Saturday, July 30, 2011

Wall o' wine, part deux

First things first.  We sold the house.  We signed the contract Friday morning, and the closing is tentatively set for August 25.  That's less than a month away.  So I'm no longer freaking out about selling the house.  I'm freaking out about packing Hannah up and moving her into the dorm, packing Jim up and getting him to school 5 hours away, and packing up the rest of the house in 26 days.

Freaking out!!!

But that hasn't stopped me from doing nothing all day today.  That's a lie.  I slept in, looked at houses on line, went out to breakfast at Uncle Tom's Pancake House with John and Jim, and now I'm blogging to you fine people while listening to the guys laugh at a ridiculously bad Nicholas Cage movie in the next room.  Later today, Diane and I are getting pedicures and we're grilling steaks on the grill to celebrate everyone being in the same state for once.  Let's call this the calm before the approaching storm.

And let's talk about my wall o' wine idea.  Again, here is the "sketch" (and I do use that term loosely) of my idea..


After being relentlessly mocked at work for my drawing abilities, I decided to do something different.  


Ta-da!  This is another thing I did this morning!  Maybe this is a better representation of what I want my wall to look like.  

Now I have to stop wasting time.  The official packing needs to begin...   now.

 

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Wall o' wine

Everyone who knows me is well aware of my love for red wine.  My collection of wine corks is legendary.  My corks have even been used in preschool projects (although my dear friend and preschool teacher Marian went out and bought corks this year, because she didn't think I had enough...  Oh Marian.  You silly gal.)

I always save corks from special occasions.  I always drop them in my purse, thinking that one day I will frame them with a caption of where we drank the wine and what the event was.  What usually happens is that I find the cork in my purse 2 months later, can't remember it's significance, and toss it in the pile with the everyday corks.


Who knows?  Maybe my corks will be worth something some day.  Twist-off caps aren't just for Boone's Farm anymore.

Anyway, I have always wanted to use the corks for some kind of decorating project.  Chances are our new house in St. Louis (if we ever sell this house and officially get there) might have a bar area in the basement and since we are never moving ever again, this is my opportunity to get creative.  

This idea came to me, and I want to get it out there so that a) someone reading this will hold me accountable and push me to actually do it and b) I'll remember what the heck my idea was in the first place.  Stay with me.  

I want a wall of wine.

The corks will be cut  - some lengthwise in half, others a number of times to make little disks.  They will have to be glued onto sections of a material that is hard enough to hold some weight, but flexible enough to attach easily to a wall.  I'll talk to Corey about that.  He'll know what to use.  

Next, with a $45 tool, I found out how to cut wine bottles in half for drinking glasses.  Drinking glasses are cool, but I want to cut wine bottles in half lengthwise.  Can that be done?  Probably not.  What I might have to do is break the bottles and arrange the pieces in a mosaic style along with the corks.  With the little pieces of glass - or pieces of red stained glass - I could even arrange it so that it would look like wine flowing out of a tipped over bottle.  I might have to break up a wine glass or two.  Wine has to flow into something.

Now I think this may have to be done on large tiles.  With broken glass, I would want to put some sort of resin over the top for safety and easier cleaning, and I would think that would keep the corks from getting dusty and yucky too.  Here is my VERY rough idea of what I want it to look like.  Fill in rest of the corks and add more bottles and glasses.  


Wow.  I draw like a 4 year old.  But you get the drift, right?  I'm going to do it.  It may look like crap and never touch my wall, but I'm going to give it a try.  Look for photos of the real thing in a about a year or two!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

back at Clay Knob Farm...



You've met Vinnie - now it's time to meet the other critters that live with Dennis and Christy down on Clay Knob Farm.

Here is Sissy, lovin on Aunt Joyce.  What a ham.






And Tommy.  Tommy is an awesome dog.  He is tenacious in everything he does.  He's older now, and moves much slower than he used to.  But he will always be on my top 10 favorite dog list.


You'll have to forgive me.  I don't remember the names of the horses.  They were really lovable, but Chris will have to remind me of their names.  

They posed so nicely in their stalls.  Look at this one playing the camera!  You can almost see her batting her eyes!


This one seemed a little more curious...


These two cracked me up.  They had to put the twine there because pony #1 would open the door for pony #2.  Look at them!  They're besties!


Oscar is a new addition to the barn and has settled in quite nicely.


This guy was more curious about me than I was about him.


Oscar's buddy.  Geez.  Can't remember his name either!!


Chris has some VERY large horses.  Frankly, they intimidate the heck out of me, but they love her and act like big puppies around her.



I love going there.  I can feel myself decompressing when I drive up to their house and park under their huge Catalpa tree.  
I have a great family - some with 2 legs, others with 4.