I am really glad I usually celebrate Christmas with my sisters sometime after the first of the year, because that buys me some time.
I bought these really cool beads at a gem show, and I’m going to make two beadwoven necklaces, something like this one,, and use one of the goddess beads in each as the focal bead.
freckafree and Idlewild, your necklaces are gorgeous!
Thanks! I am amazed by freckafree’s, that’s off the chart for me skill wise… just gorgeous.
… On a grumbly note, I finished the brioche scarf and the yarn isn’t even slightly colourfast. I did wash a swatch but… a small square just can’t demonstrate exactly how much dye is left to exhaust, apparently. Considering my options - just adding vinegar to hot water was inadequate, not sure I can get spousal (and primary homemaker) approval to nuke unknown yarn on the off-chance that heat plus acid will do the trick. Anyone dye enough to offer words of advice?
All you people who knit and cross-stitch knock my socks off. My complete inability to count or follow written instructions is why I do freeform beadweaving.
WhyNot – the solution to your dilemma is to make two of everything! 
One for you, one for her, one for you, one for her…
Ferret Herder, wow! (Does commercial sugar scrub really use sugar?) I lo-o-o-o-o-o-ove sugar scrub. Your recipients should be very happy.
Yes, commercial scrubs do use real sugar. I also just refilled a jar of Bath & Body Works sugar scrub with my own version. It had sugar, but the first oil listed was mineral oil… ew. No wonder it always felt kind of too-slick on my skin. The recipe I used feels more “supple” on my skin, if that makes any sense. Very much a lighter feeling to it.
I’ve made 7 jars of sugar scrub (besides mine) and 8 gel scent jars tonight; I think I’ll work on the lotion tomorrow. If the snow and ice melt a bit, we might actually leave the house so I can get the other ingredients for the spice rub.
So where do you get your recipes? And can I have one? I like the sugar scrub I have, but I imagine making it would be cheaper.
I’ve been finding them around the web, but I started at the main website that I buy supplies from, Majestic Mountain Sage. (The thing to watch out for at this, and many other sites, is the shipping charges - I learned to wait and place one larger order rather than “oh, I could really use that tiny bottle of fragrance oil - how much to ship that?!”) I found their site about a year ago because I found a recipe for fizzy “bath bombs” in a magazine (it was Martha Stewart’s, OK?!) and they were listed as a supply source.
The sugar scrub recipe I used is their Winter Survival Sugar Scrub. I use white and brown sugar from the grocery store, bought a gallon jug of sunflower oil from them because I’m making a lot (it’s not the same stuff as in the grocery store, it has a longer shelf life and is cosmetic grade; the 16 oz bottle would probably make 5-6 cups of the stuff easy), and already had their jojoba oil and liquid glycerin from making lotions. You barely need any of those ingredients so the smallest bottles should work. Many drugstores will sell liquid glycerin, as well. Then you can get essential oil or perfume oil from wherever you want, but I used their Bitter Orange Orchid and their Brown Sugar and Spice to make a very sugary-spicy, winter holiday scent.
That is a really cool site. I might need to take a look at making salt or sugar scrubs. Any suggestions for getting started?
No pics, but I have a couple projects. I’m doing a sweater with a vertical single stitch rib, with the knitted ribs burnt orange and the purled ribs dark brown. I’m randomly increasing and decreasing to give the rib an organic, almost tree-bark look. This is enhanced by the yarn, which is a bulky bumpy tweed.
And I have my usual 4 or 5 pairs of socks on the back burner, for bus knitting.
Just that scrubs are easy compared to lotions! No microwaving any wax to melt it, no playing with the immersion blender to mix and you end up spraying lotion over half of the cupboard because your microwaveable glass bowl isn’t deep enough for the volume you made, no discovering that the nice thin lotion you made thickens up after it cools down (to the point where you can’t squirt it out through the thin little squeeze cap slit), no need to add a preservative and trying to dig through the “parabens: godsend or carcinogen?!” debate (MMS does make paraben-free preservatives, too), and the ingredient with the largest volume of use is purchaseable in your grocery store. They have other scrub mix recipes (and other bath items) at this link.
If you do get a chance to take a picture of that sometime, I’d love to see it. It sounds really cool. What do the increases and decreases do to how the sweater lies?
It lies perfectly flat, since I’m only in/decreasing one stitch at a time.
I knit myself a sweater out of Noro Silk Garden.
I do beading like Freckafree, who has discussed it with me on a couple occasions.
