wine a little. laugh a lot.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]armer weather and outdoor living are just a couple short weeks away. One of the parts about warm weather is enjoying a glass on the patio, just listening to the evening. While you wait for the ice to melt and the days to get longer, you can make your own tiki wine bottle to light up those summer nights on the patio.

step 01 

Fill the wine bottle about 1/3 of the way up with the rocks / vase filler.

This will help weigh down the bottom to prevent tipping and gives the wick something to rest on so that it doesn’t fall in. Plus, the rocks add a pop of color or texture.

For a more colorful look, you can use small pieces of sea glass, glass beads, or even the flat marbles from the dollar store. For a natural look, use small mixed shade pebbles.

step 02

Wrap the teflon tape around the wider end of the coupling until it fits snugly into the top of the bottle.

You want to be able to take it out to refill the bottle with tiki fuel or change the wick, but you shouldn’t be able to remove it too easily.

step 03

Poke the wick through the coupling so that it sticks out a little bit on the narrower end (about 1/2″ or so), with the majority of the wick on the wider (bottom) end of the coupling.

step 04

Fill the bottle to just below the neck with the tiki fuel (a funnel works best). Then insert the wick into the bottle, long end down. The wick should be able to rest on the rocks while sticking out of the coupling about 1/2″ at the top. You can add a few more rocks if needed.

Place the copper cap on the wick to check for height, if there is a lot of white, your wick is too long. A wick that is too tall will create a very tall flame.

step 05

Ta-da — Light it up!

Refill fuel and replace wick as needed.