diy: repurposed candle holder

today i have a little crafty project to share with you.  you may even of seen this before...it's nothing new really.  i just thought i'd share my version.

i am a little bit obsessed lately w/ the bath & body works candles.  twice at the end of last year when they were having their 2 for $20 sale i stocked up. if you could look in my closet you'd see them nestled on a little shelf between shoes ;-)

so what do you do with the left over glass once you've burned the candle?
do you throw it away?  maybe just wash it out and stick it in a corner and throw all your hair bands and clips into it?

i decided i wanted to to make mine a beautiful and functional piece for my room.  i'd recently seen this video my missglamorazzi on youtube and thought what a fun way to transform this used candle!

i first decided that i was going to use this first try to replace my poor pen/pencil/marker/misc holder that i use for scrapbooking.  as you can see it definitely was no longer getting the job done!..ha!

i didn't really like the idea of freezing the candle as missglamorazzi had done in her videos.  so i went to my mom for advice as i knew she had removed all the leftover wax out of some of her candles.  she went right to it with mine as well!  no need to freeze...she just took a butter knife and removed all the wax pretty easily along with the metal circles that had held the candle wicks.  next we easily removed the labels.  then we placed the candle holder in the dishwasher and once it came out it was good to go!

i have quite a few martha stewart glitters and since i'm still loving rose gold i decided to go with the copper glitter.  i also already had this matte glue/sealer on hand along w/ the foam brush from some other projects.  so i dipped the brush in the glue/sealer and then simply coated the inside of the glass in one even coat.

next i poured in some of the glitter then began to swirl the glass around to move the glitter so it would be evenly coated all on the inside.  i also have this little tray used to catch glitter so i made sure that i held the glass over the tray as i swirled the glitter around.  it took a bit more than i thought and so i did actually put glitter in about 3 times to get it all coated.  oh, you do want to move pretty quick as you don't want the glue to dry before you can get the glitter to adhere.

after i made sure all the glue/sealer was covered with the glitter i emptied out the unused glitter out of the glass and onto the tray.  then used the tray to transfer the glitter back into the bottle.  as you can tell, from the outside the glass still appears streaky, but the glue dries totally clear so it looks even once dry. 

i then sat it aside for a few hours to make sure it was completely dry. i wanted some glass beads to use as filler for the jar, but was too impatient and this decorative chunky sand was the only thing i could find at my local walmart that would work.  surprisingly it only took 1/2 the bag to fill the jar 2/3 full.

all that was left to do was transfer all my markers/pens/etc into their new home!  i'm really loving it so far and can't wait until i burn through some more candles!

- jess

currents - 02.10.2013

so it's currently 6:10pm on sunday evening and i thought i'd do one of these 'current' posts tonight...

• listening--> all sons and daughters - the longing

• reading--> just the bible...trying to read it in 90 days so that takes a good chunk of time each day

• eating--> fresh raspberries i picked up at the grocery today...so sweet and yummy

• drinking--> smoothies for breakfast made w/ pink grapefruit, bananas, raspberries, coconut milk and cottage cheese

• wearing--> tennis shoes...a lot

• feeling--> like i'm soooooo ready for spring already!

• weather--> in the 60s today but supposed to be cool this week w/ a chance of snow flurries

• watching--> youtube...i think i'm subscribed to too many channels...can't.keep.up.

• waiting--> ummm...for spring...lol

• wanting--> to get more exercise in this week

• needing--> to clean my makeup brushes tonight and edit a video for youtube

• enjoying--> making better decisions in my life this year

• wondering--> where the weekend went!

• working--> on a new schedule for blogging...i hate that it's still pretty random.

what about you...what are some of your currents???

- jess

one little word update

how did january already fly by so fast?  it's crazy that we are already into our 2nd month of the year.  time really is precious and swifty goes away...

one of the things i am trying to focus on this year with my word -->transform<-- is going beyond listing things to change in my life and actually having the follow through to accomplish those things.  in order to do some of those things i needed to redeem some time back.  one way i chose to do that was for the month of january i did not watch tv or movies.

it definitely was not easy.  there were plenty of days i was tired after a long day of work and just wanted to come home and watch tv until i fell asleep.  but for the most part i enjoyed coming home and doing things like...scrapbooking...or reorganizing a space...or cooking up things for lunch the next day...or digging into some bible reading.  tv can be such a drainer of time before you even realize it and i am thankful i've realized that and made the decision to take a fast from it.

