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December 31, 2011

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Crafts, Gifts, home, upcycle

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Wine bottle lights – a gift for you, a gift for them

Wine bottle lights are a gift that can be given any time of year really. Especially if you want to give yourself the gift of drinking a few bottles of wine so that you have some nice looking bottles to start with.

I saw this idea in a number of places and can’t even really point to a source.

Supplies:

  • Empty wine bottle (colored ones are nicer than clear)
  • Indoor/outdoor christmas lights. I used a clear strand with 20 bulbs and a plug only on one end
  • Corded drill (cordless will run out of batteries)
  • 1/2″ Glass drill bit (like this one at home depot)
  • Wire and beads if you want to make a “necklace” for the bottle

Instructions:

  • Wear safety glasses and gloves while drilling through the bottles. None of mine broke during drilling, but make sure to be safe.
  • I used a piece of styrofoam to cradle the bottle while drilling it
  • Use the label to start the hole. If the bottle doesn’t have a label, put a piece of masking tape on the bottle.
  • Start drilling. The whole process takes 20 – 30 minutes. I would start and stop quite often because my hand got tired.
  • Drill until the drill bit fits through the hole
  • Soak the bottle in hot water with a bit of oxyclean until the label is easy to get off. A razor blade will help. I also used a brillo pad to take off the glue. After that was done, I used a bottle brush to clean out the glass dust left in the bottle.
  • Feed the lights one by one through the hole
  • Using some wire and vintage beads from Etsy I made a necklace for the bottle

I’d like to think I’ll make a whole army of these to decorate my yard, perhaps under the bottle tree but we’ll see how that goes. For now though, the bottles have been a hit with the recipients!

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March 22, 2011

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Crafts, home, upcycle

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OMG, I have a bottle tree!

So, I’ve seen strange items in front yards around town that are used to display empty glass bottles. I mean this is Austin after all.  Then, I went to the yard art show at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center and saw a bottle tree there.  It was AMAZING. I had to have one. In fact, I knew way back in August that I needed this for my front yard.

Needless to say, I didn’t really have the proper tools to execute such a large project on my own. Luckily for me, I know some people that do. Recently, my father-in-law toted down his welder and torch from Fort Worth so that we could make my bottle tree and I could have the most “Austin-y” yard on my street.

We made the tree out of rebar on Saturday, and even took a break to attend the Circle Brewing grand opening party.

We cut a thick piece of rebar in half to act as the main trunk and then cut the thin pieces of rebar to varying lengths to make the branches.  And of course by “we” I mean my father-in-law. He also heated up the rebar so that I could bend it and he welded all the pieces together.

Welding and torch setup:

Bending some branches on the tree:

Cutting branches in action:

A certain husband had to hold up the bottle tree for quite a while once it got unweildy:

The following day, they set the main trunk piece in some concrete in the front yard amongst our cedar trees:

After the concrete had some time to set, I added the bottles I’ve collected for it so far.

My bike basks in the shade of the bottle tree:

Try to ignore our messy garage in the background and what appears to be dead grass everywhere:

And finally, a close up:

Yep, it’s awesome. I’ve got room to grow as I get more bottles.

A HUGE thanks to my father-in-law and husband for humoring me and creating a bottle tree for me!

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January 19, 2011

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Crafts, home, Home Improvement, Pets, sewing

Also, spoiling cats

Along the lines of my post yesterday about spoiling my dog, I thought I’d share how we spoil our cats.

Recently we renovated our living and dining rooms. In the process we’ve replaced some of our furniture. And now this is what the cats have:

How did we get to this point?

We had a stand-alone cat perch that Mojo loved to play one. It was leopard print colored and didn’t really match the new improved decor.

My husband suggested that we make cat shelves up the wall. Being the sucker I am (and recognizing the chance to get rid of the leopard print) I agreed! And then here’s what you do:

  • Buy some sturdy shelves and brackets at Ikea
  • Cut them to size for cats
  • Wrap a long 1” x 4” board with sisal rope (they love scratching sisal rope!)
  • Attach all to wall at reasonable intervals, all the way up to the vaulted ceiling
  • Sew not one but two cat beds and velcro them to the shelves
  • Feel great satisfaction when you find cats sleeping up there. Ok, so really only Mojo goes up unprompted but if you lure Carston up he’ll lay there. Annie doesn’t go up at all. I blame her lack of claws.