Shell Candles

These shell candles are one of my Christmas crafts, I am planning on giving them away as gifts for the ladies in my family as most of them are quite girly! I already had the wax pellets left over from a previous craft where I made teacup candles. One thing I learnt from those is that the wick sustainers are really important in keeping the wick in place! I think the wax cost me around £6 and out of that I made 3 small teacups and 8 shell candles so it was good value for money. The shells are actually scallop shells that I washed and sterilised. We ate the scallops but you could ask at the supermarket if they had any shells they were throwing away, there are lots of crafts that could be done with them! To make the candles I fixed the wicks to the sustainers and put them in the right place on the shell. I then used a double boiler (one pan of boiling water with a smaller pan over the top) and added the wax pellets, stirring until they were fulling melted. After taking it off the heat I added a few drops of vanilla room fragrance and poured the wax into the shells. They set very quickly especially in a cold house but its helpful to stir them occasionally to get rid of any bubbles. This time I completely forgot but they have turned out okay, a very cheap but good looking Christmas gift!

Christmas List: Oasis Watch

After ages working out what to ask for Christmas I finally decided on a watch. The next problem was to decide what kind! At first I thought about the rose gold Michael Kors watches which are very popular at the moment but not only are they quite expensive I realised they weren't really me. Then I saw this Oasis watch on the H Samuel website, at only £39.99 (including a free gift!) its cheap but looks much more. Its much more of a day watch and should go with most of my clothes. I just need to find a store that stocks it now!

Chocolate Slab take one!

This is my first attempt at the Chocolate Slab for Christmas! I've planned on making a couple for members of my family and maybe just to have as a spare gift in case I've forgotten anyone! This slab was made using Tesco chocolate which was 37p per 100g bar. For this slab I used 2 bars of each but I will use a quality chocolate for the presents! When it came to melting the chocolate I used a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water but definitely had it far too hot with too much water as the chocolate melted too quickly and almost burnt. I had to use milk in both chocolates to get them back to the smooth consistency to pour into the tin which I lined with cling fling. Once in the tin I used a broken crunchie bar on the white side and white chocolate buttons on the darker side. Overall i'm pretty happy with how it looks but it doesn't have that snap that chocolate bars are meant to have and that's because I didn't temper the chocolate. I've bought a thermometer now so when it's delivered I will have to have another go. For now i'm happy making my way through this one! 

Crohns

I wasn't sure about whether to write about Crohns or not, partly because it hasn't really sunk in yet and partly because I actually don't know that much information about it. It was two weeks yesterday since I came out of hospital- my first proper time in there (very scary!) but my problems started around 6 months ago. I'd just moved into my new uni house, got a new job and was very happy with how everything was going. I don't think I was stressed but looking back I probably was. This was when I started having 'issues' but I ignored them for a few months. I went to the doctors at home and he told me I would need a blood test but at the time I was so scared of needles I didn't want to get it done. SO stupid! If anyone else is in that situation then seriously don't wait, I cant believe i've been dealing with it for such a long time. 
Then the pain in my stomach started and I became really tired all the time. I started uni again and eventually it became too much so I went back to the doctors in Coventry and he was so helpful. He felt my stomach and asked me lots more questions and I was sent away for samples and a blood test which I did! That was a proud moment and now I don't know what I was worried about. The results came back and showed there was inflammation and my doctor referred me to the hospital to have more tests. The only problem was the appointment wasn't until December 5th - 6 weeks away! I carried on for another week but started being sick a lot, I weighed myself and I had lost a stone in about 3 weeks. One weekend I couldn't keep any food down so I went back to the doctors where I saw yet another doctor. He told me to get another blood test to see any changes and tried to bring my appointment at the hospital forward. The next day I got a phone call from him saying I needed to be admitted to hospital straight away, the inflammation had got worse ( I think?) and I was now anaemic from my lack of food. The thought of being in a hospital in Coventry on my own terrified me so I went home the next day and then on the Friday morning mum took me to hospital.  
In hospital I had a colonoscopy (very weird!) and they diagnosed me with crohns and I was put on steroids to bring down the inflammation. There were blood tests every day and early mornings for medicine. I had a cannula which was scary to look at but meant that the injections could go in there. Apart from the one for blood clots which was horrible until they told me to put it in the leg then it was fine! I couldn't wait to get out of there and since i've been home i've felt so much better. I still take the steroids and I will be back in the hospital soon for another MRI scan and a further colonoscopy. The thought that I have something now that cant be cured is scary and I don't really know whats going to happen in the future but at the moment I feel great and cant wait to get back to normal! 

Finally

I've finally decided to write a proper blog. After ages of umming and ahhing I now have the time to sit down and blog about what i'm interested in. I'm hoping this one will be better than tumblr! For now i'm going to use it to record the crafts i've been doing whilst at home and my charity shop finds! It might also have mentions of my Crohns disease and how my symptoms are since coming out of hospital. Hopefully this will be interesting and helpful for other people like me :)