Wax on, wax off

So a few years ago, maybe 10, a friend of mine- we'll call her Betty- and I decided that we were too poor to buy Christmas presents so we'd make them. We hand stamped our wrapping paper and it was good. We made our own cards, and they were good. So on to presents. We decided to make candles. At this time I lived in a 2nd story condo. This is important. We bought all the supllies and figured out that we could make each gift for only $5. We were stoked. We started by filling the jars with wax beads and the wick and then we'd top off the candle with a half inch of melted wax. We melted the first batch of wax like the instructions said- in a ziploc bag in water on the stove. Dammit- water in the bag. Threw the whole concoction over the balcony. 2nd attempt, same thing. Must have cheap bags. Switched bags for 3rd attempt, but when we pulled the bag out of the water all we saw was clear liquid. Dammit- foiled again. Over the balcony with the whole pot. Then it hit me. OMG. When you melt white wax beads the whole substance turns clear. O. M. G. We looked at each other and ran to the balcony and looked down. We had spent the evening tossing our dud candle makings over the balcony thinking it had all magically turned to water (did I mention we were having holiday cocktails?). The scene below was horrifying. We had successfully coated all of my downstairs neighbor's shrubs, hanging baskets, balcony, grass, the works, with wax. Since it was winter and cool out the wax had cooled and hardened instantly. We petrified my neighbor's house and landscape. Our candles turned out nice though. Heh.