Beard oil – DIY recipes

Three oil blend beard oil

While out shopping with a friend, he started checking out some beard balm and beard oil. He didn’t pick any up, but when his birthday rolled around, I bought him something, and wanted to make him some beard oil to gift him as well.

Looking up recipes online had a LOT of suggestions. Some suggested single carrier oils mixed with single essential oils, some had single carrier oils with a blend of essential oils, and others had blended carrier oils with single or blended essential oils.

Red purse shaped like a lute

Complete red velvet lute-shaped purse (front)

After making two new purple velvet “lute” shaped purses, I decided to make one with a slightly different shape, and this time in red and gold.

Three different purses, the two phallic-shaped ones, and the red lute-shaped purse

You might remember that my other “lute” shaped purses are very phallic. This is actually a documentable style, as per my previous research post.  However, there is also a similar purse that is much more “lute” shaped, and a lot less phallic shaped, so I opted to try that design as well.

Bags for Largess

Five tote bags

I’ve made a number of bags to give away as largess or to put prizes in for A&S competitions over the past year, and today I have even more to show off.

I have a few books to give away to individuals who win A&S competitions, and most of the bags I’ve made (and all of the ones I still have) so far have been pretty small – too small to hold the books, so I needed to make up some larger bags!

Celebration – lute-shaped purses

Large and small “Lute” shaped purple velvet purses (front)

About a year and a half ago I made a purse shaped like a “lute” for an A&S competition. When we were trying to think of what kind of largess to make to celebrate Caterina’s elevation to the Order of the Laurel, I offered to make a purse shaped like a lute similar to the one I’d already made. The purse is late period, from a variety of sources in Europe (England, the Netherlands, Italy, and more) so is mostly suitable for her late-period Italian persona.

My original project can be found here.

While my documentation with extant examples can be found here.

Fabric shopping in YYC and YEG

Fabricland on Gateway in Edmonton

I’ve posted a few photos from various fabric shopping trips over the past few weeks on my Instagram account, and I have a few more to share from different places. Most of these I’ve reviewed before, so I’m mostly sharing photos today… (YEG – Edmonton, YYC – Calgary)