Aqua Gems, Thrift Stores, and Compromise

walking through Joann's one day i came across Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles and fell in love.

the tiny package of little dry beads hydrates into a gallon of these cool gems. $5 a bag (but my wonderful MOH is buying one per day with 40% off coupon because she works next door making them $3) , and they have different colors, blue, clear and orange just for me. (and some other colors for other people i suppose)

they also sell pre-hydrated bottles of the Gems but its the same price for 1/4 of the amount as the dry beads. the dry ones will take up less space in the meantime also.

i did find some off brand ones from Dollar tree but the quantity (and likely quality) is better with the dry Aqua Gems.

i had gotten some short wine glasses with a wide openeing (not sure the official name) instead of candle holders, because when i was shopping for candle holders, these were $0.25-$0.50 at my favorite thrift store because they were older than 2 months on the shelf. i liked that there were a lot of them, many of them matching. and i like the charity that the money goes to Humaine Society. unlike Goodwill or other second hand shops, the money is local, some of the employees are volunteers and the prices are actually fair. So many second hand stores over price, sometimes the same or more than buying brand new.

i will take a small moment to inject my 2 cents about thrift stores, i love them for the non impact on the environment. buying new products adds new waste in the world in the way of actual product, packaging, shipping from factories. buying used also prevents items from being pushed out of the industry into landfills. not to mention that the money stays local and if you find a good deal, saves money too.

so far i got 24 of the wine glasses for about $9 and another dozen actual candle holders for another few dollars.

any way back on subject, i plan to tie little ribbons around the stem of the glasses, fill the top with the aqua gems and insert a floating candle.

to save money, i am going to make floating candles using this tuturial i plan to use some different candles that i found on sale at Michaels and some i already have on hand. i may have to supplement with some extra wax though, we will see after some test runs.

marriage is about compromise and my darling fiance doesnt like candles, so although they wont be completely banished from the house, i wont be needing all the candles that i have. this will also help declutter, as i have a huge box full of candles just sitting there..