Ice Candle Part Deux

I know I've posted about my ice candle before but the directions were shabby at best and I thought to take pictures when I made it this last time.

Start with two containers, the larger one is about 2 gallons, if  I had to guess.  I think it was from GFS Marketplace and had potato salad or something similar.  The other container is about 48 ounces.  I have also used the metal insert from my ice cream maker as the middle.  If it is taller than your big container, that is fine...it just has to be smaller in diameter.

Start by filling your larger container with water.  Only fill it about 1/3-1/2 at first. 

 

 Put your smaller container in the middle and put something inside the small container to weight it down.  Your small container will probably shift off to the side if you don't weigh it down.  

You can see in this picture we chose to use a bag of split peas.  I should share with you that if you choose peas or beans of any sort and then accidentally drop your ice candle while it's in the freezer, there is a good chance your bag will crash and break and the bottom of your chest freezer will be covered in dried peas.  

Now you will need something to keep your middle container from popping up.  Mr. Steady used lots and lots of tape.  If your large container has a lid - that is the best.  After I made this I remembered I still had the lid.  Oops.

 

Now, just freeze until it's frozen solid.  When you're ready to use, add some warm water to the middle container to loosen it.  Add a candle in a container (I like to use a pillar candle in a canning jar) and set outside on your front porch.

If the weather is cold enough and your ice candle is still in good condition and pretty solid, you can bring it back inside each night and just refreeze.  I used this one four different times.  This really impressed my friend who saw it on several occasions but didn't realize I had taken it inside each time and stored it in the freezer between times :o) 

I am going to keep my eyes open for containers and maybe do a trio of smaller containers soon.

McDonald's at Midnight

Mr. Steady and The Reader both love to play the Monopoly game at McDonald's.  The Reader has been waiting for the new game to start since mid-summer.  So when he asked Mr. Steady to wake him up at midnight to take him to McDonald's because he wanted to be "among the first to play" we giggled.  But then we thought, "why not?"  It's fun to yes to odd requests sometimes.

Mr. Steady woke The Reader up at midnight....twice.  He is such a hard sleeper!  They headed to the store closest to us but they weren't handing out pieces yet.  So Mr. Steady went to find another store that was open!  I would have said "sorry, Charlie" and headed home!

 The lobby was closed so he posed for a picture outside the window - ha!

 How fun to go to McDonald's in your pajamas!

 He looks pretty pleased - not sure if it's because of the pieces he got or his hash brown & OJ!

Hello Monday!

Deborah has been doing "Hello Monday" posts for quite some time and her week always seems so full and intentional compared to mine.  I had a very fun and full week last week so I decided to jump on board.  I actually remembered to pull out the camera and document some things as well!

Hello long weekend trip!  We visited Sauder Village in Northern Ohio last weekend.  It started out to be a one night trip, then slowly morphed into a three-night trip, which utterly blessed our socks off.  More in depth post on this to come.

 Goodbye to old paint in the baby's room.  Mr. Steady and his friend put a fresh new coat of aqua on the walls.  Full reveal of the nursery will come when it's complete, which may or may not come prior to her arrival!

 Hello to fluffing up old things and making them new.

 Hello to Girls' Night In!  Mr. Steady and I started meeting with several other couples to pray & share our lives about 2 years ago.  These ladies have become so precious to me and even though we haven't met as couples lately, most of our husbands get together weekly and us girls try to get together once a month or so.  We had a healthy {cough, cough} dinner of pizza, chips, pop and Ho-Ho Cake.  Luckily, C brought fresh pears so we could pretend it was a well-rounded meal :o).  Then we watched October Baby, which is a must see, if you haven't yet seen it.

 Hello to science projects right outside our window.  If you hadn't gathered by the blog name, we live in town.  Hawks aren't something we see around here.  I would never have noticed him sitting there, outside my kitchen window, devouring a squirrel, if my neighbors, who go for twice daily walks hadn't walked soooo slowly, soooo apprehensively past him.  He didn't flinch as they walked by.  Then he waited for a while to make sure the coast was clear and had himself a tidy little breakfast.

No pictures of these last events but hello to finding out baby girl is head down and not in some other position as I feared - praise the Lord for hours spent in the pool trying to get her to flip!

Hello to date night, we haven't seen you in such a long time and it will likely be a long time until you visit us again.  That is okay because we make time to be together and laugh and play together as often as we can but there is something special about a quiet meal with adult food and conversation.

Hello to family reunions!  So fun to see people you haven't seen in a year, especially when you have news they haven't heard!  News used to travel fast in my family but it seems several didn't know we are adding to our family, Lord willing!

Hello to comments being turned back on.  Several of you noticed I had turned the comments off on my blog.  They should be back on now.  I appreciate your comments and although I don't respond very often, I do read each and every one!

Goodbye Summer!  We officially bid adieu to summer and I, for one, couldn't be happier.  I happen to adore fall to begin with, and the promise of meeting my daughter is the sweetest reason I could think of to say hello to autumn!

What did you find yourself greeting hello or wishing farewell to last week?  What does this week hold in store for you?

My Camera is Like a Box of Chocolates

The Entertainer likes to borrow my camera and I never know what I'll find when I plug the memory card in.  And now, for your viewing pleasure - from the vantage point of The Entertainer.

