Top Decoration

I've been working on my mantels for the past few days - putting a holiday twist on the main focal points of our family room and living room. For the most part, I am using what I have and, patiently, going with the flow. I didn't have a plan or direction that I was aiming in, at all. I just knew that I wanted it to be...

festive, colorful and whimsical.


So far, so good!

But my plain Jane white candles just weren't cutting it for me.


Luckily, all it took was a little of this...

Inexpensive sheer, wired ribbon and some of that indoor/outdoor ribbon that you can get, well...everywhere right now. I had both sitting in a bin from last Christmas and it turned out to be just what I needed for my candles this year.

A little wrap, and they take on a whole new custom look that fits perfectly with my Christmas decor this year...

So easy.

Too easy, really!

Which is just how I like it!

P.S. I am posting this at:

Between Naps On The Porch, Making The World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, Cottage Instincts,

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday!

From our home, to yours...

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas is well under way and our kitchen is going to need a much deserved break once all of the festivities are over.

We're spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Will's family. We're hosting at our house for both gatherings and we can't wait to get everyone over here.

We're ready!

We've spent the past several days cleaning, baking and creating gifts.

I think this gift might just be my favorite this year...

I decorated another candle. This one much more rustic and natural than the first.

I used twine wrapped just above my epsom salt line...

Tied with a large rusty snowflake, I think she's going to like it very much!

What do you think?

I think I need to make one for myself!


The house smells delicious...thanks to more Sugared Pecans and Cranberry-Orange Bread. We made Spritz Cookies too, and there's a double batch of Sugar Cookie Dough that is currently in the fridge waiting to become cut-outs of yummy Snowmen and Christmas Trees and Stockings.

Mmmmm...



I'll be back after the holiday!


Merry Christmas!





P.S. Our Christmas Cards were created by a client and friend of mine. She's a wonderful photographer. If you're local, check her out!

Click here for her website.

Click here for her blog.

I must say, I think they turned out great!


Here is what I did to dress them up.


Last night I went to sleep having finished the process of gluing on the Epsom Salt with the Mod Podge...

I let them sit on the drying rack overnight, so that the mod podge would (hopefully) be good and cured by this morning when I needed to get them fancied up and wrapped for the boys to give to their teachers.

I used some red, satin ribbon...

steel wire...

and ball point pins...

I wrapped the ribbon around the candle lining it up just past where the epsom salt ended. I wrapped the ribbon as tightly as I could, while trying to cause the least amount of disruption to the salt (this was easier said than done). I folded over the ribbon on the end that would overlap and secured it with two matching red pins stuck directly into the candle...

I then took my wire, making sure that I had enough of it to wrap around the candle several times, and twisted it in the back to keep the wire tight...

I punched a hole in a small card that I attached to the candle, running the wire through the hole...

The greeting I wrote in their teacher's cards:


Hoping your Holiday is

Merry & Bright!

I am really happy with how they look!

The satin ribbon makes the candle feel fun and festive for Christmas, and the wire adds just a bit more shine to the already sparkly candles.

Of course, once Christmas is over, they can take off the wire and ribbon if they choose and they will be left with an elegant, simple candle that they can enjoy all year long.

I found the perfect gift bags for our 9 inch candles in the...

wine department

at the grocery store!

Seriously.

Wine bags were the only bags tall enough.

And once I saw these bags, I knew the boys would love them, which would make it even more fun for them to present to their teachers...

I'm going to dress up the other 4 candles that I made last night to give as gifts as well, but I want to change up the look a bit.

Maybe a bit more rustic and subdued.

Here's hoping the next four work out as smoothly as the first two!




P.S. I am posting this at:

The Inspired Room for Holiday Linky Friday

The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday

Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

The directions:

(and I quote)

"Spread some Mod Podge on each candle with a sponge brush, then roll the candle in Epsom Salt in a ratty old pan."

That's it!

Easy, right?

It must be! She said her 5 year old helped make them.
But I wasn't about to go there.
My six year old would be covered in mod podge and the kitchen would be covered in salt.


But if her 5 year old can do it, then clearly, I should be able to.

I saved the idea to my Tumblr as soon as I saw it.

I needed a gift to give the boys' teacher's for Christmas, and this fit the bill perfectly!

I went to Michael's and bought my supplies.

9 inch candles on sale, no...on SUPER sale, for $1.99!

My plan to do two candles increased in that very moment and I came out with six.

(I mean, seriously, $1.99...I know at least four more women that would be happy to receive a pretty candle...myself included!)

I found the mod podge (I'm still not sure exactly what it is, or what it's really used for) and was on my way back home.



As soon as our little girl was sound asleep for the night, I started in on the project. Just to be safe, I re-read the directions that she had written (...and came away totally unsatisfied with the lack of step-by-step instruction...because how could something so pretty be that easy?). I'll admit, I thought for sure I was going to screw it up somehow. But that probably came from the fact that I need the boys to take these to school with them tomorrow morning to give to their teacher's (it's the last day before Winter Break) and I did not have a back up plan if these didn't work.

Luckily...they worked out perfectly!


