Emergency Valentine's Gift -- or One More Thing to Do with Old Coffee Beans

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6878940937_f8d51eebeb.jpg" align="left" width="300" vspace="10px" hspace="10px" height="188" alt="coffee bean candle" />Did you forget today is Valentine's Day and find yourself giftless and destined for the doghouse? If you've got coffee beans, a glass jar and a tealight candle in the house, you can mark the day in style and impress your Valentine with your creativity.

I can't take credit for this one -- it would never occur to me use even old coffee beans this way. But when I spotted it on The Happy Housewife blog, I found myself wondering if you actually could, you know, smell the coffee when you light the candle.  Turns out that yup, you certainly can -- though it takes a little while for the subtle coffee scent to waft its way through the room. That's because the aroma gets stronger when the candle has burned long enough to warm up the beans.

The Happy Housewife blogger made hers with vanilla-scented coffee beans, which, considering how little I like most coffees, just may be a great way to use up those coffee beans that you just can't manage to choke down, or the ones that have gone too stale to drink. 

It couldn't possibly be any easier to make -- dump the coffee beans into a glass, glass jar or repurposed candle holder. Put the tea light -- in its metal jacket -- on top of the coffee beans and gently push it down until its top is just above the level of the beans. That's it.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/6879389085_04867d4970.jpg" align="right" width="342" vspace="10px" hspace="10px" height="500" alt="100_0282" />Of course, you can pretty it up even more, since the beans aren't reallly drinkable anyway.This"iced coffee bean" candle is almost as easy as the original. Just pour about an inch of epsom salt into the glass. Layer an inch or so of coffee beans on to of the epsom salts. Add another layer of epsom salts and nestle the candle into the epsom salts. Embellish with coffee beans. 

It's not quite as tasty as a box of mocha truffles and you can't wear it, but it is pretty and creative, and at the very least, should get you some brownit points for trying.