wedding, wedding, and more wedding

So, we've been a little busy planning a wedding and all that goes along with it. As well as the holidays and some new kittens.

Here are some pictures of the kittens when we got them. They were only 4 weeks old. And now they are 5 months old and every bit still kittens.

They love to cuddle.

And here is one of the big projects David and I have been working on lately. A craft project. Yes, it is true we are doing crafts. The whole idea came about when I was thinking about the colors of the wedding. Charcoal grey and chartreuse green. Green is my favorite color so it was only natural. There has been an unbelieveable amount of searching for the perfect linens, napkins, and therefore table decor... which leads us to this project. Wine bottle candles.

Basically everyone we know is contributing. Every week I am handed usually 20-25 bottles from friends, family, and co-workers. We are up to about 100 bottles. The process however is somewhat lengthy.

Before ever doing anything to the bottles, you have to get the labels off. At first the thought was to leave them completely intact and insert a wick and pour wax in from the top. No one understood me when I tried to explain it. But then my dear friend Kathy told me about her cool bottle cutter she had just gotten, and said I could maybe cut the tops off of them. So I got my own bottle cutter and did just that. So, we've been cutting tops off of all these wine bottles. The bottle cutter only scores the bottle. The cutting actually happens when you hold the score over a flame or heat source until pretty hot, and then immediately dunk the bottle into ice water. The pressure makes the cut go all the way through and there you go.

But then youre not done. The cut leaves a really sharp edge that we needed to make round. So we went to David's dad's shop and used the belt sander to grind down the edges. But then the edges are kind of white because of the grind into the glass.

And instead of tediously spending time "polishing" the bottle edge, my dad had a GRAND idea. Just dip the edge in polyurethane to seal the chalky finish and it would be nice and glossy like the side of the bottle. So that's what we did.

So here are the bottles ready for the actual candle part. Btw... all green, no clear ;)

We hot glued the wicks to the bottom.

Then melted the wax. Little by little we will get through the 80 lbs I ordered...

And here is the final product.

We still have a lot to go, but its fun and I know it will be pretty and neat at our wedding to have something that we actually made.

So for now, thats whats been going on. And, although its a joyful season with lots of family time, I am really ready for a new year and to clean my head and home of clutter!