A Week in Review

Wednesday, May 12th

Flipped!

Tuesday, May 11th

wash

Monday, May 10th

CRAM

Sunday, May 9th

Remembrance...

Saturday, May 8th

...grind

Friday, May 7th

Beltane

Thursday, May 6th

home.

Mother's Day Teacup Candles

Recently, my paternal grandparents moved into a very nice assisted living community near my parents as they are both almost 90.

(You can imagine the task that my parents had of helping them chose which of their life-long treasures would move with them to their new home and which treasures they were ready to part with!)

My grandmother has accumulated quite the collection of tea cups and saucers over the years (enough to fill an entire six foot tall cabinet) and the cups and saucers were some of the treasures that she determined that she could part with. In fact, she didn't want to keep even one!


So, my mom packed them up and brought them home in the hope that we would find a good use for them. I mentioned that I had a crafty idea and the next time I saw my folks they handed me two banker's boxes filled with cups and saucers.


You have to be careful what you ask for around here!

On a total side note, while I was standing on a chair looking down at ALL of the cups and saucers spread on the kitchen table, I had a very Alice in Wonderland-esque moment about the teacup ride at Disneyland. Truly, it was uncanny.

But back to the craft at hand...

I have been wanting to try some teacup candles for a while and it seemed serendipitous that I became the recipient of so many cups and saucers right before Mother's Day. So, I drug Chris to Michael's last night for soy wax and wicks and convinced him that, after working for seven hours on the chicken coop while I slept off working the night shift at the hospital, what he REALLY wanted to do was help me make teacup candles!

He was, as always, a good sport. We watched Family Guy while crafting so I don't think it was too miserable for him ;)

Here are the steps that we went through to make the teacup candles...

Step One:

Wash and dry (or in our case, quickly dust) the teacups and then hot glue the metal disk on the wick to the bottom of each saucer.




Step Two:

Melt soy wax in microwave following directions on package (or just melt it until it seems melty enough...not that we did that or anything!). We used a plastic three cup measuring cup.

Step Three:

Add a few drops of essential oils if you want the candles to smell yummy. The package of soy wax said that it might not take the oil well but we pretty much disregarded that and did it anyway. Seemed to work alright as far as we can tell :)

Step Four:

Wait thirty minutes and then poke tiny holes around the wick to let the air bubbles out.

Step Five:

Sit on the couch and watch Castle while the candles dry. This is a VERY important step. If you don't watch Castle (which is, by far, the best show on TV at the moment) then I am sure the candles will NOT dry correctly and the whole project will be a disaster.

Step Six:

Walk around the house finding other containers that can be spontaneously used (or re-used) as candle holders. We had a blast with this step and I highly recommend it!

Step Seven:

Take pretty pictures of the end product and then give the cups and saucers to the fabulous ladies in your life for Mother's Day :)

On a serious note, I am really glad that we found a way to give new life to these treasures and to, in some small way, honor the time and effort that my grandmother put into collecting these cups and saucers over the years.









Happy Mother's Day!

Travel Fabric Catchall

A long time ago, my mom gave me the black watch travel fabric catchall shown below. I think it's from LLBean. It's been well loved and has traveled to over 15 countries with me, including a two and a half month trip on Semester at Sea in 2002.



It has served me very well over the years. It has been in hotels, tents, ships, cars and B&B's and has allowed me to rest easy knowing that my cell phone, jewelry, keys, etc. are well corralled.

I figured that if I love this travel accessory so much then my friends and family will too and I set off on an adventure to make some of my own. To be honest, it wasn't that difficult. I literally made them the same way that I made the mouse pad that I featured a few weeks ago by cutting two 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch squares of fabric, ironing interfacing on to one of the sides, sewing three sides together with right sides of fabric facing toward one another, turning it right side out, top stitching and then sewing on 4 little snap sets!

It lays flat for easy packing and just snaps up into place in seconds.



I made this one for my mom-in-law who loved the idea. We are going to Alaska on a cruise next week and I am going to give it to her in her Mother's Day gift so that she can use it on the ship. It matches the luggage tag and coffee sleeve that I made her and will match her make-up roll and lingerie travel bag when I finish them :)



There will be several more in my future, for sure.

Happy Sewing!

P.S. Oh my gosh...I can't wait to show you the chicken coop. It is SO close to being done and it is so stinkin' cute! I'm tempted to move in myself!!!