Thanks for the ideas TE and Jo. That rock making class must have been fun. Sounds like you didn't need much prep work for the latex. It may not have been necessary but I gave my rock a good scrubbing and coated it with Murphy's oil soap. After imbedding some nylon mesh with a couple more layers of silicone I peeled the patch off yesterday. Only a small amount of rock pieces stuck to it but it was still quite tacky. Maybe I didn't blot the soap off enough. I made sure to do thin layers and waited 24hrs between them. It's less sticky today but not nice and firm like the top layer. I didn't bother with adding acrylic paint to the 1st layer but did with the next 3. The edges are nicely feathered though. I'd like to attatch it around a 2" dowel and use it like a paint roller if it cures a bit more. TE, tour brick faces sound neat but I'm definately looking to cast them in one shot. Guess the wax wouldn't be a good choice for this project. I did try casting on some 3/4" crushed stone and some woodchips covered with plastic but I didn't like the plastic bag lines around the indentations. Pea gravel would probably be better - it's probably smaller than what I used. Also using handi wrap instead of a garbage bag might make a difference. I haven't seen any 18' wide plastic wrap at the supermarket though. I'm not looking fot a very pronounced texture for driveway pavers. I'm sort of going for the tumbled paver look and am also trying to incorperate rounded corners in the mold. If we weren't making so many I'd take a file to the edges but DH definately wouldn't go for that. I made a mold with 2x4's with mini blind slats glued around the top that worked OK but I don't know how well it will hold up with repeated castings. I checked out the styrofoam at Home Depot - $12.98 for the 2'x8'x1.5" but they were out of stock.... wish they had it in smaller pieces so I could try it out before investing that much. There was a previous discussion about concrete sticking to various types of styrofoam but I can't find it. I think I remember you saying it doesn't stick to the kind you use. Is this correct or do you use a release agent ?

It has been my experience that fragrant roses are most fragrant planted in groups or grown as enormous plants. I can't do this because I like to try as many as possible in a tiny space. So I have to smell the flowers one by one, as it were. Or brought indoors. I have Golden Wings, for example, which Helen van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell raved about, and I have never detected much fragrance from my specimen. But walking in Longwood Garden years ago, I experienced a powerful, delicious fragrance emanating from three large bushes planted in a corner of the garden at some distance away from me. (When I went back a few years later, they were gone, alas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Similarly , when visiting a Long Island nursery (it was Hicks) on an intermittently raining spring morning at a nursery I was delighted by the powerful fragrance coming from a row of potted plants of Rose de Rescht lined up for sale outside beside a bench. And I returned on subsequent days and they were still fragrant. My third memorable rose fragrance experience was at the Bronx Botanic Rose Garden, where a corner was planted with large specimens of Raubritter and Ispahan planted together. What a combo! And I think I went back on subsequent years to smell them. (Haven't been back in many years). I might as well add something from husband's and my trip to Venice some twenty years ago. There was a planting of -- I am almost sure -- Mermaid, that thorny beast -- trained up a very tall entrance doorway and growing horizontally across the entire second floor of an old building. (Those antique buildings have very high ceilings and tall, imposing doorways). You could smell the flowers from the next block, a very distinctive fragrance, somewhat unrose-like, and you wondered what it could be. It was amazing. How did they do it ? It was growing in a container and some gardener had skillfully trained it with love and skill to grow vertically about 12 or 15 feet up and then sideways about 20 (or more) feet, with all the flowers at the top in a brilliant yellow stripe across the building's second storey, as a way to deal with the thorny growth, I guess. It was a horticultural triumph.

I wrote to P&G about the Downy Fragrance to inquire if they ever considered bringing the original April Fresh scent back. The reply I received was a firm "No!". They explained that there are many other fragrances available they suggested I choose one. They did send me a coupon in the mail good for 1 free bottle of Downy. That was nice of them. I also heard that there may have been some hazardous chemical in the original Downy and that's why it hasn't been recreated. But I can't confirm this, someone else may be able to.

You get what you pay for as far as candles are concerned. The quality of wax, jar, and wick varies. Longevity of use is related to quality (price) and proper usage. Very inexpensive candles are scented by putting a perfume on top after the candle is made. High quality candles are scented throughout the wax with wicks that are tested to be the proper size for the container. They are not made in China. The amount of scent a candle can produce is a product of the surface area of the melted wax, and the amount of scent within the wax. In regard to keeping old wax, I say absolutely! In addition to using it to make your own candles, sachets, and melts, you can add small chunks to other candles. I prefer to do this after it starts to cool off and shrink. Just push new chunks of wax in the soft candle to offset the shrinkage and it will all melt together next time you light it.