Glass & Candles

One of my fellow crafty pals picked up a load of free glassware at our local dump's swap shop for me recently, so I decided to try and do some glass painting with the pieces.  I made a ginormous mess in the kitchen that lasted for days, to the point where I was reduced to eating cheese & crackers for dinner because I couldn't fix a decent meal.  

The glass painting was extremely slow going and to be honest I'm not terribly excited about the final results.  Not my best work at all.  I encountered some issues with the alcohol ink that bummed me out.  They dried cloudy for some reason which was distressing.  I cleaned the glass with rubbing alcohol like you are supposed to but it didn't come out right.  

While I was waiting for stuff to dry, I made these beachy candles.  I'd gone down to the beach near my house that morning to get sand and stones.  The shells are mostly from Florida, brought back for me by friends.  The glass is, of course, purchased. 

For the large one, I glued a tall candle already in glass in the center before I filled the sides.  Then added the rope to the top. 

I have a craft show coming up on June 13 here in Buzzards Bay, so I wanted to burn one of the treasure candles to make sure that the wax didn't leak out of the bottom like it did when they were poured.  I wasn't going to sell these if they leaked and this one didn't.  

It took about 2 hours to uncover the glass.  If you fish it out quickly enough and wipe it off, the liquid wax comes right off.  Same with the shells.

I also made these for my craft fair.  Mini bottles with beach glass chips on chains.

Another good friend of mine posted a link to a tutorial on how to turn old bottles into picture frames. HERE is the link.  She also provided me with a bunch of empty wine bottles for me to use too!  I decided to use a wedding picture since I had a spare copy of it on hand.  First I poured in a bunch of sand, then rolled up the pic and dropped it down.  This is where I kind of ran into a problem.  The pic did stay against the glass because I kept the bottle angled when the pic was put in.  But it's also below the curved part so there's nothing you can use to push it into the sand.  All I could do was pour more sand in, then start dropping rocks, shells and glass behind the picture to keep it upright.  I found the purple thing (which is on elastic stretch cord) on clearance at Michael's, added the top bead to the cork and I had a string of strung glass pearls in a bead box.  

Back showing the glass and stuff.

I'm not sure how much else I will be able to do before the show next week.  Life has become extremely busy, stressful and complicated in our little world with a lot of family issues so there hasn't been a lot of time to devote to preparation, or time to devote to taking walks, beachcombing or day trips for that matter.  This year is going by just way, way too fast.

Mayflower and May Flowers

The Mayflower II was in dry dock down in Mystic, CT all winter long for continuing repairs and was towed back to Plymouth a couple of weeks ago.  I was monitoring the tug's progress on the Marine Tracker website and it looked pretty far away still, when I left the house.  I thought I had time to do a couple of quick errands.  But when I finally parked and was walking through the park, I saw the top of the masts going under the railroad bridge! I broke into a sprint, which is no easy feat for me (and let's face it, my boobs are just way too big for that nonsense) and this was as far as I got before it passed by.  The tug was moving at breakneck speed and I'm guessing they had a tailwind and the current was flowing that way.  

So I was disappointed that I didn't get some better shots, but at least I saw it come through in 2013.

I finally remembered to bring my camera to my mom's to shoot pictures of the rhododendrons because they are fabulous.  When I was a kid, my dad kept the area across the driveway mowed, so as to have a 'nature trail'.  It's pretty overgrown now but you can still get back there and the rhodies are still thriving.  This one is ginormous.  It's my favourite.

Another one along the driveway.

And another near the end of the driveway.

This one is kind of stunted cause a giant pine tree has grown around it but the few red flowers are still gorgeous.

This one is off the driveway in the old nature trail.

This is a very unusual rhodie in that it has a lovely fragrance to it, where all the others do not.

There's the back of the purple one that I featured first.

When I got home, my hot pink azalea was in it's glory so I took a few snappies of that as well.

Now if only the wretched green inchworms and pollen would go away!

Simply a Spiffing Spring

The flowers are blooming and everything looks and smells so awesome, finally.  I didn't think these days would ever come.  I truly thought the snow would be around till June.  

This is a dogwood in our yard.  

Also in my yard, no idea what they are but they are a pretty shade of light purple.

Pretty pink bush next to the driveway.

My only complaint with lilacs is that they just don't last long enough!  The yard smelled delicious.

Another pretty pink flowered bush.

Another shot of the pink one on the driveway.

We have quite a bank of lilacs on the one side of the yard.  Love them so much.

I don't know what these are.....I love them.  This is in a neighbour's front yard.

Walked from my house down to the Canal and as far as the half mile marker and back.  Probably a good 3 mile walk total.

This is new....it was built last fall.

Back in the park downtown.  This statue is called The Fisherman.

I don't know what these pink trees are called but they are gorgeous.

More neighbourhood flowers.

Getting In A Last Trip to Scusset

It's that time of year again here on Cape Cod:  Tourist season.  That means come Memorial Day weekend, the beaches will be packed and parking will cost $10, unless I feel like ponying up $25 for a beach sticker.  But I don't like crowds and there is no glass to be found when they are here (they steal it all!), so I just avoid the beaches until September.  If I have a hankerin' to go to Scusset during the summer, I will pay the $10.  Or just park near the Canal and walk.  

The day I went, it was somewhat foggy.  The fog was coming up off the water and the sand bars.

This part was cloudy/foggy too, but behind me it was sunny.

Glass finds were pretty good.

I so love low tide.  I was tempted to shed my shoes and socks but I'm always sorry when I do b/c I can't get the sand off my feet and it's uncomfortable inside the shoes. 

Weather was a little unsettled.  When I turned my back to the water, the breeze coming off the dunes and land was hot, but when I turned to face the water, the breeze was quite cold.

Lots of small pieces today but any piece is a good find.

Li'l Lady Bug.

I was going to take this home with me but the bottom side was covered with ants.

There were tons of small dead ants at the edges of the sand bars near the breakwater.  Billions of them.  I'm seeing a lot of anthills in my yard and driveway too.

I cut my walk a little short and didn't head down to part of Sagamore Beach because I'd heard we might have thunderstorms.  That never did pan out.  These are the finds.  The pearly thing at the top is an operculum.  3 white chips, 11 brown, 4 cobalt, 2 pale green and 10 green.