WFMW & Outdoor Wednesday: Candles in my Garden

Kristen has a new web site host for her blog with new buttons for her weekly posts, Works-for-Me WEDNESDAY, and a fresh new look...so be sure to hop on over and check out her great new design layout!  AND this week she is continuing with her great tips on organizing and maintaining her blog and I am really enjoying all her great ideas because it ties in with the e-course, Flying Lessons, that I'm taking right now with Kelly Rae Roberts:

Still room and time if you'd like to join in :}

Well today I want to talk about what Works-fo-Me in my garden and that is candles!  I was inspired last week when we were driving up to the mountains and during the four hour drive I brought a bunch of magazines to read and rip through! One of my favorite magazines to rip up...especially for the colors and quality of paper...not to mention their fantastic ads...is VERANDA!  It is a true delight for all of us Southern Ladies...I have been a subscriber now for over 15 years...so much eye candy!  So anyhow while DH was driving and I was perusing my Veranda magazine...I spotted this lovely ad:

 Circa Interiors & Antiques

In Charlotte, NC and Birmingham, AL...who knew!  The whole time I lived in Charlotte and I never saw this showroom...my bad and so sad :{

BUT take a look at the picture and check out how hey used a BENCH set on top of a huge picnic TABLE (the european kinda with class :) and used the bench as a CANDLE-OPERAS...now how cool is that :}  Throw some citronella candles inside the bunch and you are all set for an evening on the patio...bug free!  This version is so much easier to reach to light the candles than some of those chandeliers that they sell that hand from the ceiling and you have to stand on ladders to light and put-out the darn candles...lol

So this got me to thinking about candles in my garden...granted my table is too small to set a bench on top of...but it did inspire me to think about finding a solution for my tiny patio here at the Love Shack!

AND lo and behold...while we were taking a tour of the winery at the Biltmore Estate and checking out the wine shop...I stumbled across these...

 
I swear it was karma...I put a request out to the universe for candle holders and the universe answered me back with these cool wine bottle candle-operas!  The best part was the price...$10.00 for the taper holder and $13.00 for the votive holder...have a lot of tapers to use up and I thought I would use citronella votives for the mosquitoes; hence why I bought two different styles.  You provide the empty wine bottles...NOT a problem around here...I just filled them up with water for stability (you could use sand as well but I'm out of sand right now here at the Love Shack :).

Here is a photo of them all lite up the other night...cause I had to test them out...

Sorry if it is a little blurry...probably because of all that wine that I drank to get the empty bottles ;}

It is so cool that the wine bottles also have the red bands so that they coordinate with my table...believe me this was not intentional...thanks to Trader Joe's...great wine at an even greater price.  You can see my flowers peeking over the edges of the table here...along with my tomato plants...yep we already have green tomatoes...yeah!

  
See how the wax on these votives are dripping down...feels like I'm in Italy somewhere when sitting out here in the evening watching my wax drip and drinking my wine...

 
 This little guy has a great spot near all my plant pots...some garden statues are a good thang...

Oh yeah...before I forget...check out my great outdoor rug that I got for the patio...so nice on our feet here at the Love Shack...no more boring concrete...makes me very happy as well.

Since we get the opportunity to be outside so much here in the South then I think we should take every chance we can to make our outdoor rooms as comfortable as possible...be it candle-lite, rugs, plants and bug free!  So I'm also linking up today with Susan of, A Southern Daydreamer, blogspot for her 74th Outdoor Wednesday post so I can share my patio ideas.  Hope you all find some inspiration as well!

 74th Outdoor Wednesday

Fondly, Roberta
  
 

Comments

[Omar Faruq]

I liked these Skeleton candles
because they were a bit more decorative than the standard orange or cream color ones we set out every Halloween. To get more various candles. Visit: www.reasonablegifts.com

[June Houck]

Roberta, you are so talented! You are my Nate Berkus :)

[Bonnie]

Hi Roberta! I Just LOVE your sweet little patio! The turquoise chairs go so well with that red table cloth! And the candles are a lovely comfy, romantic touch! I laughed about your comment drinking all the wine to get to the empty bottles! Love that swirly rug too! It's so cool to see your progress as you decorate and very inspiring! Have a wonderful weekend!

[Lucy]

You are so much fun! Creative, creative! I love the South...

Outdoor living is the best-and those candle holders are a great idea! I have an old broken menora type candle holder that would be perfect for this! Thanks again:)

[Mitchell]

Very nice... Candle holders are great!