The candle experiment

I made candles! It was an interesting experience for sure, and luckily for you guys I documented it all in case you're ever in the mood to make your own. I briefly googled making candles but for the most part I just guessed and hoped for the best. I think I was fairly successful!

 This is the stuff I used: white wax crystals, assorted jars that I had (you probably have great ones in your fridge! We have an awesome pickle jar I was eying, but it's currently occupied by pickles), crayons to dye the wax (I was going for a warmer color scheme), scented oil if you'd like (I used "gingerbread and maple syrup" yummy!), and wicks with the metal things on the bottom. I got the wax, oil, and wicks from Hobby Lobby.

 You'll also need a double boiler set up. This is my ghetto arrangement. Pot on top of pot and it was definitely not level but it worked... until it came to pouring the wax. At Hobby Lobby they have little canisters with a spout/pouring thing made for making candles. If I ever got serious I'd get one because the wax went everywhere when I tried to pour it out of the pan. But messy is a lifestyle, and I'm living it, so no biggie for me. Oh! DEFINITELY put some wax paper down to catch the drips, spills, etc. And then you can peel off the extra wax to use again later!

At this point I was like, "omg they lied, this is clear wax!" because it becomes literally colorless as it melts, but it definitely cools white. I would have rather used colorless wax because this it gave my candles as pastel-milky look which is fine, but I was going for something brighter.

Here's the wax after I added the crayons. It looks like tomato soup! I used half a red orange crayon, half a yellow, and half a violet red. Then I added the scent, I used about 60 drops of oil. Not sure how much you're supposed to add but I'm all about fragrance, so I loaded up.

Unfortunately there is no documentation of me pouring the wax because that was a hot mess, wax everywhere. These are the candles after pouring the wax in. They go through a few color changes; at first the wax is brighter when it's liquid, then white-ish, then it darkens a bit as it cools. I used straws to help hold the wicks in place. Originally I had the wicks in first before pouring the wax in but I found it was easier to just add them after the wax is in the candle. With one bag of the white crystals I got these two candles. It didn't go quite as far as I thought.

 This was my next round, I used the left over spilled wax from the first round, half a yellow crayon and a whole dandelion crayon. Don't you love crayon names! Remember robin's egg blue?? I love crayons.

 This big candle used up the whole batch. Hopefully it burns slowly. You can really see the color change here!

All finished! They did the weirdest thing as they cooled, they kind of sunk in around the wick. I'm guessing it's from air in the wax or something. I don't know how you'd avoid that problem, I'm sure candle making pros have a solution.

All in all I'd call it a learning experience, it was fun but messy. It cost me $12 for the supplies from Hobby Lobby, so I'm not sure if it was worth it cost-wise since I only got three candles out of it and two of them are small. I'm sure you can buy wax in bulk for a better deal though if you got super serious. We'll see how they burn, if they smell really amazing I might keep this up.

In other un-candle news, today is a pool day! When Brendon gets home from work we're blowing up some floaties and lounging in the pool. Hopefully we don't die of heat exhaustion!

Lets talk about the weather

IT'S EFFING HOT. I know I'm stating the over stated obvious but damn. I just got back from running an errand and the back of my shirt is wet with sweat. So sexy. I think we've broken some record of the most days over 100 degrees in a row, plus zero rain. It's ridiculous. I never remember summer being so terribly hot. Cooler weather, I need you. Supposedly it's supposed to rain on Wednesday, the first day of school, but I wont believe it until I see it.

Anywho, when I was on previously mentioned errand, I was going to Hobby Lobby and HEB to get supplies to make candles. This was actually Brendon's idea. For a while now I've collected glass jars, bottles, anything glass really until I started running out of things to do with/places to put them. Brendon had the genius idea to make candles in them! I love candles, I love glass jars, and I love making things. Perfect combo! So I went to HEB to get a tin of coffee, I really just needed the metal coffee tin to melt the wax in, double boiler style without ruining a pot. So I find one and head home. I open it up, pour the coffee into a baggie for later, rip of the label and lo and behold, it's cardboard painted silver! The bottom of the tin was metal but the sides were cardboard. I was so pissed I actually screamed. It's my fault for not being more thorough in my coffee tin selection, but still. JEEZE. I know this is extremely uninteresting but I am uber-frustrated and really want to get my candle making on, so I had to vent. I think I'll just use a pot and hope I can clean it out.

On another note, while at Hobby Lobby, somehow I ended up in (actually I think I just gravitated towards it) the holiday section. Dangerous games people. I am a holiday freak, especially when it comes to Christmas. My favorite time of the year is just around the corner! The holiday season basically begins for me in October, because it's time for Halloween, which leads to Thanksgiving, which leads to Christmas. I cannot state enough how much I love the holidays. I love the music, the decorations (!!!), the sounds, the food, the spirit, I love it all. Just a couple months and it's on like donkey kong. Bring it on.

So since I am in the holiday spirit, I'll leave you with this:

 

Our sweet Christmas tree from last year. It's a fake, and only decorated from the middle up due to a certain couple of cats who think ornaments are toys. This was our poor tree's last year, Sophie had completely ruined the bottom branches by being fat and trying to sit on them so we decided to trash it as it was looking a little like Charlie Brown's tree. So this year we are getting a real tree! I'm so excited!

Okay okay, I'll stop with the holiday stuff. Just preparing you for whats to come. Think of all the crafting opportunities! This blogs gonna get festive.