Making candles and making the finals

When I stayed with Åshild last week, she wanted me to help out making candles. She assured me it would be perfectly safe, since she had the recipe off the internet. Well. As you may or may not know, the last time I messed about with hot wax I wound up in hospital, so I was more than happy to let her handle the actual dangerous bits. I did do some very helpful stirrings of the pot, though. 


First, Åshild shaved wax off a big red candle, possibly enjoying the whole knife-wielding thing a little too much. Then, instead of boiling the wax in a saucepan (hello, burn ward) we melted it in a plastic bowl that we put into the saucepan. Much safer. And it worked like a dream, the wax melted in no time at all. Åshild poured it into the shot glasses that I'd prepared with wicks earlier, and we quickly worked out a chopstick system for keeping the wicks straight while the wax stiffened. 


Åshild also did a quick taste test, and assured me the wax was super yummy. 
I'm kidding, it was only strawberry jam. Looks pretty realistic though, right?


That last picture is our little army of candles - the green one was made from leftover bits of a yankee candle. 

Also, thanks to a timely text from Kaz, I found out yesterday that Angela and I made it to the Manga Jiman finals! I immediately went out and brought some blackcurrant fruit flakes to celebrate. No, really, those things are so yummy, they're like crack. Blackcurrant crack. Anyway, you can see our names at the top of the list here, but don't get too excited, that's only because we're listed in alphabetical order. And we're competing against 12 other entries, so I wouldn't hold my breath. In fact, I'm trying not to think about it at all, since they won't announce the actual winners/placements until the prize-giving ceremony on February 18th. Anybody want to tag along for moral support and free booze, let me know and I'll see what I can do about invites. :)