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.

Pretty things revamped

Last week I had the time because of slow sales and the perfect overcast weather to revamp our Hanging Vases and take new pictures.I decided to stop making them with the glass cabochon glued to the front spiral for a variety of reasons. It takes more time to glue them on and requires me leaving the house and going to the studio away from the kids and using nasty E-6000 glue which stinks and isn't safe to inhale.Yuck.This means I can make them more quickly and lower the price a little. So that's what I did.



I also added some of the colorful glass that I have to our Hanging Vase selection. Like this Teal Pyramid Celtic Spirals and Swirls Hanging Vase.



And I finally found just the right rustic spot to take the photos on our front yard fence gate.

I experimented with hanging them from our cherry tree too.

I also had to readjust shipping prices. They require a lot of bubble wrap and then I wrap them in cardboard for extra protection and then we use recycled stryofoam popcorn. The cost of priority shipping went up this past spring so it was time to raise the price to cover the cost of shipping. I hate raising prices. But I figure lowering the price on the vases makes up for it.

Tomorrow I am off to sell at the Eugene Saturday Market. I'm hoping sales are good which will make up for suffering in the heat.

Fall Inspiration

I found myself picking some of our grapes and it suddenly occured to me that they would be the perfect backdrop for our hanging vases. The weather was perfectly overcast and towards the end of the day. The Wide Flast Hanging Vase with Purple Accents
seemed ripe for pickin' hanging next to those clumps of grapes.


The haybales "spoke" to me too.


Heart Shaped Hanging Vase with Blue Accents