Homemade Holidays: Crock Pot Candles Growing up in my house, we always made our own holiday gifts. We were pretty poor, and I suppose it was our only option. But it was never presented to me like that (I didn’t even know what ‘poor’ was, really, and I had a stupendously fabulous childhood full of ‘thing finding’ and ‘government cheese’. But that’s another story.) The first holiday season that Damian and I spent together, I was a starving college student. Last year we made all our gifts together – our attempt at canning. Anyway, there I go reminiscing. How To Make Candles In A Crock Pot All you need is some wax, some wicks + wick bases, and some candle-holders. Optional additions include color (candle dye is available at the craft store) and smell. Once you’ve gathered all your supplies, set aside some time when you’ll be around the house for a couple of hours. 1) Spoon the pieces of wax into your candle holders and arrange them in the bottom of the crock pot. 2) 20-30 minutes later you can check back. 4) Stir it up!
Sixty Years Of Memories For my dad's 60th birthday last week, I wanted to do something really fun. My dad and I talk a lot about the past---nostalgia runs in our blood, I think---and we both love to reminisce. Inspired by Jordan Ferney's Postcard Birthday Poster, I started batting around an idea: what if I could get everyone from my dad's past to contribute a memory they had of him? What if I had all those people send their memories to me, and then I put each one into an envelope---sixty total, of course---and had him open them, one by one, on his birthday? That would be a lot of memories, right? So I wrote an email. Hello everyone! If you're receiving this email, you probably know that our dad, Patrick Burns, is turning 60 next month (much as he would hate us to be reminding everyone, I'm sure.) And this is where you come in! If you have a spare moment in the next few days, we would be so grateful if you'd jot down a favorite memory you have of our dad and put it in the post. Thank you so much again.