Another Version of a Scarf Beach Coverup

Here is another easy method for making a beach coverup from two scarves. I bought two 36 inch square scarves online for $2.30 apiece. I cut one corner off of each on the diagonal at a place that worked with the print, about 3 inches from the corner. I sewed these cut raw edges into a 1/2 inch casing, and threaded a 25 inch tube I'd sewn from lining fabric through the casings. I then sewed the two "side" seams of the adjacent edges, leaving an opening for my arms (about 20 inches away from the far corners that now hang at the bottom of the "side seams"). It's easy to pull on over my head.

Here we are at the beach in Montego Bay, Jamaica wearing them:

Another one for my sister-in-law:

The Craft Fair- Remind me not to do this again

There is an annual craft fair at my place of employment, and you can sign up for free. I had only been employed there for a couple of months when they were soliciting for participants, so I signed up with the thought that it would help me meet people. Over the last year, I'd built up a stock of container candles, and I thought I could sell them without a lot of effort. I wanted something else to sell (smaller, inexpensive), so I did some brainstorming (and Pinterest browsing) and came up with cork ornaments.

I bought supplies for the cork ornaments at craft and hardware stores, plus gift bags and tissue paper at the dollar store. Expenses incurred: $29.09, plus the supplies for the candles I'd previously made, about $3 per candle. I decided to sell the candles for $15 for average-sized and $20 for a few very large ones. I charged $5 for the ornaments.

I packed and brought 19 candles, plus 22 cork ornaments.

The craft fair ran for 5 hours. There were about 15 other tables and there was a good amount of traffic through the place, but none of us really sold anything. The jam and jelly lady did OK and there was a jewelry table that made some sales, but the rest of us were pretty bored. It didn't seem to help that my candles are unscented- everyone immediately picked them up and sniffed them. Ultimately I sold 5 candles and one ornament, and three of these sales were from people I knew well and probably felt compelled to buy something. This confirms what I've long observed- people don't really buy much at these things (I know I don't). Total revenue: $90, margin $45. A back-of-the-envelope accounting of my time spent (making the 5 candles only- not the 19, making the ornaments, required errands, setup and sitting at the fair) is about 15 hours, or about $3 per hour. I'll be keeping my day job. At the end, I had to pack everything up (along with all the other sorry vendor souls) and haul it out of there. I guess I have a lot of cork ornaments now. At least I didn't make something perishable. Chalk this one up to a failed experiment, one I don't intend to repeat.

Soy Wax Container Candles in Cut Bottles

I've made dozens of these candles over the last year of so. They're very clean-burning, so they're great to light on our long winter nights, and I love reusing bottles with fun labels- I'm at the point now in which I'll buy wine based on a fun label more than the wine itself.

The first challenge was figuring out a way to reliably cut bottles. I looked at many methods described on the Great Wide Web, and decided to try this bottle cutter first:

It scores a fine line around a bottle, and then you use alternate dipping or pouring of hot and cold water to break the bottle. My clean-break percentage with this method was pretty abysmal, maybe 30-40%. I struggled with many variations on the theme before abandoning this method as just plain unreliable and frustrating.

It seems like the gold standard method is a wet tile table saw, a large free-standing piece of equipment that needs a constant source of water. There are some tool rental places in town where I might be able to try this for $$, but this was far more trouble than I was looking for.

I learned some people cut glass with a Dremel with a diamond blade, so I decided to spring the $100 for a Dremel and optional blades, reasoning that it could come in handy for other household tasks.

It took me a while to figure this one out, too. You have to mark the bottle carefully all the way around at the desired cut point with a sharpie marker, then cut the bottle under a small stream of running water (trying to keep as much water off the bottle label and the Dremel body as you can). Where the blade is cutting the glass it gets red hot, so the water is needed to cool and lubricate the cutting. I usually do this in the laundry sink. You have to change the blades periodically since they get dull fast. Off course, you have to be very careful with this and use proper eye protection. I use a mask, too, since breathing glass dust is a health risk. Here I am with a friend getting ready to cutting bottles (for you safety nuts out there, I put my eye protection on after we took the picture):

 Even this method is not entirely reliable, and the cut surface is uneven. After cutting, I sand the edges with a series of wet sandpaper in diminishing roughness.

Once you have some cut bottles, the candle-making can begin. I use soy wax flakes I get from Amazon in 10 lb bags for around $25 or $30:

I've done just a little experimentation with scents, but really not much. Good quality scents are expensive, and unscented are much cleaner- I like to burn these in the kitchen and other places without having them stink up the place. I've used wick and metal tabs that I buy from a craft store based on the diameter of the container I'll be using. At some point, I might look into higher-quality wick (many of the candles have some tunneling), but this works fine enough for now:

The wax takes a pretty long time to melt, at least 30 minutes. I fill my pour pot with wax flakes, then place it in a big pot with simmering water.

You have to weigh down the pour pot (I use a bacon press) because the wax is lighter than the water it's displacing, and the pot wants to float up.

