March(ing right along...)

February's Root Beer candle finally burned out during the first week of March and I decided it was high time to consider burning some Easter candles as it was getting to be about that time of the year anyway.  Here's the first one I picked.

A cute little basket of Easter eggs.  When they had melted down to a gooey, unrecognizable mass I moved on to this lovely egg.

I love the way it glowed, especially when the lights were out when it was lit.  Unlike the red metallic present candle from January, this candle was completely wax, even the ribbon and flower.  Continuing the Easter theme, I burned this egg candle next.

By the time that candle met its demise it was mid-March and time for a change.  I hadn't collected (at this point) many candles that were gel encased in a glass receptacle be it a glass, fishbowl, etc.  But the next candle, a gel candle, came in such a cute glass I was hoping to salvage it for future use.

Isn't this the most adorable glass ever?!  I love cats and each one is different!  Eight in all!  The bottom of the candle/glass was filled with sand, so it looked like the kitties were sitting in the sand.  Too bad the glass broke in the process of burning the wick and melting down the gel/wax.  :(  I was so disappointed, I went back to Easter candles and took my frustration/sadness out on Mr. Cottontail here...

Cute as he was, he didn't stand a chance.  Especially his ears!

Waxy "blood" just poured right out of them!  Sorry, Mr. Cottontail.  Moving on, I decided to burn some pie candles.  Buh'bye, cherry pie!

And peach pie!

The final candle for March is an adorable little girl in a bonnet.  This one reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake.

Actually, after looking her up, I'm almost certain this IS a Strawberry Shortcake candle.  It was a candle made for Hallmark stores but I bought it at Salvation Army for, as you can see, $3.99.  Not too shabby considering it's probably from the 1980s.  The label says it was hand crafted in Japan for Hallmark.  I wonder what it cost back in the day...

Here are various views of her, on fire...

 At some point half of her face melted in.  Poor Strawberry.  :(  She met her final demise on the first of April...

February's Candles

February 2013 started off with (most likely) with the conclusion of the burning of the white pillar candle from January, seeing as I lit it on the 25th and didn't light the next candle

until February 8th...  And it looks like I'm back in the post-Christmas mood.  Or I have a vendetta against a certain present-delivering, chimney using, fat man in a red suit...  Actually, I had a really nice Christmas, it was just time for this Santa-chimney candle to go.  And go it did...

Poor Santa melted down!  Right through his goodie bag AND the chimney!  Moving on, to the next Santa candle...

Looks like this guy might have been based on a foreign Santa - Russian?  French?  Finnish?  I can't tell...but he does have a list. I hope he checks it quickly because it looks like he only lasted two days before I moved on to the next candles.

A lovely matched set of birds.  These candles were coated in a shiny plastic of some kind.  The poor birdies only lasted 4 days before the next set of candles made their way onto the plate of death...

A matching pair of acorns and a piece of cake adorned with fruit.  I'll bet if that cake were real it would be real tasty! Doesn't the base of that acorn candle look like a real acorn cap?  It's not, it's wax, but the makers did a great job of replicating it, I think.  Alas, they only lasted 4 days, like their predecessors...

This Oak leaf candle came along next, and as you can see, it melted straight down, leaving the outer edges of the leaf to fall over and fall off.  This candle only lasted 3 days before I got a hankerin' for something related to one of my favorite sports to watch and my favorite sport to participate in...

 And isn't it just adorable???  By this point in the year, I'm so ready for winter to go away and spring training to start up!  This was a pretty small candle, it didn't even make it an entire day.  My next choice was based on my all-time favorite holiday - Halloween...

Another candle coated in metallic paint that is quite flammable. 

But looks like a real house-fire occurred as it melts down.  Poor kitty all you have left in this world is that stupid, grinning pumpkin...  So sad...  And your fiery death lasted 4 days - that seems to be the going average this month... Interesting...

Next, I picked this Root Beer Float candle.

How do I know it's Root Beer and not just beer with a massive head on it?  Most folks don't drink their beer with a straw...

This candle carried over into March and lasted for an entire week!  Having it housed in an actual glass mug must have helped it to burn more slowly - the same can't be said for that straw though...

January's Candles

In an effort to get myself caught up on the posting of what I've been burning, I've decided to group the candles I've burned into months they were burned in.  Some may travel over into the adjoining month, depending on when I started burning them.

Without, further ado, here are (the rest of) the candles that met their demise in January of 2013!

First up was a pretty candle that was reminiscent (to me) of the seaside.  It had little shells embedded around the bottom of the candle.  Notice that there were rings of various colors throughout the candle, as pictured in the shot from above.

Up next was a pretty, metallic present candle.  Initially, I thought the entire candle was made of wax...

That is until I started seeing a nail, like the kind you hammer into a wall, emerge from beneath the golden wax bow...  Look closely, you'll see it emerging...

There were four, yes FOUR, of those nails in the candle.  Why?  Because they were holding down the golden ribbon that made up the bow.  That, and the nails, weren't made of wax.  Strange...

Up next was a golden angel candle.  It was so pretty before I set it on fire.  :)

The problem with this candle, which I was about to find out, was that whatever the gold that covered the candle was made of was also HIGHLY flammable.  Once the flame on the wick met up with the golden overlay it all went downhill, literally.  The gold started making crackling sounds and kinda sparking.  When it really got going, the underlying wax was no match.  It started melting and exposing more of the overlay which could catch fire and spread even quicker.  It was a hot mess, literally.  In the end, the angel became a smoldering, liquid-y mass.  It all went down pretty quickly.

After the angel came a cute, sparkly snowman.

Mr. Snowman was covered from top to bottom in something akin to sparkly plastic beads, you can see them better here:

He wasn't very heavy or big so he melted down rather quickly.

I guess after the snowman and the present candles and the angel candle that reminded me of Christmas just past, I was ready for a reminder of the season to come - spring.  I'm not really a fan of wintertime.  

I decided on a cute bunch of Calla Lillies banded together with some raffeta.

 Along with the seaside candle (mentioned above), the pretty lillies didn't fare well under the brutal heat of the lit wick...

So I tried some Tulips instead...

Then a nice bottle of wine, or rum, or who knows what...

And finally, a pretty white pillar candle embedded with white jewels.

As the final January candle melted down I collected those jewels for future use - I'm a recycler, what can I say...