More ways I've Re-Purposed a Torani glass bottle

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have an endless supply of empty Torani bottles with which to tinker.

I stumbled upon the marble look paint in that post, and decided to expand on it for a St. Patrick's day themed decoration.

I started with the darker color.  Poured a generous amount into the bottom of the bottle, and let it swirl and then turned the bottles upside down to drain/dry.

After a day or so, I added some white paint to the dark color, and mixed, then poured into the bottles to combine and finish coating.

Again, turned them upside down to allow to drain/dry for a couple of days.  Since it was cooler, it seemed to take a while for the paint to fully harden.

When done, I needed something to top and happened upon a green feather boa at Hobby Lobby. :D  Well....I AM a girl!  lol

So I cut the boa into pieces and folded over into the tops.  My daughter thought they still needed a little something more, so I had these green blingy gems from Five Below that I added around the bottles, and...

viola!!  St. Patrick's Day table centerpieces.

This is one time where being the Make-Do Queen worked out.

Time: 30 min here and there over a week...all told, maybe 4 hours.
Cost: $3.00 for bling, $5.00 for boa, $1 for paint from Walmart = $9.00 for 4 bottles.  Not bad!

Glass Bottles everywhere!

NOTE:  Unless you're one of those uber-patient or meticulous people, this isn't really the project for you.  See some of my other blogs on glass bottles.  If you ARE one of those weirdos, then enjoy! HA!  Just kidding.....sorta.

After my failure in my initial attempt at drilling a hole in a glass bottle to create a light of some sort, determination set in!  I went to my favorite store, Home Depot, and purchased the glass/tile drill bits suggested for about $8.00.

I applied the lessons learned on the last attempt, and started the hole above the thicker bottom portion of the bottle.  I also filled an old hairspray bottle with water to facilitate less mess when trying to keep the drill spot wet, but my surfaces dry.

After taping the bottle off, I started drilling.  Very quickly, I realized that the right tool makes ALL the difference, but after another 10 minutes, I decided that this would be the 1st and last bottle I tried to drill through "for fun".

Being careful to spray the spot with water every minute or so, I drilled for about 40 minutes.  I did have to stop about 25 minutes in to change out the battery in my power drill, but I'm not sure I started with a full charge.

The end result was still smaller than what I could get a set of Christmas lights through, so I walked away to think about it for a day or so.  While wandering through Hobby Lobby with the BFF, I saw the small battery-powered LED lights and inspiration hit!  I did have some of those from when Dollar Tree (my other favorite store) sold them at Christmas time, and they were small enough to fit through the smaller hole.

I had seen the glass etching cream ($9 Hobby Lobby) praised highly on several posts on Pinterest, so had purchased some to try out on the bottles.  Since I was already doing a St. Patrick's Day theme party, I decided to etch Shamrocks onto the bottle.

Had to create the stencil for use, and the complete lack of directions on how long to leave on was disappointing.  A search of the posts on Pinterest suggested about 1-2 minutes, so that's what I did.  In hind-sight, I'll leave it on for 3-4 minutes next time.

Sprayed the whole finished bottle with spray on glitter, which isn't clearly visable in these pics, and turned on the lights.  Not horrible, but wish I had left the etching cream on longer.  Live and learn.

Time: 1 hour or so
Cost: $19

Paper floors

So, I saw on Pinterest that I could take paper sack and paper my floors and it would be much cheaper than tile or even more carpet....and I have two dogs and two teens so my floors were BAD. I had taken to buying small area rugs and putting them over the stains and bad spots in the floor, and no amount of cleaning was getting it up.

I did my research!! I read all the blogs I could find oof others who had tried it, and watched the how-to video these smart people posted. 

I decided to just do my living room....which is no small feat! It's roughly 19x24, which is a LOT of space. I set what I thought was a realistic budget of $100.  I took a week off of work and started pricing and buying the supplies.

Found this roll of paper at uline.com for about $13. 

Now here's where I add the disclaimer that math isn't my strong point. So while I checked and double-checked to make sure that there was enough paper on the roll to cover my 450sq. ft., I didn't double check the dimensions of the roll.  OOPS!  6x1200 WILL cover 450 sq ft, but only 6 inches at a time.  When I picked it up, I knew all the other blogs weren't going to work for me.  Yet again, I was going to have to Make-Do with what I had.  

