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Wine Bottle Luminary

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  Bottle cutting is a thing and to be completely honest, I'm not very good at it.   The instructions make it sound so easy...etch the bottle, alternate hot and cold, the bottle breaks along the etching.  Simple enough...except I had 3 bottles break and NOT along the etching!  Sorry, no pics.  Fortunately, the 4th one broke the way it was intended: Look at that!  Perfection! No worries.   I promise to drink more wine so I can get better at this hobby. Welcome to  The Sustainable Pinterest  Challenge , a group of bloggers who are challenged to recreate a pin from Pinterest focused on sustainability. Many thanks to  Julie from Sum of Their Stories  for hosting. This month's theme is 'Upcycle' and my inspiration came from this pin , but I decided to 'kick it up a notch' and use more of the bottle.   This is the bottle cutter I use. After cutting the bottle, I used wet sandpaper to smooth the edge. I also had a piece of sandpaper flat on the table and spun the raw ed
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Not Just an Ashtray Stand

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  As soon as I laid eyes on it I knew what this sad little ashtray stand could become, and I had ALL of the pieces to make it happen.  How often does that happen?  W elcome to the 'Do It Over' Designers blog hop.  We are a group of bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/DIY.  I'm happy to host this hop and I hope you'll visit everyone to see what they have to share with you.  Their links will be listed at the end of this post. This is what I found: Dirty, damaged - you know, the usual things I find! As I started sanding, the burn marks became more apparent: The glass ashtray was either broken or lost and someone decided to put out their smokes on the wood. Ugh!  After the whole thing was sanded, it was sprayed with shellac. I was going to paint it white and no one wants 'bleed marks'. Out came the white chalk paint.  (Just a sidenote, everything was sealed with a clear spray after painting.) The plan?  Make this a side table for my balcony and a stand for a bird c
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This & That - Summer 2022

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  I haven't written a This & That post since last November.  Time sure does fly, so let's catch up a bit!   As you may already know, we sold our house last Fall. The market was working in our favor and the stairs were becoming a problem between my knees and my vertigo.  We are living in an apartment and still are unsure of our next move.  There's a lot going on - the economy, the housing market, 'knee stuff', etc.  Stay tuned.  If anything big happens, I'll let you know!   On with the rest of the news.... In May, we went to the Tulip Festival.  The tulips were gorgeous! We also visited the bridge where we were married.   Isn't it beautiful? So many memories!    With Yard Sale Season upon us I shared a post with my 'top tips' in the Ultimate Yard Sale Guide.   Be sure to check it out if you missed it. I've been to a few sales already and since space is at a premium right now, I'm concentrating on 'smalls'.  Here's a peek at a
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