How to make your own scented soy candles

candles, Decorating, DIY, tutorial

Scented candles are incredibly popular at the moment, but can also be very expensive for long-lasted, heavily scented soy versions. I love ones by True Grace, Diptyque, Tom Dixon, Kenneth Turner and the Cowshed -but they come at a hefty price tag, especially as I burn them constantly.

So I decided to make my own for a change, and have discovered it is REALLY SIMPLE and they smell AMAZING!!!

I wanted to make a variety of candles in both rich floral and then more musky scents, and they have come out very well. They also work out so much cheaper than buying ready made scented candles. 1kg of wax costs approximately £7, and from that I made 5 candles, and reused old candle pots and a cup and saucer set. I had a few bottles of essential oils lying around already, and you can get 5 bottle of candle fragrance oil for £5 roughly online. Wicks are about £1 for 10. have worked it out to be around £2.60 per candle, a lot better than the £28 upwards costs of my usual candle purchases!

Here is what you will need:

1kg soy wax flakes. I used Kerawax 4015 as it has a good scent throw and adheres well to glass containers.
Essential Oils or specific Fragrance Oil for candle making. I like to mix my scents up as I am making the candles, so have a variety of both.
Candle wicks with metal bases
Glue Dots
Wooden sticks
Metal container
Large Saucepan
Glass Containers (but china also works well).

Instructions:

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A brief note about IKEA

bargains, Shopping

Just a quick note today about the Swedish giant emporium that is IKEA. I am preparing the house for an interior shoot this week, and thought I would pop by IKEA to pick up some spare tapered candles. Just candles, don’t need anything else….

Am I the type of person in the world who enters the shop with such a simple intention, and leaves with what I came for? I am not. By the time I had reached the checkout I had a trolley groaning with the following items, rationale had left me. But I did that thing that all TRUE AND GREAT SHOPPERS DO… I made up some excellent reasons as to why I needed them:

Candles – what I came for. A box of white tapered ones
Candles – nice big huge chunky ones, 4 of them, might be good at Christmas
Hallway sisal runner – mine is looking a bit jaded so a smart replacement
3m long velvet orange curtains – great for the recently overhauled dining room
Plastic food bags – 2 boxes, useful for crafts, kids lunches and so on
Plastic food bag clips – to tie up the above
Tea towels- linen, very pretty and no doubt a bugger to iron so they will end up in a drawer and only be used once
King size bed sheet, they finally do UK sized fitted sheets, and in dark aubergine…
Two wool throws in charcoal, just snuggly and useful, but excess on top of the other 5/6 throws I already have…
Copper tray to put all the candles on, on trend as they say
Cream tin canister set for the kitchen- to hide things like cat medicine
Two small artificial Christmas trees – most lifelike and useful for Christmas
Boxes of Christmas decorations made from 3D brown paper – no time to make my own this year
Boxes of black Christmas tree baubles – great for the new dining room scheme
Black storage boxes to put things in, not sure what yet but I am sure they will be very practical
Table runners x 2 to sew together to make one long one for the Christmas table, but I forgot that my sewing machine is broken so they will no doubt end up in a drawer with the tea towels
A wad of paper napkins, to go with all the other ones I forgot I already had
Christmas wrapping paper – I don’t begrudge this as their lines are really nice and come with lots of different papers, ribbons and bags at a very good price. Mind you I probably just blew the present budget for several people buying all the above.

IKEA is just one of those places where you grab things as you walk through it as they seem by cheap. It is only at the till that you realise that you have spent a fortune on lots of things that will ultimately and probably end up in a drawer.

Does anyone else out there do this too, or am I just a retailers delight?!

Ta-ta for now…..

Planning Christmas table decorations

Christmas, Decorating, Ideas

Yes, I am really a bit sad, I freely admit it! I spent this afternoon messing about with the dining table, china, glasses, cutlery and so on, so as to plan upcoming Christmas entertaining in advance.

We have 3 lunches to do over the Christmas period, including the biggie on Christmas Day, and rather than go into a spin with table decorating on the actual mornings themselves, (when I am supposed to be concentrating on cooking), I thought it better to know what I would put on the table for each occasion in advance.

Lunch Number One

This table is styled with fresh whites and greens. There are lots of natural elements in those colour ways on the table. A large footed glass bowl of hydrangeas has raffia curled around the inside to hide the stems. Faceted tea light holders in clear glass bounce light around and don’t block eye levels. Two porcelain flower shaped tea light holders add more candle glow. The table has two linen runners on it, one natural laid in one direction and a pale lime green going in the opposite direction.