Welcome to my
Perfectly Imperfect Life..........

Friday, December 21, 2012

Holiday Lights


We went out to see the Holiday Lights in our town the other night.
Here are some of the highlights

On the corners of Main St public works switches out the regular white lights for Christmas Colored ones.
All the Main St trees get lights.
I love standing at one end and looking all the way down it.
The towns Christmas Tree








 We always wonder about these Palm Trees




 Then we came home for hot chocolate and homemade
Chocolate, White Choclate, and Pecan Cookies.

There is still time to enter my giveaway for
The new version of MyMemories Suite v4 Scrapbooking Software!!
Just in time for all those Christmas photos!
Much easier than dragging out all your scrapbooking supplies!

*hugs*

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Holiday Vignettes and a Big Thank You!


Like I said in a prior post,
I am minimizing decorations this year.
I promised to show a few vignettes I placed around the house,
so without further adieu ...
Here's my conservatory all decked out

 A forest of bottle brush trees
 a dusting of snow and rounds out with a snowman. 
Our white Deer lays on a layer of snow
 surrounded by vintage ornaments
and baubles on the mantel.  
 Pinecones and cinnamon sticks fill a
wooden bowl on the kitchen table.
Smells sooo good each time I walk in there.
 Frosty holds a candle on one side,
while vintage silver ornaments
shimmer on the other.
A sign sits in an old window that couldn't be more apropos.
A grouping of Snowmen welcome visitors in the foyer.


I was so excited to win a giveaway from Meri at imagimeris .
She made two gorgeous Wreaths and I was lucky enough to win one!
It arrived in perfect shape and just so beautiful! 
So many things to look at and find
full of glorious vintage ornaments
each time I look at it I find something new!
see what I mean!!!
Thank you so much Meri, you did an amazing job!
I've hung it in my kitchen, it's the first thing you see.
Thank you Meri!

*hugs* and



Knocking-off Some Chimes


I have the best daughter-in-law!
Whenever she sees something different/cute she sends me a photo and says "You can make that!!" In this photo she meant the mason jar chimes.

Then I proceed to figure it out.
It usually doesn't come out exactly as what she saw because I always add my own twist by using what I have in my Treasure Pile.

I had just came across how to tint jars on Pinterest. There are several examples of how to do it. I combined Its Over Flowing and Creative Little Daisy.

I gathered my ingredients:
Jars
Mod Podge ~ 1/4 cup
water ~ 1 Tablespoon hot  
gel food coloring ~ to your liking
 (I didn't have gel food coloring, so I used what I had on hand) 
Mix all well.
*************
Pour some of the Mod Podge mixture into your bottle. Swirl it around to cover the entire glass on the inside Keep swirling and pouring to your hearts content or until you run out of jars or you need to mix more- which ever comes first  
Place a piece of aluminum foil on a plate then cover with
several paper towels and allow the bottles to drain for five to 10 minutes. I used newspaper and it worked just fine.

Set them on the counter, upright and wait about 5 more minutes, allowing the extra paint that did not drip out to settle on the bottom. Jars and bottles with a flat edge along the bottom will work the best for this technique. The bottom of my bottles have a little excess Mod Podge. If you try to tilt the jar again and pour it out, you’ll end up with streaks along the sides of the bottle.

I placed them up side down on wax paper 
Set the oven to it’s lowest temperature.
I checked on them about 20 minutes later or 
more until dry—transparent.

 Be sure the excess on the bottom has fully dried, too, before tilting the bottle.
Caution! These will be hot, be sure to use a pot holder. 
Remove from the oven and cool. Remove the gummy texture from the top of the bottles. If you prefer a darker color, do it again in the same jar…just be sure to cool the bottle first. 
This is exactly what I did because they came out to light the first time. Much better second time around.
I new I need lids for the tops and bottoms, so I E600'd used lids to some rings that needed to be replaced 



In hindsight I should have made the holes in the lids prior to gluing them. I ended up picking from the inside out because I didn't want to put pressure down on the lid that was glued and possibly popping it out. I just used and ice pick to make the holes.  I ended up painting them black. I used the heaviest fishing line I could find to add the copper tubes (which were also in my Treasure Pile) they were left over from when I made Solar Lanterns for the garden.  I used clear silicone to adhere lids to bottles. Silicone can handle the fluctuating temperatures outside better than anything else. Let cure for a couple days to be sure it's nice and stuck.
I made mine as the prototype first. That's why you see rusty tubing ;)  
I found a handle from a petite fore dish and used that for the clapper. I have it pulled to the side so you can see what I'm talking about. 
A Dragonfly catches the breeze to make it chime. 
Then I made some for gifts.

I found a few cheese shaker tops in my Treasures, so I painted them black and used them for the clappers on these.
I came across some metal filigree pieces that had a hole in them.
I dug through my beads only to find crystals that fit pretty good inside that hole. SO when the Sun shines I;'m hoping they get some prism effects going.


 Not as good as the ones she saw but I like the way they turned out...and that's all that matters anyway, right?
Hoping the recipients like them


*hugs*


Update

HomeBNC featured my chimes in their
50+ Ways to Repurpose Your Old Mason Jars
Other posts you may be interested in:

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