Just do that thing you've been meaning to

I have a confession to make: my toxic trait is that I am an ADHD crafter. I have two craftrooms/workrooms in my house and they are both indicative of my tendency to buy a LOT of things to make a particular type of craft, only to make it once or even not at all, then abandon the idea or never commit time to learn it.

My mind is in a state of constant idea churning, which is great if you’re someone with unlimited time and money who can apply those things to see an idea through to completion. I’m not that person, and so have a couple rooms in my house of things I’ve spent many thousands of dollars on over the last 7-8 years and then got distracted with the next idea.

UNTIL THIS WEEKEND.

You guys I am so proud of myself. I have been working on cleaning out and purging my entire basement and today I started on the craft room. Its daunting. Its so overwhelming to me, but I worked through an old dresser in which I had been storing many of those long-forgotten hobby ideas.

I came across the raw materials to make beeswax candles, minus the little metal wick anchors because I think when I originally bought this stuff some 5-6 years ago, I was planning to make hand-dipped taper candles for spells.

Pure beeswax, cotton wick, brand new never even opened hot plate, mason jars full of perfumed spell oils, soap molds, and brass buttons

I stopped the cleanout and took it all upstairs and said ‘Fuck it, we are making candles this afternoon instead of cleaning the basement.’ And candles we made.

Instead of making hand-dipped tapers, because I did not have a tall cylinder in which to melt the wax and settled for a large glass measuring cup, I decided to use some soap molds I made soap with once and then completely forgot about.

Tied the wick string to brass buttons as improvised anchors

Then I found some little brass buttons that I was also not using for the original intended purpose to use as the wick anchors.

The wax proved very hard to cut into small pieces so I had to let it slowly melt and I added some essential oil blends I made years ago for spell oils (that I never really used) and then some mica powder dyes (that I also purchased for soap making but wasn’t using for anything) and mixed them together to make some wonderful-smelling spell candles.

Perfumed spell oil with mica powder dyes before I added the melted wax

Let me tell you that this actually worked to yield a candle that could be burned. Soap molds are absolutely not meant to be used for candles, so in retrospect, I should have used any of the unused myriad mason jars I had in the craft room (trust me, I am giggling at myself hardcore right now at how ridiculous this problem is).

These weird little improvised homemade spell candles look like little bars of soap with wicks and I kind of fucking love them.

The finished product. I have no idea how I’m going to stand up the leaf candles to actually burn them haha

I actually do want to get some wick anchors now and a taller cylinder to make the dipped candles, but I think for now, I may just get more wax and use those mason jars I’ve got, add some of the crystals I’ve got that never got used for their intended purpose, and more essential oils, which are also not being used for their intended purpose, and I’ll have candles for years to come. And also empty out some things from the craft room naturally in the process.

So in case you needed the reminder, go start that project or write that novel or whatever it is you had planned to do and kept telling yourself you would start for the last few months or even years.

Do it and do it imperfectly and as improvised as you need, because you might just end up with something weird and awesome.