What to do, what to do, what to do..

I have a whole vacation day tomorrow,

which should be great, given that

we are supposed to be in for some blechy

weather.  We've got ice and some

snow that should be moving

in this evening.

 

However, my wine mob is calling a wine mob

meeting for tomorrow,

and I'm all in.
Lol. We are like the post office

 when it comes to wining.

 

At least one of our group buys us presents,

she brought us coconut candles from

her trip to the Dominican Republic

and pumice stones to keep our

feet soft and smooth.

She has already let me know that

she's got a Christmas gift for me.

 

Ergo, I am ready to make her

one in return.

Here are my choices..

 

 Terra Cotta Coasters found at

JoyIsAtHome.blogspot.com

which doesn't seem to be

loading, so maybe she's

no longer at home

blogging.

I love the color,

and Kathy loves going to

New Orleans.

Her daughter is currently attending

Tulane University,

so I'm thinking Fleur de Lis

and maybe some other N'awlins accents.

We love wine, so we would

surely love these keychains

found here..

Or my last idea, would be this

lovely little item with the

letter "K" for her first name.

She has a hyphenated last name

and is currently divorced,

sooo, I don't want to pick a letter

and be the one that she no

longer really wants.

This lovely idea was found here.

 

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I'm leaning towards the

coasters though.  : )..

Should be fun no matter what.

Yay Wine!



How cool are these?

 Pop Top Bracelets..

Another great bracelet idea..

But my favorite?  : )..

Hmm..  Recycled can bracelets..  Lol..

I might just have to try those..

I found them here..

Lessons learned by a 4.. Err.. 37 year old Firebug...

Alrighty.  Soo.  Perusing Pinterest one day, I ran upon this lovely, interesting little website.

Click Here for the link to the page..

I thought, hmm.  Can that really be done?  Can you really cut glass by wrapping it with

yarn, dipping the yarn in Nail Polish Remover, putting the yarn back on the bottle, setting it

on fire and letting it burn for 30 seconds only to douse it in cold water?

Can that really be done?  I was intrigued.  I was motivated.  I felt like a Mythbuster.

My friend felt fear!  Will she still have eyebrows?!  Will it really work?

Soo.  We set out to try it last Saturday.

Lesson # 1.  Buy Nail Polish Remover with Acetone.

Lesson # 2.  Scratch your head because no matter how many

times we tried it, it just never worked.  We let it burn longer.  Nuthin.  Not even a mark.

Lesson # 3.  A week later..  Check the internet and Pinterest again.

Aha!!!  The magic trick!!!  The missing link!!!

Lesson # 4.  Gather all of your supplies again.

Lesson # 5.  Be very, very careful!  Don't pour Acetone

Nail Polish Remover down the drain and then light the bottle

on fire above it without actually having 911 on speed dial

or someone there who can dial it for you.  Lol. 

Ok.  So it

wasn't quite THAT bad and yes, surprising enough, I DO

still have my eyebrows and a very healthy respect for the

volitility of acetone nail polish remover and fire.  Ha!

And yes, the flame was quickly extinguished since there was

water that flowed out of the faucet because thankfully,

I was trying this at the kitchen sink.  Whew!

(Btw, Dutch was out working on his big truck, he would have freaked out!)

I do have some results though.  Despite my failed attempts last weekend,

I actually succeeded this time!  It does actually work!  It might take

time to perfect this technique, but I don't foresee it being a problem

because my friends and I seem to have quite the wine bottle collection going.

Here are some of the items needed.

 All you need are Nail Polish Remover with

Acetone, yarn, bottles and matches or a lighter..

 Tie your string around the bottle where

you want the cut to be..

 Slide the yarn off and soak it in acetone,

I used a cut up blue solo cup (ha!

take that Toby Keith!).

 Slide the soaked yarn back on where

you want the cut to be again..

Light it on fire, ** make sure that you

are tipping the bottle slightly so that

the heat will remain in the bottle **

(that was the missing link)

let it burn for at least 30 seconds

or another tip was to let it go until

the string stopped burning..

And then plunge it in cold water.

Crack!  It worked!  Twice!

But, unfortunately, this was my second

successful attempt.  I think I kept the

bottle tipped too much.

Here was my first successful shot at it

which was moderately more successful.

