CDuckster's house gift

THE 2010 HOUSE GIFT

As CD mentioned she tends to bring a house gift. One year it was a 5" high see-no- evil monkey in copper colored metal (it's by the TV), one year it was a cricket on a stick for the garden (in the ornamental grass by the compost shed) and last year a short chunky ruby red glass candle column which was the source of much candle experimentation and adventures in Michael's and Pier One for other columns, decorative rocks, and such. This year it is this glass vessel with wooden ball stopper.

Now, everything the Ducksters do is an adventure. We don't just DO stuff we adventure stuff. So, the first thing was where to put this vessel from her favorite store Celedon and what to put in it. That was fairly straight forward. The master bedroom and sea glass. This room is done in grey blues and sages with white furniture from West Elm and Pottery Barn and has an OBX theme without getting beachie. There are also some Asian overtones with a large white ceramic Buddha head on one night stand and a very large white ceramic classic seated Buddha on a corner shelf high on the wall. The OBX theme comes from 6 retro posters of places on the Outer Banks acquired from a fav store there, The Cottage Shop in Duck. So beach glass it is.

I had some in the storage room and put it in. It looks OK but it's of the flat variety and there wasn't enough. So off to Michael's to buy beach glass (which of course is really tumbled frosted glass fragments) with Mr.P. as chauffeur. This requires a side trip to Five Guys for Mr.P. and general fortification for shopping. We also hit a store for dried mushrooms and oolong tea in bulk en route. Both Michael's where we did get the sea glass and TJ Max where CD bought a very interesting swirlie yellow glass vase were packed and the traffic was the pits. Ah yes, the first Saturday with no snow. Everyone was out and about.

Got the sea glass home and out of their little mesh bags when CD says, "They're all dirty. See how shiny they are when wet."

I go, "That's not dirt that's just the frosted effect."

"No,no, we've got to wash them."

OK. So I get a large bowl. Put them in and run water all over them. CD grabs some and says "See, they look better." I let them soak in the water for a while and then get out a big colander and pour them out. Now, I've got about six pounds of wet glass nuggets. I put them back in the bowl and try to think how to dry them. Finally, I spread out a dish towel and pour the nuggets all over the towel, flattening out and separating them as best I can. I leave nature to do the rest.

The next morning they are dry and voila--the lovely effect you see above. They are not shiny, it was the frosted effect but as CD said "well, now we know they are clean."