DIY Candles

In the spirit of our wedding anniversary, I thought I would show you something I made for our wedding - it was part of the decoration on the tables, and doubled also as the take home gift for people! It was a very economical way to accomplish both of those things (table decor, and thank you gift for attendees). I say "I" made these...it was a joint effort, really. My dad did all of the cutting work, I did all of the decor part:-)

We made three sizes of candles, this is the tallest and the medium one. The cute shortest ones were all taken by wedding guests, I didn't have any of that size left over

So, we bought fence posts. Big, long, 3.5x3.5 fence posts from Home Depot. My Dad cut them down to size - 3 sizes (S, M, L), and then he drilled a shallow hole in the top, the exact diameter of a tealight candle.

After they were all cut, I lined them back up on the floor, as though they were still big, long, sticks of lumber, and I started painting them. When dry, rotate all and paint the next side, repeat, repeat.

An example of how I lined them back up end to end for painting

After I had finished the cream colour base coat, I applied painters tape, along the whooooole big long string of lumber - I did not do them individually, which I believe saved me a ton of time. Then I did the glaze coat. Once dried, remove tape, and then tape the next side, repeat, repeat.

Once all sides were painted, a glazed stripe put on, and all dried, I used a marbley-spatter spray paint, (found at Michaels) in gold, and sprayed them all, again, side by side, waiting until each side was dry before turning.

Since this was not only table decor, but a take home gift, we adhered this message to the bottom of each candle.

To finish it off, I tied a burgundy ribbon around the candles (our wedding colour), and we were done! The nice thing about this neutral candle, is that you can change the ribbon out to your desired colour to match any home or seasonal decor. Easy! The whole thing itself was really very affordable to make, and not very difficult at all. The only "con" to this, when making the volume of them that I was (I probably made 150 of these), is that it is time consuming. Not labour intensive, just lots of waiting time between coats of paint before you can flip them all for the next side.

Cute, simple, and I still use these in my home decor now!

Wedding Vows

To commemorate our 10 year anniversary...our vows. We wrote them/compiled them ourselves. Poor Pastor Doug - I basically handed over a document saying "this is your part, this is our part" haha. It was one of my most enjoyable parts of wedding planning - I/we (mostly I) wrote the entire service except for the Pastors Charge to us (which you do not see here). It took countless (obsessive) hours to go over all weddings, ever, and put together my favourite parts for my own.

I believe I did a good job, as, in attending other weddings done by Pastor Doug, after ours, I would elbow Brian...do you hear that? That's from our wedding!! Which basically means I wrote it. Haha. Although, really, I cannot say I "wrote" it all, but I compiled it together in my own unique way. And it makes me happy to hear that others liked it, and decided to use it for their own weddings too...

(we go from Declaration of Intent, to Exchange of Marriage Vows, to Giving and Receiving of Rings...where Pastor Doug messes up my vows, so I say something different than Brian does:-)

For more wedding wonderfulness I've posted over the years, click here

Pet Bug

The further south you go...the bigger the bugs get. I'm sure you've heard me rant about various scary and monsterous bugs I've come across before - and now I have a kid who is not scared of them. When its rainy for a few days all the bugs like to seek shelter...inside. Grey found a dead one, and adopted it. It's a roach, the flying water bug kind...YUCK.

Chincoteague Island

This past weekend, we had a chance to have a little mini vacation/getaway:-) One of Brian's good friends, Ben was on vacation, and would be in the area, so he invited us to come along! The destination?

Chincoteague.

The most famous thing about Chincoteague is the wild horses, and the book we've all read...Misty of Chincoteague:-) Chincoteague is not far from us at all, up the Eastern Shore. It took us 2hrs door to door, to get there, so really, a nice easy drive.

Even though it's so close to home, we've never been before.

