Teacups and Wedding Shower

This past Sunday was my future sister-in-law's wedding shower. I may have mentioned before that I am the second of five kids - three girls, then two boys. The sister younger than me was married 4 years ago, and she hosted this shower for our youngest brother's fiancé.
She planned an outside 'tea party' at her home - we could not have asked for more perfect weather!

My sister is an excellent planner, organizer, list-maker, etc. I do not have as much patience for that, but I wanted to help where I could. I volunteered to make the cake (which turned in to cupcakes) and to make some gift prizes for the games - candles or succulents in teacups - ideas that we had discovered on Pinterest. (Pinterest is such an amazing thing to have now for any kind of event planning. Just type in one word of what your theme is and you'll find thousands of ideas that other people have already used for a similar event - easy planning!)

First, I had to find some teacups! Thrift stores are wonderful for these kinds of purchases (although, I like a good thrift store find whatever it is). I found all of the pretty teacups for around 25¢ each.
The candles I started making a while before the shower, but the I waited for a couple days before the shower to make plant the succulents. While they are super pretty, I wasn't sure how well they would last in a teacup; and I didn't want to try to keep them alive for too long.
I bought a variety of small plants and most of them were the perfect size for one to a teacup; and the guests loved them too!
  
The candles were easy to make because I never throw away that extra wax that doesn't burn off from my candles. I already had some string and wood wicks and lots of wax to melt down. I also keep a few of the large glass jars for melting the wax in.
Do you have a candle warmer already? If not, I highly recommend one! They make melting wax so much simpler than other methods. I just break up the wax into a glass jar, put it on the warmer and wait.
Rather than pouring the melted wax in all at once to fill the jar, pour in a little at a time, allowing it to cool before adding more; otherwise, the center of the wax will sink in and you won't have a nice smooth surface.
I was very happy with how they turned out; they looked even better than I had expected! Can you tell that I tried to make candle colors to look like tea/coffee?
And of course, the teacups went perfectly with all the other decorations; thanks to Pinterest.

Congratulations to my baby brother and his bride to be!

Replanting

I bought this big, beautiful plant arrangement after moving into my first apartment on my own in 2011. I surprised myself in being able to keep it alive and seeing how well it grew!
I didn't know I was good at keeping plants alive, but have realized that certain plants are just so easy because they want you to forget to water them - these ones I can go for a couple weeks without watering and they are fine.
After a year, the plants already seemed too big for the container. I bought some new, smaller plants and made myself a new arrangement. The other plants I re-potted into their own planters and they are still doing well - and huge!

Trying to get the plants out and apart
was no neat or easy project.

     

I don't know why, but I never took a full picture of the remade arrangement... maybe because I was in the process of moving again; or maybe because it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the first one. At any rate, fast forward another two years and that plant hadn't grown up as much as out - I liked the plants, but I was ready for a new arrangement. This time I had cacti on my mind.

After I had purchased all of these plants, a part of me thought that it was probably cheaper to just by a pre-made cactus arrangement. Of course it wouldn't have the same color or variety that I had picked out, but for those of you who are looking to save money, time, and finger pricks, you might rather check out the ones that are ready to go.
I used some clearance Easter eggs in the bottom of the bowl, since I figured cacti don't need as much dirt and definitely need more drainage than more green plants.
I also bought cactus dirt that is supposed to dry out faster.

This planter bowl has seen a lot of new plants!

I made a small cactus arrangement a few years ago as a gift, but have never made one for myself. I am interested to see how it grows - hopefully I don't over water it!
I bought aquarium rocks to cover the top dirt with and give the arrangement more of a desert look to it.

I love the results!
I'm thinking this one can stay for a while - hoping that the cacti grow tho!