What we've been up to this summer...

I've mentioned before that we are about to move out of the city and finally get our own house. The house itself isn't actually there yet, though... but it's coming quite quickly!

So instead of playing around at home with sewing, candlemaking or whatever I usually do, this summer we've been crafting on a different scale. We're not actually building the house ourselves, but we have been busy working on other stuff.

And now, time for some pictures! Finally, yay!

Photo update in-between cramps: Mead, paper and painting.

Today is one of those days when I spend every other minute laying down with intense cramps (menstruation from hell!), and I'm thus unable to work. The small chunks of time where I'm NOT actually beaten down with cramps, I thought I'd take some pics of stuff I should show you...

 These bottles are filled with mead, made this spring/early summer. It turned out great and should only improve with time! It's also stronger than it seems and may provide one mean hangover.








I'm particularly proud of these labels. Not only have I finally gotten a hang of writing with an old-fashioned dip-in-ink pen, I've also made the paper myself!

For the paper, I recycled scrap paper and mixed with water. It wasn't a hundred percent successful (the home made frame and mesh could use some improvement, more on that in a later post!) but it was FUN! I'll definitely be making more paper later on, when I have the time. And then I'll try to remember to write a blog post about it right away! :P







Now what on earth is this? Ehm... well, sometimes I paint. Nothing fancy, I'm no artist for sure but I like it. This is my favorite so far.

Well, that's all for now. Time for me to curl up into a ball and try to get through the pain. It's rising again now, like a dark wave knocking me out. Ajajaj...

Update!

If you're wondering why I haven't been blogging very often recently... Me and my husband are about to move to a home in the countryside, and it's been taking almost all of our energy for the last couple of months. That, plus work, haven't left much time for blogging OR crafting.

However, I have just recently started a small sewing project. Handsewing, at work. Yes, I can sew while I work. Lucky me, huh? =)

It's a dress. I'll show you some pics when it's done. =)

Second candle making experiment!

Hey there! I'm sorry I don't update this blog as regularly as I used to, but everyday life and work seems to get in the way more often now... Anyhow, this has been a good week for crafting. Playing around with plastic bags (!) as a re-usable material has been interesting, and will earn a separate blog post in the near future (when I've taken some pics to show off!). My first ever attempt at paper making (recycling old paper) was tremendous fun, and that too deserves a whole new blog post once I've taken some pretty pics of the result. So what am I going to show you tonight?

Well, since it's late and I'm tired I'll settle for something short and sweet. A few days ago I made new candles out of left-over bits of old candles by melting and molding. I've done this once before as some of you might remember, which resulted in two light pink candles. This time I got three candles in light green that turned out beautiful and one in white that I made a mess of and will have to re-melt next time.

Once again, I only used left-over bits of old candles without adding any additional colour or material. Well, except for the wicks of course! Can't re-use those, can I!  So this light green color is purely the result of what color of old candle stumps I put in the mix.

I am particularly proud of the two flower shaped candles, made in moulds originally meant for soap (I think!). I modified them simply by piercing the bottom of the mold so that I could put the wicks through, but other than that it needed no adjustments. Pretty, isn't it? =)

How an MMORPG can inspire recycling and do-redo...

Yes, I'm a gamer and Guild Wars is my addiction. With Guild Wars 2 coming up, and I'll be participating in my first ever beta test the coming weekend, I thought it was time to share with how Guild Wars has inspired me in unexpected ways.

Guild Wars is a fantasy roleplaying game on a grand scale, in which me and my hubby roam around a beautiful but dangerous world, killing monsters. But how on earth could this kind of game inspire recycling, you probably ask. Well, let me tell you...

It's simple, really. In GW, all kinds of loot can be recycled by salvaging the basic materials. For example, a piece of old armor might give you some bolts of cloth or leather. A flower might be salvaged for plant fibers. An old staff can be salvaged for wood. And so on and so on; anything and everything can be salvaged. These basic materials may then be processed into finer materials (such as making steel from iron) or used to craft new items (mainly armor).

More and more, this concept is influencing how I look on trash. The metal of an old soda can could be salvaged and used to make new cans. Plastic bottles can be used to make cloth. Old paper can be used to make new paper. Yes, this is what recycling is all about.

The thing is, recycling doesn't have to stop there. Most people are quite content with just putting glass, plastic, metal and paper in the appropriate bin for recycling to be done by some big company, and of course this is great. But what about all the other stuff we throw away?

I really got into this question a couple of weeks ago, when I went through the mess of stuff cluttering up our hallway. I just had to get rid of some of the shoes which were full of holes and a an old handbag that was so close to breaking it was dangerous to keep anything important in. 

I sat down and looked at a pair of old boots that had to go. The sole was a complete mess and had made my feet wet too many times already. But the shoe laces were good, so I took them out. Then I looked at the metal thingies that had held the lacing, and realized that those could be used again in some future sewing project. The rest was just so messy it had to go in the bin. Then I looked at the old hand bag, not really wanting to throw it away but knowing it wasn't worth keeping. But what about salvaging some of the components? I ended up taking out three good zippers, all the metal stuff as well as some of the fabric that still looked good. At least, the fabric looked good after a good washing and ironing!

The fabric I am thinking of using for a shirt... It's not enough for an entire garment, but would be great for perhaps a collar and cuffs. Or some other detail. I just have to find a matching fabric... 

I have also started collecting my old candle stumps, to be melted down and made into new candles. And with good result, I gotta say! 

Now of course no one in the modern world can recyle all of their trash. I know I couldn't. But just as when playing Guild Wars, I have started to look at stuff a second time before throwing them out. Just look, and think. Is there anything in this particular piece that could be used again for something new? If yes, go for it! Then of course it's important to not just gather lots of materials, but to actually do something with them as well. And it's oh so important to keep it clean and tidy, there's no point in living in a pile of trash. 

Do you share my thoughts on this subject? Do you have any good examples of materials that can be salvaged from trash, that people usually forget? 

Making candles!

This is something I've been longing to try... I'm sick and tired of throwing out left over candle stumps, and for the last months I've been saving up for a candle making experiment. In other words, this is pure do-redo as all the candle material is reused. Only the wicks were bought new (and the two candle molds I used, which I can use over and over and over!) The candle color is a result of the white and red stumps I mixed together, no new pigments were added.

Aren't they pretty! A comment on the scale: don't be fooled by the proportions of the candle to the left, I know it looks like a tiny tea light, but it's really some 5 or 6 cm across. The mold is a lot higher, I just didn't have enough filling for it all and settled this for now. Next time will be a different colour, and I'll try to make at least one really tall pillar candle.Yay, this was fun recycling! =D

Impulsive sewing: grey blouse

The day before yesterday, acting on pure impulse, I decided to sew a blouse for myself out of some left-over grey fabric. I'm not sure exactly what's in it, probably most linnen but definitely something else as well. Anyhow... I based the pattern on a flimsy blouse I've had for years and that I love, but since the grey linnen-like fabric wasn't as stretchy I had to change things up a bit. Aaand of course I couldn't just leave it at that either, but had to do some minor changes just for fun.

Here's the result! I'm sorry the pic is all blurry... we lost our camera a week ago and Marcus hasn't really befriended the smartphone camera yet. =)

(No, that's not my nipple showing through the fabric, it's a tiny wrinkle at the edge of a seam that in this light got very visible. No nipples showing, nothing to see here!)