make: lip balm

I have been making creams, shaving foam and lip balms this week. For this lip balm recipe I used to do it in silicone mini cupcake moulds and have it as more of a lip balm bar that was kept in the fridge but I decided that it was good enough and used enough for me to buy some proper lip balm tubes.

My recipe is -

1 part beeswax

1 part oil (I used grapeseed this time but I also sometimes use olive or almond oil)

1 part 'butter' (not actual butter! I used 1/2 shea butter and 1/2 cocoa butter)

20 drops peppermint essential oil

Put all ingredients in a double boiler (mine is an old coffee can in a pan of water), and heat until melted.

Pour into your neatly lined up waiting containers ...

... then discover that you can't pour very well from a wide can into a tiny tube.

All those little bits come off easily once set and can be saved to melt down again next time. Leave your lip balm to set then enjoy lovely soft lips.

Jo x 

1/4

3 months with our gorgeous baby boy, happy quarter roghan x

Jo x 



12 months of giving: pony sanctuary

For January, faith did a sponsored walk. Today we took the £100 she raised to the Broomfield Pony Sanctuary. This is a sanctuary in Trewellard, Cornwall 'for the protection of horses and ponies who are in need of care or attention as a result of sickness, maltreatment, neglect, or poor circumstances'. We visited today and had a lovely guided tour, we learnt about how ponies come to be taken into care here and how much money and time commitment it takes to look after them.

It is the aim of the sanctuary to rehabilitate horses and ponies to the point where they can be fostered by others (they never sell them), however, some will never be well enough to be fostered so the sanctuary needs support to carry on its great work. If you wish to find out more or donate please follow this link.

Jo x 



at our place

This week we have been playing with babies, snuggling in from the cold, finding interesting shapes on the pavement, building towers, examining tiny toes, decorating, finding valentines inspiration, discovering cheeky bunnies hiding in boxes, crocheting circles and stroking soft pony noses.

Jo x 



make: knitting needle case

Keep those needles handy so that every spare moment can be spent knitting, not looking for needles.

First you need to cut your pieces, 1 outer fabric, 1 lining fabric, and 1 piece of wadding. I cut mine to 21" width and 36" length. The length needs to be this long otherwise the top flap won't hold the needles in but the width could be smaller if you don't have many needles and only want a couple of pockets.

Arrange with the wadding on the bottom, then the outer fabric right side up and then the lining fabric right side down. Take a length of ribbon ( I used about 120cm but if you are doing a thinner width you won't need it so long. It's better to put in too much though as you can trim it afterwards), fold in half and put the long ends in between the outer and lining fabrics with just a little of the folded end sticking out. Pin it about halfway up one of the long sides.

Sew around the edge catching all 3 layers in the seam and stitching over the ribbon. Leave about a 6" gap on one of the sides. Turn the whole thing right side out so that the fabrics are both showing their right sides, the wadding is in the middle, and the ribbon is sticking out the side. Top stitch around the whole thing closing up the gap as you go.

Fold up the short edge by 10" and sew the edges to make a big pocket, then sew lines up the big pocket about every 2" or so to separate it into smaller pockets. I used a denim needle for this as there is a lot of layers. Put all your needles in and roll up.

Tie the ribbon in a bow and trim the ends if necessary.

Happy crafting.

Jo x 



this moment

Inspired by Soulemama, a moment to pause and remember...

Jo x 

yarn along

Joining in with the yarn along.

Finished pair of baby socks.

Chunky pair of slippers for me. I'm still going to put a sole on these to make them a bit more hard wearing. This is such a simple pattern that I will put up a post on how to make them soon.

One finished mitten complete with thumb! Halfway there! I have another project that I really really want to get started on but I am trying to be disciplined and do the mittens first, it's really hard.

Cast on for a baby jacket in a bigger size than the one Roghan has now, he is growing so fast.

Still no reading this week for me although I am enjoying reading 'Little house in the Big Woods' with Faith. It's the first time she's got into reading chapter books and its such a classic, I think I'm enjoying it as much as she is.

Jo x 

the mines

We are having such a mild winter and it is lovely to be able to get out and about in the crisp air and the sunshine. Last week we had a brilliant afternoon on the cliffs at Levant mine, faith learnt all about where tin comes from and how they got it out of the ground, and she was a bit in awe of people spending all day deep underground. We also paid a visit to a nearby lighthouse and saw the coastguard helicopter go past, perfect opportunity to talk about how we keep people safe at sea.

Jo x 

I wonder?

I was happily minding my own business, when ...

Faith: "How many ladybirds legs would fit in a submarine?"

Me:"Err ... loads ...

Faith: "Yeah ... that's what I thought too."

Happy mondays.

Jo x 

recipe: herbal cough treats

We love to make our own herbal medicines and last week we made these herbal treats. Faith was suffering from a blocked nose and sore throat and I was starting to come down with it too so we made a batch of these and faith got better within 2 days and mine never materialised. I'm not saying this is absolute evidence that they work, we may have got better anyway, but they taste good too and were fun to make.

I get herbs from G. Baldwin.



make: jeans tub

How to recycle an old pair of jeans into a new and useful tub. I am using faiths jeans which are a 6 - 7 size.

Cut the legs off to make a tube of material, then measure around the bottom edge of the tube.

We need to find the radius of the circle that would fit into the bottom of this tube, so, the measurement you just took would be the circumference of the circle, divide this by pi (3.14) to find the diameter, then divide this by 2 to find the radius.

For example the distance around the bottom of mine was 29.5 inches, divide this by pi to get 9.394 then by 2 to get 4.69. So, I need to cut a circle with a radius of approx 4.7 inches.

To do this cut down the seam of the jeans leg then open out to get a piece of fabric. Fold in to quarters and then measure your radius from the centre corner out and make marks in an arc from the vertical edge to the horizontal edge. (see picture). Sew together the fabric from both legs if your piece is not big enough.

 

Cut along this arc through all 4 layers of fabric then open out to get a circle that fits into the tube of fabric from the top of the jeans.



Pin the circle into the top of the jeans right sides together. Clip the edges to give it a bit of stretch to make it fit. Pin opposite points first then halfway between these (the quarter points), then pin the rest to ensure an even fit.

Sew around. (Carefully, there's lots of pins poking out!).

Turn right side out and store your stuff.

Happy crafting.

Jo x