Christmas Countdown - December

So once again I've been joining in with Allie's Christmas Through The Year - the final installment!

Want to see my roundup of what I've made?

1 - 6: Teacup candles

7-8: 2 sets of wax tarts for burners

9: Cross stitch cushion

10: Table runner

11: Wine Bottle Cosy

12-13: Wash bags

14-19: Spa Kits

Which actually adds up to more than 19 presents, because the spa kit itself is a bag and contains:

20-25: Spa slippers

26-31: Eye mask

32-37: Crocheted wash cloth

38-47: Homemade soap

48-57: Home made bath bombs

And there's more!!  In the photographless category we have:

58-63: Glass candles

64-70: Birdfeeders

Not a bad effort!  I've still got some work to do, but I've still got a few days (including two full days where I don't have to go to work).  My list of things to make is:

1. Finish off the 6 glass candles I've made (just topping up around the wick)

2. Sew up the glasses cases

3. Crochet 3 x scrubbies

4: Crochet 1 x washcloth

5: Crochet 1 x keyboard duster

6: Crochet Yoda ami

7: Crochet ami pig

8: Finish the bird feeders

9: Assemble cookies in jars

10: Assemble the reinbeer

Numbers 6 and 7 can be left off if I run out of time, so I'm feeling pretty confident that Christmas will be ready!

Spa Kits - complete!

I have finally finished the spa kits!  Well, OK, I've got one washcloth to crochet as apparently I can't count, but they're pretty much done.


I never showed you the eye masks, so here they are:

After I'd finished sewing them, I put one on and Mr CA said "the nose cut out needs to be bigger".  I gave him an "annoyed look" and ignored him.  Maybe I've just got a big nose...

They have elastic at the back to account for a range of small - large heads.  Not that I'm saying my family and friends have large heads, but you never know.


So, want to see the completed Spa kits?

Here they are, all full of goodies.  Want to see what's in each one?

The slippers and eye mask are from this tutorial, the bag itself is from a pattern in Making magazine.  The crochet washcloths are are different from various patterns in one of my books.  There's also a couple of homemade soaps and bath bombs.  The kit above also includes a bought pig-shaped shower gel.  This kit is for my piggy-loving mum.

Would you be excited to find this under your Christmas tree?

Each kit is the same but different.  Some have plastic bath toys in them - for the mother's of small children. 

The slippers and eye masks are all made from the DS quilt line that was sold in the US in Joann's.  Each has a different colour combination.  I wish I'd had enough to make the bags the same, but it was not to be.

Most of the washcloths are made from cotton or acrylic yarn, I made them months and months ago, at the start of the year I think.

The soap and bath bombs are all from a couple of kits, but there are recipes galore on the internet if you want to try it.  The soap is just melt-and-pour and was easy, the bath bombs were NOT easy!


Phew, it feels like a weight of my mind now that is done. I'm just having a break after finishing my last batch of candles and candle tarts and before making my gift tags.  Not long to go now but most items are crossed off my list - either because they're done or because I've decided not to make them!  Ah well, at least I'll have some ideas for next year!

Knot Bags - Spa Kit (and some talk of flooring)

Wow, what a week!  I've been busy at work; busy trying to enter all the giveaways over at Sew, Mama, Sew; busy with Christmas preparations...  I am very pleased the week is nearly over now and hoping I can shake this headache that I've had since last Saturday.

Today I'm going to show you the final part of the spa kits, yep, that means I finally finished all the binding on those eye masks... I've just realised I never showed you the eye masks and that's not what this post is about.  Ah well, I'll show you the completed kits at the weekend.

The final part I'm on about is the bags that they come in.  I found the pattern for this in the latest issue of Making.   As soon as it arrived on the doorstep, I knew I'd found the bag I was going to use.

I have one of those all-in-one printers at home, printer, scanner, photocopier.  But you know what the damn things can't do?  Enlarge.  I mean, come on!  So I attacked the A4 size pattern on the work photocopier and ended up with 6 pieces of paper in the end.  I skillfully butchered them and stuck them back together to make my lifesize template.

And then I did some serious cutting and sewing!  I've actually missed one of the bags, the first one I made, out off all the pictures below.  Whenever I make something production line style, I always make one first, to check it all goes together right.  I'm really glad I did as the instructions were a little unclear in parts and I completely messed the first one up.  With a lot of unpicking, I managed to put it together correctly, but didn't take a photo!

