ok, not really dumpster diving. more like dumpster foraging... trash to treasure!
i was walking with K in her stroller yesterday to take our recyclables up to the neighborhood dumpsters. first off, i accidentally threw one bag of the recyclables into the regular trash, and ended up having to fish it out with a bed rail someone had left abandoned by the dumpster (side note: i'm a bit obsessive about recycling. i try to recycle everything. we've gotten to where when we take the trash out, it's almost half-and-half trash and recyclables and that really excites me).
anyway, when i threw the recyclables in the correct dumpster, i saw a beautiful wine bottle. we walked three more loops around the neighborhood, and i could not stop thinking about it. our decor budget has gone from slim to none, and i was thinking of all the pretty things i could do with it- put it on the mantel filled with something being my main thought.
so when we came back around to the dumpsters i decided the bottle was coming home with us. with K safe in her stroller beside me, wheels locked, i got to work. luckily, the dumpster area is fenced in, so none of my neighbors could see my crazy foraging efforts. it took a few minutes and the use of both a large wooden brush and one of those industrial dustpan on a stick thingys, but the bottle was ours!
so i brought him home, soaked his label off, and now here he is in all his glory:
my husband thinks i'm totally crazy for saving glass bottles all the time (i've been doing it since we were married- cheap decor man!) but even he had to admit that it was a really cool looking bottle.
when i remembered this tutorial about how to make a bottle into a lamp, it felt like a lightbulb idea (i know, what is it with me and lamps recently?). so i'm envisioning something like this for our little bottle friend:
bacchus lamp by pottery barn- since i'm not in the habit of spending $199 on a lamp (or pretty much anything right now!) i think a little dumpster dive could be totally worth it!
or maybe just sitting pretty somewhere in the house. for now, he has happily made his home on our mantel with a branch, waiting to be filled with something spring-timey or summery!
what's your opinion?
Since you had to remove the label, care to share what kind of wine it was? That really is a pretty bottle!
ReplyDeleteLove the color of that bottle, gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteliz- i think it was some kind of riesling, but i'm not sure! i like it so much i'm tempted to buy another bottle and ask someone to drink it for me so i'll have a matching one :) or maybe i'll just keep checking the same dumpster and my neighbors will have drunk another one :)
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