Back to candles

Yesterday, while watching a movie to help pass the long afternoon hours, I lit a few wax candles and ended up playing with the melted wax. I'm obviously running out of ways to entertain myself these days. Anyway, it made me realize how long it's been since I've made some gel candles, so as soon as the movie was over, I pulled out my supplies, which were a bit dusty, and got to work. For Christmas I got a couple Hobby Lobby gift cards and had bought a big bucket of candle gel, but have not touched it since. So between yesterday and today I have made 4 complete candles and decorated 3 candle holders that I will fill at a later time. The problem is, I have a lot of completed candles, but don't want them all to myself. Not that we don't have enough clutter anyway. So if any of these look like they would complement your house well, or would make a nice gift for someone you know, please let me know! I don't have prices for any of these at the time, but we can work something out :)

Potpourri always makes me think of my mom. She always put potpourri in dishes when we were growing up, and still does. She even set up potpourri dishes in us kids' apartments when we went off to college. Anyway I had this potpourri dish (no doubt because of my mom's doing) and thought I'd make it a little more interesting. This is one way you can use flammable items with gel candles. This one isn't for sale, because I like my potpourri dish and I already started burning it :) But if you like it enough, I could get more materials and recreate it! The gel is rose-scented.

I had this container that held a store-bought candle in it before, and the company's name is inscribed into the jar. So I tied this cute bow and hot-glued it over the name. Once the gel burns down some, you will probably be able to see the wording if you look on the inside of the candle, but I think I was pretty resourceful :) This one is lavender scented, to go with the color. It would be cute for a girl's room.

This one is a light blue gel with blue river gems at the bottom.

 And looking into it...

For this one, I haven't decided if I will turn it into a gel candle, or just use it as a tealight or votive candle holder. I did this with a vase one time. Just wrapped and hot-glued hemp all the way around. If you want this, you can buy it as is to use as a holder or ask me to make it into a gel candle. Here you see it as a tealight holder. It looked kinda cool with the light flickering through the hemp.

This one was my first attempt at making a multicolored candle. There are three different shades of blue. It turned out ok, but next time I think I will use colors that are more obviously different.

 The three different shades are a little more obvious in the below picture, because of the angle and the neutral background of my placemat :)

And here are two Christmas candle holders! I haven't filled them yet because I'm waiting until it is closer to the holiday season so that they don't get dusty and the gel doesn't move (I once kept a gel candle stored at an angle, and eventually the gel took that form :P) I got the Christmas ribbon and holly decorations from a garage sale a couple weeks ago when I was visiting my family. Aren't they neat? I think when I fill them I might use red or green coloring, or maybe just clear gel, and scent it with cinnamon, or evergreen, or something else Christmas-y. I like that the first one has a lid to keep dust and bugs out.

  

The one below could also be a simple but pretty votive candle holder, rather than filling it with gel. Hmmm...

And lastly, there is this cute one in a tin with a lid! I think I may have posted a picture of this one sometime ago, but I took off the green ribbon it had and replaced it with blue to go with the blue gel. I don't know why I originally put green. It also has black marbles at the bottom.

Let me know what you think!

Reading, and more reading

That's what I've been doing this summer while Jake is at work and I look for a job. I was happy to graduate last month, but that also meant that I was no longer employed. I've been applying like crazy for student service jobs at universities in several different states, and it is exhausting. I've also applied for a few part-times here in Las Cruces, but it would be great if it didn't come down to that

The good news is, I did have an interview two days ago with the University of Iowa! Iowa seems kinda random, right? Well the reason I started looking in Iowa City was because Jake had applied for a promotion with his company that would place us in Iowa City. He did not get it, but we became interested in the area anyway, and I came across an open position at the university that I met all the requirements for and that I would be good at and enjoy (I think). So, to my excitement, I received a call from them last Wednesday and was interviewed over Skype on Monday. It's hard to say how the interview went. I was incredibly nervous, and struggled with a couple "hypothetical scenario" questions they asked me, but I think they liked me and I hope I made up for the difficult ones with a few impressionable responses... So while I hoped I made an impression, I'd also be terrified to move to Iowa City. I've never lived more than 5 1/2 hours away from my family in Los Alamos, and I can't stand the thought of being 20 hours away.

But anyway, while I look for and apply for jobs nearly every day, it is mentally exhausting and so I've been doing a lot of leisure reading, something I couldn't do much of during school! It's great to read something that isn't full of theories and discussions of validity/reliability. Don't get me wrong, I kinda miss the academic materials (wait, what did I just say??), but it's nice to not have to critically think about what I just read. Also, it's been too stinking hot here to be able to go on comfortable walks or to the park to pass the day, so between running errands, I've been holed up in the apartment. I did visit my family for 5 days, and that was great so do something else. So far this summer I have read the entire Hunger Games series, House Rules by Jodi Picoult (a favorite author), and am currently reading a John Grisham novel called Playing For Pizza. I'd also like to re-read the Harry Potter series and check out some more Jodi Picoult books. If you have read something great recently, I gladly take suggestions! I like many genres, so fire away!