A random hearts print from my stash with a plain pink lining.  What do you think to our brown carpet?  It's in the hallway from ground floor to top floor, and also in the spare bedroom.

This is a piece of Fig Tree Whimsy I had stashed away.  I bought it to go with something else, but I bought it online and when it arrived it didn't go, but I love it anyway.  Lined with plain pale pink from Fabricland I think.  Downstairs and our bedroom had a lovely dark red carpet, complete with cigarette burns and stains.

An IKEA fabric and an old white sheet.  We didn't lay this carpet, I really hope you don't think we did, it's just we're only doing up the house slowly as and when we have money and it hasn't stretched this far yet.

The whimsy again with a dark pink lining.  Downstairs we have laminte flooring and ripped lino in the kitchen - I have replacement lino tiles but Mr CA hasn't got round to it yet and I need his help as I can't move the fridge or washing machine myself.  Mr CA's daughter's room has the original floorboards painted white and my craft room has a lovely bluey/grey carpet which stars in many of my photos, there's one coming up in fact.

The IKEA fabric again, this time lined with an old pillow case.  We haven't decorated any other rooms.  The only reason my craft room was done is that my cousin used to live with me and it was her room, so I did it up for her before she moved in. 

Here they are all lined up on the floor, except number 1 of course.  See the blue/grey carpet?

And this is what they look like undone.  I think I've finished talking about carpets now.  It was a bit strange really, wasn't it?

I tried to take a photo of the inside of teh bag, with little luck.  It appears to be an action shot, though neither me nor the bag (nor the carpet) were moving.  I had named this post "knot bags - spa kit" but I think I'd better change it.

Spa Kit - kitchen crafts

Well how frustrating. First of all, when I first came to write this post I'd put a load of photos into posts, ready to write them up, then I sat down to write them up and Blogger had stolen them! Fine then Blogger, I'll just put them all back in, shall I? Don't you worry, I've got all the time in the world, unlike you, sitting around being a computer programme.  Then, last night, in the midst of Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway week giveaway entering, Blogger decided to disable my account and remove my blog!  I finally got it back, after several hours of panic and even a little dispair.  I'd scheduled this post to post Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon I come into the blog to have a look at something and guess what, it's only posted half my post, removing all my photos and just stopping halfway through!  Bloody great.  Doesn't Blogger know I'm meant to be at work right now, and, worse than that, I'm meant to be going out for a fag break?  Grrr.

I've done.

So, what was this post about? Ah, kitchen crafts. No, not cooking, I don't do cooking. I do do baking but I don't really blog about that. This is kitchen crafts of the beauty variety. I fancied trying something new (don't I always?!) and these seemed ideal additions to my spa kits (which are so close to being done!).

First up, handmade bath bombs.

In this picture they're just in food bags, I didn't dare take them out and take photos of them naked as I had a few issues with them.  As you can see, the blue ones are crumbling.  I found this really hard.  The recipe said to use the tiniest weeniest bit of water, but I couldn't get them to stick together and I think I ended up adding too much water. 

I wrapped them in a bit of cellaphane and tied them with a ribbon type thing I had.  Not the best packaging in the world, but to be honest, by this point I was sick of the damn things!  I don't think this is a craft I'll be repeating.

Next up was soap.  Not real cold-press soap, just melt and pour stuff.

Here they are.  Three colours and three different scents.  Some have flowers in them but they mainly ended up on the base.  The recipe said to leave the soap for 10 minutes to set, then stir in the flowers. Well they were set after 10minutes, completely set!  I must have done something wrong.

It was quite fun doing this, and I might do it again if people ask for them, but it was very quick and easy.  This could easily be done by children.  Or me. 

I just wrapped them in cellophane and added a bit of washi tape, you see, I'd overlooked something important.  I'm allergic to soap.  Yes, that's right, I'm allergic to soap so I decided to make... soap.  There's a word for people like me.  Yes, that's the one.  Anyway, by the time I got to this point, my hands were falling off in large chunks (bit overdramatic but you get the picture) and I didn't really want to touch them any more!

I just accidentally closed the window (on the computer, not in the office) and lost half of this post.  I'm about ready to jump out of that damn window, I tell you.  And to add to that, I've got a papercut that's as pathetic as they come but it hurts like hell.  Wow, such moaning and whining and whinging!  I've finished now, happy face is back, it's fag and coffee time and I've just had an email saying it's someone's birthday and there's cakes in the kitchen... Yippee!!!