wax lyrical and muse sentimental

 

Remember the wax-dripped bottles at the pub that I was drooling over? It got added onto my To Do list, even if D said it would take years to achieve. I went to the Cargo sale and got a pack of six long red dinner candles (amongst many other delightful things for the flat) and decided to attempt a hand at recreating them. Artificially, of course. Since I do not wish to wait years. Spread some newspapers on the kitchen worktop and proceeded to light candles, dripping wax in various different patterns. . and voila!

This project was rather easy to make-- all you require is a little patience and a lack of fear of fire and hot wax. Dripping hot wax onto the skin does not hurt-- in fact, similar approaches involving wax is used in beauty treatments for soft hands and feet. Just light some tall candles (to prevent the flame from reaching you), drip the wax from one side until you get a diagonal type of 'contraption' reminiscent of a fountain pen shaft. When it becomes too steep, just alternate. Broken wax pieces can easily be stuck onto the bottle and heated up with a flame beneath so they do their own thing. To cover some parts of the wine labels, I dotted wax onto them, before heating them up and rolling them around a little. It is slightly annoying that most candles these days are 'non-drip', and to create the 'perspiring wax profusely' look on the candles themselves, I simply lit another candle above it and let the wax fall, varying the thickness of the flow. Loads of wax falls onto the table in the meantime, and in order not to waste them, I had fun picking them with my fingers (now my nail bed hurts!) and gathering them into a glass bottle before lighting a remnant candle in it. It does remind me of projects attempting to create candles out of white wax and crayon shavings as a child-- good fun! D was wondering why I was so quiet-- "I thought you had mysteriously left the flat!"-- because apparently I can never sit still unless I am absolutely engrossed in something.

I transferred the bottles to the coffee table in the living room and lit them next to a pomegranate and ginger Shearer candle. . . The illusion of warmth from candles is comforting when it is so cold. The snow fell today and I was absolutely excited. Except, it is bonechillingly freezing. (And then I was cursing the bloody arsehole who stole my gorgeous leather gloves from my dorm room).

Having used up the remnant candle, I simply popped a tealight in, as well as a few drops of black pepper and lemongrass essential oils.
 

And finally figured out what was wrong with my shelves-- the colour combination. I was debating whether to paint the mirror frame black in a Rococo style, but changed my mind. So I transferred the vase over-- still need some huge blooms on it though!

Gaol keys from the old Melbourne prison atop a vase from D's mother. I like strange souvenirs like these. Sometimes I string it to ribbon or lace and wear it as a necklace.

Now this shelf finally looks right-ish. Some quick photos as it's 450am and I must sleep as I have work to do tomorrow. But I thought I'd snap some quick pictures, having just realised my new Mac has got a build-in card reader which makes it simpler to transfer photos. Really loving the speed of the new toy-- can't imagine running all the programs for site-building right now on my older machine as it used to get upset and heat up insanely if I so much as ran one high-performance program. 

And, some work here and there (finally! Keeping fingers crossed it'll last) means I have a little more to spend on the flat. Such as buying a huge dustbin, feeling sick of having trash bags languishing unsightly in the kitchen, except that those 30-liter dustbins are about £80. Madness! I found one massively marked-down in Cargo for £25, and the lady kindly reduced it to £20 for me because of some dent I couldn't even see. I was utterly grateful because I couldn't bring myself to fork out SGD$50 on a dustbin. Oh, the 'perks' of living out of home! Given that I've upgraded all my hangers to proper sturdy black ones, sheets to proper Egyptian cotton as well as satin ones, and thick Egyptian cotton towels, I decided to get proper glassware too and a proper Chinese-style dining set rather than the two measly large and small plates, tumblers, bowls and mugs that I have. You don't really think much about dining properly when you live in a dorm, but life gets more exciting when you have your first proper place and you drool at and think of the Royal Albert dining set you had back at home.  I have another throw that I used in my dorm room which makes me look a little Red Indian and makes D look homeless, and I decided it does not really fit the look of the flat. Picked up this awesome, deep brown faux fur throw at Cargo too. It was 50% off, but £20; still I figured a less-nice one was £25 at Primark, so why not this luxe one. And, oh gosh, it is tactile heaven. Plus oh-so-warm. Of course, some cushions too! D asked me, "Are these Christmas cushions? They're all shiny" and I protested, "No! They're everyday cushions!". Well, I like things a little glittery and shiny, kinda like how snow glistens on the ground making life seem a little more gorgeous. . . I picked the snakeskin-pattern sequin one for only £2-- am actually thinking of getting more. We'll see. The flat is all I spend my money on these days. . of course whilst hunting for good bargains and sometimes caving in to some luxuries like Royal Doulton cut crystal goblets. Next stop: Gorgeous dining china and a teatime set.

Now, even though my sofa isn't the comfortable-st in the world, I am starting to really adore it.

Been busy with work-related stuff and a few other commitments, which is why I'm still up. Life is much better productive-- like Paulo Coelho says, the busiest people are the ones who have time for everything, and that is how I used to feel. And then I became lazy when I moved countries. Now, I hope this Productive Efficient Mojo is back for good, and fingers crossed that opportunities stay and burgeon! Will definitely post the Chocolate Buffet post and some other outfit-ones soon. . Time to go to bed though. . hope you've had a fabulous week so far, and happy December!