a proper birthday and homemade fire starters

well we did it.  last nite the boys and i got the belated birthday celebration ready for this morning.  we made a photo book, a banner and cards....

plus we made some brownies from martha stewart's baking book and honestly - blech..........but still we made them from scratch

they got up early, snuck downstairs and brought up breakfast in bed

the boys had fun and daddy was very happy.

now in keeping with my desire to make products i normally buy - i made some firestarters for our fireplace.  we just ran out of a box of stick things we had and i didn't want to burn tons of paper since our fireplace is double sides and the ashes are a nitemare..........so i googled and found some that were easy to make and didn't require me to go and buy anything! 

what you need:

cardboard egg cartons

old candles (or any old wax you have)

dryer lint

some household string

very simply stuff the egg carton with lint

melt the candles in a double boiler

                                               

pour the wax into the carton

i cut some string into about 3 inch pieces and just kinda squished them in there.

when they are cooled just break them apart!

each one should burn for 6 minutes and can be used for camping or your fireplace

i have been trying to find a good mold/mildew cleaner and all purpose cleaner and hope to have something soon!