oohh, house, yea, you look good.

 The Great Homes and Destinations section of the NY Times is like dirty magazines to me. I become a voyeur looking at all different architecture styles and endless designing options, so that I can imagine what my future house will look like. This house featured is connected to Scottish ruins, and reminded me of the ruins we got married in, a roofless building in Bandera, Texas.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/05/greathomesanddestinations/20110504-scotland.html

This photo from our wedding was taken by Larry Horn.

Candle making

I originally wanted to make candles in these large, fancy bottles I got at the thrift store for my wedding. I thought, because the wedding was outside, the tall skinny bottles would protect the flames from wind. After some experimentation, I realized that, unless it was a VERY windy day, not enough oxygen would be getting to the flame. Maybe I can use them for something else...

Luckily, I have plenty of glass jars from our salsa addiction. I obtained candle supplies from Texas Candle Co., including: 50lbs Eco Soya wax and the thickest longest wicks. I bought an old Croc Pot from a thrift store to melt the wax, because in my experience, this is the safest and easiest way to melt wax. I used a hot glue gun to tack the wick tabs to the bottom of the jars, and used a junky ladle to our the wax into the jars. Unavoidably, wax dripped onto the outside of the jars, but I like that handmade quality resulting from those little imperfections. The final step was to use a nail clipper to cut the excess wicks!

I have seven made, and I have at least 15 more to go. I might have to break down and buy some glass containers to pour more candles because I think some jars were thrown out after we were short on cabinet space...or else we need to increase our salsa eating!