* Remodelaholic *: Candles

Hello Everyone, it is Fawn again excited to be here on Remodelaholic. This month I have a Pottery Barn hack for you. I noticed the Wood Block Votive Holder in my new Pottery Barn catalog and thought it would be awesome out on the patio table. It seemed like a pretty easy thing to make. Turns out it was so let's get started. Here's what you will need: 4 x4 cut to length (I found mine for 51 Cents in the hull bin at Home Depot) Drill with a spade/flat bit Sand paper Stain Legs First, you need to find the center of your 4 x4 (remember the actual measurement isn't 4"). You will notice in the picture below that I measured and marked the center. I did this on both ends they used a straight edge to connect the dots. It is a little hard to see, but there is a light pencil line right down the center. Next you have to determine where you want the votive/tea light hole to begin and mark that off. I wanted there to be about an inch and a half on each end. I measured and drew a straight line with my speed square. Here is quick preview to illustrate. Now on to drilling the holes. I used a 1 1/2" spade drill bit. You will notice in the picture below the spade bit has a point in the middle. I lined that up with the center line I drew in the first step. I am a pretty visual person so this is how I went about spacing out my tea lights. I put my first one lined up with my line I measured for my "edge" then measured one inch-ish from the tea light. I knew I wanted that one inch mark to be the edge of my next tea light so I lined up the drill and went to town. Notice the edge of the drill is at the one inch measurement mark. Then repeat Until you are finished. Time to sand. I used 80 grit first then 220 grit to make it nice and soft. After sanding remove all of the dust. I used Minwax Dark Walnut stain. I have found a lint free rag is the best tool for applying stain. Also, do your self a favor and invest in some rubber gloves--I learned this they hard way. I had some knobs that I got at the Goodwill for 49 cents. They happen to be flat on the bottom so a little dollop of Gorilla Glue later and this lady has legs. Perfect for the patio table, now it goes right over the "bump" for the umbrella opening.
Now I realize those aren't actual votives. Let me explain. I found some votives that would be perfect for super cheap, but it turns out that they don't make 2" spade bits and I didn't want to have to buy new tools. If you want to use votives larger than 1 1/2 inch you will need a forstner bit. I didn't want to spend the $20+ so I just switched to tea lights.
My whole project cost $2.50--not bad.
Come on over to Frugal Home Designs to see what else I have been up to.

Okay, I love these for indoor or out, but since I am in a "outdoor party" mindset, AND I actually have some twigs in the back yard (score, that is pretty good for living in a tree-less ~~wasteland~~ newish development.... I have to show you this wonderful idea. This was linked up to a recent party by Marianne over at Songbird.

(p.s. I actually had some of these at my wedding reception 9 years ago this week, Happy Anniversary Us!, but they were not quite as cool as these, more rustic) This is what Marianne had so say:

Howdie, good folks! How a ye doing? Still enjoying Spring (or Autumn, hello lovelies down under)? We are in the middle of a climate change in these parts. Thursday we had Summer temperature, yesterday felt like an autumn day and I have been told Sunday will feel like winter again.
Well all the more reason to stay busy. While the whole country had turned orange yesterday on account of Queens’ Day, My Love and I stayed home and worked on various projects.
My Love had hired this big, mean, ugly machine to cut heavy weight tiles. He has been working hard on our new patio and the final stages are in sight. Just one or two more days of hard labor for him and I will have to start doing my THANG outside.

So I am real busy cruising the internets for inspiration on various outside decorating issues. So come around often this week, I will probably be asking your advice on everything from choosing colors to designing additions to the house…
But today I worked hard at trying to avoid My Love and his extremely loud and screeching machine all day. So I retreated to my peaceful attic and fired up the glue gun.

Remember my Twig Wreath? After I had finished that one, I still had a bucket full of cut-ups and branches left. And something inside of me, just couldn’t let me throw them away.
Heaven knows why, after all they were just a bunch of small branches and twigs, I have a garden full of them. So in order to control the chaos and not fill my house with the waste I removed from my garden, I decided to make myself come up with a use today – within an hour , or throw them out.
Nothing like a good old self-imposed deadline to make the creative juices flowing…

And this is what I came up with. Two candle holders. Twig inspired DIY lanterns so to speak.

Now if I thought you would need it, I would have gladly made a tutorial but really it is too simple for that. I took and old glass (whiskey style), cut the branches to size and stuck them on with hot glue. For the square box I used an empty Q-tip container.

Add some Spring flowers from the garden, and a new vignette is ready for the world.
I love how the light of the candle shines between the branches.
These little nature inspired, waste recycling, neutral colored lanterns really make my hard sing.

So what do you think, was it a good thing I held on to those twigs? Do you love’em or hate’em? I want to hear your opinion here folks!