Someone bought me a great craft book recently with a recipe for soap. They made it sound so easy but I was a bit unsure about the caustic soda thing and bought a specialist soap book. My initial thoughts about soap making were dubious … seemed a bit pointless really, but then I got the bug and decided to make some for Christmas presents.

The first batch hatched a week ago … a goat’s milk mix with pine, rosewood and myrrh which smelt pretty good. Sadly my presentation was lacking … I used supermarket plastic containers as moulds which would have been fine if I’d been bothered to shave down the edges and make the slabs look a little prettier but I’ve just clean run out of time. Hey I’m so embarrassed I’ve not even posted a picture … I know it’s not a bad thing when things look rustic and home-made, but there’s a fine line and hell, these are meant to be presents after all. Still, I’ll wrap them up nicely with a descriptive tag and hopefully that’ll make up for it.

I’m looking at the small pile of home-made gifts I’ve built around me, and my initial idea about Christmas presents (it’s the time spent on the things rather than the money spent that people will appreciate) is beginning to pale. Can’t really argue with the principal, but I’m worried that people are going to look at this stuff and say “Nice idea, maybe shouldn’t have spent more time … or money? Or both …”