Light up

Morning.  Before we get to the subject matter of this morning's post, a small note on my dental health.  Following the "episode" at the emergency dentist, the antibiotics worked their magic and all was good.  Until Thursday when I went back to have the root removed.  I don't know if you remember the last time I underwent this procedure, I had a tooth taken out a couple of months ago but she couldn't get it all.  I was in agony for 10 days after.  I was taking my almost-morphine strength migraine tablets for the pain.  As you can probably understand, I was dreading Thursday's visit.

It was fine!  OK, so the three anaesthetics hurt a bit, and there was pressure when she took the root out.  I was waiting with dread for the anaesthetic to wear off as that's when the pain kicked in last time, and it did again.  A little bit.  I took 2 paracetamols and all was good!  I've had the odd paracetamol since and I've been doing salt baths (in my mouth, certainly not on my skin) since.

She told me I wasn't allowed to smoke for 24 hours afterwards so I did what any hardened addict would do, I stuck on 3 nicotine patches.  Friday morning my arms swelled up and were itchy, bright red and hot.  I could feel my back and legs going the same way and, bizarrely, my chin.  Off with the patches, yep, something else I'm allergic to! 

So, where was I before I started waffling about nicotine patch allergies?  Candles!  I made some.  I think you gathered that.

Back in the summer, I experimented with candle making.  I loved the cupcake I made so much, I made some more.  Quite a few more.  I'd bought some cheap silicone cases for baking and they were perfect for use with the wax.

I attempted to make brown by mixing various colours, but it didn't work!  I thought that was odd as in the past whenever I've tried to mix colours I've only made brown.  I bought some brown dye and got to work.  The cream is made by whisking the partially set wax.  Great fun but very messy.

I tried the ombre candles again as they went down a storm in the summer.  I couldn't seem to get it right.  These green ones are scented with Blueberry Cheesecake, the cupcakes with Gingerbread on the base and Cherry Coated Chocolate on the cream!

My photos are doing that annoying thing where all I can see is purple lines - I think these are blue?  They're also gingerbread.

These orange ones are Fresh Cut Flowers. 

I also had a go with a pillar candle mould I'd bought and these are the results.  Not great.  I don't know how to get a lovely shiny finish, I think I need to do some research.  I also plan to do a bit of engraving now I have a dremel... I'm thinking thin layer of wax on the outside and engraving it to show the inner colour....

This might be a little green candle in a bucket.  I bought the buckets for 50p on sale at Hobby craft and think they make sweet candles.

I actually made the blue one as an ombre candle, before realising noone would ever see it! 

Just a quick reminder, the lovely Kerry is trying to set up a UK-based quilting magazine. She's currently looking for funding and you can help. If you're interested in this magazine coming to life, please go to her Indiegogo page and have a look how you can contribute. This can mean simply subscribing to one issue, 6 months or 12 months, or you could take out an advert. If you're skint, you can take out a 1 issue subscription for a fiver, or just blog about it.  If you own a shop, she's doing very reasonable advertising - grab a slice of the lucrative UK sewing/quilting market!