Today I felt like making things. First, I wanted to make the easy microwave honey lip balm, which has a recipe on OnegoodthingbyJillee.com. () It is just almond oil, beeswax, honey and some essential oil of your choosing. You could also use coconut oil instead of almond. You just microwave the oil and wax together, then stir in the honey and essential oil, and pour into container.

Her recipe makes a lot, so I cut it in quarters, just enough to fill an Altoids tin. My honey was crystallized, which made it a little more inconvenient, but it appears that honey doesn’t actually mix fully into this anyway — it’ll remain as tiny globules throughout the liquid. I added peppermint essential oil to make it smell nice. Turned out okay, but next time I’d put it into tiny pill boxes instead. Except for a drip I splashed across the lid of the tin, it looks like hers in the photo.

Then I made a few candles, and this time used essential oils instead of candle fragrance drops, because although I have some of that they aren’t good scents like mint, orange, and lemon. I have to wait until tonight for the candles to cool completely, before I repour them up to the tops. (This is to reduce the sinking-in that homemade candles will do.)


Hmm. I can't seem to add the other images. These candles are some I made a while ago, and I didn't bother doing them very well. They both look funny on top. But I liked finding out that I can use cotton string for wick just as well.

In between melting things, I made vegetable soup. The soup was a cheat — just potatoes, carrots, onion, squash, etc. chopped up into Knorr’s vegetarian bouillon cubes. With tomato paste mixed in, it was very good.