Booze Bouquet

 

PROJECT...
I apologize that this photo is a little hard to see.  My daughter, Kalli, and I made this project a couple of weeks ago.  I have just now found the time to blog about it.  I was out of town last week...vacationing with Chris Ice at her family house on Lake Coeur d' Alene.  Great time, beautiful place!  And this week has been busy with yard work, house work, and visiting in-laws.  My husbands parents are on their way back to California now, by way of the Oregon Coast.
So...back to the project...
We call it a Booze Bouquet, and we made it for Alyssa's Birthday.  Kalli found the idea online.  I would love to put in a good word for the original creator, but I don't know where Kalli found it.  I will attached their directions, but would like to say that we made ours somewhat smaller than the instructions say to.  We only used 12 mini bottles, and a smaller galvanized silver bucket that we found at JoAnns.  Also we could not find the "long tinsel swirls", and made something similar with silver metallic pipe cleaners.  Also we used wooden skewers rather than dowels...much cheaper, and they worked well!  Here our the original directions...

Materials

*1 Oval Black Metal Pail  (we used silver galvanized)

* 2 Large Packages of Tinseled Pipe Cleaners

*2 Large Packages of Colored Pipe Cleaners

*Alphabet Stickers (Found in Scrapbooking)

*Number Stickers

*Decoration Stickers (I used Candles & Swirls)

*Glitter Spray paint (we skipped this part)

*Medium package of decor rocks / gems

*Large square of Styrofoam

*21 Wooden Thin Dowels or Kabob Sticks (skewers work well)

*21 Assorted 50ml. sample liquor bottles

*Long Tinsel Swirls (we used silver pipe cleaners and twirled them on skewers)

*Bunch of Color Assorted Silk Flowers

Step by Step Instructions

1. Take the pail on a covered surface and put it upside down. Use the glitter spray paint and evenly coat the pail to add a sparkled effect. You can use as little or as much as you'd like.
2. Using an exacto knife, cut ovals out of the styrofoam square. Layer the styrofoam ovals into the pail. You will want about 3 layers in the pail to be able to uphold the weight of the bottles.
3. After the pail has dried from the paint, Decorate the pail with the stickers that you have chosen. (For mine, I put wrapped around 21 candles from front to back, and scattered the swirls to add extra decor. You may also want to use a ruler to help center and space the writing on the front.
4. Organize your color patterns and figure out what colors you'd like to stick with for the main theme.
5. Take one tinseled pipe cleaner and one colored pipe cleaner and begin to tightly wrap around the wooden dowel. (If you want, you can try to match the bottles colors). Begin wrapping about 2 inches above the bottom of the dowel and continue your way up. I used 4 pipe cleaners per wooden stick.
6. Once you get towards the top, choose the bottle that you would like and begin to tightly wrap around the neck of the bottle. You will need to wrap it around once, then tie in between to make sure it's tight. The tighter you can wrap it the better the bottle will hold.
7. Repeat step 6, another 20 times.
8. Once all 21 bottles are wrapped and tied to the wooden sticks, you can begin to put them into the pail by pushing the stick into the styrofoam. You can arrange the bottles many different ways according to the overall look you are going for.
9. After you are satisfied with your arrangement, you can add in some tinsel swirls for an additional decoration.
10. Arrange the silk flowers around the rim of the pail.
11. Lastly, take the package of the decorative rocks and empty them into the pail to cover the styrofoam and add additional weight to hold the dowels in place.

 


MUSEUM DAY
On September 29th, 2012 hundreds of museums across the country will open their doors free of charge.  Go to smithsonianmag.com/museumday to look for participating museums in your area, and to print out entry tickets.  I have already got mine!  I cheated a little bit...shhhh...  When you sign up for the tickets you get two tickets for one museum.  However I have two email addresses, so I signed up for tickets at both email addresses...2 tickets for the Portland Art Museum, and 2 tickets for the Museum of Contemporary Craft, which is also in Portland.  Neal and I can hit one museum in the a.m., have lunch downtown, and hit the 2nd museum in the afternoon!

FREE CLASSES
I have been researching free online classes.  I took a PowerPoint 2007 class on the first website (below) and loved it!  I also learned about blogging on that site. I found the 2nd website today, and it looks pretty good too.  Besides listing free courses in history, literature, and language, they show dowloads for free movies, ebooks, and audiobooks.
Check out these websites:
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/
http://www.openculture.com/

My 1st Paper Flowers...and more

PAPER FLOWERS

I have wanted to make paper flowers out of vintage book pages for quite some time, so yesterday I gave it a try.  I am very happy with my little creations.  I have to give thanks to bystephanielynn.com and papernstitchblog.com for the great instructions I found on Pinterest.  It is a fun craft.  I added my own little touches by using Martha Stewart Glitter Glue around the edges, cut paper leaves for accent, and a light coat of gold spray glitter paint to give them a slight golden vintage look.  I will be making more of these little cuties.  Not sure what I will use them for, but I think that they would make nice gift box decorations.

