Can I Candle?

Candle Update  I ordered some natural fragrance oils in various fall scents and they smell so good. I made just one little candle with an apple scent, but based on the formula I have been using, I needed to use the whole tiny bottle in one candle, so that is disappointing. And not cheap. So we will see how it turns out when I can light it. I wanted to test out more scents, but I forgot to save my cans from cooking this week, so I didn't have any. I will make sure to save my cans this week though! Also, I did light last week's citrus candle and it wasn't the best. The candle has a decent smell cold, but when lit there wasn't much. I'll have to keep trying it, maybe there were too many smells in the apartment at once.  Space and Place In  The Meaning of Everyday Occupation (Hasselkus and Dickie, 2021) we learned about how a space becomes a place when there are experiences and memories in that space. In my experience, the homes that I live go through this process. My ...

Candle Update  This week I made a candle with my cheap citrus fragrance. I finally got around to lighting my peach-mango candle from last week and it's not too bad. I'm not a huge fan of the smell itself, but I think I got the strength right. It definitely smells cheap, especially cold, but the lit candle smells a lot better.  I can't believe it has only been two weeks since I made my citrus fragrance oils, it feels like a month ago. It's a little hard waiting, but I should be able to test them out next week! I also ordered some natural fragrance oil from amazon to test out.  Spirituality and Occupations The Meaning of Everyday Occupation (Hasselkus and Dickie, 2021) includes spirituality as a way that people find meaning in their lives. I understand this as both spiritual occupations providing meaning and spirituality as a lens to view meaning. I have experienced both of these in my own life. Spiritual occupations I participate in include spending time in nature, refl...

This week I collected some more supplies and made my first candle!  I was excited to start work on a candle, but I was frustrated when I realized I needed some more tools and had to wait until the next day when I could go to the store. I've been saving small cans to use for the candle containers, but I bought some larger cans for melting the wax. I also bought some wooden sticks for stirring and a wick holder.  Sometimes I overwhelm myself with projects I want to do, but one thing that is nice about viewing this as starting a new occupation is that I consider it something I can do in small amounts over time. I don't need to make tons of candles of various scents all at once. So committing to just making one candle this week was very stress reducing, and it was fun to just take some time out of my homework time to do something simple. I used a peach mango scent from Hobby Lobby that smells pretty good, so I am excited to see (or smell) how it turns out. I am supposed to wait a ...

This summer I spent a month at home in Alaska, taking a break before school started up again. At a local gift shop I found a wildflower candle that smelled so good, but was over $30. Later I collected wildflowers, called fireweed to make jelly, and decided to try my hand at making a scented oil from it and then a scented candle. It failed. I tried another candle with essential oils and it was okay. I certainly learned that candle making is not so easy.  So for my new occupation I am going to get serious about candle making and learn how to do it correctly. Hopefully I can make some fun scented candles for the coming fall and holiday seasons.  I didn't make any candles this week, but I did start looking at some blogs to learn about candle making, and it was one of those things where the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. But I have acquired some soy wax and some cheap citrus scented fragrance oil. However, I read that these fragrance oils are bad for our health...