Wicky Wicky

I worked on a little project this week that I thought I would share with you all.  You see, there are tons of Pinterest projects out there that you can do with wine bottles.  I think/thought so many of those craft projects are/were fun, so I started saving empty wine bottles as I came across them/emptied them.  After months of saving the empty glass bottles, I now have a whole box full and I've totally lost my motivation to do these wine bottle crafts.  Not that these projects aren't interesting and creative, but there are only so many projects you can do with wine bottles before your house starts to look like a wine cellar.  As such, I'm looking to get rid of all these glass bottles somewhere.  Of course, I can recycle them, but surely someone out there needs them for something!  The moment I recycle them, someone will need them!

At any rate, I decided I would do this one small project since I was home and had all the supplies on hand.  Sorry to disappoint you guys, but the ambitious wine bottle projects will probably never materialize.  This little project is all you're probably gonna get!

HERE is an example of the wine bottle oil lamp I used as my inspiration.  If you look round for pictures, keep in mind that you don't have to use a wine bottle.  Some people out there are using different sizes and shapes.  Depending on your wick size and where you want to use the oil lamp, a different shape might work better for you.

The supplies you will need (at least this is what I used):

• Empty clean wine bottle - it's debatable about whether or not to take off the label.  I left the label on because, well, those things are hard to remove.  Plus, I liked the label.  It reminded me of a visit we recently had with our friend, Jenn!
• 6 inch wick - I went with the thick version which was 6 inches long.  6 inches is barely long enough but you can find these wicks at walmart.  
• Washers - I left this part up to Jordan and he used 2 different sized washers.  We used 1 larger washer that wouldn't fall into the wine bottle and a smaller washer that actually held the wick. You want the wick to barely fit through the center of the small washer hole.  It needs to be a tight fit (#twss)
• Marbles - this was my own addition because I'm concerned about the wine bottle tipping over.  The marbles will help weigh it down.  I used clear decorative marbles but you could use small stones if you prefer that look.  The marbles also use up more volume so you don't need quite so much teak oil.
• Teaky torch oil - also found this at walmart.  You don't need a lot, but the wick needs to touch the oil.

Top Left: Double washer duty.  

Bottom Left: These are the marbles I used.

Top Right and Bottom Right: The wick.  You can find these in the camping or candle section of a hardware store.

I probably don't need to describe how to put this together; it's pretty self explanatory.  I did, however, learn a few things that might help the average crafter.

1. Make sure you allow enough time for the wick to soak up teaky oil.  Don't worry, it will soak in, but it might take a half hour.
2. Make sure you wash you hands well.  It's a bad idea to have teaky oil on your hands.
3. Use a funnel to get the oil inside the wine bottle.  You do not want to get any oil on the wine label because it will be there forever.  I got lucky with this one and the label is still clean and pretty.
4. Don't blow it out in the house.  It smokes a LOT!  We had to take it outside pretty quickly after blowing it out.
5. Now that I have the finished wine bottle oil lamp, I need Jordan to help me mount it on a board like this!

Top Left: The flame.  We don't need quite so much wick next time....lol.

Right: the bottle looks quite pretty with the light behind it!  The marbles add a nice accent.

Bottom Left: smoke!  Like I said, don't blow it out inside the house!

This week we also had 4 year wedding anniversary!  Jordan and I both took a little time off work to hang out with each other and get a few things done around the house (don't we sound old?).  When I got home on Wednesday evening, Jordan had a single long stem rose to surprise me!  It was perfectly timed because Wednesday I'd had a hard day at work and this was the most perfect rose ever!  I'm not sure how they make them bloom so big but the color was a perfect blend of romantic red and friendly yellow! :)

Later that evening, I got up to get something from the kitchen and when I walked back into the bedroom, Jordan had a dozen red roses waiting for me!  That stinker must have hidden the roses somewhere in the house!  It was a lovely surprise and we really enjoyed the evening together.  Jordan is my best friend and is such a perfect partner in life!  Love him so much!

Here are a few pictures of my flowers.  I've been moving them from one room to another so I can constantly enjoy them!

That evening we also made homemade ice cream!  We don't use our ice cream maker much in the winter months but it is a lot of fun!  It takes me about 5 minutes to mix up all the ingredients and then about 25 minutes for the ice cream maker to do it's job.  You can make any kind of ice cream you want, but we usually stick to plain vanilla.  For one thing, vanilla is easy to make but it is also a good foundation to add all kinds of goodies after the fact.  We can add cookies or fruit and it all goes with vanilla.

Ice cream pictures!

After ice cream, it was time for some much needed rest.  These little pups have been so fun to have around and they are hilariously competitive!  They are always lobbying for attention and trying to out-do each other.

Gotta love these little mugs!  I think they understand the word "bedtime" because they leap onto the bed and joyfully get comfortable rooting around for space.  Love these little stinkers.

Hope you all had a great week!