Soap Making

One of the great things about Amazon is that you can find a lot of kindle books for cheap. I was very excited to find two more Soapmaking books for $0.01 (CAN) on amazon and I ordered them right away. I always pay my amazon orders with prepaid VISA (or MasterCard) so there is always a few cents left on the cards. These books are a great way to use up some of the left overs.

Beads (For Jewelry Making)

Finally, for now, I bought some nice beads for making jewelry. They were both less than $2 (CAN) so the price was right. The Souarts Mixed Pattern Printed Wooden Beads cost $1.98 plus $3.99 shipping but you get 100 pcs. They look beautiful and that's why I bought them. The Silver Plated Stardust Beads I bought were $1.70 (CAN) and shipped for free and they look stunning also. I think as long as you buy what you like in beads you'll never go wrong and it's always nice to have variety. 

Ultimate Guide to Soap Making

As you can probably tell Amazon is really good for cheap book downloads. I also found a book called the Ultimate Guide To Soap Making by Amanda McCarthy. Again adding to my dreams to make beauty products I jumped on this book. It is a free download on Kindle Unlimited or $1.05 on regular Kindle. 

This is a great starting book to see if you like soap making and it's a good starting book for cheap too.

Coloring Books For Adults: Vol 1

Next, I found a beautiful colouring book called Coloring Books For Adults Vol.1: 40 Stress Relieving and Relaxing Patterns. It is a free Kindle Unlimited download and only a $2.99 (CAN) download for the regular Kindle version or $7.77 for the Paperback version. I really recommend the Kindle version. You download the book and you can see all the patterns. You CAN NOT colour it in the Kindle App and CAN NOT print it from the app either but there is a link at the end of the book that you can print.

Smart Lotionmaking and Other Books

The next three things I got from Amazon, were about finding good deals. I bought a set of 3 romance novels called Romancing the Dead for free (Kindle Download). I also downloaded for free How to Write a Book From Outline to Finish Line, great way to help your writing skills. Finally for $0.01 (CAN), I got Smart Lotionmaking, I have never made lotions or any beauty products but I have always wanted to and for a penny, you can't go wrong with buying this digital book (Kindle version).

Elastic Cord

After Adult Colouring Books inspired me to find my creative side again, I started looking into other art projects and craft projects I would enjoy doing. And I found like colouring, jewelry making can be an adult thing also. I wasn't sure at first if I would like it and how much money I actually wanted to spend on it so I started off small. I got 10 rolls (mixed colours) of Elastic Cord Strong Stretchy Beading Thread String for $0.29 (CAN).

This was a great deal, I paid more in shipping than what I paid for the thread but it was worth it. Even if you don't use it for jewelry, you can find many uses for it and it was a good price. At this time it sells for $4.91 plus free shipping so that comes out to a few cents more expensive than what I paid but still worth it. 

Adding a Single Crochet Border

For some patterns in crochet, you will see them call for a border. This can be a simple border or a more decorative one, either way a border is a good way to finish off a project. I started crocheting a simple blanket for a friend's birthday. Just a plain old half double crochet blanket, no graph, no pattern just straight crocheting. Now that I finished the blanket, I want to add a simple border to give it a nice finishing touch. Since I have never done a border I used this video, to help me.

To start with I crocheted a simple Half Double Crochet Blanket with a starting chain of 150. I didn't count how many rows I did, I just know I ordered seven balls and used them all. I found this was a nice size, you may want it bigger or smaller depending on what you are making.

Completed Half Double Crochet Blanket

After finishing the blanket, just to add a little something and make it look more complete, I added a Single Crochet Border. A border like that is very easy to do, you want to start exactly where you finished (on your working side) and simply add another row to your project, in this case of single crochets. Once you finish the row and hit the corner you want to add three (3) single crochets to make the turn.

Once you start crocheting up the side you have to remember your stitch. With this blanket, because I used the Half Double Crochet stitch, each row counts as two, so you will have to do two single crochets per row (this also applies for a Double Crochet blanket with a single crochet border). Again, once you come to the corner you want to add three single crochets to the same corner stitch. Next you will be doing the starting chain, this will be slightly odd because it won't look like a normal stitch (like at the top), this will be what was left of the chain stitch after you stitched into it. (Simply single stitch like you normally would.) After that you will get to the corner again and go back up the final side. 

To finish the border off, you get back to the corner you started at. There is already one stitch here (your starting stitch), so you add only two (2) this time. Now you find that first stitch and make a slip stitch to finish everything off nicely. Once I cut the yarn and pulled it through the final stitch, I sewed in the starting and finishing tails.