So this is me, telling you...

you can count on this to work!

All you need is:

any candle of your choice.

Any size, color, scented or unscented...it's up to you.

I went with white to be certain that it could fit in with any decor...

Instead of running the shimmer all the way to the top of the candles, I wanted to stop about 3/4 of the way up. I put a rubber band around each candle before I started so that I would have a decently straight line to go off of when I was painting on the mod podge...

I lined everything up - assembly line fashion...

candles

mod podge and brush

epsom salt

and a drying rack covered in waxed paper to catch any excess glue and salt

I put the epsom salt in an old baking pan and filled it to about an inch deep. I didn't want to run the risk of the candle rolling on the bottom of the pan and scraping off the salt. I'm sure it was unnecessary, but it made me feel better...

Candle #1...

success!

Pretty, right?

After I rolled the candle in the salt and stood it up on the drying rack, I immediately and carefully rolled the rubber band up off of the candle. I was afraid to leave the rubber band on just in case any mod podge had gotten under it. I didn't want to end up with the rubber band glued to the candle.
Not exactly the look I'm going for!

Four down, two to go...

I ended up buying two different bottles of mod podge. Again, since I had never used it before, I didn't know what to expect. The first was just plain, glossy finish. The second was called "sparkle". It was worth trying. So the last two candles were done in the sparkle mod podge. You can see in this next photo that is has a very fine glitter in it...

Honestly, looking at all six finished candles, I can't tell the difference between the glossy candles and the sparkle candles...

All I know is that I am really, really happy with how they turned out!

I'm going to let them fully dry overnight and then embellish them and wrap them up for the boys to take to their teacher's in the morning...

Thank you, thank you to Emily at Remodeling This Life!

Your daughter is right...

"you have some interesting ideas."

And thank goodness for that!

I'll show you all the finished product in the morning...




P.S. I am posting this at:

The Inspired Room for Holiday Linky Friday

The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday

Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

Will and I have been to many weddings...many...and I can easily say that of all those weddings, including our own, this one was the most fun!

We had a fantastic time and were sad when the clock struck midnight and the celebration had to end.

We danced and danced and danced and danced...

It was a great party!



Here is a peek at how the centerpieces for the reception tables turned out:

I had so much fun creating them!

Of course, it came with the self-imposed pressure to get the look perfectly-perfect. But in the end, the bride was thrilled with how everything looked...and since that's all that really matters, I'm sure I can say that they did, in fact, turn out

perfectly-perfect!



I will share more photos when I can get my hands on them. Since I was busy decorating and then pulling off the half-time show (yes, there was a half-time show) complete with dirndl and lederhosen (I'll explain later), I didn't have much free time to dig out my camera and take pictures. But once a few of the other wedding guests send them to me, I will definitely show you how it all turned out. It was gorgeous and totally worth sharing!




Oh, and one last thing...

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Hunter

We love you both!

To say that the Swoveland women are a little preoccupied by the sound of wedding bells, would be an understatement.

In reality, we are totally preoccupied!

This Saturday, my husband's baby sister is walking down the aisle to say "I Do", and we all have a hand in making her vision for the wedding a reality.


Ready for my part?


Back in June I posted about an idea I had found on Apartment Therapy.

It was a gorgeous display of canning jars and candles set atop white linens with white china and white chairs.

The effect is gorgeous!

(click here to see the original post)


Not long after my post, my sister-in-law asked me if I could be in charge of recreating the look for the centerpieces at her wedding reception.

Hmm...let me think about that...


YES!


So I found 168 canning jars in varying sizes, for the cheapest price I could find...

And enough tea lights to fill each jar...

By the way, did you know that Ikea sells tea lights that are nearly twice as big as normal tea lights? I had no idea, but was thrilled when I found them! Bonus - they burn for 9 hours, which is more than twice as long as the little ones!



The Will's (big and little) and I, spent last night taking off all the lids,

(how cute is it that our seven year old wanted to help?)

placing a candle in each jar,

lighting every single wick to make them super easy to light for the reception,

and placing them all back in the boxes to make moving them most efficient...

Of course, I couldn't pack them all up without doing a mock up of what the dinner tables will look like...

It was so pretty!

The photo doesn't do it justice. It's even prettier than what I had imagined!

I cannot wait to see what the place looks like filled with the romantic glow of flickering candlelight bouncing off the glass jars!

I'm going to take it a step further and spruce it up a bit beyond just the candles and jars. Not too much, but we want to inject a bit of the wedding colors into the mix.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!


We have a lot more to get done before the weekend starts with the rehearsal on Friday,

wedding on Saturday,

and

Owen's 6th Birthday Party on Sunday!


It's a lot to cram into one weekend, but we wanted to take advantage of family being in town for the wedding. Doing his party on Sunday means that Owen will get to have his cousin here for the party, which he will love!



I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend!

I'll be back next week to show you how it all went!

I love this look!

Simple, elegant, glowing...

appearing as if it was effortless and just thrown together with jars from around the house...

I would *love* to host a backyard party with my girlfriends and have this be the table that we gather around.

So pretty!