Hello festive friends! My week of handmade has continued with a great recipe I found for a festive sugar scrub that is now making its way in various states of bubble wrap and tissue paper to friends in far – and not-so-far – flung places in time for Christmas.
From rags to…wreaths
We’ve all got clothes with ‘what-was-I-thinking?’ prints on them, right? No? Just me then. Well, whether you have a garish shirt or a few scraps of material kicking about you can breathe new life into them at this time of year.
Wreaths make an appearance every year but they can be a bit expensive, especially if you opt for one with plenty of foliage year on year. Last year I made a couple of fabric wreaths using offcuts of material and they turned out pretty well.
A very Merry (handmade) Christmas
I’ve been a little quiet since my post-a-day challenge – my apologies. Things have gradually become more manic with the impending festivities just around the corner and a pretty big leak in our roof needing urgent attention.
I decided to do something a bit different this year and make the majority of my Christmas presents for friends and family. A while ago I shared a post about making your own liqueurs as gifts, which you can read here. If you gave it a go they are just about ready to gift or sample, depending on how generous you are feeling!
While I was visiting one of my favourite spots recently I picked up a great book full of hints and tips on how to make everything from beauty products to jams and even medicinal remedies, (although I’m not giving up ibuprofen just yet.)
Bargain!
One of the recipes in it was for some lovely strawberry and cream bath soaks – who doesn’t love a soak in a hot bath? I decided to make this for friends who have been working tirelessly, raising money for some very deserving charities. I hope they’ll get the chance to relax and enjoy them after the Christmas rush is over! Here’s how I made them:
Strawberries and Cream Bath Soak
You will need the following:
* 1/2 cup / 60g oats (regular or quick-cook)
* 1/2 cup / 50g milk powder
* 40g ground almonds
* 16 – 20 drops strawberry essential oil (I added more to get a stronger scent, customise it to your own tastes and remember – a little goes a long way!)
Method:
* In a small bowl combine the oats, almonds, milk powder and your essential oil. Stir well to make sure it’s well mixed. Close your eyes and take a deep breath – are you at Wimbledon enjoying a cream tea and a glass of Pimms? No? Then add more of your essential oil. Stir.
* Divide the mixture among pretty cloth bags. I chose to use organza favour bags I got in Tesco. They sell them in bags of 3 for £1.50. Fill about half full and close using the drawstring on the bag. If there isn’t one you can gather the material and twist it round, securing with a festive piece of ribbon. I managed to fill around 2 bags with this amount so adjust accordingly.
* I added a muslin bag to each of my gift bags. I got these off Ebay for around £5 for 10 bags. When you fancy a soak in the tub simply fill the muslin bag with around 2 dessert spoonfuls of your mixture and tie. Hang it on the end of the running tap of your bath and let it all infuse and you’re all set for a relaxing bath! The bags can be reused as many times as you like, just empty and hand wash with soap and warm water after your bath and leave to air dry.
* Keep your bath soaks in a cool dark place until you are ready to use them.
A few notes…
* Obviously this is not for human consumption, regardless of how delicious it smells.
* The oatmeal mixture is designed to sooth stressed and dry skin and can relieve itching. However, some skin types may become mildly irritated by the essential oil. You can reduce the amount of essential oil you add or eliminate it completely. It obviously won’t have the fruity scent in this instance but won’t stop you making like Cleopatra and enjoying a milk bath.
* These bath soaks are best enjoyed with emails unchecked and phones switched off. The world can wait. Just relaaaaaaaax.
The end is nigh – hurrah!
Yes!! We made it to the end of the ‘post-a-day’ challenge week – still in one piece? I hope you’ve enjoyed reading each day! Welcome to my new followers and thanks to my friends from the ‘real’ world who have read and supported me over the course of the week. It’s not been easy to write every day but then again it never is when it’s something you know you have to do. It’s been good craic and while I’d probably do it again I think I’ll wait a wee while before I give it another go!
In the meantime I’ll leave you with Lily Allen’s controversial return to the music scene. During the 24 hours since Hard Out Here‘s release it has prompted a lot of discussion from allegations of racism to claims Allen is the poster girl for modern day feminism. What can I say? I thought the video gave a pretty solid digging to the music industry as it stands and I enjoyed watching it. I hope you do too – let me know what you think!**
Bye for now,
Laura xx
** Caution: the video is a bit sweary but stick with it. Consider yourself warned!
Some of us are more equal than others…still
I’ve been becoming more and more agitated by everyday sexism recently. It has been subtly creeping in to my day to day life like the crass joke an acquaintance shared recently on Facebook. The joke goes like this: A woman confronts her husband with a knife. Rather than running away in fear he produces a loaf of bread and some butter and his wife’s ‘instinct’ kicks in prompting her to make him a sandwich. Hilarious.
Then I watched a documentary on Female Genital Mutilation because, you know, our vaginas are so dangerous they need to be cut out and the remaining flesh sewn tight together, erasing any trace of our womanhood. Horrifically, this actually happens right here in the UK, not just in far away lands. Thinly veiled as the preservation of cultural identity it is in fact child abuse leaving a legacy of severe physical and emotional damage that will haunt the victim for the rest of their life. If it horrifies you – and it should – please add your name to this petition now.
Women hating is becoming cheekier by the day, its perpetrators even marketing themselves as our pals. One such example is a new television advert from ‘feminine hygiene’ brand Vagisil. Even the name sounds like an STI: I’m afraid you’ve contracted Vagisil, my dear. You’ll need some antibiotics and a cream to clear that up and, of course, you’ll need to let any partners know you have it. It thoughtfully advises us poor, stinking women that help is now at hand for it – and it alone – can help us mask our putrid natural scent for a small fee. Thank goodness for that, I can sleep easy now Vagisil is on the case! One of my favourite writers, Caroline Criado-Perez, wrote a great article in response to the new advert, you can read it here.
And of course we can’t forget the hundreds of girls all over the UK who ‘ask for it’ when they are raped. I’ve never really understood that one. Regardless of what I’m wearing if I want ‘it’ believe me, you’ll know about it. And if I don’t want ‘it’ you’ll know about that too.
Attacks on women by other women is a particular pet peeve of mine and one at which Katie Hopkins of The Apprentice ‘fame’ excels. When she’s not poking fun at the weight of female X Factor contestants via big, brave, social networking site Twitter she’s explaining just how much better than us she is on her now regular daytime TV slot on This Morning.
But all hope is not lost! Not yet anyway. Often when women address woman hating we are met with impatient sighs and knowing glances with that familiar ‘here we go again’ attitude. Not wanting to come across as a whiny woman – urgh, they’re the pits, aren’t they? Always whinging for equal rights? Why don’t they just pipe down? – I’ll leave you with a great piece of writing from the team that brings us the hit US TV programme, Scandal. It pretty eloquently addresses a lot of issues facing women in the public eye and certainly gives us food for thought. But not too much. You know how we women like to watch our weight.
Tales of adventure 