You know that song, You Light up my Life?  Every time I saw all of your entries for the fab ceiling light from CSN Lighting, Whitney Houston began busting out in tune in my mind.  She’s got so much passion in that song, and it turns out you all have a lot of lovin’, too:  for your spouses, your kids, your pets…

Now before I announce the winner, that person is just going to have to promise right here to send us a picture of the light installed in its new place (or at least tell us what the plans are).  Promise?

Okay.  Just a refresher for the ceiling light you’re all competing for from CSN Lighting:  a $102 Kenroy Home’s Triomphe Semi Flush Mount series ceiling light with your choice of color among cocoa, oil rubbed bronze, and brushed steel.  The lucky winner brought to us thanks to random.org is…

…Erin D!  You know what lights up her life?  

What lights up my life is our family supper together – every night for 16 years now. We have our three children, the dog, and various extra children and life is always good!

Congrats Erin D.  Send me an email with your address and preferred light, and we’ll get it to you in a jiffy.

For all the rest of you, keep those fingers limber.  Move giveaways to come!

(Images from CSN Lighting)

You all remember how much we like to keep down the waste around here, especially when it comes to our mailbox.  We’ve brainstormed a whole slew of low-cost, green invitations and have even sent personalized digital thank you letters to our immediate family instead of just the traditional phone call at Christmas.

But what about all those other occasions when a thank you is in order?  What do you think a person should do when she gets something like a baby gift from a family friend or an unexpected package from a loved one?  

Today we have a fine line between being courteous and being green.  And for as much as I push repurposing and cutting back, I’m really struggling with this issue.  It seems I get more and more casual thank yous in emails.  Some are from people trying to be green; some are not.  So I thought we could have a little discussion in the comments today.

Please tell us your take on proper thank yous.  Do you send thank you letters or mention your thanks in an email?  Or do you pick up the phone?  Maybe do nothing?  Tell me, tell me.  Oh please, please, please.

(Hiking image of Martin and me – used in thank you cards for our wedding.  Taken at 14,000 feet.)

Our major repurposing project this week comes courtesy of Yankee Candle.  I found an old jar candle with a stubby wick and not much wax to boot in one of the boxes of stuff we grabbed to set up home while we’re away from Berlin.  Who knows where it came from.  A wedding present, maybe?  In any case, you know me:  time to repurpose.

Filling the jar with jewelry is such an easy way to see what I have… and actually remember to wear it.  Sure, drawers and jewelry boxes work just fine.  But a sleek, free display case – who can pass that up?

Old candle jars are such a tricky case for repurposing, anyway.  You can’t store food in them – the plastic ring has permanently absorbed the candle scent.  Plus the jars are short, wide, and un-stackable, which is super important in kitchens without much storage like ours.

Removing the excess wax was pretty simple.  I’ve heard about getting big pieces out by sticking the jar in the freezer, which didn’t seem entirely practical in this case (how would you get wax out of a small lip?).  So here’s what I did:

1. Boil hot water with candle sitting in pot, careful not to let water get in jar.
2. When the wax was melted, I poured it all into a smaller jar.  I had to reheat the wax a few times to get it all out.
3. The jar was still warm as I used a paper towel to wipe out the thin coat of wax and soot.
4. The smell was still pretty strong, so I threw it in the dishwasher.

Have any other ideas for reusing candle jars?  Makes me wish we had more candles floating around!  Don’t forget to send a few pictures our way if you do.

(Image by Making This Home)

Ever since I took this picture of a deserted pathway full of autumn leaves in Berlin, I’ve been enamored by the simple beauty of empty roads.  Of course, it was pretty much impossible to find an empty street in Germany’s capital city ever again.  So I waited.

Fast forward to today.  We’re in the middle of the Rocky Mountains region of the US, and it’s a whole new world.  Opportunities to snap pictures of empty roads abound.  We’re almost forgetting what real traffic is like (which isn’t something you’ll find me complaining about!).  Want to see some of the things we see?

