Amusing MJ

So I mentioned here that my brother got married last weekend and that it would take me a few days to recover… what I didn’t expect was it taking 4 days for my computer to recover since I accidentally left my computer charger in Waco at the hotel.  3 days later and one expensive overnight (that wasn’t ACTUALLY mailed the right day) shipping my computer is back in action, which means… I’m back to regularly scheduled posts!

I did a couple of DIY things to help my now sister in law for the wedding… I mean what good is it having a blogger in the family if you can’t put her to work!!!?  And since it really is what I love to do, I happily obliged!  Remember a little while ago when I showed you these pillar candle holders?

At the same time I made those, I made a few long ones to put votives in.  I would have shared those with you all, but they made a HUGE mess because the wax dripped all over the place (I guess we could have put tea lights in them, but then you wouldn’t have been able to see the flame very well).  BUT the idea stuck with my brother and sister-in-law, so when they were planning their wedding they wanted to light candles to represent all the grandparents and aunts/uncles, etc who had passed on.  Counting the great aunts and uncles that Becky was close to and both of my grandfathers, they had a total of 10 candles they wanted to light.  So they called me up to see if I could make one of those with 10 slots for candles.

So I decided to imrove on version 1.0 and add glass votive holders for the candles so that they wouldn’t drip candle wax everywhere (a fact I am sure the church where the wedding was located was grateful for… especially since their altar is carpeted).  I found these guys at Pier1 for $1 each and they were perfect: the bases were just under 2″ and went straight up and down.

The rest was simple, I got a cedar 4″x4″ (it didn’t really have to be cedar, but that’s what my Home Depot carries in untreated 4x4s) and a 2″ hole saw drill bit.  (I found it with the drills and drill bits for around $15… but it can definitely be used again!)

We measured each out to have about a 1″ gap between the 2″ holes and marked their centers (the drill bit has a handy point in the middle of the circle to help you drill exactly where you want to go)… Isn’t my assistant lovely?  He loves being my model since I am incapable of drilling something and photographing it at the same time.

And very quickly we had 10 holes drilled.  For ease and quickness we drilled until the top of the hole saw was fairly level with the top of the board.

Once the holes were drilled we cut off the end with a circular saw and prepped it for staining.  (i.e. we sanded it with an orbital sander at 80 grit and 150 grit) If you want more tips on staining, I posted about it when we did our shelves here.

And that was it… easy as 1,2,3…10.

They want to keep it in their house for decoration now that the wedding is over, so I took a few pictures of it in their living room.

I was standing up with the bride, so I didn’t get any pictures of them lighting it, but when the photographer gets some back I’ll try to update this page with a picture of it in action!

Stay tuned I have a few more posts about their wedding coming up!