It was soooo fun and relaxing. It was great to reconnect with Ben, I we haven't seen him in a few years. Ben and Brian have been friends since they were 9 years old, and around the time when we started dating, Ben & Brian lived together, and basically, Ben was present at every major and most minor events in our relationship. He was there for the deer story, and there with us in NYC when we got engaged, he's been up to Toronto multiple times to visit Brian & my family...we have a lot of great memories with Ben. For years, Ben was a wild and crazy mountain climber, climbing the highest and most treacherous mountains in the world, like Ama Dablam, Mt Vinson, Denali etc etc etc. He's climbed them all! He chose not to climb Everest in fact, as it is too commercialized, he feels, and also, although the highest, not the most difficult in his professional mountain climbing & guide opinion. Anyway, now he's married and getting domesticated...he's completed nursing school and is an RN. Although he mentioned going to volunteer as a medic on a mountain somewhere, so adventure is not completely out of his blood:-)

Ben's wife is Nicky, and joining us also on this vacation was Nicky's sister, and her husband and 2 children.

Lots of frisbee was played. Brooks held his own with the men

There are always pretty things at the beach to look at and hurt your foot on:-)

On Saturday the water was really really rough, due to the tropical storm that came through on Friday

"Osh" (short for ocean) lover!

Running in and out of the surf

My next project? A sign that says "You can shake the sand from your toes, but  it will never leave your soul" This describes my beach loving children to a tee. It makes me very happy that this is something that will always be part of their hearts, no matter where they end up.

A little sand crab in there

Treasure, found

balancing a light sabre on our walk

The house we rented was HUGE. It slept like 16 people or something, much more space than we needed, but the price was right! Divided by 3 families it was $190 for 2 nights, which is pretty great, for all you get! We had massive jetted tubs, steam showers, full kitchen and appliances. We ate all our meals on an incredible huge screened in porch, but there was also a dining room, and an eat in kitchen too! I believe the season is not quite in full swing, I bet in another 2 weeks the price will jump considerably.

Our rental house, from the front

Rental house from the side

Our front yard

Our back yard - through the screened porch:-) Some members of our group went swimming off  the dock, but we didn't

dinner? I don't like oysters (or clams), but Brian said they were the best he's ever had. The guys picked us up clams, oysters, rockfish and shrimp from a local fish vendor. We grilled everything up and had a DELICIOUS dinner.

the carnage

Our front lawn had it's own Assateague lighthouse replica

It's "call letters" are the red and white stripes - no two lighthouses are painted in the same manner. The Assateague light house is a popular one to replicate, and also, the one in Cape Hatteras  (that one is about 1.5 hrs from us)

We took a short hike to visit the famous Assateague Island light house

Recognize it? No, eh! It's been repaired and is about to get it's paint put back on, it should be done by August 1st, they said. They sure did a good job sand blasting it, it looked brand new! An interesting thing about this lighthouse, is how the shores have shifted since it was built in 1833, and made higher in 1860 - where we were standing to observe it, used to be in the ocean. Storms and such have changed the shoreline significantly over time, so much so, that this lighthouse now sits 5 miles outside of it's optimal range for being seen by ships.

Another cool thing about Chincoteague is all the shipwrecks. That area has always been full of shoals etc, and was very difficult to navigate, back in the day. There are hundreds of shipwrecks from the 1800's and many of the wreckage is still there, peeking up out of the water - looking something like a messy oddly placed beaver dam maybe? I didn't get a chance to snag a pic, but it was neat to see - Amazing that being there for soooo many years, there is anything left at all.

A note about the horses - we didn't see any wild ones this time, but we didn't take the boat tour which would have increased our chances. We did see some penned up - While the horses are wild, they control how many there are and auction some off each year etc. They also do capture them to provide them with shots, etc, but other than that, they really are wild horses! We saw LOTS of horses on our weekend - from the wild spanish pony family - but they were all in pens:-)

Beach houses. I love them. This house was our neighbour. I want to live here!!

A snapped a few more pics (that I will not bore you with) of houses similar in style to this one (swoon), and Kenna says to me "Why do you like houses that aren't even painted?!" LOL! I guess she's not a fan of the natural cedar shake:-)

This beauty was being built

This pretty house reminded me of a (huge) English cottage

Enjoying homemade ice cream at Island Creamery!

A fun time was had by all! Oh, I can't forget this guy:

On Sunday morning, people were fishing in the ocean, near us. They caught a Northern Puffer Fish, and the thing stressed out and ballooned up! A rare sight, I'm sure. (They threw him back)

Loki & Foi

The way he says Thor is a combo between Four and Foi - too cute. He is an avid "Abencher" fan:-)

Love and Toasters

I've been thinking lately, as the 10th anniversary of our wedding approaches...about things that last 10 years. Or things that should. Or things I kept that shouldn't. Weird? Not necessarily deep thoughts, but then, maybe...maybe they are.

