Show Off

Ohh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah: I’m an over-achieving braggart. Got a problem with that?

Oh.  Well, then, you'd better not read this blog.

So that’s the chandelier I made. Me. By hand. Yep: I’m that good.  No, not good enough to have come up with the design myself (it was from the library book Eco-Craft: Recycle-Recraft-Restyle by Susan Wasinger), but still good-enough to follow the directions.  Mostly.

Here are the baby food jars, wrapped in wire. The huge roll of wire cost $7; the baby food jars were free from an acquaintance with a small child.

The wine barrel rings I also got for free, this time from a connection through the farmer’s market who also works at a winery.

I needed one of the rings to be smaller, so this is me cutting it with a scroll saw,

I'm manly!

and here is Bee drilling through it,

HE'S manly!

and here he is riveting it (using a rivet? rivetering it?) back closed.

Is there NO END to his manliness?

All of these steps were surprisingly easy to do, since we happened to have all the proper tools. The hardest part, in fact, was that I had to swallow my pride and admit that, yes, indeed, it was a GREAT thing that Bee saved all these tools for 15 years so that we could finally use them.

Then all I had to do was drill more holes for eye bolts, paint the rings, and hook chains to the eye bolts.

Ta Daah!

So, although the chains, eye hooks, S-hook, nuts and wire were sort of expensive at my local hardware store, this impressive (and you ARE impressed, right?) chandelier was relatively cheap.

Of course, it's sort of a pain to light all those candles and the first one's out by the time the eighteenth one's lit; but, still . . . 

I had it done in time for yesterday's Thanksgiving with the ex-in-laws.  They were suitably impressed.

They were also impressed by the ambiance lighting I had.

a small LED light I'd almost gotten rid of, nestled in a bowl from my kitchen filled with colorful sea glass I've had for years.  Idea also courtesy of Re-Craft.

 AND, since we were smushed into the kitchen to eat, they liked that I hung my fabric panels to block the rest of the kitchen and give us a little cozy eating nook.

(not to mention the icicle lights I artistically threw across the table)

Mostly, I think they were just impressed that the house was relatively clean for them.

I was pretty impressed with that, too.

Dee kindly offered to take Mr. C for the morning to decorate gingerbread houses,

Would you classify his decorating style as "White Trash Modern" or "Neo Clutter"?

so Bee and I had time to do some light cleaning and cooking before our guests arrived.

Which means we spent ALL DAY cleaning and cooking.  Because, despite the fact that everyone was bringing a little something to share, Bee and I still decided to take on making a turkey, mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, homemade French bread for Sweet Potato Crostini, Rhubarb sodas (from a rhubarb simple syrup I'd made and frozen months ago) and Sweet Potato Pecan Pie.

Even at the stove, Bee is MANLY!

It was all delicious, despite the fact that I must have forgotten the salt for the French bread (luckily, the heinous taste was masked once smeared with melted butter and cinnamon, then toasted with sweet potatoes and marshmallows).

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

The good news is that, between showing off for my Halloween party and showing off for Thanksgiving, I think I've burned myself out enough not to show off for awhile.

Although, come to think of it, we may decide to have our semi-annual Holiday Potluck in a few weeks . . . 

Oh, the exhausting over-achieving obsessive-compulsiveness is just so fun!

(I think you can click on the picture to make it bigger)