Ice Luminaries - Only for those where its actually below freezing outside :)

I receive a e-newsletter from Country Living every week and one of last week's projects was ice luminaries.  I was supposed to post about this yesterday but they weren't frozen yet, which I'm not really sure how that happened I left them outside over night and dug them out of a snowbank and they weren't frozen so I stuck them in the freezer.  Considering the high in the next week is only in the 20s here, I have no fear of them melting.

The Finished Luminaries

The process is really easy, find a large plastic container preferably with a lid (if you can't find one with a lid its ok, its just easier with a lid)  I used drink mix buckets from Tastefully Simple, if you haven't tried there drink mixes they are all delicious and I recommend them.   Fill the plastic container 2/3's full with water and then slice up fruit, I used lemons, limes and oranges I also added some pine clippings off of our Christmas tree.   Next time I am going to use cranberries too.  But you can put just about anything in them.  Put your items in the water, and then place a clear cup (mine is greenish tint, its all we had) in the water, if you have a lid put the lid on to force the cup down if not use masking or duct tape to hold the cup in the center of the bucket.  Put in the freezer or outside overnight.  Check to make sure the ice is thoroughly frozen and place the bucket in the sink with hot water to loosen up the sides (it doesn't take very long).  Flip it over and pop the ice out .  Drop a votive candle in, light it and put them outside for a beautiful, traditional Christmas decoration!

If it starts to get warm you can always put it back in the bucket and place it in the freezer to save for later!