Candle Making

Okay readers-- I have made a large step out of my comfort zone and have made something flammable! Haha okay that makes me sound much more dangerous than I actually am-- I made some candles, and I'm quite proud of myself!

What You Will Need:
Glass Votives (I used Mason Jars)
Double Broiler

• You don't want your wax on a direct source of heat!

Essential Oil

• Use only if you want a scented candle
• You can buy essential oils online or at a health food store-- like Whole Foods
• I used grapefruit essential oil
• Take care-- if it isn't an essential oil, it will BURN!!

Beeswax

• You can buy this on Amazon for cheap-- shipping is what will cost you. I have a "Super Savers" account, so I got my shipping free! (Which I'm sure would've added up for a 10 pound block of wax).
• You can also buy wax at Michael's-- but it will probably be twice the price of what you could buy online

Cotton Wick Braided Spool
Wick Tabs

• These are fancy little metal tabs that hold the wick down
• It cost $8 for 150 of these little guys-- not unreasonable
• I've also seen people use metal washers instead of wick tabs, if that works for you-- by all means go for it!

Coffee Filters

• I just used these to pour my excess wax into
• When the wax cools, you can peel back your filters and your wax is nicely contained!

Crayola Crayons

• I used 3-4 crayons I thought would make a nice color for my candles

Pens/Pencils

• You will use these to tie your wicks around

Steps

• Gather your materials 

• Start by threading your cotton wick onto your wick tab and knot the end of your wick

• Now, determine how long your wick needs to be by putting it in your votive
• Make sure to leave your wick pretty long-- it needs to be a little longer than the height of the votive so that you can make a knot at the top

•  Tie the knot onto your pen or pencil and then leave it resting on the lip of your votive
• Make sure to try to place it as close to the center as you can

•  Set these guys aside until your wax is ready

•  Boil your water for the double broiler

•  Break off enough wax to either fill your pot or make the number of candles you want

•  Peel off the paper on your crayons, and add them to your pot full of wax

•  Place your pot full of wax on your double broiler and keep an eye on it-- you want your wax to melt, not boil

•  Stir your wax every once and a while after it starts to melt

•  Once your wax is melting, dip your cotton wick into the wax and then pull it out
• (You dip the wick in the wax so that the wick doesn't burn too quickly)
• After you've dipped your wicks into the wax, center them back on the lip of your votives

• Once your wax is completely melted, add your essential oils
• (I just dumped enough oil in until the wax smelled as strong as I wanted my candle to smell)

• Gently pour your wax into your votives
• (I didn't get a picture of this because it was messy and I was working fast so the wax wouldn't cool)
• This is what your candles should look like: 

• (P.S. Do NOT do what I did and put these guys in the freezer to cool down. I was in a hurry and wanted them to set fast, so I put them in the freezer. If you do this, the outside will cool faster than the inside does and the middle sinks in. Let your candles solidify at room temperature! I ended up having to put the candles in the oven to try to: "reset" the wax and it took me even longer if I had just let them settle at room temp in the first place! Haha I guess that's what I get for trying to take shortcuts in life!)
• Once your candles cool, cut the wick knot from your pen and they are ready to be used!!

Much easier than you thought right? Enjoy!!

Dry Embossing

I was at Michael's recently and bought what I thought was a regular, fancy stencil from Martha Stewart. Turns out I didn't read the fine print (read: actually HUGE print). It is something called a: "dry embossing stencil" and it is not for the novice crafter. I've tried playing around with it, but it turns out embossing is a whole new type of scrap booking technique which requires all new tools for me to buy-- like a heating gun and special powders. Ugh. Why did I buy this dumb stencil and what have I got myself into? Now I've committed myself to learning the ways of embossing.... I'll keep you all updated about what I learn. 

Dry Embossing Stencil

Pasta Casserole

We were invited to a party of a close family friend this week, and mom volunteered to bring a casserole. Naturally, mom had me do the cooking. (haha) I wanted to make a classic dish that also had unique twist. I personally had a craving for Italian-- so I decided to make a lasagna/manicotti/casserole creation.  I'm not sure what to call it-- leave a suggestion in the comments section in you have a fun name for it!

