Gloating Along

Looking forward to a respite after the daily blogging of 2KCBW ? Expecting me to be burnt out having said all I have to say ? Ha ! I bite my thumb in your general direction - you don't get off that lightly. I always have something to say, as DH knows to his cost ...

Firstly, I want to say thank you to the fabulous Eskimimi for all the stuff she did: concept, organizing, buttons, banners, topics etc for Blog Week. I thoroughly enjoyed it - I have have a good nosy snouty poke round lots of blogs that were new to me, and have added loads to my Google Reader.

I even scored most satisfactorily in a concrete way, which I was not expecting; I 'spect you can hear me gloating all the way from here. On Day 1, Janine was saying on her blog Where The Nodding Violets Grow, that she really disliked the Stylecraft Sirocco yarn in the colorway 'Pineapple' she had; I offered to re-home it ... 2 days later it was on my doorstep:


And to make it fairer, I sent Janine some of my handmade soaps.

And then Susie over at Useless Beauty mentioned as how she didn't like the Malabrigo Lace that she had; I offered to trade for it, as I've never seen it and it's reputation is quite mythical. She didn't quite bite my hand off, but here it is:

It is incredibly soft; the colorway is 'Jewel'.

So I want to thank these two generous ladies for increasing my stash so nicely. Which is not involved in my current project ... it is a Seekret Projekt so here is a Seekret Foto:


The completed section of the Seekret Projeckt:

But looking at it ? It needs ribbons. Trailing thin ones. Attached somewhere, somehow.

Don't forget, you have til midnight Friday to enter my April Fool's contest ....

And Now for Something Completely Different ! 2KCBWDAY5

And now for something completely different: 2KCBWDAY5
Experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create. There are no rules of a topic to blog about (though some suggestions are given below) but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.



There once was an old woman from Suffolk
Who decided to challenge the blog folk:
Submit me a rhyme
By the end of this time
This contest is no April Fool's joke !

Have a go at winning this contest
It's easier than knitting a lace vest:
Simply comment in verse
(For better or worse!)
Sit back and relax, read the rest !


2nd Annual April Fool's Contest: All you have to do is leave a comment in a form of (original) verse, eg.rhyming couplet, haiku, sonnet, iambic pentameter, epigram, etc to have a chance of winning a fabulous Mystery Prize selected by me !

Go on, have a go - it cannot be worse than mine !

Conditions:
Open to international entries
Closing date Fri.8th April, 2011
Winner will be chosen by random number generator.
Winner will be announced on the blog.
Please make sure I can contact you for your address.

Enough

Well, my eyeballs are hanging out and my brain is fried - probably not the best time to blog, but 'wotthehell, archy, wotthehell'.

I have been spending the day with soap. First I unmolded and cut the Turkish Delight soap (layered pink and green, scented with English Rose fragrance oil and lemongrass essential oil) then I wrapped and labelled like a bajillion soaps. Well, OK, about thirty or so. It felt like millions, even though the process was super-speeded up by using sticky labels, and really nice greaseproof paper, instead of what I used to do, which was wrap them in tissue paper and then a cigar band: I like the idea of cigar bands, but I always had problems with spacing/positioning the words so that they appeared in the right place when wrapped round the soap. I branched out into color by using Christmas giftwrap for the festively scented soaps - still easier.

This is what about 30 lbs of soap looks like when it's curing:

Sorry if you thought you were going to get an interesting photo.

I spent quite a lot of time printing my soap recipes, MSDS information, costings etc - at some point next year, I aim to get safety assessed: I need to be able to sell my soap just so I can get some house room back. That is why my brain is fried; I can do figures, but it is not my favorite thing, so once I have found something halfway decent to watch on TV (History Channel, here I come) I shall resume knitting DD's Xmas sweater.

Speaking of DD, I watched the DVD of 'Twilight' with her, and now all the jokes and snipes I have seen online are making way more sense. I wonder if teenage angst is an American thing ? Or maybe I am simply too old to remember it. Or, maybe it's a vampire thing, following on from David Boreanaz, as Angel, the original brooding Vampire with a Soul .....



Now, that is an interesting photo. Although I always had a sneaking fondness for Spike. But then, I thought Iago was the only character worth paying attention to in 'Othello'.

Hopefully these pictures of my wrapped and artfully arranged soaps (by me, so not perfect) will also be of interest:



And for those of you who have made it this far ? There is a prize. Correctly identify (title and author) the quote at the beginning of this post, and you could win a free bar of gorgeous, luxurious, handmade cold process soap ... winner will be randomly selected: just post your answer in the comments section.