Lip Balm Experiments

I'm not a huge make-up fan, and pretty much just wear it for special occasions. (And when I do, it's concealer-blush-mascara-maybe some lip gloss.) I also can't stand most lipsticks, as they feel uncomfortably heavy on my lips, so I generally substitute with lip gloss. Or - my favorite - colored lip balm. Both takes care of chapped lips and adds color.

The one beauty-related item I always carry in my purse is lip balm. I've tried a handful of different brands, and stumbled across a tube that a restaurant was using as a promotional item. The idea of a restaurant using lip balm to promote themselves still seems a bit strange, but I absolutely loved that stick. It had a nice peppermint scent, went on smoothly, and hydrated my lips.

But I was running out of it, and with no way to get more of it, it occurred to me that I could try making my own. I looked around for recipes online to see how complicated it was, and while I found a lot of recipes that call for three different types of butters, four types of oils, and many, many arguments about whether vitamin E should be used or not (and that's not even getting into the pages and pages of people extolling the virtues of organic anything and the evils of chemicals anything), I did finally find basic recipes. Here are some examples.

Oil (liquid) - olive, sweet almond, sunflower, castor, etc.
Butter (solid) - shea, cocoa, mango, almond, etc.
Wax (generally solid) - beeswax, candelila, honey

1, 2, or 3 part oil, 1 part butter, 1 part wax
2 part oil, 2 part butter, 1 part wax
1 part oil, 2 part butter, 1 part wax
3 part oil, 1 part wax

Then there's optional ingredients like chocolate (solid or powder), essential oils or extracts, and a variety of ways to add color. I've also seen people put rose petals in, though I think that's just aesthetic. If you do add vitamin E and/or something for scent, you don't need much - just a few drops, at most, is enough.

You can use a double broiler to melt the main ingredients and any solid optional ones, though you can also just use a microwave in several small 9 second bursts or just stick a glass container in a pot of hot water (which is what I do). I add the vitamin E and scents immediately after taking it off the heat.

I got a bottle of vitamin E and little bag of white beeswax pellets (I didn't even know they came white! They're just refined a bit more) and gave it a try. I had some nice olive oil in my kitchen, so I gave it a try with just beeswax and olive oil.

I suspect that the ratio is off because it turned out extremely oily. On top of that, the olive oil had such a strong smell. I used some pomegranate essential oil, but it just couldn't counter the olive oil. I like olive oil in my cooking, but apparently not on my lips.

Next I tried coconut oil, but with one part oil to one part wax, with pomegranate essential oil and vitamin E. That turned out less greasy, but not enough. Plus the smell was still unpleasant.

I was given some sweet almond oil earlier, so I decided to try that in equal part to the beeswax, and that was much, much nicer! It's got a great smell. The consistency was still too oily, though.

I decided I needed another solid to counter the oil, so I bought some shea butter (also white. I want to play around with colors at some point). It has an unusual odor to it, but it's pleasant enough and the butter by itself felt nice on my lips. This time, I tried using equal parts for all three (sweet almond oil, beeswax, and shea butter). I also decided to try leaving out the vitamin E and didn't use any scents.

This one came out much better in consistency. For fun, I reheated the balm and added in a one-half part of unsweetened cocoa powder. It didn't change the consistency much, added a nice smell, darkened it to a nice brown, and wasn't gritty.

It's still not as solid as I would like, though, so I think next time I'll try 2 parts beeswax without changing the rest and see how that goes.

General Update - Again!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted a blog!

I did complete the 50K words for Nanowrimo, as a side note.  Also, the play I was in - The Crucible - went well.  It was the usual round of 'you-have-no-life' for a few months, and then outright plain crunch time during the actual shows.  It's a bit funny, but as much fun as I had being in the play (and I'd missed acting a lot), it was a bit of a relief when the play ended.  It seems ridiculous, but it's amazing how much it takes out of you to do acting.

In other news, I've moved!  I'm now living as far out of the city as possible (though still am stuck in the city, sadly), and am in a mountainous valley.  It's a much smaller city than I've ever lived in, which is nice.  I'm also driving a lot less, as I can easily walk to a bus that drops me off a couple hundred feet from my work entrance.  No more forty-five minute drive for a five-mile trip to the train station!

In more craft-related news, I've started working on more crocheting projects, in part due to the fact that I have a one-hour commute one way on the bus, and it's easy to crochet on the bus (as opposed to all of my other crafts).  I came across a pattern for a small clutch, eyeglasses case, hearts, and more (the clutch and glasses case will be in my etsy store soon.  3-d stuffed hearts to follow!).  Hearts are actually hard to find patterns for.  Or, more accurately, to find patterns that are simple to do and look like hearts.  I finally found one that's a basic single-crochet.  Although in the process of looking and trying out designs, I did end up re-learning how to make a granny square.

