Glad to be back on the old blog here sharing with you my current fascinations and obsessions. We are full swing into the Solstice/Christmas preparations which is keeping us very busy around the homestead. Yesterday we attended a really lovely gathering with the local Waldorf community to walk the Advent Spiral. It was so nice to come together with such a loving group of people to prepare ourselves for the darkest night of the year.
Advent has been the theme around here all week as Faegan and I gathered some spruce boughs and berries to make an Advent wreath to count down the days to Winter Solstice. After much deliberaton I decided to start the countdown on December 1st and light one more candle each night until the 22nd. That meant I needed candles, and lots of them. Ever since I discovered the toxic nature of petroleum wax, I only burn beeswax. Seeing as I needed 21 candles, I decided to make my own instead of spending $78 on votives. Making candles is actually very easy once you have the right wicks and moulds. I am going to make my own wicks one day and make candles from my very own beeswax (once we get bees) but until then I made them this way:
BEESWAX VOTIVE CANDLES
pure local beeswax
very small paper Dixie cups
pre tabbed candle wicks
hot glue
Method: Melt the beeswax in the bowl of a double boiler (bain marie). As you wait for it to melt, place a dab of glue onto the tabs of the wicks and press them into the dixie cups. Steady the wicks with wooden clothespins to prevent them from moving off centre. Pour melted wax into each cup. ( If you don't like the cracks that may form, simply pour more wax to fill in the gaps once they have hardened. ) Allow the wax to harden and then peel off the cups, being careful not to pull the wicks out when trying to remove the glued on tabs.
We just got back from a trip to Ontario to visit with family. My mother so sweetly prepared for our visit by buying some bath toys for the boys to play with. Being the very perceptive and understanding momma that she is, she shopped on Etsy and found a great shop that offers wooden floating bath toys in the shape of a whale, fish, boat, and turtle. Way to go mom! I am so delighted with these little toys that I went out and found a scroll saw on Kijijji and bought it so I can make some. Well actually the main impetus for buying the saw was so I could make some farm animals for Faegan's Christmas present. While we were away Scott made him a toy barn, and so now it is my job to make the animals to go with it. I was out there today in the freezing cold workshop cutting them out. They just need to be sanded and then I am going to pull out my handy woodburner to fill in the details. I even made a beeswax wood polish for them today while I was making the candles.
BEESWAX WOOD FINISH
1 part beeswax
4 parts jojoba oil
Method: Melt together in a double boiler and then pour into containers.
So many tools......soo little time to play with them.
It was really nice to see you and Faegan at the advent spiral.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! We haven't made any candles of our own yet other than the one Bridget dipped at the Waldorf Fair last weekend but it is something I hope to do. We made beeswax polish last winter and polishing our wooden toys and bowls was a great activity.
.. oh and one more thing I love love love that you have tools. I have been thinking about using my brothers scroll saw when I am in PEI over the holidays to cut a bunch of pieces in advance for our nature table and then hand sand and wood burn them here but I don't think that is going to happen.
I love that you never just think about things you do
I came to visit after seeing your question about gifts for your nephews. I have to say your transition into sword play is a fantastic idea! Thank you so much for sharing it. My son is turning 5, and my daughter is turning 3 this winter and they love finding sticks to use but would love to introduce your ideas to them.
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