Photo Bottles

I think you're all familiar with my love of glueing twine to things - exhibit A, exhibit B, and exhibit C. I also love taking photos while on vacation. So when I came across a project by Kirstin at Craftiments.com that combined these two things, I knew I had to copy it.

And it came just in time for the summer edition of the Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Sherry at Young House Love and Katie at Bower Power. The Pinterest Challenge is a get-off-your-butt-and-make-that-thing-you-saw-on-Pinterest call to arms. This edition is also being co-hosted by Kate at Centsational Girl and Michelle at Ten June.

Head on over to their sites to see what everyone's been up to, and to add your own project if you'd like. I can't wait to see the other projects - this challenge always results in a dozen more inspirational pins.

So let's get to it shall we?

This is the project I decided to tackle. And here is my inspiration. Isn't that photo bottle gorgeous? I love the old-time feel of the black and white photo, and the added texture the twine gives it.

I had so many different bottles stored away that I couldn't limit myself to just one. Not to mention the thousands of pictures I had to choose from - every one is a winner, right?

I started with a plain clear wine bottle, washed and with the label removed.

I printed out some of my favourite pictures, editing them as black and white with a vignette border. The two pictures of the dogs are from our trip to PEI last summer, and the photo of Tom & me is from our recent trip to Cuba. How cute is that shot of the dogs bouncing across the sand? They were in heaven.

I began by hot-glueing the twine to the bottle starting from the bottom - about 12-15 rows. I then repeated it starting at the top and wrapping downwards.

I added sand to one of them to give it some weight. It's also cool because the sand in the bottle is from the same beach as the dogs are running across in the picture.

I will admit that the picture is mod podged onto the bottle rather than it being inside. The photo was being stubborn and wouldn't uncurl. I got frustrated and slapped some glue on it, and then sprayed it with a high gloss finisher. I'd like to do some more and actually put the photos inside next time.

The tall bottle is a mason jar glued to a candlestick, with a finial attached to the top of the lid. It started out as an apothocary jar project but I never got around to refinishing the wood. I had painted it, then started to sand it off because I didn't like it, but then never went back to it. The worn, half-sanded finish fits in perfectly with this beachy, rustic look.

I found the pattern for the tags with google and printed them on coloured cardstock. I then wrinkled them up and sanded the edges to give them a more aged look. The tags state the name of the beach and the date the photo was taken.

This project was a lot of fun and one I would like to repeat as we take more vacations. The one benefit of having the photo on the inside is that it can be swapped out when you stumble across a new favourite.

(the "beach" frame in some of the pictures is from this project)

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I'm linking up here this week!

Favourite Things Friday

I discovered a few new favourite things this week. Check them out and see if you don't get hooked too.

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Tim Hortons Frozen Lemonade. I've never been a fan of lemonade (or lemon anything, really) but on a hot day...this is one of the best things I've ever tasted. So refreshing. It has the perfect level of sweetness, and I like that they use a lot of crushed ice. Nothing worse than ordering a slushy drink and have it be mostly liquid. Thanks to Meghan for bringing some for "the boys", otherwise I probably would never have known about it. This may be my go-to drink for the summer.

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Kelsey's Deep Fried Mars Bar. Now this isn't something that I would eat every day, but I had to try it. It's a Mars bar wrapped in an egg roll-like wrapper, deep-fried and decorated with a sprinkling of icing sugar. It's also served with a small dish of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce drizzled on top. The inside was a little too sweet - but that didn't stop me from eating the whole thing (with some help from Tom). I honestly think the crust is the best part. Just give me a plate of fried wrappers with some chocolate sauce to dip them in and I'd be a happy camper.

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The Staybowlizer. We bought this at Lee Valley Tools last night. It's made of silicone so it's heat and cold resistant, and it turns any two pots or a pot and a bowl into a double-boiler. It also holds a bowl in place on the counter if you need both hands to pour or you need it to stay steady while you wisk. None of our pots were purchased at the same time so they never fit together properly. This is going to make melting chocolate for pretzels, or steaming Tom's favourite dim sum pork buns so much easier.

What new discoveries have you made recently?

Going Out of Business

As you may or may not know, Target is coming to Canada in 2013. (Happy Dance!) They are taking over most of the Zellers locations, including the one closest to my house. Because of this transition, Zellers is selling off everything in their stores, furniture and fixtures included, and most items are 10-30% off. I'm sure the discounts will get deeper as the closing date nears, but for now I thought I'd take a wander through and see what they had. (Tom should have known better than to tell me they sell paint.) I'm not a shopaholic by any means, but I do have a very hard time passing up a closing out sale.

I ended up saving about 20% on my purchases all together. Take a gander at some of my finds.

I bought this woven basket to hold the pillow and blankets for the hammock when it's not in use and folded up. The basket is about 18" x 14" x 9" deep. A pretty substantial size. We're always dragging the pillows in and out so it'll be good to have a permanent place for everything.

Of course I had to check out the paint. They mostly have spray paint, with only a few cans of regular paint along the bottom shelf. The selection wasn't huge but I did pick up some more primer - they only had grey - and a can of suede paint in navy blue. Someone had test-sprayed the blue paint so it was already marked down to $1.99. I ended up getting it for $1.19. Best deal of the day.

I also bought a smaller woven basket that matches the first one, to keep the odds and ends on my desk in one place. It's 12" x 8" x 6.5" deep. The shelves in my craft room are filled with boxes and containers, all neatly labelled of course, but there is always a pile of stuff that doesn't go together and is too small to be boxed by itself. Like post-it notes, and lip balm, and an extra computer mouse. You know, important things. Now I can toss them all in the basket and it'll look pretty on my desk.

Did you know that Snyder's makes Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper flavoured pretzels? I did not. That is my favourite chip flavour so you know I had to get some. Not good since I'm gearing up to start a Whole30 program in the next week, but I guess they'll still be waiting for me afterwards. It could happen.

I also bought this leather belt. I bought it because Tom is tired of me borrowing his "good" one all the time. But I only did it because I didn't have one. It's called sharing. But he'd better not even look at my salt & pepper pretzels. Sharing only goes so far.

And I bought ribbon. Of course I bought ribbon. I think I have a ribbon addiction. As I look at the picture below I notice that all of the colours go together. The striped grosgrain even contains most of the other colours. A happy accident.

I also bought some other things - mascara and socks - but they're not so interesting to look at. I'll probably go back again in a couple of months to see what other bargains I can find, or maybe I'll hit up the other Zellers stores in my town (there are at least two more).

What's the best bargain you've found at a closing-out sale? I always wonder about the fixtures - have you ever bought any?