Tea Party

Tea parties are a pretty favorite thing to do around here.  Sadly, we don't have them with much regularity anymore, and despite my best intentions, my intentionality has been waning significantly lately. 

The Reader had asked for a tea party several times and I kept putting him off, mostly because I was {and still am, and I'm also convinced I forever more will be} deep in the thick of decluttering and nesting.  I would be scrubbing the crevices of the kitchen counter with a q-tip, ammonia sitting in the oven every time he would ask.  There was always something on the dining room table or a project I was in the middle of.

Soon however, my pregnancy hormones combined with the deep desire to get some extras cleaned out of the fridge and a craving for lemon (a very common craving during this pregnancy) found a stray jar of lemon curd and, much like giving a moose a muffin, if you've got lemon curd, you need to bake some scones to go with it.  If you've got the makings for Mock Devonshire cream in your fridge, all the better (next time I've halve the recipe as now I've a stray container of Mock Devonshire cream and I loathe stray containers of anything in my fridge).

I made a quick trip to our favorite bakery where I spent $4.00, pulled from the hutch some glass dishes and my grandmother's vintage hankies to use as napkins.  I clipped a few flowers from the yard and set the table for an impromptu, and yet still very overdue, tea party.  It was simply too hot for a pot of hot tea so I made iced and no one complained. 

Why do I wait so long to do special things like this?  Why does it seem like a huge deal in my head but really, it wasn't any more work than a normal afternoon snack.  It did create a few more dishes but they were dishwasher safe so who cares?

What have you done to make something special for your children & family lately?

Candy Bar Bouquets

I mentioned I'm a little behind in posting things since the, you know....camera misplacement thing-y.  For Valentine's Day the boys and I decided to replicate an idea we spotted in the grocery store - candy bar bouquets.  These puppies sell for over $15.00!  We made all three of ours for less than that.  One for Mr. Steady, one for my dad, and one for his wife.

 I picked up simple glass vases at the Dollar Tree, hot glued candy bars onto wooden skewers, filled the vase with mini versions of each candy, topped that with tissue paper fluffs, and then inserted the skewered candy bars.

 Bada-bing, bada-boom.....Happy Valentine's Day!  Or Happy Birthday!  Or Happy I-Was-Just-Thinking-of-You day!

Swagbucks

Are you using SwagBucks yet? I had heard Crystal talk about it but when Kristen said she had enough to pay for Christmas 2010 I just had to check it out.

Swagbucks is a search engine. Every once in a while you are rewarded with Swagbucks that you can then trade in for gift cards such as Amazon.com, Target, Barnes & Noble and many more. I signed up about a week ago and I already have 248 points. Mr. Steady signed up the day after I did and he has 175 points

The easiest way to use Swagbucks is to download the toolbar. You get 2 points every day just for signing in! And if you use Facebook I'm told there are all kinds of free codes all over the place.

So if you are like me and Google is go-to search engine, try Swagbucks! Oh yes, and tell them that I sent you (CPTowngirl) so I can get my referral points! I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't tell you that referring others is the best way to earn points. Because every time your friends win Swagbucks through searches, you win the same number of points. So if you have a blog make sure your readers use your referral code, post your referral code on Facebook and tell your grandma to stop Googling and start using Swagbucks!

April Fool's Dinner

I have never done anything special for April Fool's Day but I've always wanted to. I saw this idea in a Family Fun magazine some years back. I baked meatloaf in cupcake papers and topped with mashed potatoes. A sprinkle of poppy seeds completed the look. When the boys came to the table I told them we were having cupcakes for supper! They knew it was a joke but immediately went to the kitchen to see what else there was waiting for them. When they found nothing they were quite confused. It wasn't until they cut into it that they realized what it was.

Did you know April Fool's day is called such because in the 1500's the first day of the new year was changed from April 1 to January 1? Because news traveled so slowly in those days many people still celebrated April 1 as the new year. People began to make fun of them and call them "fools" for being behind the times. And thus the name stuck.

Psalm 14:1 says that "the fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'" Don't be a fool, if you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart, to save you from your sins, do it today.

The Little Things

Monica challenged us a while ago to make the ordinary extraordinary. Though she did so with very few words I need this challenge often. I get so caught up in the busy-ness of life I forget to put the special touches on things. Transferring the milk to a pitcher, using pretty napkins "just because", taking a warm muffin and a mocha to a friend are all ways we can remind our loved ones just how much we love them.

I took her up on the challenge while putting fresh sheets on the boys' beds. I turned down their beds, put out a fresh pair of pajamas and added a little bedtime treat. Typically they "make" their beds, get their own jammies out of the drawer, and of course don't have chocolate cookies right before bed. It won't hurt them one time to have a treat after they've brushed their teeth. They ate their treat while listening to their bedtime story. They were quite pleased. I also like to leave them little notes of praise on their pillows from time to time.

So now I am passing this challenge on to you. As we close out on the gray days of winter and transition into the longer, warmer days of spring, what can you do to make the ordinary into something extraordinary? Think of your family, friends, even strangers. Leave a comment or blog about it and let me know!