New simmering granules, new blog design and much more to discuss.

There’s been quite a bit going on as I’m sure you’ve noticed *points all around the page*. My blog has been redesigned! I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on it this week, changing it to a similar colour scheme to my shop website. Take a look around and tell me what you think.

The front page of the blog now shows thumbnails of images found in the posts. There’s even a slideshow showing the images too. The slideshow has meant a slight change in how I format my posts. When it takes the images for it to use, it also takes some of the first paragraph of the post to display too. However if a photo is displayed first, no text will be displayed on the slideshow image, since a photo has no text. This is why I’ve got the small bit of text at the top of the post now before the photo.

I’ve now got the categories listed just below my logo and I’ve started a blogroll which I’ll add to as time goes on. Since I’ve got the list of categories at the top of the page, I’m not sure if I should still display them in my sidebar on the right. Do you think I should remove them from the sidebar?

As you’ve probably already noticed by the photo above, I’ve been working on more simmering granules for my Handmade Monday make. Since you already know what my orange and lavender granules look like, here are my new lime simmering granules. They should be ready for testing tomorrow night. I’m researching bottles to find ones I like to display these in as gifts, (thanks for all the comments about this last week everyone ).

Last Sunday I decided to create my first weekly To Do list. I’ve heard of other people using one and finding it very useful in organising what to do, so I thought I would give it a go. The week is now over and while it has kept me more focused on what needs to be done, it hasn’t entirely kept me on track. The pull away from boring paperwork has been too strong, so I’ve got more of that to do next week What do you do to keep yourself focused and organised?

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

1. Glass bottles are, as everyone would expect, a lot more expensive than bags. With people being more careful with what they buy these days, I have to consider that extra cost.
2. As you all know I also sell online. With how heavy glass is and the recent increase in postage prices, the P&P charges for glass bottle packaging would be a lot more than for the bags.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to offer the granules in bottles as I would like, but not just now

Thank you to everyone who commented last week abut photo sizes. I’ll keep posting large photos for you. It’s also the 65th Handmade Monday this week. I wonder if it can now claim a pension from the government now. Enjoy all the other craft blogs

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

This week I’ve been continuing with making simmering granules. After the orange scent, I moved on to try lavender. I learnt my lesson from last time and used less granules in the oil burner. This time I got a nice scent without being overwhelmed. I have got a new scent currently curing, so it won’t be ready to test until tomorrow. Thanks to Pickle-Lily’s comment last week, I’ve made that scent eucalyptus. Keep tuned to find out how the testing goes.

As you can see from the photo above, I’ve also been doing more British themed crafts. This time I’ve gone for a more stylised version of the British flag, hand painted onto a glass votive candle holder. I thought I would shake things up a little by putting the photo of it first i’m interested to know if you think the photos I’m posting on this blog are too big. I use quite a large screen and resolution for my computer, so I’m wondering if people with smaller screens find the photos to be too big.

As always it is Handmade Monday again. Check out this week’s collections of blogs.

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

It doesn’t seem like it’s been a week since my last Handmade Monday blog post.  Seems that time flies by whether I’ve got a weekend fair to go to or not.

This past week I’ve decided to try something new. I can’t remember exactly where, (my memory can be poor sometimes), but I saw some instructions on how to make your own simmering granules. For those who don’t know what these are, simmering granules are crystals you place in an oil burner and heat up to release their scent. They are easier to use than the traditional oil and water used in oil burners and it’s easier to clean them up after they have been used. I choose to create my version with orange essential oil and red food colouring.

Once these had fully dried I tried them out in my oil burner. One teaspoon gave a nice gentle orange scent. Two teaspoons felt like a brick wall of oranges hitting me and gave me a slight headache. Either I’ll have to reduce the amount of essential oil or use less granules. For a first attempt though I thought it worked out OK. Now I have to choose which scent shall be my second attempt.

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

1. If you accidentally sit on a candle, you won’t get your pants covered in frosting.
2. You get less rotten teeth with a candle.
3. Soy candles are a diabetic’s best friend.
4. Cupcakes are no good at night during a power cut.
5. Candles won’t grow mould when stood on your mantelpiece for a few weeks.
6. Take a candle into the bath and it relaxes you. Take a cupcake into the bath and you end up with soggy cake.
7. Candles are known to last a lot longer than cupcakes, especially around children.
8. Soy candles won’t tell you to break your diet or add inches to your waistline.
9. If you bought half a dozen cupcakes to decorate your front room, you may look a bit mad.
10. No one has ever heard of a romantic cupcake-light dinner.

 
Do you have any reasons to add to the list?

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

Welcome to another, (rather late in the night), blog post. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is coming up, but mine is here today! This is my 60th blog post. Not bad for one year and two days of blogging.

It’s been quite a busy week since I had two weekend events in a row. The event during this past weekend, (Saltwell Park Show 2012), was my first two day event in about six months. There were a lot of people there even with the unpredictable and sometimes awful weather. Fortunately I was inside a marquee so I was protected from the elements, although it was bitterly cold.