I make felt necklaces to sell in my Etsy shop, although I have several I’ve kept for myself.
I am hoping to learn to spin yarn over my winter break.
My goodness I love making things.
I was able to get my Polymer supplies out of storage when I went home for Thanksgiving. I started fooling around with them again three days ago. When I bought them, it was because I was looking for a hobby and it looked like fun. I tried beads and canes and other general types of decorative stuff. I sucked. So, I put it all in storage and didn’t think about it again.
Well, apparently I don’t suck so badly as long as I stay away from anything NOT cutsey. At least my sister and my mom think so. My sister is trying to convince me to start selling them. I definitely don’t have enough money to buy the supplies for that. Or the talent. At least not now. But, here are the things I’ve made so far.
(some of these are dark, and a little blurry. I hate digital cameras and I suck at using them.)
This first one was the first thing I made. It was a gift for my sister. She loves hippos.
This psycho Christmas Tree was an idea I got from a Polymer clay book. I added the star (using glow in the dark clay). The Christmas lights were an afterthought, after my neighbor broke the axe off the handle. I used the lights to hide the break.
This is an ornament and a gift tag. I made this one for my sister to attach to her gift for the Secret Santa exchange (for her job). I’ve made three others so far, this is one of them. They all have different mustaches.
This is a pin. I made this one for my nephew.
This is another ornament. Originally, I tried to make stars, but it looked like it was snowing yellow snow.
Another of my favorites. This little piggy has a wreath.
Another little santa.
This is my first snowman.
Another snowman. My sister had just put some marshmallows on the table. So, he looks kinda marshmallowy.
Two little penguins.
My sister told me to make a baby. “you know, a swaddled one, with those long pointy jammies!”. Um, sure, I know what you mean. I think it looks kinda like a baby from Whoville. It seemed kinda plain so I stuck a present to its ass. 
I learned a very important lesson yesterday.
If you’re gonna use your neice and nephews to condition your clay for you (I told them they could play with it, but they couldn’t keep it or mix the colors - they fell for it), make sure they clean their hands before going to a new color! My nephew destroyed my last block of white clay. He had just spent half an hour playing with red.
Wow, all of this stuff is impressive! Mirror Image, how did you do that twisted tube peyote necklace that you have on your Flickr link? It’s amazing.
I’m not doing many knitted presents this year. School is kind of crazy and I don’t have time to do complicated projects, and pretty much everyone has gotten scarves from me already. However, depending on who my SDMB Secret Santa is, I may knit up a quick scarf to throw in the box.
For me, I’ve been knitting a nice simple skirt in this silk and wool blend yarn. I chose the pewter color. I’m following a pattern from Melissa Leapman’s Knitting beyond scarves- the bottom 10 rows (the pattern said 8, I changed it) are done in 2 pieces on straight needles in garter stitch, then the 2 pieces are joined together on circular needles and the skirt is knitted in stocking stitch in the round. It creates a nice little slit at the bottom.
Do what I do–make sure you have “extra” materials. Then you can make two, and keep one for yourself. 
I’m not doing any crafting this year. I do polyclay, beading (though not like some of the beautiful things I’ve seen in this thread), and photography. I’d like to do something with the photography to make gifts some year.
That would work so much better if I didn’t use so many…uh…“vintage” beads (that is, stuff I find in the thrift store or dumpster that I take apart to use in new designs). I often only have one of a thing, and know I’ll never get another.
I’m going to start taking pictures, and keep a portfolio. That will at least let me save designs I can make with different beads, and *look *at the pretty-pretties. And, if someday I run across an identical pretty-pretty focal bead, then I will be able to reconstruct my creation.
It’s not very impressive compared to the stuff you guys are doing, but I’m working on a 5x7 cross-stitch for my niece for Christmas: Equine Pair. She started taking riding lessons earlier this year and is beginning to ride in competition.
It’s not a terribly fun piece to do. The colors are brown, light brown, very light brown, gray, light gray, pale gray, etc. I get excited when it’s time to work the few bits of blue and red in. It also calls for gold metallic thread, which I hate working with.
Metallic threads can be annoying to work with. I haven’t done any cross-stitch in awhile myself (took up knitting because I thought it would be easier with Velociraptor around) but when I was a girl my aunt did one for me. I still have it (somewhere, I put it away when we moved and haven’t found it yet sighs) it’s one of the Lady and the Tramp, the meatball scene.
I bet she’ll love it. 