Some blogs called for Modge Podge, some called for just using a mixture of Elmer's glue and water.  After pricing Modge Podge, I opted for the glue and water mixture.  A gallon of glue is about $17 at my local Office Depot, and while I knew I would have a bunch leftover, it was the cheapest way to buy the glue.  

I had seen one person add some paint to her glue mixture to add color around the edges of the paper strips, and since I had realized I was going to wind up with something akin to a wood floor look, I wanted a tinge of red to offset all the brown in my already dark living room.  Bought a larger bottle of burgundy paint at Michael's for $5.

Also remember, when pulling up carpet and carpet tack, you're going to need to fill all those little divots with concrete patch.  

Home Depot for $8.  

While there, get the Polyurethene you will need to seal the paper and prevent scratches and tears.  In my head, I figured two coats would be fine, and since some folks had given me birthday money (did I mention I did this for my 40th birthday?), I splurged for the more expensive brand that claimed it was used by the basketball floor people.  So....2 cans of Poly @ $46 each...yeah... there goes my $100 budget.  

I got my paint brushes and a roller for the poly from Dollar Tree.

I do have this great little tool from another project I did YEARS ago (Never throw away tools!!), and it was perfect to smooth all the air and glue bubbles out.

The carpet and tack came up really quickly and I was so excited to be ahead of schedule, that I figured I would be done in 4 days instead of 5.  Ha!!

So, I started at the far corner and started cutting and gluing down the paper strips.  Paint on the glue mixture, flip the paper over, line it up with the previous row/wall, and lay down, smoothing with my hands, first, and then using the squeegee to smooth it straight.  BE CAREFUL!! Once the paper is wet, it becomes fragile, and there were several places where I had a corner tear.  I just would put the next piece over that tear and move on.  Row after row after row.  Paint, place, smooth.  Cut more strips.  Paint, place smooth.  

If I had done it with the wider paper, like the other blogs, and let it be crumpled, like the other blogs, and not stressed over the strips all lining up in nice neat little rows....like the other blogs...it would have taken SO much less time.  

As it was, I figure it took me 30 hours to get the paper strips all down...and the whole time, I'm trying to keep the dogs off of it and still leave a path for us to get to the kitchen and back door.  I started off painting light red stripes down the top of the paper as I was laying it with a semi-dry brush trying to give it a wood-grain look.  After the 2nd day of paint, place, smooth, repeat, I gave up and decided to do it all at the end.

On Friday, when I was STILL not done, I talked my kid into helping me after school, and we cut, painted, placed, smoothed for about 7 more hours.  We were SO excited to put down that last piece about 1 am Saturday morning!!

And then it was time to put on the first coat of poly.

And here's where it got tricky, again.  About half-way through applying the poly, my paint roller fell apart.  So, it's 2am, and I'm standing there staring at the floor wondering what in the world I'm going to do.  Remembering that one video off a blog, I taped a paint brush to the end of a long handle, and kept going.  It wasn't nearly the same smooth application, but I was hopeful that it would all smooth out as it dried and besides I was TIRED!

The next morning, I was so sad!  It was noticeable where the smooth ended and the streaks started. :((  Someone else had told me to use a big squeegee to apply the poly, so for my second coat, I taped it to the end of the long handle and did that, hoping it would fill in the gaps and give me a nice even coat.

Instead, because I did the application at night in the semi-darkness, I had MORE uneven areas and now it looked like the dog had peed in spots.  It was BAD.  I was so depressed!!  All this work, and my floors looked WORSE!

Thankfully, I had days off the next week for Thanksgiving, and was able to think about it for several days while I did other things.

Went back to HD, and got the cheap brand of poly, but this time, instead of the gloss, got the clear satin finish, and PLENTY of rollers. $35.  BINGO!!!!

After sanding down the high spots, and cleaning the floor thoroughly, I rolled on the new stuff.  WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!

Then I had to figure out the transition pieces from the carpet to the new (lower) cement floor.  Wound up using molding that I painted red.  $36 for molding

Now I LOVE my floor!  And even better, when the kids and dogs are gone, I have a really great water barrier down for the real wood floor. :D

Sometimes, however, it doesn't pay to be the Make-Do Queen.

Final amount spent - about $250  Time - 10 days (non continuous)

Repurposing a Torani bottle

I happen to have an endless supply of glass Torani bottles, and have been trying to come up with creative ways to reuse or repurpose them.

