My hanging candle lantern hooks project

Early this spring Nick and I came upon one of those awesome country yard sales

down the road from us that makes me giddy with frugal joy.

I was able to buy 7 of these assorted candle lanterns for a mere $.50 each (and the

perfect bird feeder too for the same price.) But how was I going to use them on

our lovely back deck?

So I pulled out my trusty coil of 9 gauge aluminum wire we use for all our

 hanging vases and other aluminum wire items we sell in our Etsy shop.

With my favorite 27 year old pliers I came up with this design (which we also

make earrings similar too.)

Then hammered it with my hammer and anvil to make it stronger.

Put the hook on the lanterns…

and hung them up on the handy support rods that run across our porch overhang,

This is the delightful view out our kitchen window.

The cheapest sort of crafty Wolverine claws boy toy ever

Max is obsessed with Wolverine these days. (Not that he doesn't still love all things Spiderman too.)He asked me to make him wolverine claws. He's been seeing the ad for them on TV. So he told me to make them out of paper and cut them out and use tape. Okey dokey then.


Here he is vogueing with his claws. Pay no attention to Wolverines pee soaked pants. He's still working on his potty training issues. I suppose it is sort of wolfy to be covered in pee.

Then he told me to upgrade them by making them with card board. he was right. It makes a much sturdier product. Henry wanted some too.

Henry lost his first two teeth this week. They are the bottom front two. The new ones were already coming in behind them so he didn't get the classic gap toothed 6 year old look we were going for.