Bunting

This is what the bunting looks like - I made my own bias binding to string it all together - a first for me - I'm really happy with how it turned out. It will be in use tomorrow at the Belvedere self sufficiency show. Drop by my booth to admire it, and enter my competition.

Soap making

We were in Galway for an overnight stay on Thursday night. I had a meeting on Friday morning, but when that was over we headed first to Wa Cafe to grab some bento boxes and sushi, and thence to Spiddal to have a picnic.

While gazing out at the rocky beach, and the seascape, it struck me that it would be good to put some seaweed in my soaps. So we took a plastic bag, and grabbed a variety from above the waterline. It was nice to be back scrambling on rocks. One of our first dates back in the late 90s involved some rock scrambling.

Got it home, and did a bit of research - starting here - turns out seaweed is an excellent ingredient for all kinds of cosmetics - it (apparently) fights cellulite, makes your skin more youthful, adds trace elements, you name it.

Anyhow, dried some seaweed in the oven and ground it up once dry. Added it to the soap - and added rosemary as the scent - seemed to be the most marine like Essential Oil I had - and added a little green colouring. It looks pretty good, but it's still curing, so hard to say if it will shave 20 years off my appearance the first time I wash with it. :-)

The rest of the seaweed is drying in a more environmentally friendly manner on the clothes line - and I have ordered some from Kildoney, near Ballyshannon, where my cousins live.

I will be giving out samples of this and other soaps in Belvedere at the self sufficiency show, so find me and sign up for my mailing list, and you'll be able to try it for yourself.

Boy Belt giveaway

Great tutorial and Boy Belt giveaway here.


I'm inspired to get one of those snap setter kits - can see a myriad of uses...

And the winner is...

Sarah Lynne! Thanks for Dara for folding up all the entries, and being the one to pick out the winner. Sorry that you all couldn't be winners.

Castille soap Giveaway - now finished.

It's spring, and with the sun still low in the sky you can see all the dust and dirt in your home, very clearly. Yuck! Roll on the summer when we can stay outside as much as possible, and ignore the messy inside stuff.


Instead of cleaning, I made a batch of Castille soap - main ingredient is Olive oil. It's lightly scented with orange oil, and lathers beautifully. Commercial soaps have the glycerin that is a natural by-product of soap making removed, so they may be quite drying. My soap leaves your skin feeling very soft. See Photo above - I could probably improve the unmolding and cutting part :-)

It's also great for felting with, as we discovered at last weeks felting workshop.

So I'm giving away a couple of bars of the soap, and will throw in a few packets of seeds I've saved myself, if you're interested. More about that kind of thing at my gardening blog.

Here’s what you need to do to win this package. Get one entry for each of these actions:

- Post about this giveaway in your blog.
- Follow me on twitter (greenannabrowne) and retweet this post. You can use the retweet button on the right side of this post to do it.
- If you're not on twitter or blogging, email your friends.

If you’ve done any or all of the above, please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post or your twitter name. Or just leave a comment with your email in the format "annambrowne at gmail dot com".

The giveaway will be closed on Monday, 15th February, around 10:00pm Irish Time (GMT), so please leave your comment here before that time.
The winner will be picked randomly and announced on Tuesday, 16th February. I will then contact the winner for a complete address and the package will be sent to wherever you are.

If you're not lucky this time, I'll be running soap making courses in Mullingar soon, and at the Organic Center later in the year.

Thank you!