I tried several of the things on Pinterest, but it takes so long to drill a hole in the bottle without a diamond bit! Here's what I had after 30 min of drilling.

See that teeny little dot… Yeah exactly.

Then I remembered seeing where they had painted the inside of a bottle as a means of decoration so I tried that. 

The only thing is, the acrylic paint I already had doesn't dry very quickly on glass.

I let it sit upside down for probably three days and it still was tacky to the touch. In the end, it didn't turn out like I had planned, but I do like the result. It's still not what I was going for, so I'm not sure what I'll use it for.

But I do like the marbled look of it. Planning to do about three or four of these in green for a St. Patrick's Day party.

Still didn't have anything that I would give to anyone as a birthday gift. So then I pulled out my stencils.

And did some painting on of letters. I have a friend who is crazy about owels, so that's the theme I went with.

Added some cutesy flowers, just to spice up the bottle.

Then I was in Dollar Tree, and I saw their solar lamps, and thought I bet I can use that! So I brought it home, and did a little blinging.

Took the solar part and lampshade off of the table lamp, and put it on my bottle.

Cut out some coordinating scrapbook paper and glued to the bottom of the jar, just to tie everything together. I think I like it!

The gym

Day 1 at the gym. Considering my total goal was to get out of bed and make it there, I'm very happy with my 20 min on the bike. 

It's nice to accomplish goals!!

Only 6 more weeks till softball season and if I don't start working out now, I'm going to have way too many injuries. 

My heart is breaking. 

I have two teens, they're nearly grown, actually.  One has totally turned her back on my faith and rejects the notion of God, almost entirely.  The other....well, I had hoped for better.  She had a conversion experience several years ago.  She seemed to be on the right track...but suddenly, she is stand-offish about it all, and doesn't seem to want to do anything but placate my discussions on faith. 

And my heart is breaking for my children. The idea that one of them could die and spend eternity in hell is just beyond my ability to sanely accept.  This world is winding down quickly, and I see the other side drawing closer and closer at such an astounding rate!  This life is so temporary! It's just a blip!  My children! My children!  My prayers are almost just those words, because I don't even know what to pray for them, anymore.

Jeremiah 31:15 "This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."


Then, I'm reminded of how often we see God feeling the same thing. We are told over and over in the Bible that God is our Heavenly Father, which explains how long-suffering He was with the chronic backsliding and idolatry of the Hebrews in the Old Testament.  He loved them too much to give up on them!  Even when He was forced to institute tough love, He always had an end goal of it being used to bring them back into right relationship with Him.


Luke 19:41-42 "But as they came closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead, he began to cry.  “Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down,” he wept, “and now it is too late."

Matthew 23:37 ""O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me."

And, so, through this heartbreak over my own children, I learn more about God.  How much He loves us, and how much He LONGS to have us return that love; to spend time with us and bless us with "every good and perfect gift".


2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance."

And I know something, deep down in my very bones.  Those kids, those headstrong independent kids who are breaking my heart, they are still my kids.  They will ALWAYS be my kids.  There will NEVER be a time when I don't love them and long for the very best good things in their lives.  There will never be a time when I don't pray for them, and place my hope in God that He will bring them around someday so that we can spend eternity together.  If I can have such determination, how much more so does God?


So I cling to those moments in their childhood when they both professed love and acceptance of God, and I remind God that they are His kids, too, and if I won't give up on them, then He can't.  And in my heartbreak, I find a moment of peace.  


John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid."

Buying your blessing

I hear so many preachers talking about tithing as a way to ensure the blessings of God, and, while I completely agree with tithing, it almost sounds like you're twisting God's arm by buying His blessing. 

I actually heard someone stressing over if they needed to put more in, over their tithe, in order to "get my blessing". 

I think there are a couple of things to keep in mind to help decide where that line is.

1) You can't hold God hostage and force Him to bless you. God is sovereign. He does what He wants, to whomever He wants, whenever He wants. Read Job if you doubt that. 

2) If you're asking a human the steps you have to follow, you're asking the wrong One. God is the One we should be striving to please, not humans. When we're focused on following human rules and steps, we're straying over into legalism, and that's NOT how to please God. Matthew 6, Matt 23:23

3) Being a Christian IS the blessing. Knowing that God loves and approves us and is looking forward to spending all of eternity with us, showing us the great mysteries of the universe.  Whatever temporal blessings we may have now, pale in comparison to that eternity. 

Yeah. So that's my rant for today.