Months and months ago I searched high and low for yellow votive candle holders. Did I find them? No. I looked everywhere. I found amber glass votives, and white glass votives with yellow candles. To be fair, I did find the votive holders I wanted, but they were in Australia. The cost, coupled with the shipping, was just too much.
No biggie, I thought, I will make the candles I want.
In order of appearance: candle #1 is what I wanted the votives to look like (nice and bright, but frosted for a soft glow); 2 is half acrylic paint (disaster), half yellow glass paint (streaky); 3 is frosted, then painted with yellow glass paint (not frosted enough); 4 is layers of torn tissue paper; 5 is a single layer of tissue paper; 6 is one company's definition of a "yellow" glass votive. And yes, that is our Wii Fit Balance Board serving as a modeling platform--as you can see, it gets used a lot.
Ultimately the winner of the day was the votive covered in a single layer of tissue paper. I ordered 144 candles from www.candles4less.com, which had great prices but lackluster customer service. The votive candles (I ordered two sets of 72 votive holders that came with candles) didn't fit all the way down inside the holders. I called to tell them this, and was told, basically "those are the only ones we have right now, so deal with it or send them back," and "you just have to shove them down into the bottom and the candles will fit." I had to put my entire weight on the candle to shoehorn it into the bottom of these votive holders that came with the candles I ordered. Mr. Goodlaff and I did this the other night, and it was painful. Not cool.
I left the project contents sitting in our dining room for months, and last week, called in Mama Goodlaff and BM TCollins in for reinforcements. Bribing them with the promise of pizza and wine, I enticed them into spending the evening in a glue-filled haze, and we knocked out 120 candles in about three hours.
"Oh, ha! You're not Bridezilla, Miss Goodlaff, honest! (How many more hours of tissue paper torture do we have left?)"
When all was said and done, we had done ten dozen candles, and my minions Mama Goodlaff and TCollins have even agreed to come back this week to help with more crafty Goodlaff wedding projects (pinwheel escort cards and Kabuki streamers).
Suckers.
Okay, I really am kidding. We all had a great time, and it was fun to be able to get some of these projects out of the way while enjoying decent wine, excellent pizza, and the complexity that is shuffle on my iPod (Broadway musicals, indie rock, Billboard top 100 from the last 50 years, High School Musical).
I can't wait for this week's crafty session!
Did you (or do you plan to) call in reinforcements for your wedding day projects?
i love that you called them your minions. that made me laugh. but the candle votives look great! they did a good job :)
ReplyDeletethose look great! great idea!
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