Candlelight Aura and a Candle Giveaway

How far that little candle throws its beams!  So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

~Shakespeare~

Oh, the aura, the romance and the warmth that candlelight evokes within.  I burn candles often.  I love company of flickering light or a steady, warm glow and the understated elegance that candles bring to every setting.  

 This week I'm taking you on a tour of some tablescapes past and showing a variety of the candles I've worked into them.

I always use Zest candles in my tablescapes so I'm especially excited to share a giveaway with you all.  

 For this tablescape of teal and brown transferware, I chose to use an antique wastebowl to hold a floating candle.

In a more rustic setting, a small glass jar holds wood chips and a tealight candle nestled down between them.  

Here, tealight candles are resting on an antique transferware saucer and inside a small, red wine glass.  I like using unexpected objects as candle holders.  

This pillar candle has a woven appearance and seemed to blend in well with the flowers, fruit, bull planter and the Spode transferware of pastoral scenes.

Here is a handpainted wine glass filled with golden beads and a single tealight candle.  

You might already know this if you've read much of my blog, but I have a thing with amber glass.  I can't get enough of the color, combined with candlelight.    To dress this votive holder up even more, I placed it on a beaded coaster on top of a polychrome transferware plate with amber and aubergine glass grapes on the side.  

This centerpiece was created using a swirled glass fitted with a votive candle inside and a beaded bottle cover laid over it atop a vintage glass compote.  This completed an elegant and romantic spot for two.

Candlelight glow seen behind the palest of lavender, in the form of an antique wine glass. 

These wire birds each holding a tealight upon their back, sets a mood of whimsy at this table.

Each setting at the table below had its own tealight candle.

...had to throw in a pic of Trev snatching some goodies...wow he looks so much older now.   

Tealight candles surround a centerpiece set atop an antique Spode brown transferware compote.  The vase belonged to my Great Aunt and Uncle.  There was a floral arrangement in it.  It made for an unusal centerpiece. 

Linden Fig Pillar Candles...these are some of my favorites.  They are subtly scented and have such a beautiful look to them with the center being white and then an outer cut-out layer in brown.  I think these are actually summer candles, but I like using them in the fall too, where they were the centerpiece at a Rural Scenes tablescape.

Here are my kiddos eating at this table

Spode Byron...you know, it's my favorite transferware...so I couldn't leave this setting out.  

The candelabra is filled with votive holders

This was one of my favorite Fall centerpieces I made with a little boy walking his dogs amongst a pumpkin patch.

I love Halloween and had soooo much fun decorating my dining room for Halloween last year.  The right candles played an important role.  Spider web luminary candles have a fun and eery glow!  They are another favorite Halloween candles that Zest offers.

These stacked skull taper candles are pretty cool too!

Brown Taper Candles  at an elegant, Fall setting.

And, of course there is a great selection of Christmas and holiday candles at Zest.  These silver snowflake ball candles added just the right ambience at my birdhouse table last year.

The soft glow of candles behind an etched glass

My Christmas Table with Mason's Vista

My bufett tables with metallic, Victorian  Pillar Candles laid out across a pretty runner and iced berries.

Our Valentines table was set to a musical theme with hand written, antique French sheet music and a violin centerpiece.  Each setting had an individual tealight candle at the corner of the music.

As you can see, there are lots of candles to choose from at Zest Candles. Now, let's get this giveaway going.  Zest Candles will give one box of floating candles to two winners.  The winners will get to choose which ones they would like to have shipped to them.

Zest Candles carries hundreds of varieties of candles for every occasion, large or small.

To enter:

 1st entry simply click on over to Zest Candle and choose your favorites.  Come back and leave a comment letting me know what they are and which floating candles you'd choose.

2nd entry, Leave another comment with the link if you tweet, FB or announce the giveaway on your blog.

3rd entry, Leave a comment to let me know you are a follower.

Anonymous commenters...please be sure to leave an email address so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

Two winners will be randomly chosen using the numeral generator at random.org on July 21, 2011.

