Christmas Update

I know! It's been a long time. I'm sorry. :(  I got so busy then I just forgot about it. I really should just sit down and write a whole bunch of blog entries so that I can just publish them whenever I want. But then again it's not that big of a deal since I don't have any followers and I doubt anybody really reads this so it's not too big of a deal to post something very often but I know I should.

So since I last posted I had three Christmases. Christmas with my boyfriend's dad. Supper was very yummy and I got a Walmart gift card (which I already spent half of it on groceries...) and lip balm and a big Kinder Surprise. I got an awesome toy in it! lol

Then that night we jetted out to my mom's. We hung out at the bar the next day until they closed (my mom and aunt...aunt owns bar and my mom works there) then we headed out to my uncle's house. Surprising enough Christmas was really nice. My aunt is usually quite a bitch and very cold but she was pretty cheery and nice this year. I was surprised. Supper was again VERY good. And then we just hung out a lot and did some Christmas word sheets and then did the gift exchange thing. We each put in a gift then get numbers. 1 gets to pick gift then 2 gets to steal the first person's gift or choose another and so on and so on. I first got a slow cooker which was awesome...but I got one last year at Christmas so my grandma stole that since she wanted one. I then chose a second gift (I should never take risks...they always end up badly) and I got a "perfect pasta" cook set. Pot, strainer, spoons, etc. Nice...but I rarely make pasta and don't have room for all that stuff. So my brother ended up stealing that from me and I got what I wanted! What I gifted. haha I put in a single serve blender (like Magic Bullet kind of) and a candle. I really needed a single serve blender. I have a regular sized one but it's starting to sound weird and not blend as nicely...plus I always make huge smoothies.

Then the next morning we came back home and headed out to my boyfriend's step dad's parents house. Supper there is always good. We did gifts and I got lots. A pair of PJs, knitted knee high socks, spa gift certificate, yogurt maker (house has been too cold to make like I usually do so it hasn't been turning out great), chocolates, Snowman Soup from his little cousins (cup with hot chocolate mix, chocolates, mini marshmallows, candy cane) and I got socks and something else in my stocking. We spent most of the day there then went home that evening and haven't been doing much since.

Christmas on my dad's side is New Years Day and after that I should be done. :) Yay. Then time to job hunt again and hopefully I'll find something this time because I really need a job.

I got a space heater from my mom for Christmas so I'm testing it out right now. :P Very nice and warm. hehe Oddly enough I asked for it when winter started getting cold. Usually winter here is very cold and this house is VERY bad for the cold...but then we got PLUS temperatures for a week or so and it's been really nice every since. But at least I got a space heater for whenever it does get cold.

I think this is all I'll do for today. I'll add something in a few days.

Fairy Photoshoot

Wow I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. Time flies I guess. So today I will just be posting photography since I don't really have anything else ready. 

The other night I was up until 2am making tshirt scarves. Three of them are going as Christmas gifts and since I haven't gotten much shopping down (even though I'm only buying a few gifts) so I figured I should at least get those done. So I did. Plus one for myself! :) Now I have five scarves in total done, all completely different and I think I adore them all. I will take pictures of them later and post. I'm seriously falling in love with tshirt scarves. I have a whole bunch of tshirts set aside for scarves and a while ago I cut them all into strips and put them in a box so I have a whole box full of strips of tshirts. I should get plenty of tshirt scraves out of it. :) 

Anyway, photography for today. Here it goes. 

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This is probably my most favourite picture out of the batch. I don't know why, but I adore it.

I didn't tell her to wear white shoes but it just so happened that's how it worked out and I kind of liked the look of it.

Thank God for my minor editing skills on this one! The dress didn't want to stay up the whole photoshoot and I didn't notice until I was looking at the pictures afterwards that she was kind of flashing people... but I loved this photo too much to just delete it. 

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And there it is for today. I love these gorgeous photos. 

If you would like to see more pictures I have a Deviantart account and a Facebook page for my photography. 

http://ceejayphotos.deviantart.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CeeJayRose-Photography/208217055869168

Turning Bar Soap into Liquid Soap

Wow it's been quite a while. I've been busy lately and haven't been able to post anything. Since my boyfriend's mom passed away his step dad and sister will be moving into a smaller house in the spring so we're doing some work to the house first. Let's just say it's quite an old house and the last few owners never really took care of the house very well so it's in bad shape and there's LOTS of work to be done but we're just going to do enough to make it sellable... 

Lately we've been cleaning out step dad's bedroom upstairs. That used to be the bedroom but when boyfriend's mom got really sick they moved it downstairs so now he wants it back upstairs so to surprise him while he's on the road (he's a trucker) we're doing the bedroom upstairs and moving it for him and got him a new bed. We just painted yesterday. We still need to get a new carpet in there. 

There's lots to be done still. The only reason I'm home today is because I need to catch up with housework here! I plan on going back tonight to help clean some more. 

So far today I've made bread. Well, rather it's rising and ALMOST ready to bake! Yum. :) And I've got applesauce in the slow cooker caramelizing into apple butter. Then I will have to can that stuff. I've done a bit of laundry already and still washing/drying/folding some. I've got maybe half the dishes done, I already went uptown to get groceries and deposit a cheque into my account. I still have to clean the kitchen and sweep the floor. Tonight I will also be cleaning the slow cooker making a stew to put in there to cook overnight. And tomorrow night I'm thinking of making my yogurt again. 

Anyway, onto my post. Today it's turning bar soap into liquid soap. :) I like bar soap but I HATE using it for my hands. The soap gets so gross. This is the second time doing it and it's turned out so much better!

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This is how much soap three bars made. :) Don't mind the mismatched bottles. I didn't have anything else to put the soap in. I don't think I'll be running out of soap any time soon...

This is what the soap looks like. The first time around the soap was super runny. This was the second batch I made and it's much creamier. I actually had to mix it with water a second time. I melted the soap and bottled it before it cooled because I didn't have time to wait. Well,  by the time it had cooled it thickened a lot. So much that it was a bit hard to get out of the pump. So today I poured all it out and added another two cups of water into the soap. I could've gotten away with one cup probably but I did two instead. It's definitely thinner and easier to get out of the pump. If you wanted it thicker you could just do with less soap.

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The first recipe I found was 1 cup of soap shavings to 10 cups water. I have no idea how that worked. The person ended up with creamy, thick soap...I don't know if it was the soap she used but mine definitely wasn't as thick. I think I actually did only 5 or 6 cups of water so it was very runny. 

This time around I did a total of 3 bars of soap which was about 5 cups or so. One bar shaved made almost two cups, just under. Then I did about 12 cups of water. I also took into account how soft the soap bar was. The one bar was softer so I only did 1 cup of water for that one, but the two others I used (the same kind) were firmer bars so I did about 3 cups to 1 cup of soap shavings for those. 

I first measured the soap and put that in the pot then I added the water and heated until it was melted. You can heat the water first if you want then add soap once it's almost boiling. It's best to let cool in the pot first because then you can tell if the soap ends up really thick (like my second batch did). 

I find that getting it perfect takes a bit of practice because every kind of bar soap is different. 

You can also add a bit of glycerin to your soap if you want it a bit more moisturizing. I don't have any so none of my liquid soaps have it. 

Either way it's a nice way to use up all those soap bars that you have and don't use. I don't plan on buying body wash or liquid hand soap anymore (unless my boyfriend wants body wash). My friend croqueted some soap holders so I use those with my bar soap now instead of liquid body wash.

And now there's more laundry to be folded and bread to be baked and dishes to be washed. 

I'll try to add another post in a few days.