Tags
cake plate pedestal, candle stick pedestal, recycled bottles used for decoration, Victorian dishes, wine glasses used as candle holder
Hopefully, spring has made the same appearance for you that it has made here in North Carolina. Even if it is slow in coming to your area, you know it is on the way. Take comfort in that thought! Around here, with spring comes my desire to spruce up the house in new and little ways.
I was looking around my home the other day and I spied some easy and free ways to decorate for spring. Take, for example, this new use for glass candlesticks and a cake plate. I took them out of the cupboard and used them as display items in the sunroom.
The cake plate in the center belonged to my maternal grandmother. Since I think it belonged to her mother before that, it is well over one hundred years old! Right now, it is a pedestal for an urn full of sea shells. Who says that urns are only for plants? The glass candle sticks on each side are holding pieces of coral.
A few months ago, I bought some spray paint that transformed an empty wine bottle into what looks like mercury glass.
The tallest bottle in the back is the one that I sprayed with the Krylon mirror paint.
My cousin, Kathy, gave me the idea for this next bottle. In her window sill in Iowa she has a row of clear glass bottles that have been filled with water and food coloring has been added. It looks like stained glass when the sun shines through the colored water. I made one very quickly last evening.
I soaked the label off of the bottle above, but in the case of this balsamic vinegar bottle, I left the label on and added a dried rose from a Christmas bouquet. This is two for one recycling!
I visited ideas that others have tried along the same line as the examples above. You can use clear bottles with food coloring added to get the same look as this line up of colored glass bottles.
I want to share a photo with you that is part of my family’s archives. My grandfather opened a general store in Moulton, Iowa in 1898. This picture, taken in 1904, shows the dishes that he offered for sale.
I wish that the photo were in color for I think that the rose, blue, purple, red, and green dishes must have been so wonderful to see. The fluted rims and the hobnail sides were just so pretty. Could this be part of the reason that I love dishes and all glassware? In about 1972 I found one of the glazed white pitchers and bowls buried under boxes in the basement of this store. Maybe it was the only one to survive from this treasure trove of dishes!
Turn a wine glass or champagne flute upside down to make a candle holder. How simple is that?
Now, you can look at the recycling bin in a new way and at the same time think of double duty for other pieces of glassware in your home.
Create and be happy!
deborahwoodmurphy 