An addendum.

In answer to the question about my bottle collection from my last post...



I picked up these bottles at the Shrimp Festival in Fernandina year before last. I love anything old, but old bottles for some reason are so cool to me. So I decided to paint them and hang them from the trees in our backyard. This became quite an endeavor. I thought painting them on the inside would be best so that rain and dirt wouldn't ruin the paint. I thought- I'll just pour the paint in, swish it around, pour out the excess, and whamo! But no. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems when it comes to art projects. The first paint I used- a glass paint- was so translucent, you could hardly see it. The second was better, but still wouldn't coat entirely so I had to break my paintbrush all funky to get in through the opening and reach the creases at the top and bottom and stop to blow it dry with a hairdryer every few minutes (otherwise all the paint fell to the bottom and none would stick to the sides). Then after having them on the trees for a week or so, I realized- Hey! Rain water can fall in through that little hole in the top! Der. So I had to get corks for them. Rain still gets in through the cork though, so I have to drain them every once in a while.

So, in short, it was a process, but I love them! I used copper wire to hang them from the branches, being careful to hang them from differing heights to ensure that they wouldn't be able to swing into each other with all our fierce wind storms here in Florida. And, so far, so good. None have broken and they've stayed put! I hope to start working on our other trees soon!

Thanks for asking!!!