Eco-Friendly Candles

Today the crafty side of me came out and as I stood looking at my closet full of sewing items, latch hook kits etc etc I finally decided to try something different. Today I would try to make candles. I've made candles before but today, like I said, needed to be different. So I hit up the local craft store and bought eco friendly supplies. I ended up making beautiful non-toxic, soot-free candles. It was easy and a lot of fun! It's easy to make eco-friendly candles. One of the highest goals of making less-toxic candles is to make them free of petroleum products, such as synthetic fragrance. You can even buy vegetable wax in craft stores. One brand (that I used) offers microwaveable soy wax and the process was very, very easy. Beeswax is another pure wax choice, although it was expensive. I personally just love the smell of pure beeswax candles, but today I was on a budget.

Since I prefer scented candles, I used only pure essential oils and only about 5 drops for 2 cups of dried wax flakes. Just added the essential oils after the wax had melted and was removed from the heat. Many aromatherapy candles are very soft due to overuse of fragrance, and these candles cause problems with candle soot. Making your own helps you control how much fragrance/essential oil you include.

Lastly I bought wicks without lead. Although I chose wicks without any metal inside, there are now lead-free wicks available in craft stores.

So I finally have some beautiful eco friendly candles to use with my beautiful Renaissance- esque candle holder thats been a center piece on my dresser for months now. The candle gives the room a romantic glow and the way it illuminates the Renaissance candle holder makes it look really elegant.

Titanium (The Space Age Metal) vs. Steel

It's a beautiful day here in the mid-west. Might just have to take the boat out and do some fishing. But, that's not all that I want to talk about right now. As promised in an earlier blog, I wanted to speak about the titanium knives and their qualities. Although I am not an expert, this is some of the information I have been able to find.
Titanium has a much better structural strength. Titanium is as strong as some steels, but 45% lighter. Against the competition titanium wins hands down. Steel is vastly more plentiful and thus much cheaper. That would explain why, for instance, the Titanium kitchen knife set that I had suggested in an earlier blog is more expensive than other cooking knives. The two most useful properties of this metal are corrosion resistance, and the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal.
Titanium is used in drill bits, aircraft, armor plating, naval ships, spacecraft, missiles, fishing line and leader, for diver's knives, many sporting goods, designer jewelry. Because it's also non-toxic and is not rejected by the body titanium is used in medical applications such as, hip balls and socket used in joint replacement. Because it is not magnetic, patients with implants can be safely examined in MRI's.
Conclusion: Titanium is the ultimate material for light weight, long life, and corrosion free performance used in some of the best chef knife sets.