Normally we ease into winter here but this year it has arrived early....at least that is what it seems to me. I can remember the weather being quite balmy at the beginning of winter a few years ago but that is certainly not the case now. At least the sun is shining again after weeks of overcast skies and rain and there is nothing like enjoying the sunshine on a cold, frosty and crisp morning.
Here in SE Queensland we have had a week of constant rain and have really missed seeing the sun but finally it made an appearance a couple of days ago and followed by some warm days before the rain starts up again but this time it won't be as heavy thankfully. I tipped over 10 inches of rain out of the rain gauge during this latest rain event which was nothing compared to what fell in other areas which were badly flooded AGAIN.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the Easter break. I remember when I was a child that most shops and businesses would be shut for days as it was a very sacred time but times have changed a lot since then. Gone are the days when banks were shut for so long and there was no online banking nor ATMs around which wasn't really a problem as there weren't many places open to spend money anyway. LOL!
I bought some Shea Butter last year and I thought I had better use it up in case it 'went off' although I was keeping it in the fridge. As a friend had given me a wire soap slicer last year which cost a small fortune I thought I would make a batch of soap using the Taiwan Swirl method. The soap slicer enables the soap to be cut horizontally instead of vertically. Unfortunately it didn't turn out like it did on the tutorial but it will do the same job regardless.
Several years ago I went to Craft Alive on a very hot day. I think the craft show was held in January during a heatwave and the venue it was held in had no aircon but huge fans that just blew hot air around. Anyway, I saw a lady working on a craft that I had never seen before and I was quite intrigued. However, I was finding the heat to be overwhelming and had to get outside to try and cool off so I quickly bought a couple of patterns and some tools in the hope that I could find some tutorials on how to do the craft of Japanese Meshwork - fabric weaving.
