Sunday, September 25, 2011

Making Fire Starters

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♥ ♥   I must say….tis my favorite time of night!!  House is REALLY QUIET, it’s almost clean., with a frosty cold beverage in hand.  Would have been clean had my ADD not kicked in Winking smile  Facebook, pictures, my blog,  are just  WAY too distracting (fun)! 

A couple weeks back we stopped at a local market to grab a bite to eat.  At the check out I noticed 8 “fire starters” for $7.95.  My first thought was, “that’s a rip off” followed by “I can do that".”IMG_6662rSo a couple days ago I dug out all the old candles I’ve been saving over the last 10 years or so. Shhhhhh, don’t tell Maine Man.  He hates my pack rat tendencies.  When the kids woke up they began poking, prodding, melting….IMG_6665r...Playing with fire!!!  I’ve always been a believer that if you let your children play with fire, meaning light candles, camp fires, etc. in front of you they won’t have a burning desire to do so when your not around.  Hope my kids prove that theory right.

When the author was just a young tike she had a little bear candle.  When her Momma was out mowing the lawn one sun shiny day she decided to light up that cute little brown & white wax bear all by herself. It was all good until it tipped over onto her bed and caught the linen on fire.    Let me tell you Momma weren’t happy when that little lad ran out to get her!  Probably one of my oldest childhood memories.  Why is is you always seem to remember the bad stuff? lol

Moving on….next ingredient:  SAW DUST

IMG_6668rMelt the candles in an old crock pot or a double boilerIMG_6673rAdd a good amount of shavings to wax and mix it QUICKLY!IMG_6675r

*Note to self & others

Do it outside, in the garage, or use LOTS of newspaper!

Learn from my experiences (screw ups)

The acronym that comes to mind…

L.I.F.E.

Learn- It –From –Experience

IMG_6676rSomeone gave me a bunch of disposable muffin tins.  They were PERFECT for this messy project!  IMG_6680rCover with shavings, let cool in the fridge or freeze.  Pop out of cups.IMG_6683r

Works perfect! Fun, easy, cheap…..will definitely do again.  Wrap with brown paper or scrap booking paper, tie w/ raffia, or just as is.  What a great Upcycled Christmas present!

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 25, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    My Mom made her own fire starters as well, using old candles but instead of saw dust, she used dryer lint.

    Amy

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  2. UnknownSeptember 26, 2011 at 11:09 AM

    love your pics and the way you explain, with lots of real life tales mixed in! I might actually give this one a try, since we burn alot of wood and I hate the work of getting it to start!!

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  3. RobSeptember 26, 2011 at 6:04 PM

    Instead of cupcake tins, you can use old cardboard egg cartons. That keeps the starters all together nice and neat and you can just break off an "egg" every time you need to start a fire and burn the whole thing. Nice way to recycle egg cartons, too.

    A mix of dryer lint and sawdust works even better than either one alone.

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  4. SweetLand FarmSeptember 27, 2011 at 12:32 PM

    Oh that looks like fun! I may have to try that! Thanks!

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  5. icebearOctober 12, 2011 at 3:57 AM

    great idea! Also, for anyone else addicted to Scentsy wickless candles, just sop up the melted wax with a good sturdy paper towel, allow it t\to cool and it becomes a super easy firestarter.

    ReplyDelete