Boring candles for deaf people

This afternoon, my husband clocked that I was pretty knackered. I’m not sure what gave it away, possibly the whole “curl up on the couch under a blanket and look like I’m sleeping with my eyes open” thing I had going on.

He offered to take our son to the birthday party this afternoon so that I could stay home and rest.

Heck yes, please.

So, I laid on the couch and attempted to nap, and failed.

Then my brain kicked in.

“You shouldn’t waste this time you’ve got to yourself. You should do some of the stuff on your to-do list that you’ve been putting off.”

I dragged myself off the couch and into my office. I sat at my computer and used ChatGPT to help design a drinking game to use with the timber blocks I have. Those in the top-left corner, which featured in my “oh my god I’ve got too many craft supplies” post.

I knew I couldn’t use vinyl to make proper labels, because it would rub as the game was played and eventually come off. I don’t have the special sublimation pens anymore; I’d given those away already because I hadn’t used them (and the times I tried it out, I really didn’t like the finished result anyway). And I sure as heck wasn’t going to sit and burn words into each piece.

This is where my fatigue showed, and my lack of “fuckery”.

What in god’s name was this effort?

I looked at it and thought there was absolutely zero chance that I was going to be selling those. I wouldn’t even want to give them away for free on marketplace, because someone would have to spend petrol money to collect it.

You guys, I made it 1/4 of the way through the blocks before I abandoned the idea. I put them all back in the box and wrote “drinking game” on the outside. Then that, and the other two boxes, magically found themselves in a bag at the front door along with other stuff that’s been earmarked for donation to the charity store. I really don’t mind if they end up tossing that one.

Still determined to craft something, I pulled out the candle-making supplies. I found the timber wicks my husband had bought, and then the “ice flower wax”, which is like sand that you pour in.

Half an hour of googling later, and deciding that I didn’t need the wick stickers to hold the timber wick in place, I had instead found this incredible technique that now I want to try. But of course I won’t because the point is to not buy new things. Seriously though…how cool.

The only thing I would need for that is to buy candle dyes, oil-based dye.

Anyways, nothing new.

Which brings me back to this candle effort.

I put the timber wick in the holder, put it in a jar (leftover from a previous candle I’d bought and burned), poured the sand in, and… done. Total effort: 30 seconds.

I lit the candle, and learned that trying to light a timber wick using an electric lighter is a big fat fail, because it just goes out immediately. Hunting through the cupboard, I found a regular lighter, lit the wick, and we were finally in business.

Kind of.

Turns out the timber wick “crackling” is super soft, and me being kinda deaf means it’s not as pleasant to listen to as I thought.

And the “odour-free” wax smells… waxy.

Some more googling and it turns out people mainly use this kind of wax sand to dye it different colours and make some seriously impressive looking candles. Not just dump it in a jar and call it a day.

Whatever. I made a candle today.

And used up one whole timber wick and holder. And some wax. That counts for using up my craft supplies this month.

And because I’m not allowed to buy anything new, on top of not buying dye to make pretty patterns, I’m also not allowed to buy the fragrances to make the waxy smell less waxy.

So… what is the point of all of this?

Today I invented the craft of boring-wax-smelling-candles-that-don’t-sound-nice-for-deaf-people.

Done.

At least I’m amused by my own antics.

Does anyone out there have a wax-smelling fetish that would like to buy some candles? Have you ever set out to make something and it didn’t turn out the way you imagined?