Candelabras

I bought these two wrought iron candelabras a few years ago-- $7.00 for the pair. I stuck them in my backyard-- and that is as far as I got with that project. I decided to finally make some candles for them.

 I was lucky to find some 1/2" pvc pipe in my garage that fit perfectly in the candle sockets of the candelabras. I didn't feel like digging around looking for a hand saw to cut the pipe-- so I tried my hand at using some pruning shears and luckily it cut the plastic pipe easily.
I roughly cut some chipboard circles to cover one end of the opening of each pvc pipe. I poked a hole in the center of each piece of cardboard and pulled through a piece of thick floss generally used for plastic canvas to act as each candles wick.

After hot gluing the chipboard onto the pvc pipe, I then squirted a little bit of hot glue down the sides of each candle to mimic the look of melted candle wax.

Next, I hot glued each pvc pipe temporarily to some cardboard so I could spray paint them easily without them falling over.
A little bit of paint transforms them quickly into candles...

Once the white spray paint had dried, I simply pulled each one off of the cardboard and added some watered down brown paint to each candlestick to make them look old. I left the tops of each candle white, I think it adds to the "realness" of the look of the candles.

I added a plastic skull, which I spray painted black, to the tops of both candelabras. Ah, much better~

I am almost ready to reveal my lagoon makeover--- I'm so excited to share how super-cute it turned out!
big hugs,

Recent Treasures...

Is it just me, or are treasures getting far and few between? All of this loot below has taken me weeks to amass... 

I prefer to buy aluminum trays over silver plated trays as they don't get rusty out in my yard. That... and it drives my friends batty that I have such fabulous stuff just laying around in the yard. The trays were only $1.00...

 I scored on this small box of new velvet draw string bags. The entire box was only $1.00. I've got an idea of what I want to use these bags for when I find some free time to get working on it.

 I always buy the little booze jugs when I see them, I love how they look tucked in amongst my plants.

 I've always wanted one of these skeleton hands that crawls along a table... A very good investment for only a dollar. It has a sensor on it so it will activate randomly if someone passes by it. I am going to add a bling-ring to one of the fingers and make the fabric look a little more like the arm once belonged to a pirate. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh~

 I bought a box of hawaiian decorations for $5.00.

 I pulled off the seashells from the boards which is the main reason I bought the box. I want to use the little plaques as sign posts with arrows pointing to different locations in the yard. Not that this is necessary, but I think it will look cute. *wink*

I am needing to pull off the old hot glue from the seashells. Most of it will pull off easily with some needle nosed pliers... the coral is pretty clean already and looks so pretty in this silver bowl. :-)

I also bought these two very tall iron what-cha-ma-call-its. With the lids in place, they measure in at 28" tall. Kinda pricey at $10 each-- but when you want something, you've got to have it!

 I bought them thinking I would load them up with seashells... but when I got them home I decided to add some moss and some pirate items to the containers. Right now I've got a compass, a small knife and an old padlock along with some small skulls in one of them.

 I am still needing a lot more odds and ends to fill them both up nicely. I'll probably add things that I don't want exposed to the elements as I'm planning on keeping these indoors. Over time I am sure it will all come together. It was inevitable that the pirate theme would work its way inside right?

Lastly, a photo of my little baby, Akira. My-oh-my is she getting big FAST. There were far better photos of her I could have posted... but, she was surrounded by a bazillion toys and pieces of bark, random rocks--- well you get the idea. Don't let that look of obedience and calm fool you. She is a hyper, jumping, spinning, never-ever seems to get tired- puppy.
With that being said, she is also pretty darn smart, she doesn't pull apart my pirate decor, and is already potty trained (hooray!) and she is beautiful :-) Now... if I could only get her not to embarrass the heck out of me at our puppy training class all would be right with the world. *sigh*
big hugs,