Fire is the element that makes things happen in feng shui, and creative fire in your home (like fabulous candles, even if they aren’t burning) can help turn the potential energy you have into motivation and “get it done-ness.”

While it is easy to look at a bunch of DIY projects like I do and say, “Oh, yeah, that looks easy,” when you find a project that actually is easy- and works for just about anyone- it is worth sharing.  I had a feng shui problem in my own home, and after seeing THIS DIY project and even blogging it for all of you, I realized it was time to DO it for myself.  It is so easy… and I’m astonished at how much my own home has changed in minutes!

So, first I started with a problem. I had a wall of huge glass votives in my dining room (which happens to be the  feng shui relationship area of my own home) that seemed absolutely and suddenly all wrong to me this week. How did I miss this?! Half were burned down, they were all dusty (who thinks of dusting candles?)  and they were pretty much untouched in ages.  What did that bode for my relationships, romantic and otherwise?!  Nothing good!  So, I pulled them all down (there were 45 of them!) sorted through and plucked out the 14 that were worthy of the display shelves.  The rest got recycled.  Now: how to make them fresh & fun?!

Inspiration!  For this, artist Cy Twombly was my inspiration.  There is this quote by Cy Twombly that I think of often when thinking about making art and sitting and thinking for longer than I expected, ” When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.”  That’s sort of my way sometimes.  This actual DIY takes about 5 minutes.  It’s the readiness to do it and figuring out what would hit the right note in my home that took the time.  These votives are based on this painting:

(Cy Twombly)

You don’t need much to do this. Once Wed broke it down beautifully.

You need : Just a little acrylic paint, a standard little brush and some water along with the votives.

I had some extra paint from a weekend painting project, but these acrylics (or any acrylics) are super easy to get at any art or craft store.  The paints are going to get diluted with a bit of water (I reused some plastic tumblers I had in my house to do the mixing) so they don’t have to be superstar artist quality.

After you put a blob of each color into your choice of receptacle and add a tiny bit of water (start show, mix and add more until it is runny and drippy and will give you a stained-glass look when you try it in the votive.

I let the more waterly paint drip.  I swirled around and squiggled the denser paint.  I kept colors a bit seperate and then dragged and swirled them together.

And they turned into stuff like this in the process:

And I kept adding, swirling, stretching and dripping until I felt each one was just right to bring creative fire into my space.  A few minutes. Total imperfection.  Total love.

Mind you, I won’t burn these candles unless there’s a blackout so I wouldn’t recommend this for candles you want to burn daily. I am not sure how well the acrylic will do being heated by a flame that close up, that often…Nor do I intend to find out!  That said, it is a briliant bit of transformation that you can 100% customize.

Feeling inspired to make a feng shui change? Give DIY a try!

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And, if you want to dive in to your own personalized feng shui in a modern, practical way, Say hello to Feng Shui 101.  Its the guide I made for you to create your own personalized feng shui at home, in the office, wherever you may be… in 8 weeks.  It’s not filled with strict rules or what you “must” do.  Its filled with information, questions, exercises and even videos and classes to help you confidently create amazing spaces with killer feng shui and live with more flow.   Learn more about the 8-week feng shui adventure & grab your copy to get started right HERE…   And, as always, please let me know what happens!