Glass block lamp

I have been seeing glass blocks alot on pinterest these days and I thought 

"Hey that looks simple enough, just drill a hole and shove lights in side, no problem"

And it was simple until we tried to drill a hole into a glass block.

We tried a masonry drill bit... no luck

Went to the Menards and bought a glass drill bit... no problem right... wrong!

The glass bit gets hot so we have to get a watering can and slowly pour the water while we drill the hole.

Even the water doesn't help everything, we even used cutting oil to help the bit cut better.

Finally, we got a hole large enough to fit lights into.

Next step, shove the string of lights inside.

Which was easy until the lights didn't go where I wanted them to go, so we used a screw driver to try and gingerly move the lights to where I wanted them.  It sort of worked but eventually I got the lights to where I could work on the outside of the block.

The final step is to paint on the outside.  I chose to paint flowers in one corner to cover up where I didn't get a lot of lights and add a welcome to the top to make it friendly. (that is if a glass block can even be friendly)

Here's the finished product with and without the painting on the outside.

                            

Give these glass blocks a try if you have the patience.

Wishing Well

Josh and I decided we needed to do something large again so why not a wishing well right?

This project was inspired by a similar wishing well that I saw online but like always we didn't have any plans, so we make it up as we go along.  We used 4x4 posts in the corners of the base with 2x4's along the top and bottom to make a sturdy box that wouldn't tip over with the upper weight of the roof. and covered the box with planed pallet wood.

For the roof we used more 2x4's for the t-shape on the sides and pallet wood on the cross pieces that support the leftover shingles from our new roof.  

Then you add the rod in the middle to make it look like more wishing well than just a weird box with a tall roof.  Although this picture doesn't have a bucket we did eventually add one which makes it even better.

We have made another wishing well since this one and I like it just as much. 

Hope you enjoy!

Meet Tippy the turtle.

Hello everyone,

 Tippy is made of a water pump (this lovely green thing to the left), a couple soup cans and a whole lot of metal nuts in various sizes and just as much hot glue.






Just add a little paint and personality to the shell and you have my new favorite critter Tippy who I don't have to feed or pick up after.

Meet Tippy!

Scrap ladders

     As much as I hate when scrappers come take my "garbage/ future project" from near my garage, I don't mind if they take it when it is clearly by the garbage can next to the curb.  That being said I found these 4 wonderfully paint splattered ladders, 3 medium size scaffolding, and a large scaffolding on a scrap search the other day.  

 

My idea originally was to use some of the pallet wood and scrap lumber to make a plant stand.  But when I got everything home I noticed that the scaffolding fit nicely onto the ladders and extended the amount of space I had to put flowers.  I got really lucky because the scaffolding just fit between the existing structure in the back yard.  By just fit I mean the bottom would ONLY go in strait not diagonally. (ie. scooting the ladders out to put the board on and then scoot it back in between the vertical boards.)

 We used old tins as planters to keep with the rustic look.

As a small bonus project I used one of the ladders to hold up a plant that is forever falling down under it's own weight in the summer.  We call this plant the Flamingo Plant because it has pretty pink flowers that look like flamingo heads before they pop. Don't let the pretty flowers fool you though because the stems are full of thorns.

Time to have some light fun.

According to Josh every kid should make a lamp in school using a stuffed animal.  Sadly, I missed out on this activity. It's probably because I stayed out of the shop classes and away from sharp objects.  So to rectify this lapse in lamp making we set out to make a lamp using an stuffed Eeyore (I'm not saying who had it).  This was not one of our more economical projects because we had to buy all the lamp parts to make it work.  Each one cost at least $15, which isn't a lot in the long run, but if you compare it to most of our other projects which were basically free it does seem like a lot.

Here's Eeyore

 And because Eeyore was so darn cute we just had to make his friends.  We found Pooh and Tigger at the local Goodwill for a dollar.

The hardest friend to find was surprisingly his little buddy Piglet.  It took us a couple of weeks but we eventually spotted him at store for a couple dollars.

Now all the friends are together again.  They had such a good time they decided to take their shades off and throw a party.

 Not really, I just for got to take a picture with all the shades on them. So this while they were still in the garage waiting for us to find a shade or four.

Let's Plant

Like I may have said in the past, I don't have a green thumb, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to plant plants (man, that sound's weird) around the house.  Today Josh and I decided he needed planter boxes to plant tomatoes in.  So here we go with our scrap pallet wood.

First, I laid out the wood for all of the sides to make sure they would fit correctly.  This sounds really simple but if your pallets were anything like ours, the boards came in different widths and not all necessarily strait either. I decided not to worry about making the top of the planter even, opting for the rustic look.

Next, we laid out some of the short broken wood from out pallets to keep the wood together, and nailed them into place with our trusty nail gun.

     

The third step was standing up the sides and nailing them to the base.

Here is the final product, minus the dark stain we put on it.  We made another one because it was fairly simple so now Josh has two tomato plants growing outside his house.

Candy Machines!

Who doesn't love a little candy now and then?  Well Josh and I definitely do, so we decided that we needed to recreate the wooden candy machine that he made when he was younger.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find the original so we used THIS ONE from Instructables to make ours. 

All you will need is some small pieces of wood and an empty jar with it's lid to make this quick project.

It was so simple we made another one a couple of weeks later without the directions.  Plus, we decided it wasn't cute enough as it was, so I painted a couple of m&m's on it too!

            

 Check back later to see another candy machine we are making using an old flower pot.