There was quite a bit of entertainment going on as well as there being lots of stall. I could hear drums being played outside and people were walking past with big flowers and fish they had made from what looked like wicker.

I was a bit surprised when I saw that BBC Radio Newcastle were broadcasting live from the event on Saturday morning. I was even more shocked when I was then given a short interview live on the radio! To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I’ve recently found out that radio programmes are kept on the BBC iPlayer but I haven’t worked up the courage to listen to the interview yet.

I was adjacent to a stall selling cupcakes, that was also at the previous two day event I attended. For anyone who is thinking of starting to sell something at events, choose cupcakes. The stall, (sorry I didn’t manage to get any names ), sold out about half way through the day on both days. Maybe if I made my candles edible, I would be able to sell out too

As well as being interviews on the radio, I’ve also recently been interviewed for the Handmade Harbour website. If you make or sell handmade items, you should check this site out.

It’s Handmade Monday time again, so it’s time to show what I’ve been working on. For the Saltwell Park event, I made some new British themed chunk candles in some bone china teacups, in honour of the upcoming Diamond Jubilee. Today I have continued with the British theme by painting a new candle plate design as well as a votive candle holder.

I did have another piece of blog writing planned that was linked to my experiences this past weekend but this blog post is getting a bit long, so I’ll leave it for another day. Check back soon

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

It’s been quite a busy week for me. I had planned on doing two more blog posts on earlier days but updating my website’s look and the software behind it has taken a lot longer than expected. There always seemed to be some error or small thing to do, that after going mad searching for a solution, usually ended up being fixed in a very simple way. I don’t know how people who make websites for a living don’t go crazy. Therefore for my submission to this week’s Handmade Monday, I give to you….my new website!

There are a few cosmetic changes to make but overall it’s done. I did want it done for Friday since that day was my 1 year anniversary of starting Soy of the North. Instead of cake and champagne, I had chaos and computer code. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this year will go well.

Hope you all enjoy your Easter and don’t get too ill from eating all those Easter eggs

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

Welcome everyone again to another Craft Juice Tuesday. With all the nice weather we’ve been having lately and because it’s now Spring, I’ve been looking for crafts with a floral theme. I didn’t expect though to be writing this with snow falling down, when I was looking through the different craft offerings. Hopefully this week’s collection will help you to think of sunnier and more colourful times.

Cottage Garden Painting by Michele Webber Art

A beautiful painting of a cottage garden filled with daisies and flowers.

Home Sweet Home Resin Keyring by Pretty Beautiful Designs

A handmade keyring with an image of flowers surrounding a door.

Hand Decorated Birdhouse by Gingerheaven Crafts
A hand painted and decoupaged birdhouse with a Spring design.

Purple Dandelion Card by C Shell Cards

A blank card dusted with a mixture of purple,blue and pink inks and detailed with dandelions and wild flowers.

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

It’s been quite a week. News of Royal Mail’s price increases came out, we’ve had hot weather with cold weather forecast for next week, my business is almost a year old and I’m preparing like mad for two upcoming fairs, one of which will take place over an entire weekend. I’ve recently been given some various bits of glassware by a family member who thought they may look nice decorated. All the glass is a lovely blue colour so I thought painting it would be a bad idea, as it would cover up all that colour. I’ve decided instead to just use glass paint outliner to decorate these pieces. I chose to go with a spiral theme drawn with a pewter coloured outliner, to give a bit of detail and design to the glassware.

The bowl can be used for floating candles, the two round candle holders can be used for votive candles and the star shaped candle holders can be used for tealights.

It’s the 60th Handmade Monday. Quite a milestone I believe. Take a look at what everyone else has been up to this week. I would like to say to any Handmade Monday followers, if I haven’t commented on your blog, it could be down to Blogger being silly. Blogger is known to have some bugs when it come to making comments using OpenID or when using a name/URL. There have been quite a few blogs I have been unable to comment on because of this. Sorry

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North

I was on Twitter earlier today when I saw a tweet about something called Independents Day, (yes it is meant to be spelt this way). It’s a scheme run by the All About The Boys blog to help support and promote independent businesses in this country. I think this is a brilliant idea. Britain is filled with a huge amount of independent businesses, each working hard and helping to keep this country going through these tough economic times, plus there’s something quintessentially British about small independent businesses, working away and creating little treasures for us all to enjoy.

The following are some of the independent businesses I think you would find interesting:

• Ali’s Craft Studio – purveyor of handmade static clings and window decorations.
• Names In Lights – colourful, bespoke light sculptures.
• Just Soaps of the Earth – luxurious handmade soaps and skin care products.
• 1st Unique Gifts – personalised and hand painted plaques, clocks and other gifts.
• Soy of the North – handmade soy wax candles and hand painted candle plates, run by yours truly

Take a look around these sites and help support your country’s independent businesses.

If Soy Candles Could Talk - According to Soy of the North