i will say i did break this fast to go to the movies w/ friends a couple of times.  but that was okay with me.  those times were valuable to my friendships and good experiences.  also, in the middle of the month i had a bad head cold that left me home from work one day and the only thing i felt like doing was laying in bed and watch tv...so i did for that day...but the next day i was back to work and back to my tv fast.

i am hoping to take something away from this experience that i carry with me each day and not just let it fall away.  i want to feel free to come home and not feel pressured to turn the tv on as soon as i walk through the door so i can watch shows on my dvr.  there are so many things i want to work on this year and i hope that i follow through...

through this experience i am looking more deeply into my every day life and trying to find the things that really are not meaningful and take too much time away.  as i find those things i am going to be taking month long fasts from them as well to bring my life back into a better balance...so be sure to come back to see what those things are and the results of those fasts.

- jess

friends are the family you choose

hello!
did you have a lovely weekend?
mine was nice and quiet with a mix of resting, church and shopping.

today i wanted to share an altered canvas i made back in the fall for my friend. one of her favorite sayings is "friends are the family you choose" and i wanted to incorporate that into a gift for her birthday. she had hinted before at wanting an altered canvas so i thought that would be the perfect gift. the winter before we ended up at church wearing very similar outfits and so i decided to incorporate that pic into the canvas. here is the pic from that weekend.

i took the pic and printed it out on just regular copy/printer paper to use as a loose template for the clothing styles. i was really happy with how it turned out and she immediately recognized that i'd used the pic as inspiration for this gift!

- jess

weekend review

it seems like this weekend just flew by. can i please rewind???  lol.

today i wanted to do a little recap of the weekend.  once i started looking at the pics i took i realize i need to bring my camera out more...so many things i just didn't capture this weekend...

friday night i went out with my friends to dinner at fuji for some hibachi and sushi.  honestly, it's at least the 5th time i've been for hibachi so i wasn't much interested in the show.  my first thought was just to order sushi and try something new, but i backed out at the last minute.  so dinner for me was the chicken hibachi dinner and a philly roll.  i actually only ate the sushi and took all the rest home for dinner.

after dinner we were going to go to a local coffee shop as my friends and i still needed to do our christmas gift exchange.  but when we pulled up we realized that we only had 30 min until they closed.  so instead we went to goody's which is a local froyo shop.  they were so kind and since no one was using one of the private rooms they let us use it!  we had so much fun and it was the most i laughed in a long time.

on saturday, myself and three other friends took a quick trip over to tulsa.  it was actually a really, really late birthday trip for my friend...her bday was at the end of august!  we first headed to macaroni grill for lunch, which is one of her favorite places to eat...mine too!  i always get the blackberry mint iced tea...so yummy!  for my entree i opted for one of their seasonal choices - tortellini with butternut squash.  it was one of the best pasta dishes i have ever eaten!

next up was a bit of shopping...well, a lot of shopping.  lol.  we spent 5hrs at the mall.  i was worn out after all that shopping/walking.  a lot of the stores were still having sales and i was able to get a few good deals.  my favorite purchase of the day was this michael kors watch, although sadly it wasn't on sale...

after shopping we went to dinner at on the border and their guacamole is insanely good.  we followed that up with a quick stop at the gas station to get some drinks and then krispy kreme for donuts then we were on the road home.

sunday i slept in til around 10 which felt so good.  after a quick breakfast i headed to the grocery store with my mom.  after we were back home and had all the groceries put up i decided to make a meyer lemon pudding.  i ended up putting half of it in these cute little graham cracker crusts i'd picked up at the grocery and the rest of the pudding just went into some little juice glasses.  for some reason i just couldn't get out of the kitchen.  next i decided to cut up the honeydew melon and papaya.  then on to cutting and prepping the pomegranate.  after all this it was nearly dinner so i fixed up some guacamole for a little appetizer.  dad wasn't eating dinner, so mom and i decided to split the hibachi meal i'd brought home friday night.  to stretch it a bit for the two of us i sauteed up a 1/4 red onion and a little summer squash which was a great addition to the meal.

by the time dinner was over i was ready for bed again.  lol.  but i had a bit of cleaning to do.  then i decided to try out this new mask i'd picked up at sephora the day before.  pretty amazing stuff.  i'll be sure to do a review of it soon.  finally i switched on the lovely garden lights i have strung up along the window next to my bed and did a bit of bible reading before heading off to dream land.

did you do anything fun this weekend?

- jess