I've lived in 3 places since getting married, and hung the same decor in all of them...until recently when I took down the wall hanging (a wedding gift). We bought an iron with Target gift cards (wedding gifts)...and just this week our new iron arrived. After almost 10 years of use (and multiple unfortunate droppings), the old iron just wasn't working anymore (spilling water out and such). My crock pot (another wedding gift, of course) has one of the outer handles broken off, but it still works fine, so I'm keeping it. I recently threw out a spaghetti server with all the little plastic "grabber things" broken off. Other items, like my kettle/hot pot, and my coffee maker, are still going strong, and somethings (like our toaster oven...we're on our 3rd one) broke a long time ago. I guess after 10 years, some things just need to go.

I guess in this "convenient" world in which we find ourselves, 10 years is a long time to last. Especially if you've been dropped, mishandled, not cleaned up and shined up properly or ignored. Things break if they aren't cared for. Or they break because they have been used. Or abused. Sometimes things break just because...no reason, really, other than carelessness, maybe.

So here is the tangent, bear with me,

"Life makes love look hard" That is quote from a Taylor Swift song (that I love). Does it? I've been wrestling with that line ever since I first heard it. Does life really make love look hard to pull off? With everything we have at our fingertips, love should be pretty easy to accomplish successfully. Because unlike all our things, it doesn't wear out when it's used. It's not an object, it's a living thing. It grows. But, like our things, it does (or can) "wear out" when it's abused and not tended to.

So maybe we ("we" being, people, in general, in the world) think of love as something we have? Something we own, like a toaster. It's great while it lasts, but eventually, we need a new one. Instead we should think of it as something we ARE and something that needs to be cared for, and grown. Not unlike a child, I suppose. They'll grow on their own, but they do need a little help (food, water & other nurturing). I don't know. I guess that is the deep part of it, right there. With all the knowledge we have at our disposal, it should be fairly easy to love, in theory. Unfortunately, dying to selfishness and pride are about the hardest things ever, I guess.

I suppose in this day and age (of high divorce rates and unhappy people all over the place), 10 years is a long time for love to last. I personally feel like it's been short. It's not been long enough. Love is a dance perfected over time, and we've not spent enough time at it, to have it perfectly down pat. Not that I think we're lacking at all in the journey, but when I look back over 10 years, I can see the easy progression. How things that used to be hard to do, are now succinctly on beat, in perfect synchronization - and come as naturally as breathing. You can't learn a reflex like that in 1 year, or even 5...10 years just tips the scales I think...

So I wonder how many other things I'll have gone through by the time we get to 20 years. I wonder if there will be any wedding gifts remaining? I'm sure there will be a few. It will be amazing to see how much bigger love has grown.

Oil Change...fun

Yesterday I got an oil change in the van. Normally/usually, Brian does this for us, but this time, due to it being overdue and an upcoming road trip - he didn't have time to fit it in. No problem, I can do it! Enter, Walmart. Here they do the oil change (synthetic price) for $49. Not too shabby at all. Additionally, it was about the only place I could think of to go with the kids and keep them entertained while waiting.

It took 45 minutes, and I did have a shopping list, since I didn't do my weekly shop on the weekend...but you know me. It has never taken me 45 mins to shop, ever. Keep up or get left behind, this could be a motto of sorts for me. I like to get it done, not peruse:-) So we filled the cart in about 15 mins, and I was trying to go slowly. Haha.

So we turned Walmart into a bit of an adventure land...we looked through all the toys, and I let them touch (and then put back) their fave things. I let them climb back over the diaper boxes to "hide" in the shelf. We tried to find products we have never seen before. I opened a bag of cookies and we ate some in the store while we waited as a snack on the go (I double checked my purse to make sure I had my wallet with me before opening!). Basically, we did everything we normally would never be allowed to do in a store, and it was really fun! The time passed quickly and we headed home with a happy break to the normal routine.

Can you see the boy hiding in this picture?

Sonny found an open shelf to hide in!

My shopping/waiting/oil change crew...