Celebrate! on a Dime!: Lovely Lighting

I helped a friend throw a going away party when he was accepted into graduate school. He didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but wanted to have a nice, cozy dinner party and asked me to help set the mood. I love the effect of lighting a pathway up to a party…it automatically sets the mood for an evening gathering…kind of like saying “Good times this way!” Or maybe I watched the Wizard of Oz one too many times growing up and have the idea of following the yellow brick road stuck in my psyche somewhere!

In any case…when you add light to the dark…something special happens.

I was in one of my favorite “everything-is-under-a-dollar” stores and had a ‘light’bulb idea. I bought several tall pillar candles. Then I went to the local craft store and found vellum paper. I taped the paper to the glass (making sure that the paper did not pass the lip of the glass)…and voila! A pretty lit driveway for under $2 a candle. They are long lasting and pretty sturdy, but you always want to make sure you have someone to supervise lit candles. You can also buy “flameless tea lights” and place them down in the glass instead of lighting the wick.

There are so many different types of cool paper now that make these candles fun and flexible to fit the theme of any celebration! They are great to put on your food tables and can even be used as centerpieces.