I don’t know why; looking at these pictures just relaxes me.  I think it’s the lack of go, go, go.

For most of these, I’ve set the camera on the dashboard, pressed the button, and hoped for the best.  (Please assure my mom that someone else was probably driving.)

Thinking you’d like a few more scenic shots?  Check out our aerial flight over Arches National Park or bike tour of Berlin.

7:00 a.m. the alarm clock goes off in our little house made of tires.  We squint out the window with the same question we have every morning these days:  is it a good day for flying?  This past week, the answer has usually been, “Yes!”  Finally.  We’ve had rainstorm after rainstorm like so much of the country.  

7:20 I am inspecting the plane.  It’s called the “pre-flight”, and it’s as important to flying as putting on glasses so you can see in the morning.  The plane I’m learning how to fly is a Cessna 172.  It holds four people and a little baggage.  Martin has taught me to examine the parts of the wings, the fuel, and a whole list of things.  The airplane manual is in my hand so I don’t miss a thing.

7:35 We are in the plane, doing the startup before we enter the runway.  I like being in the pilot’s seat; I get the comfortable headset.  It might make Martin uncomfortable, but he doesn’t show it.  He is so professional.  It really is like we’re student/instructor, not wife/husband.  If I try to crack a joke about making crop circles when we get into the sky because we’ll be flying.  In circles.  Around crops.  (Funny, no?)  Well he doesn’t laugh like usual.  I feel a little shocked, but then I remember my role.

7:40  Takeoff is relatively easy compared to the rest of our journey.  When the airplane is ready, it just picks itself up.

7:45  It’s time to practice turning.  Remember when I told you all how worried I was about motion sickness?  My ability to get sick absolutely anywhere is actually in my favor.  Who knew?  See, I am focusing on so many different things – the sky, the point I’m pivoting around, RPMs of the engine, pitch, the radio…  Sometimes my altitude gets a little off (okay – a lot off).  My stomach screams.  Then I try to correct the direction of the nose of the plane.

7:47  I over-correct.  The plane is pitched too high.  Stomach gets mad again.  The cycle continues until the end of my lesson when we land and taxi off the runway.  That’s when Martin becomes my husband again, and he kisses my forehead.

…

At the end of the day, after I’ve studied more of my airplane textbook all evening and Martin has spent hours with other students and all sorts of other planes during the day, we go to bed.  For the first time, we dream about the exact same thing.

(Images by Making This Home)

Well drats.  The days are getting shorter now.  Before you know it, we’ll be turning on the lights just to have dinner again.  

But I don’t think one of you is going to complain when those days come because guess what.  CSN Lighting is leaping in to give a lucky reader one of their fantastic ceiling lights.  Yep.  Things could be looking a whole lot brighter for one of you.

This ceiling light from CSN Lighting – called the Triomphe Semi Flush Mount series – is designed by Kenroy Home, a brand that’s been a leader in the lighting community.  They strive to stay above the trend in home decor, and I am already wishing we could replace our discount bedroom light in Berlin with something this classic.  Then I change my mind and start thinking about the living room or above the dining table.  Where could you swap an outdated light for this beauty in a cocoa finish?

Or maybe this one in oil rubbed bronze?

Then again, maybe brushed steel is better still?

Whatever your pick, the stylish folks at CSN Lighting are ready to make your future a whole lot brighter.  Here’s what’s up for grabs:

The prize:

One winner in the United States or Canada will receive a Triomphe Semi Flush Mount ceiling light (winner’s choice in color) valued at $102.

How to enter:

Leave a comment below (one entry per household) telling everyone about the people and things that light up your life at the end of the day.  

For an extra entry consider:

Leave an additional comment for each of these things that you have done with a quick note like “twittered” for your added entry.

Deadline:

Entries must be received by Monday, June 29 at 8:00 pm EST.  The winner will be announced the following day.

Lots of luck to you!

(Image by CSN Lighting)