When the wax begins to melt it shrinks and you have to add additional flakes several times.
In the meantime, I prepare the bottles with wicks. Cut the wick so that it is the height of the bottle plus a couple of inches. Thread the wick through a tab (by the way- save your tabs from spent candles- they can easily be reused). I use a little round of masking tape to secure the tab to the bottle bottom. I've tried a glue gun in the past, and the glue seemed to melt with the hot wax and the tabs floated off the bottoms of the candles. I thread the wick through a disassembled cheap writing pen to press the tab down to the bottom of the container:

Then I use wooden skewers that I've twist-tied together to hold the wick up in the center of the container. When the wicks are ready, heat your containers in the oven at about 175F for a while- you want to pour your wax into hot containers, or the wax can unevenly adhere to the glass and have the appearance of "wet spots." Once your wax is melted to the right temperature (look this up based on the wax you buy), you can pour it into your containers. Wax can drip, so do this on newspapers.

It's hard to estimate how many candles you can get out of melted pot of wax, since container volume can vary quite a bit. I find it generally takes about 0.75-1 lb of wax per 4" container and I can fill about 6 containers (2 small, 2 medium and 2 larger or 6 typical cut wine bottles) from a full melted pot. With the wax about $2.40 per pound, most of the candles contain about $2-3 of wax. Do not move the poured candles in any way until they cure- this takes at least several hours. Once they are cool and cured, trim the wicks with a small scissors and you're ready to go!

The final step is to enjoy the cozy atmosphere these bring on long nights.

Running Tutu

For some inexplicable reason, I wanted a running tutu. I had a 10K race coming up, so I decided to make one. I searched the web, and there are two major variants- one version involved long piece of tulle gathered into a skirt, and the other version used numerous strips of narrow (4-6") tulle tied to a waistband. While the narrow strips version was designed so no sewing was required, it looked like it could quickly become a tangled nightmare. I opted for the sewn gathered version.

I wanted to make a maroon and gold tutu, the school colors for my alma mater, the U of M, since we also go to sporting events there and I could envision wearing it to some of those, as well.

I found both maroon and gold tulle at Joann Fabrics for just $0.79 per yard, and I bought 5 yards of each (60" wide), for a total of about $8 (this could make two tutus, based on how I cut it). I had some 1 1/4" wide ribbon for the waistband at home. I cut both pieces of tulle down the middle lengthwise, for pieces 30" wide by 5 yards, then folded them lengthwise, and sewed a gathering stitch along the fold. I then attached the gathered tulle to the ribbon, sewing along the folded edge of tulle, the maroon just on top of the gold. The 5 yards makes for a very full tutu. I could probably have done well with 4 yards.

I wore the tutu to my 10K race, the Chocoholic Frolic:

I also wore it to a MN Gopher football game, with friends, over my winter coat. The game was SO COLD, in true Minnesota fashion, that you can barely see it below our blanket:

I wore it for my last leg of the 2019 Ragnar WI Trail:

License Plate Birdhouses

I love the look of old Minnesota license plates, and I didn't want to toss them after driving around with them for so many years, so I decided to use them to make birdhouse roofs. I bought inexpensive wooden bird houses at the local craft store (about $7 each) and painted them. I marked the center of the license plate on the back with a marker, then placed it back-side-up on the floor and placed a 2X4 board so the board's edge was at the center mark. I stood on the board, and lifted up the edge of the license plate to get a good clean bend. I made a wire loop to go under the roof, then attached the roof to the birdhouse with screws.

How to facilitate a strategic planning session for a volunteer committee

I'm the Chair of the Climate/Green Committee at church, and I recently facilitated a strategic planning session for next year. Here is the agenda I prepared for it:

The session went well. Over the course of not quite 2 hours, a group of 7 people generated 60 ideas (some duplicate ideas). We grouped them into common categories and voted on the best ideas. Each participant got 5 voting stickers, and we voted on the best ideas, a total of 16 ideas received votes, but only 2 ideas received 5 votes or more, so we're going to start working on those ideas first.

Lake Superior Rock Candle Holders

I saw a picture of some tea light candle holders carved out of lake rocks, and they were pretty expensive for a rock. I thought I would try to make my own.

I measured a standard tea light candle, then bought a set of 10 inexpensive (about $12) cylindrical “diamond-tipped” drill bits online that had at least one drill bit the size I needed for the final hole size for the candle, plus smaller bits to clear out all of the rock from the hole. I ended up using four of the bits- the size 40 mm, 34 mm, 20 mm and 13 mm.

When we were visiting Lake Superior in Duluth, I pressed my family into helping me find a few fairly flat rocks, about 4 inches in diameter or so.

This drilling takes longer than you think, so plan some time. I found that the red rocks are softer and faster to drill than the gray ones. It goes without saying that safety is paramount. I used a vise to hold the rock, so my hand was never near the drill bit, and safety googles. I also took care not to have the body of the drill get wet.

To drill rock, you need to keep it and the drill bit area very wet, preferably under a small stream of water. My first time, I did it out on our front stoop with the hose, but I found it easier the second time to try it in the laundry sink with a small stream of water. I used the old Rockwell drill that my husband inherited from his grandfather, it's likely to be about 45-50 years old but not only is it still ticking, it's a lot better than the weak battery-powered drills which seem to be the only kind sold now.

Secure the rock in the vise, get your small stream of water going and start drilling, holding the vise to keep things steady. Don’t use a lot of pressure down on the drill. Start with the largest bit, then gradually keep changing the bits smaller and smaller and grind out bits of rock from the hole. 

Each rock seems to take about 20 min or so of grinding away. Afterwards, wash your drill bits well and put a light layer of oil on them to keep them from rusting.

Here are the final results:

Here are the three I made a few months earlier: