted flower pots

BTW, I am more artsy than crafty. I really do take after my grandmother, who even though she uses a Martha Stewart pattern for something, will always manage to insert her own quirky personal signature into a handmade item, giving it character unlike no other. Patterns scare me a bit, and I do better just from figuring it out on my own rather than lining patterns up.

to pay more attention to the “crafty” side of myself. It always gets shoved to the side since I’m not actually a creative person. One thing a month seems manageable.

And I’ll consider something to be a craft by either the old fashioned or the modern sense of the word. So anything that involves making or recreating something.