Fall Candle Holders

I'm so excited with how awesome these candle holders turned out!

Last year, my sister decorated some jars with colored rice and un-popped popcorn; I thought it was so pretty and wanted to try it this year.

I started by mixing uncooked, white rice with a couple drops of food coloring and a couple drops of rubbing alcohol. (If you're worried about kids or pets getting into it, I read that white vinegar will also work.) I kept some white rice and made yellow and orange for the traditional candy corn colors. I laid the colored rice out on paper towels to let it dry completely. If you use vinegar, it will need a lot longer dry time; that's why I decided on the alcohol - plus, the rice for this project will be completely sealed off.

I headed to my area dollar store and craft stores to find a perfect, candy-corn-shape container... It ended up being some wine glasses turned upside down - perfect for a candle holder!
For a base, to hold the rice in, I found some round mirrors that were just a bit larger that the glasses, but would work well anyway.

Pouring in the white rice first, then orange, then yellow, I had an upside down candy corn. I used my hot glue gun to glue the mirror on the top of the glass, then was able to turn the glass without any rice falling out.

       

Originally, I thought I'd leave the mirror visible, but I was a little fussy about the glue showing more that I expected.
Fortunately, I had some silk leaves that I had bought last year and never used, so I added those around the mirror and the ugly glue was hidden! Now I just have to remember not to pick them up from the top, just in case...

I think they turned out stunning! I sprinkled a few acorn and baby pine cones around the leaves to add to the fall look. I absolutely love them! Happy November, Friends.

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!