PEOPLE WITH STYLE

Kathleen Hackett:
Co-Author of Home from the Hardware Store: Transform Everyday Materials into Fabulous Home Furnishings, which features creative home accessories made from hardware store finds! 

Laura Spencer:
Good Morning America co-anchor, author, and yard sale addict (laraspencer.net)
She wrote I Brake for Yard Sales.

Sabrina Soto:
Designer and host of HGTV's Get it Sold (sabrinasoto.com)

Jenny Komenda:
Designer, blogger, and DIY'er.  Check out her blog littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com.

MAGAZINE TALK

My 3 favorite magazines are Better Homes and Gardens (BHG), Sunset, and Martha Stewart Living (MSL).  Here are a few ideas and tips that I got out of the July and August issues.
*Low Airfair
   Find low airfairs at hipmonk.com or dohop.com. 
   Book flights on Tuesday or Wednesday for the best prices.
*Estate Sales
   Find estate sales in your area at estatesales.net.  It lists estate sales all over the country.  Just click on your state and check out the area you want to go.
*Free Downloadable Images
   Download images for free from the New York Public Library at digitalgallery.nypl.org.
   Download copyright-free images from Vintage Printable at vintageprintable.com/wordpress.
*Great Yard / Garden Ideas
   Set up a vintage unplumbed sink on a table and use for potting and washing in the garden, or fill with ice to chill drinks at outdoor gatherings.
*Paint
   I have seen chalkboard paint used in creative ways, but I didn't know that Hudson Paint has 28 different colors!!
   Rust-Oleum makes an interior paint designed for use with Dry-Erase Markers.
   Thomas' Liquid Stainless Steel is a paint that can make old appliances look new and modern.  The brush-on coating cures completely in two weeks.
   Use Krylon Looking Glass spray to give a window or a glass surface a mirror finish.
   Use small foam rollers to apply enamel gloss paint if you want an absolutely smooth finish.
   To pop the curb appeal of your home, paint your front door with red or yellow high-gloss exterior paint.  (Be sure to use those small foam rollers!)
   Paint or wallpaper the recessed panels on your interior doors to give them some interest.
*Ha...I Knew It All Along!
   You don't necessarily need to drink 8 glasses of water a day.  Your water intake needs depend on many things, but as long as your urine is clear or light yellow then you are fine!
   "Multitasking" is a myth" says research psychologist Larry Rosen.  Studies show that people complete tasks far more quickly when they tackle them one at a time.  For the sake of efficiency, stay focused and turn off competing ringers and alerts!

RECIPES

I'm not going to type the recipes, but you can look them up on each magazine's website...I think!
Anyway...I found a few recipes that sounded good, and I plan on  trying them.
   Buttery Raspberry Lemon Cake (Sunset)
   Lemon Icebox Pie (BHG)
   Nectarine Pancakes (MSL)
I will let you know how they turn out when I have a chance to try each recipe.

Over and out!

My First Post

Where to start...?

I am not working for the first time in WAY too many years.  Summer is my favorite time of year, and I am enjoying every minute! 

I have had three garage sales, and got rid of a whole lot of stuff that I was no longer using. My house is more organized, and I made a few bucks to boot!  Done with that though...garage sales are a lot of work!  Now I can concentrate on going to other people's garage sales, and bringing home the stuff that they no longer use!  I tend to be attracted to old books, antique frames, antique prints featuring birds or botanicals, and craft supplies.

I have made some adorable note card sets in several different designs using vintage and antique pages from map books, children's books, recipe books, etc...  I love old paper, and try to find creative ways to use it.  I will take some pictures of the note cards and post them soon.  I am still trying to figure out this "blogging" stuff, and the photo files I've tried to download have been too large.  I will get it done though!

My husband (Neal) and I went camping near Detroit Lake a few weeks ago.  The weather was perfect...the sceenery very pretty.  Our campsite was right next to the Santiam River.  We relaxed, took walks, checked out several different campgrounds, and enjoyed each other's company.  We are going camping again this coming weekend.  This time we are heading up to Mt. Hood.  We may end up at Timothy Lake, but we plan on checking out some other campgrounds along the way.

A couple of weeks ago my Mom and I spent a night at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grande Ronde.  We planned on winning a lot of money, but as you can imagine that didn't really work out for us!  But we did have some tasty meals, our room was very nice, and we had a good time together.

This week I have been quite the social butterfly.  Monday I drove into Portland to have lunch with Wanda, who I grew up with.  She lives in the same neighborhood as my parents, so I visited with them also.  Yesterday I met Debbie at the coffee shop in Old Town Sherwood.  She and I worked together for about 7 years.  Late this afternoon I met Pam for a cocktail at Clancy's...again in Old Town Sherwood.  She is one of my best "Sherwoodian" friends, along with Chris who I am joining for lunch tomorrow.  We will have lunch on her beautiful wrap around deck.  Chris's husband is also named Neal.  We usually call him Guido (short for Guido Capacino) to avoid confusion!  My husband and I get together with Chris and Guido quite often. 

That is it for my first blog.  Stay tuned...