Alternative Gazing Ball

I found an idea on Pinterest to cover an old bowling ball in pennies and place it in your garden.  I loved that it was re-purposing a discarded item and loved that it would be an usual "event" in my garden.  The text said that the copper will help repel slugs and keep your hydrangeas blue.  I'm dubious about both of those -- I think the volume of copper "run-off" would be minimal -- too minimal to have any actual effect -- but it doesn't change the fact that I like the look.

A few weeks ago I spent an entire glorious afternoon poking around in various thrift stores, and lo and behold I found a bowling ball (and bag, let's not forget the bag) for $4.99.  I was like a little kid at Christmas... I snatched it up, and looked around to see if anyone had noticed what a total score it was.  (No.  lol)   For a while I lugged it around the store like a ball and chain... ultimately plopping it into a shopping cart and heading to check out.

This past weekend, partly due to being captive in my home due to the White Rock Marathon (not complaining, you all just keep on running) and mostly due to inclement weather, I lined up projects to do indoors. I picked up some marine glue, scoured the office and house for stores of pennies, and set to work:

Fun for all, I tell you, gluing pennies on a bowling ball... until the bottom of the tube rips and 8 minutes later you realize you have about 3 tablespoons of Herculean strength adhesive globbed down your wrist... Gloves.  Wear gloves.  And a drop cloth wouldn't be a bad idea either...

It's trickier than you might think, getting them all squished in against each other and spaced proportionately.  Thankfully you do have a little bit of time during which you can slide them around before they permanently adhere.  I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for starting on the finger-hole side of the bowling ball to learn the technique, (which, let's be honest who even knew a technique would be involved??) which will most certainly be the side that goes down in the dirt! 

I have it sitting in a mixing bowl with a towel on top to keep it from rolling around my livingroom floor as I work... And now, while I wait for more pennies to magically appear in my house, its on my dining room table.  I'll admit to touching it like a bald man's head when I walk by... it's cold and the pennies feel funny under my hand.

Over time the pennies will develop that copper patina -- how fun is that?  Anyone have any ideas for a brown circa 1970's zippered bowling ball bag?

Needing a Santa

My Saturday night....

Remarkably, this wasn't even all of us -- there were several more in the next room.  We were getting our elfin magic on in anticipation of our neighborhood party on the 17th.  You know, you can be rusty after an entire year...  We had a bus and we ducked into several neighborhood haunts, jingling bells, singing carols (okay only one time) and dancing -- literally with bells on!  Last year when we did it we bumped into another bus of all Santas, but not this year.  Too bad, because that was quite a sight!

Bits of news...

My exterior Christmas lights on my house are unhappy with the rain, (I think we've gotten 4" inches in the last few days) so they are on the fritz - which makes me unhappy...

I made great progress on the Christmas "construction" project that I mentioned in a previous post, but not enough to finish and snap photos.  Again, I'm blaming the rain...

I did get a wreath made; have you priced ready-made wreaths?  They seem ridiculously expensive to me for what you get.  A few weeks ago I bought a strand of pine bough garland 50% off  at Garden Ridge (Hobby Lobby?  They all look the same to me...)  I wrapped it around a coat hanger pulled into a round, and used twist ties to affix it.  Next I added some lights, and some white snow flakes that I had on hand.  I need a red bow, but I know better than to try to make one myself...  Anyway, here's an in-progress photo as I worked on the living room floor:

I was so pleased when I finished it that despite the nasty weather outside I went out and hung it up.  And that's when I figured out that the rain was tripping the circuits for my lights -- alas, the wreath is up, but is not illuminated.  Sigh.