#bearsupstiars

[lacyflurry]

Candles and Coffee and C-ya-later

We’re in the single digits people! YES, only 6 more days of classes before finals and I really don’t think I’m going to make it. Pretty much the only thing I’ve been good at this semester is this bog when it comes to school. Sad, I know, but I tell you it just isn’t my fault anymore! The weather is too awesome, and I’m feeling way to old to be involved anymore, so I’m just gonna coast this thing out for a couple of more days and hope I survive. 

Thinking about being done of course leads me to my craft for this blog! I’m going alum from my sorority this coming up Tuesday and I wanted to make something for my littles as a gift that means more from me than just going to the store and buying something. But, I have a lot of littles and not a ton of time to make them all something different (dumb college and internship). SO - I decided to do something fun and different that I’ve never done before. CANDLES! I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of candle I wanted to make, or even how hard it would be, so I took to Pinterest to find something that interested me. After looking at a couple of different tutorials, I decided to go with a coffee candle because one - I’m obsessed with coffee and it smells amazing and two - the video seemed super easy, lolz. 

What you’ll need to make candles: wax and candle wicks (I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby), whole coffee beans, some type of container, hot glue gun, ribbon and wrapping (optional).

First things first - Get to a thrift store and pick out some fun containers! Second thing, sprint home and wash them! lol but no seriously one of the cups had like a spiders web and a dead spider in it, so really give those babies a scrubbin. I chose tea cups, old mason jars, jam jars, coffee cups, and even an icrecream bowl. All of my littles are different, and I wanted them to have something that fit their personalities!

Step 2 - hot glue in your wicks. I found both wax wicks and wood wicks and was like “Hey why not get both cause it will be fun to try new stuff - yeah!” Turns out the wood is way easier, and they’re actually pretty cool when they burn so if you need an opinion just get the wood wicks! A little dap of hot glue on the bottom and pressed down in the middle, and you’re good to go!

Step 3 - get your melt on! Here’s the thing with the wax - I also got one bag of block wax and one bag of shredding wax. GET THE SHREDDED WAX. It is meltable in the microwave and it is SO much faster! I was all like “Hey I’m gonna try both - woo!” I’m glad I tried both so I know which is easier but like no, do not get the block wax because you have to cut it then double-boil it and it takes forever. I didn’t have a double boiler, so I just stuck a mixing bowl on top of a pot....cause I’m poor....and in college...

After wax is melted down completely, stir for two minutes and add coffee beans to container. Then, poor wax over the beans. If you want a layered effect, poor small amount of wax into different containers - let harden, add more beans, then poor more wax until container is full. 

Let harden over night and they are good to light! I tired to make sure that the coffee beans weren’t touching the wick, but doing 11 candles at one time made it kind of hard for me to keep track of everything! I’m going to wrap these up and tie with ribbon (you can kind of see the ribbon to the left of this picture). 

It was a fun project that turned out good! It was a pretty easy candle to do for my first time, and I’ll be even more excited to give it to my littles knowing that I made it myself. 

Leftover Love, Lacy 

[lacyflurry]

DIYs Make My World Go ‘Round

So I may have had a crafting melt down last week. I really don’t have a solid area for all of my crafting supplies. There is an area in my house that has a desk in a corner and my supplies kind of just end up all in the cabinets, in the desk chair, and on the desk itself. But, there is one bag that I put all my go-tos (paint and brushes and weird stuff). It’s just a large Kohl's plastic bag (first off I don’t know where that bag even came from) that had a hole in one of the sides that my brushes fall out of. I’ve told you all of this because the one day I leave my boyfriend to clean, I come home and HE HAS THROWN AWAY MY RIPPED PLASTIC BAG. He organized my paint and brushes and pretty much crushed my heart. I didn’t have it in me to tell him I was about to have a heart attack, but I’ve been freaking out trying to find all of my supplies ever since then. 

It doesn’t take me long before I have 3 or 4 different crafts going on at once. If the projects are big, I tend to just leave my small projects lying around until I finish. But, if the projects are small, my living room turns into my very own crafting-messy-paint plates everywhere-room. It annoys my boyfriend (and probably my dog) so much due to the clutter. I’m like “HELLO you people need to realize that you can’t touch my creative activity!” This past week, I’ve had a break from school tests, so I did several fun crafts!

My grandmother sends me huge baskets of candy and chips and cokes for different holidays, and normally I end up giving most of it away due to the fact that I’d gain like 50 pounds if I ate it. I decided to give gifts to my greek family in a cute way! I did not get a final picture of the wrapped jars, but I just added fake moss to the bottom and threw some chocolate eggs in there to give it a cute Easter Theme, along with my grandmaws gifts. It was a fun way to get rid of some things I didn’t need and put a cute spin on a mason jar gift with the moss. 

I officially sold my first coffee pallet to a customer! I showed mine several weeks ago and it’s almost just like this one, but I wanted to make all of my crafts unique, so I just did a different font and cup. 

So even though I like to craft, I may possibly still have my winter wreath on my door. I wanted to make something fun that didn’t involve a circle wreath and BONUS - I added a plant! I am gonna start selling them for personalization, so we’ll see how this endeavor turns out!

Leftover Love, Lacy