Updates on homebrew wine making and other updates

So, I had a tiny taste of my wine the other day and learned something about winemaking.
DO NOT SCRIMP ON MASH! Also known as the fruit and juices which you ferment. I need to go find some oak chips, and some grape juice concentrate now, as my wine, although it smells lovely, tastes like slighty fruity, very fizzy, minutely alcoholic, water. Yes, water. It has only been 3 or so weeks, but it should be darker (it's light pink) and it should taste stronger. So..off to troubleshoot.

I bought 2 sewing machines on ebay, and am waiting for them to arrive. I bought two because after I had bought the first one, I decided to peruse through the sellers feedback, which was 99.6% positive. Unfortunately I discovered that all the negative feedback was from people buying the EXACT SAME SEWING MACHINE as I just had. They had all gotten their money back, so hopefully, I will too, if it doesn't work. I also went online to try and find out how to fix and troubleshoot my own sewing machine, and am kindof regretting selling my old Husqvarna Viking, as I really liked that machine. I hope the guy who bought it takes good care of it, that was my baby! I sold it because I messed up the tension and had no idea what to do. It's a simple and easy fix, but I hadn't a clue. Now I do, and I wish I'd tried to fix it before selling. Oh well. I have two coming in to play with!

I sold a soap! YAY! So, it is just one, but hey, it's one! They picked my coconut one. It's lovely, with coconut milk powder and coconut oil, and pearly white mica powder to make is shimmer just a bit. It smells good enough to eat!

I've also spent the morning doing JW Waterhouse/Pre-Raphaelite style photographs (as in, based off those paintings) in my gowns. They are decadent, scrumptious, divine! But, I only have 2 polaroids to last me a week as the photographer edits them and sends me the disk. Grr. More waiting. It seems like I have to wait for everything this month...

Projects in the works (and waiting for a machine...) are
A light green medieval gown, made without a pattern. Scary. But it's looking like it'll turn out ok.
The ghawazee coats (also waiting for trims)
A dark brown flannel medieval gown (this one should be lovely and warm! And I will be using a pattern...)
Turkish vests
Fringe belts
Satin harem pants
My elven/pirate velvet coat.

And, best of all, I found my camera! So I can now take photos of the projects as I go along for photo diaries of them! Now I just need to round up two working AA batteries...

I'm also working on cleaning the entire house, which is taking me, well, a while. So, I've been busy. But, soon, I will have more tutorials up here! In the next couple days I'll have several potion tutorials, perfect for use in rituals and spells, or as decorations around the house for Halloween/Samhain, and in the next week or so a wand-making tutorial, some cute fall decoration ideas that you and the kids can do, and some recipes for teas/cookies etc. with a fall theme. I'm not going to fall in the Christmas pit that so many do. Christmas prep for me starts the end of November. I like fall too much to cut mine short!