Firestarter

 

No, not the movie. I watched this last week and my gosh, it was terrible.

I'm talking about me being a fire starter. I got up before dawn yesterday and got one roaring in my Solo Stove. 

It was dark and it was cold and I had a devil of a time putting my heat diffuser together but I did figure it out.

I would have loved to take advantage of all that warmth but as soon as the sun came up, the critters woke up and everyone was demanding breakfast. By the time I got back out, my fire was burned out. 

The Mister got up soon after and wanted to get Pup out for a walk before football so off we went. It looks like fall around the wetlands but if you look out my windows it's still very green.

I did pick up some big pine cones on our walk. The Mister says they make good fire starters. 

And.....I finished my autumn puzzle yesterday.

Now I can help The Mister finish his. He's recruited me to do his sky. 

Soap on Sunday

I'm still heading downstairs every morning and putting a loaf of soap on to cook. This is the only new fragrance I bought for this session. It's called Red Maple and it was supposed to be for my big fall giveaway but that didn't happen.

 I decided to try it anyway and it turned out pretty nice. I like the fragrance. I thought it might smell like pancake syrup but it doesn't. It's just a nice soapy smell. 

On Friday I made one of my favorites. It's a pine scent but it's called Mistletoe. 

Well, that's a bit busy. I swear I do the same thing every time and it always surprises me. 

Crazy

 

I have a vast Kaffe Fasset collection and I never could decide what to do with it. For a few years I've just enjoyed looking at it on my shelves. 

Then I switched my bedroom over for the colder months with some dark curtains and a black checkered duvet set. It was a bit bleak so a project was born. I needed a quilt that would brighten up the room and I need one now. I had to give myself a good talking to but I did convince myself to tear into one of those jelly rolls and I am so glad I did. 

Ditto for the beautiful charm squares and layer cake that I had. You can't be timid with fabric like this so I dug out my crazy quilt template to see what would happen. 

This happened. 

Then this. Aren't they glorious? I'm having so much fun. 

Friday Finishes

 

Ta da.....my Pairfect twins are done. It's almost the end of October and these are the first addition to this year's gift box. Oh, well....it's been quite the year with little time for sitting and knitting. 

Yesterday's soap smells lovely but it looks dreary. Whenever I make lemon scented soap it's always a challenge to get a yellow mica that doesn't fade. This one sure did. You can barely see it. 

And....we did this. The Mister got two participation stickers yesterday. He got one for his flu shot too. He likes to space his apart, I like mine all together. Now we're both good to go through the holidays. 

Hide and Seek

 

Well, that was fun. I made my first batch of soap in my new soap space yesterday and spent most of my time trying to find all my stuff. It was so neat and orderly that I ended up pulling everything out and re-organizing it so I knew where it all was. 

The first batch was an easy one. Oatmeal, Milk and Honey. It always behaves. 

After an uneventful pour, it spent the night in the cooler I use for an incubator. 

Not bad. It feels a bit softer than it usually does when I use cocoa butter but I'm thinking that a six week cure should sort things right out. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

I said I was going to start something new this week but I thought I better finish up some old things first. 

Audun was assembled using a continuous joining method and I had goofed it up but good last spring and had put it away until the weather cooled down. It has finally cooled down.

My boo boo was to attach the last row forgetting I needed to then go down the last side. I thought I would fix it by just adding one more row. BUT when I made the new blocks they were all too small. I must have used the wrong hook. I was not happy. So now what I've decided to do instead is just rip out the top joining row and do it right. Audun doesn't need to be any bigger. She's a real monster just as she is.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I had a lot of things to do this weekend that kept me away from stitching but I do have something new to share. A long while back I bought this very expensive punch needle and.......

...this kit but I never could figure out how to make it work. I don't think I had the right fabric or yarn to get the job done with that particular needle.

While I was on Pup Watch I got hooked on watching people make the cutest punch needle coasters. They made it look so easy so.....

....I bought a kit. It has all the needles, yarn and fabric to make that coffee cup coaster that I want to surprise the coffee addicted Mister with. I'm hoping by using the right materials this time I can finally figure out how it all works. 

We'll see.