The Bluestocking. All gerbils welcome, must have own frou-frou skirt.

[Magpiecomplex]

New thread!

Well done Myrtle for your shortlisting success. Here's to the next step.

Puffins certainly are. You even had your own chocolate biscuit for a while.

They were delicious.

I did, didn't I? Although I look like I have ferocious set of teeth there!

Tasteless & inappropriate resin decorations for Christmas 2025 are now available at the bar, free of charge.

I'll take a full set please cake. They're brilliant!

I especially like Spartacus and the weird little brown ratty thing in a red collar.

A wax melt is placed in a burner with a tea light underneath. The wax melts (who knew?) and the scent fills the room.

The difference between a melt and an essential oil is volume and cost. A melt costs less than the essential oil and will burn for longer.

I blended some essential oil (natural) and fragrance oil (synthetic and derived from essential oils, also much cheaper and comes in volume - 500ml for £20). I used about 105ml - 5 ml essential oil and 100 ml fragrance oil. Essential oil is very intense so I used a little vanilla essential oil with a base of musk fragrance oil and about 10ml of Bergamot fragrance oil.

This mix scented 1200ml wax which made

• two large candles (originally bought in Lidl),
• half of two glass candles that had already been filled halfway about two years ago,
• four trays of wax melts and
• an owl and a rose wax models (in pink silicone).

I found the half-filled candles when I brought my kit out. I was experimenting with making different colours and scents in the same candle.

So using oils to scent the candles mean the oils go further than being heated on their own.

I didn't actually ask for Spartacus!

Set 2. Let's hope these two sets cover everyone at the Bluey - if not, apologies & I'll get on to the manufacturers.

Grab them while you can. It's never to early to start preparing for Christmas.

Was that a hand grenade? In the last picture of Android's first batch.

I think I have a sense of wanting to tie up loose ends. I haven't made candles in about two years, though I went on a course just before Christmas and bought more wax and moulds that I haven't used till now.

I know I might not get the role I've been shortlisted for, but if I do I will start in less than a month. I think I want to use the remaining time at home to complete some projects and feel that I haven't been busy doing nothing.

I had already completed the model that had been on my desk for a year, and if the spare parts ever arrive, I will soon finish the clock that I've had unfinished for three years. Then all I will have left is the new book nook which I can enjoy in my spare time.

And if I don't get the job then I'll have some lovely smelly candles and melts.

Candle making is also less intense than focusing on models. There is the waiting for wax to melt and then to cool down so I can add scent and pour. Then waiting for them to set. So the next stage isn't as full on as glueing one bit, then moving immediately onto cutting out the next.

I didn't ask for that, either! A jewelled grenade - puts me in mind of that Saki story 'The Easter Egg'.

But hey, I guess the AI is expanding the bandwidth of what it means to be Christmas.

Excellent, here be...
...Oh. Still no dragons.

Which is odd because figurines in my likeness (as described by Sir TP, not the rather more flatteringmfigments of AI fantasy) actually do exist

discworld.com/products/the-city-watch/miniature-errol/

A handgrenaaaaade?

@MyrtleLion I love the idea of a candle that changes scent as it burns down. I read that & it was one of those OMG moments.

At the moment I'm using wax melts & when they lose their potency I add a few drops of some oils I bought to use with reed diffusers (which never seem to work for me). Before that I was saving the old wax for... who knows? Presumably it's OK to add oil on top of old unsmelly wax & use it in a burner?

Lots of sort-of magpies, thank you! I'll pass on the one with jaundice though.

So sorry, Errol, the dragons were in the last box from the manufacturers. I've just unpacked them.

Oh.yes, and a Nerry Chrismaties to you all!

Do you think if MNHQ knew there was a happy, non- combative, supportive corner of MN (especially in FWR) there would be panic?

" Unmumsnetty hugs"? All the flipping time!

Feels faintly subversive.

Well, they're all a bit sort-of, aren't they? I mean, everyone is not quite as per instructions. No female lions, for a start, & I'm not looking my usual self either.

Frozen people are important, too, you know. So that's me and Ötzi. I'm not boasting when I say I'm probably the better looking.

Yes that's fine.

Reed diffusers are the simplest thing to make. Let's assume you already have the reeds and glass containers.

Using oil on its own is expensive and doesn't throw the scent as well as using a decent base.

I recommend using Augeo oil as a base. It's easily available on Amazon. I use one part fragrance oil to four parts augeo. Mix it up in a glass jug and pour into the glass containers and you're done.

I would probably use one part essential oil to seven parts augeo because it's more intense.

They are. Maybe we should rename it from AI to SOI. Sort-of Intelligence...

@MyrtleLion best of luck for the job. I hesitate to ask this given you are a fully paid up member of the stash brigade, but have you ever tried cold process soap making?

I've learned something new 😃 In Japan, there's a word to describe a shelf full of books you've bought but never read - tsundoku. I'm assuming that applies to e-books too. I like that it has 'undo' in the middle of 'tsk'.