Wine Bottle Flattens for Second Life With Cheese

My husband and I woke up this morning REALLY excited, and no, not just the sexy kind of excited....

The day before, we put 2 empty wine bottles in the kiln to fuse flat.  It took the WHOLE day to heat these to get the results we were looking for.  Several different ramps of heating went from 10 am to 8pm, and finally we turned off the kiln to cool off before we slept.  This morning we hurried to the kiln to see the results and were thrilled to see it worked!  We have the power to flatten a wine bottle!  Of the two we put in, the clear bottle (a fine cabernet) had a bit of opaque texture going on, but the green bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" worked perfectly.  Here are the before and after results of the two.

I've given the green bottle a little beautifying with some chain and glass beads.

Here's the clear bottle.  Not quite good enough to use.

Here's the green bottle, fresh from the kiln.

The Pet Rock Returns from the 70's to Replace the Cupcake

It's my son's birthday tomorrow, and I am a terrible mother.  I forgot to plan for something special to give his classmates at the end of the school day.  This morning, knowing that the teacher does not like the parents to give out cupcakes or candies, he asks what else can he give them...pencils?  erasers? granola bar?   I am running around trying to get ready to take him to school and it dawns on me...what's cheap, in the house and fun?  Rocks.  I love rocks.  We've got rocks everywhere.

I show him a google image of a pet rock, one of my favorite crafts of the 1970's.  He goes for it!  Out he runs and quickly chooses 31 perfect rocks from the garden and we quickly wash them before heading out the door at 8:10 a.m.

I'm excited.  I had scheduled "art time" for myself today, and this may not be of the same calibre of painting a picture or making a fused glass piece, but I'm up for it!  I painted each one alien green, drying them off in the oven between coats.  Then, with a paint pen, I gave them a few different faces, amazed at how each one seemed to take on a personality of it's own.

While all the paint was drying, I found a cute "how to care for your rock" instructional piece, which I included with each rock.

This has truly been one of the more fun hours of my week, and I can't wait to see my son's face when he sees all the different creatures he can give to his classmates.