Again, I think I tipped the bottle too

much.  I only let this one burn about

30 seconds.  I let the green one burn

itself out, which was closer to a minute.

Even though it's not a success yet, and I still have to fiddle with the results,

I can confidently say, this really does work!  Awesome!  Oooh the possibilities!

I can't wait to try bottle cutting again!  I will succeed!  : )..  Woot!

** Addendum **

I will definitely be limiting the bottle cutting to a bottle cutting tool.

Lol.

Great holiday ideas from Pinterest Posts..

Great photo idea!

Just got back from the Independence, MO downtown square where I went to my first Santa Caligon Days festival.  It was raining, although, lol, not even anywhere near the deluge that hit this afternoon when I thought about going.  I got a little damp, but it was worth it.  Walked around and looked at the craft booths and found a few things that I might just have to mosey back and purchase.  There is a person who is selling the cutest little aloe vera animal planters.  They are monkeys, pandas, some little tiki dude and my favorite, a lemur.  The aloe vera plant sticks up out of the top of their heads and looks like little spiky hair.  They were definitely on my list of "I want this" for sure. I would have taken a picture but by the time I was there, it was dark and I didn't think my iphone picture would turn out.  Luckily, the guy says he will be there for the rest of the festivities.  Yay! 

Came home to dry out and spent a little time cruisin through the Pinterest site and found this great site.  It's a tutorial for adding photos to a canvas frame.  How great is that?  Seriously.  It's awesome.  : )..  And sooo ez to do.  Check out this website for the details!

I know what my next Modge Podge project is going to be.

Love it!

I love this table!

I ran across this great page the other day.  Check out the great job Kristine did on her table.  I love it.  It looks soo inviting, I want to sit down and stay a while.  : )..

Awesome!

I ❤ luminary ideas.. Just like this!

If you have seen my site so far, you might have picked up on the fact that I love, love, love luminary items.  Love making them, love buying them, love them in general.  I have several patio lights that I am keeping my eye on.  Now I ran across this:

Find out exactly how easy peasy they are here..

Luv it, luv it, luv it.  : )..

Aha. My modification ideas.

I was surfin the web one day when I ran upon this awesomeness.

Loved it and loved most of the items on this site..

http://www.gourdmasque.com/

These suhweet little darlin's are sooo nice.  I would love to try some myself.  Therein lies the problem.  In order to do this, you have to let the gourd dry out and then cut it open to expose all of the mold that has grown inside of it.  I am highly allergic to mold (I kinda resemble a deformed monster with runny eyes, a sniffling, sneezy, red, mucousy messy nose that can't form a coherent thought because of how many Benadryl's I would need to take in order to combat that!  Lol.  Trust me, not a very attractive sight to see lumbering toward ya, children run in fear of the approaching monstrosity!) sooo, even with a mask, I've been a tad bit..  umm..  apprehensive. 

Plus, you have to have a delicate hand because they can crack very easily.  I am a Taurus.  I am the bull in the china closet.  China closets run in fear when they..  Ok..  Sooo, maybe they don't run, but still, the word "delicate" and me, it just ain't going to happen.  : ).. 

Soooo..  I realllllllly wanted to do something with the whole gourd mask idea.  Had some great design ideas, and got to thinkin..  Here's what I came up with..  Gourdless Gourd Masks.  No muss, no fuss.  I'm workin on some tile coasters with them as well.

 Three of my favorites so far..

 Different view of them.

Hmm, a little fuzzy.  Never said I was a great photog, I seem to cut people's heads off when takin pics.  Sorry about the blur, this will have to do for now.  This is one of my girls that I call, "Why yes, I am a Princess".

 One of my "Princes".

And one of my "Warriors".

They will get better, they are also a work in progress.  Anyway, I do love me some gourd masks.  : )..
Here's a picture of my Prince..  Lol.  I call him "Nauti" because I got him down in Kemah, TX a couple years ago (loved it down there!! oooh sooo nice!!).

Lol.  : )..  Not quite the Prince you were expectin.  Me either, but I love him too.

Suhweet! I wanna try makin these.. Pronto.. : )..

Find out how to make this awesome seat here..

http://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/porch/outdoor-rooms/easy-inexpensive-outdoor-room-ideas/#page=12

And this super cool bath mat..

http://www.finecraftguild.com/eco-friendly-bath-mat-fun-diy-project-to-do-in-the-easter-break/