You bring the candles, I'll bring the jar

We'll stay up late and stare up at the stars,

...If Only For A Few Hours

 (lyrics from one of Shawn's songs)

Joining:
Chic on a Shoestring 
Somewhat Simple
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Beyond The Picket Fence
Between Naps on the Porch 
Pink Saturday
Charm of Home
Romantic Home
Finding Fabulous 
Sunday Linky Party 
Just A Girl 
504 Main 
Funky Junk Interiors 
Savvy Southern Style

Another Room Complete! Boys Room Reveal

Candle Giveaway HERE

The kids come home from camp and within 15 minutes the house is trashed!  Laundry abounds!  Messy house or not, it is wonderful to have them home. 

Despite getting in bed at 7:00 on the 4th of July and being miserable most of the week with severe allergies, I got so much done while the kids were away.

I painted some of the woodwork and doors around the house that were in dire need of a fresh coat of paint.   I 'fixed up' the 1980's light fixture in the girls bathroom here, I re-enameled the kitchen sink, Shawn and I hung some drapes and an old buffet top that I converted into an architectural element (will share later), put the finishing touches on our powder bath, got my dining chairs ready for new fabric, did some decorating here and there and more organizing.  It was strange doing only two loads of laundry and running the dishwasher once this week.  We usually do at least three loads of laundry and run the dishwasher twice daily.  

What I decided to show today is the boys room and decided I'd better show you all now because it is likely that we may very well never see the beds made or the floor picked up again, now that they're back home!  

Just a reminder...this was the room with the pot (as in marijuana) stickers all over the walls, and worse. Before house pics HERE

The room is a total mish-mash of vintage sports memorobilia, like this field hockey stick with the 1972 Munich Olympics (sad) insignia and the teammates signatures,

 and the random oddity, here and there, like an old tennis shoe slipper Trevor refuses to let die, which hangs from a framed Wheaties box signed by Steve Largent. 

Oh, and yes, those are leg lady lamp lights (from A Christmas Story) hanging over the cricket picture.  The antique sled was something I picked up a flea market in Colorado for $5 while we lived there.

Trevor just found the Kellen Moore jersey for $19 at Ross (they're usually $80), here in Oklahoma!  He knew it must have been meant for him, because Boise State fans are just about unheard of here in Tulsa, OK! 

This book is tacked to the wall.  We live through these often: know him and you'll know just what I mean.

Big Foot shoe forms, from the 1970's, leather arm cuffs that belonged to Grandma Judy's Dad, C-3PO, R2D2, and a Boise State Mr. Potato Head are on the shelf above T's bed.

No rhyme or reason.  Just neat stuff.

I really wanted to make headboards out of some vintage wooden skis.  I was inspired to do this after living in Colorado and visiting Leadville, where one of the homes is completely surrounded by a fence made of old skis!  So cool.  Wouldn't a headboard be so cool made with three or four pairs of ski's lined up against the back of the bed.  Dang, I want to do that!  I already had it planned out in my mind.  I'd use a single, taller ski in the center and then graduate down on either side.  

But, neither J or T wanted ski headboards :-(, so I just talked them into letting me put a pair by each of their beds.  Between the skis is a vintage, original poster from the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs.  The ski runs have been closed for years now.  We could see them from our deck along with the Broadmoor's beautifully maintained grounds.  You can see my Pining For Colorado post here.  

A set of patches from various Apollo missions hangs near Jonah's bed,

  

along with a pair of vintage, Democratic and Republican decanters which are displayed on his side of the shelf,

in front of a Tulsa version of Monopoly game box cover.

 This is one of the neatest sport items they have...a huge, World Cup soccer ball used in a retail store as advertisement last summer for the South African cup. Unfortunately, it's too large to fit through the door of their room!  

And, in case you all don't recognize this room...it's the one that had dirt all over the walls,

 burn marks on the walls

 a vent full of trash, cigarettes and who knows what else...

a decaying window sill

 and the glow in the dark marijuana stickers on the wall.

And here it is now:

I'll be joining: 

Between Naps on the Porch,Savvy Southern Style,  Common Ground, Feathered Nest Friday,Funky Junk Interiors,  No Minimalist Here,  Transformation Thursday, Mod Mix Monday