Re-learning how to stitch in the round turned out to be quite helpful, as I ran across a pattern (on Red Heart, which sells patterns as well as yarn) for a lace masquerade mask.  It's incredibly detailed work, and unless people are willing to drop fifty dollars or so for it, I don't think I'll end up selling it, but the pictures of the masks are beautiful and so far, with a quarter of the mask finished, it's lovely and intricate.  I'll post a picture when I finish. :)

Thanksgiving Weekend 'n Crafts

Happy Thanksgiving! (Day or so late :) )

Despite all of the business that’s going on (cooking, cleaning, spending time with cousins I haven’t seen in two years), I’ve still managed to write about 5,000 words this weekend (yes, that does include this blog post). I’m supposed to be at 41,667 words, but I’m only at 37K. Four thousand words behind is fixable, though. Five thousand words today, and I’ll be back to where I need to be. Almost to 50K!

Came to my parent’s house to discover that my sister is using an old glass coffee pot as a tank for her fish. Isn’t it cute?

I recently bought a sewing machine, and used it to finish up a couple of projects I’d started a couple of months back with my embroidery machine. You can purchase machines that both embroider and do regular sewing, but you’ll get products that are a little bit nicer (if more expensive) if you just get one machine for the embroidering and one for the sewing.

The first project is a bookmark (I’ve got about three different versions of these on my Etsy store – I’m a reader and a writer, after all). This bookmark was embroidered onto felt, and then I cut out the rectangle, cut out a plain one, inserted a cardboard piece between the two of them for stiffness, and sewed all of the pieces together.

Since I’d used gold as the border when I embroidered this, I used gold thread for the top, and purple thread for the bobbin thread. I’m really happy with the result! It is a bit on the small side for a bookmark (just about five inches, not including the ribbon), but it’s about the biggest that I’m going to get with my embroidery machine.

I also placed this embroidered owl on a small tote bag.

Came out cute! I didn’t make the bag or anything, but in order to have a flat single layer of the bag (otherwise I'd just embroider right though the whole thing), I had to rip the stitches out of the sides, embroider the owl, and then re-sew the sides back up. Very easy to do, just needed a sewing machine. So that’s why I had sat on this project for so long.

Both of these are in my Etsy store now, but, though I need to adjust the pattern for it, I also made a cloth headband that I want to put up for sale soon.

It’s reversible, so you can switch it around for a different pattern:

I’ve played around with making these before, but this time I included some embroidered designs. They’re supposed to sit just a few inches above the right ear (did it wrong for the brown side, as it places the flower designs above the left ear). The headbands are only about 2 ½ inches wide, which means the designs have to be no more than about an inch wide. Turns out I don’t have a lot of tiny designs, but the ones that I have came out nice. I also think I should’ve done a bright yellow for the daisies, instead of the orange, as it kind of fades into the dark brown of the fabric.

I also don’t want the fabric to come to a square end when it connects with the elastic – I want it to be more of a point. I’ve got an idea for how to do that, but haven’t had the chance to work on it yet :).

The elastic is a thick and woven type, so it won’t pull uncomfortably on anyone’s hair or skin. I always hate it when I find a hair decoration I like, but then it hurts too much to wear. For this one, I made the elastic too long by about an inch, so that’s something else to adjust.

Most of the fabric I have is cotton, but I do have some satin, so I wonder if that is something people would like? At any rate, I think these will make a fun addition to my shop.

Word Count: 37,303

Coupon still active! 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WoolRanch?coupon=BLACKFRIDAYWEEKEND

Black Friday to Cyber Monday Coupon

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WoolRanch?coupon=BLACKFRIDAYWEEKEND

15% off at my store!  Lasts from today through Cyber Monday.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WoolRanch?coupon=BLACKFRIDAYWEEKEND


Starts tomorrow, runs through Monday, November 27th!

Sales, Plays, and Witches

Before I get into my main news of this week, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up. You can get 15% off at my Esty Store with this code: BLACKFRIDAYWEEKEND

This code lasts from Thursday, November 23 (for you early birds) through Monday, November 27. I’ll be dropping a direct link on the night of the 22^nd.

On with the rest:

I’m in a play!

It’s called the Crucible, and for those of you who don’t know, it’s historical fiction based on the events of the Salem witch trials, a disturbing yet fascinating tragedy. I’m one of the village girls.

I’ve done a bit of research on these witch trials that were occurring in the world, and it’s interesting. Specifically, the time-line of events in Europe and America. Witch hunts have occurred in other parts of the world (and some today, sadly, mostly focused on women, especially poor ones), but Europe and America were particularly odd stories, given the overall craze that went on.  Like other hunts, there was a pattern of attacking poorer women and children.

At the time of the witch trials, people Europe had a particular method of storing their food that caused a particular type of fungus to grow – an edible one, but one that is an ingredient similar to those in LSD. Basically, it causes hallucinations.