What you will need:

For the sauce:
2 pounds of ground sirloin
2 yellow onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used 2, but the final casserole had too much liquid in it-- so try just one)
1/2 cup dry red wine
4 sprigs of rosemary

For the pasta:
4 boxes of manicotti

Cheese:
8 oz of shredded mozzarella
4 oz of shredded parmesan


Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees 
• In a stock pot, bring water to a boil and cook your manicotti pasta for 7 minutes

• When the manicotti is cooked, drain the water from your stockpot. Toss manicotti with two tablespoons of olive oil so that the pasta wont stick together. (I didn't do this when I was cooking, and the manicotti all got stuck together and ripped apart--very frusturating.)
• Brown your ground beef in a skillet, along with your onions and garlic

•  Once your ground beef is cooked and onions are soft and slightly translucent, take skillet off of heat and drain fat
• Add your ground sirloin in with your crushed tomatoes, rosemary, and red wine
• Let your sauce simmer for a bit so that the flavors combine

•  Now, take a springform pan (this one was 10 inches) and place each manicotti upright
• Stuff each manicotti with meat sauce 

•  Once you have filled the springform pan with stuffed manicotti, cover the mozzarella on top

•  Place your casserole in the oven, and cook until the top of the casserole is a nice golden brown (about 30 minutes)

•  After you take your casserole out of the oven, sprinkle your parmesan cheese on top of it, and let it cool
• Once your casserole is cool to the touch, unhinge the springform pan sides and gently remove your casserole

• Enjoy!!

As you can tell from some of the pictures-- this casserole was SUPER messy to make. The sauce finds itself everywhere. Also, be patient with yourself when you are stuffing your manicotti-- it can be frustrating if your pasta rips apart, but the taste of the final product is worth it!

DIY Laundry Detergent Part Deux

Okay, so remember that one post where I made: DIY Laundry Detergent? Yeah--that didn't turn out as wonderful as expected. For about a week: it was a smooth, lavender-smelling, laundry detergent worthy of cleaning the gods' robes. However, it soon became a solid mass which proved unable to squeeze itself out of the container. I searched the internet to find an alternate recipe, and I found something that may work really well. Rather than a liquid form, I'm trying out a dry powder--which cannot congeal! (For now, I'm going to put those two gallons of laundry detergent aside and figure out what to do with them later.)

All you need is:

One bar of soap (finely grated)

One cup of Borax

One cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

First, grate your soap

Then, add your Borax and Washing Soda

Next, mix your soap and powdered ingredients well

After everything is well mixed, put it in a container-- and you're done!! (You only need one tablespoon of this stuff per load, but I wrote down two for my mom because of the small size of the spoon).

Now, all you need to do is put one tablespoon of this stuff per laundry load. You should probably use warm or hot water when you're washing your clothes so that the soap can melt-- but I don't know if that is necessary. Anyways, it's front loader/HE friendly because it doesn't "sud" up like other laundry detergents.

UPDATE: replace the bar of finely grated soap with an in-scent booster for half the work!! It's not as cost effective, but when you don't have the time to grate a bar of soap, buy this instead and just throw all of it in the mix! Here are some in-scent boosters I've used and work really well:

"Gain Fireworks Sweet Sizzle In-Wash Booster"

"Downy Unstoppables Lush In-Wash Scent Booster"

Stairway to Heaven

Not really a crafting project, but I wanted to share my performance of: "Stairway to Heaven". Enjoy! 

Ornament Wreath

Sorry for not posting sooner! I'm busy with finals and other drama that has prevented me from having any free time these days! I started this ornament wreath forever ago, but I put it aside to do homework assignments. However, I just finished it, and wanted to share my creation!

What you'll need:

• Foam wreath
• Ribbon
• Enough ornaments to cover your foam wreath (I think I used 5-6 tubes of ornaments from Walmart for $3.50 each)

First, gather your materials

I had to paint the styrofoam wreath with white acrylic paint, because Michael's only had forrest green ones...yuck...(good for floral arraignments but UGLY).

Next, I cut my ribbon about how long I wanted my wreath to hang and then hot glued the ends of the ribbon onto the back of the wreath.

The ornaments from Walmart all had these little silver bits on the end which I didn't want. So I just removed them by popping them off and throwing them away.

Once the silver bits were popped off, I was able to stick the ornaments into the wreath by pressing them into the foam. After I pressed each ornament into the wreath, I pulled them back out and slathered some hot glue on them so they would stay in place. Then I glued each ornament onto the wreath.

Here it is about halfway done. Make sure to have fun with it! The ornaments dont have to be symmetrical at all-- I think all of the fun is having all over the place and a little crazy!

Crunch Time

Sorry I haven't posted in ages! I'm so stressed out with school-- it seems there are never enough hours in the day. I found this idea online and I'm OBSESSED with it. When I have my own home I'm definitely doing this in the bathroom.

There must be some sort of laquer on the floor to keep the surface even...

I love the copper color, and I imagine this is cheaper than getting copper floors being put in your house!