Our daughter sent my husband a text last month asking, “Can you whittle a few birthday candles for Songbird? She loves playing birthday parties and I let her use candles but they break.”

So Pa found a piece of scrap dowel rod and sat down to carve some candles. Starting at the top, he cut a spiral groove the length of the dowel. Then he filled in the rest of the candle with two more spiral grooves to simulate a fancy candle design.

After carving the rod and a little sanding, he sawed off candle lengths and drilled a small hole in the top of each candle for the wick. Then it was my turn to paint. 

I painted a base coat and then used a sponge to add paint to the raised edges of the spirals on each candle.

I coated a length of cotton string with mod podge, let it dry and then cut small sections for wicks. I glued the wicks into the small holes drilled in the top of the candles. To finish them off I hung the candles by their wicks with clothespins to a clothes hanger and painted a coat of polyurethane.

Now Songbird has candles that beg, “Let the birthday tea parties continue!” Thanks Pa!