It’s not an excuse for the actions of this time, but it does explain how it was that a large group of countries, each with their own culture and ideas, became caught up in a single mass delusion. Imagine, if you will, a people that is largely uneducated, and someone influential makes a reference to being cautious of those called ‘witches’, the importance of removing them from society, and superstitions old and new. Also, at the time, obeying and believing one’s superiors was considered extremely important.

Certainly, there were incident of people accusing others in an attempt to get rid of them (for revenge or to take their property), but for the most part, the hysteria seemed to be rooted in what could be considered honest fear of witchcraft.

It was these stories of witches that the hallucinations focused on. Curiously, the mythology of werewolves was also around, but no one was killed for the crime of being a werewolf. Instead, people who claimed to be werewolves were considered to be in need of mental help. (Therapy for the mentally ill, rather than locking them away (or worse), really wasn’t in existent at the time, but this does appear to be one of its early appearances. I haven’t really researched into this, though.)

The worst part is that the accused basically had no defense – it’s a crime that can’t be physically seen. It makes one appreciate the theory of ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ that’s spread through Western culture.

If one was accused, one was guilty. Refusing to confess and proclaiming that one was innocent was taken as a sign that they were, indeed, a witch, and had to be tortured into confessing. (This type of process wasn’t exclusively for witch trials, it was basically a way of life for anyone accused of a crime.) Naturally, confession was a death sentence.

America’s inclusion into the witch hunts came as the hunts were heading towards their end in Europe, curiously enough. Looking at it, it almost appears like they were merely trying to imitate the events in Europe. The hallucination-causing fungus did exist in America, but it wasn’t as common. Fewer people died, and confession was taken as a sign that one wanted to repent, and they were allowed to live. Accusing others was encouraged during this confession. However, confession did mean that one was saying they had been a witch, and as a result they would lose their property.

But there were far fewer signs of the mass hysteria that had gripped Europe. A witch hunt could be ordered stopped by officials. An event could happen that would make a handful of people suffer, and then it would stop.

Like I said – a disturbingly fascinating tragedy.

Word Count: 25,073

New News!

Couple pieces of exciting news:

        Re-opened my Etsy store!

        Nanowrimo's started!

Nanowrimo:

I'm currently at just over 7,000 words out of 50,000.  For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is a challange in which one writes 50,000 words during the month of November (hence, National Novel Writing Month).  In theory, writers work on one story that stars with nothing more than an idea, or - perhaps - some planing and plotting that was worked out in the months or so before.  The original challenge (about 20 years ago) said that writers had to be working on a totally new project (it also had a different word count goal).

In practice, a lot of people use this to work on stories that they've already started.  Some of them use this time to do something else entirely - it's called being a NaNo Rebel.  I'm working on a few projects, but the primary one is one that I've mentioned before on my blog during Camp WriMo's - small mini (or not so mini) challenges where you pick your end goal, whether words or hours.  It's a fantasy story with a humorous element where the narrator has gone missing, and the main characters - including the villain - are left on their own to write the story.

The biggest idea for Nanowrimo is NO EDITING.  Wrote a scene you don't like?  A) Why are you re-reading?  This isn't the time for that, and B) Re-write it - but don't delete it.  Both versions will go towards your total word count!  Afterwards, when you're editing your novel (hopefully with the end goal of publishing) you can take your pick of the versions, or even create a new one.

Since Nano starts on November first (midnight), any get-togethers naturally start on Halloween, so, yay! - excuse for costumes! Here’s a picture of what I wore:

In celebration of starting another Nano month, I’m doing a promotion of my book Glimpses on Amazon – from today through November 8, download it free! (See sidebar for a link.) And leave me a review! :)

In other news, and adding to the crazy business of my life this past week, I was asked to make some

cakes for my church’s seventh anniversary (and the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, when Martin Luther posted the infamous ninety-five thesis’s). Specifically, I was asked to make cake for 250 people, which is a lot of cake. Plus they were also having other deserts at the picnic, so I ended up making cake for only 200 people. Here’s the results:

 

Came out nice, I think. The frosting is a type of whip cream (so no having to spend forever trying to smooth the frosting out) and on the sides of the rectangle cakes, I pressed on rock candy pieces.

I was going to place little swirls of the frosting on the top of the sides of the cakes, but apparently thirty-three cups of frosting only just covers five cakes. :)

For my last bit of exciting news, my Etsy store (etsy.com/woolranch) re-opened on October 28^th. Here’s a sample of some of my items up for sale (as well as what you can see in the sidebar):

 

Besides what I’ve been selling for years (books, bookmarks, crocheted items, earrings) I’m including items made with my embroidery machine and bead loom. I’ll explain the last in more detail next time. :)

Word Count: 7,414/50,000