Making Your Own Serving Dishes
While decorating the kitchenette cubbyhole, the need arose for a cake stand. My crowded cupboards produced nothing more than a plastic plate with matching cover – not a great choice. Sis insisted I go with her to a local yard sale on the small chance that the perfect piece would be there for the taking. We checked every table piece by piece. There was no cake stand. However, I did come up with a fun and, as it turned out, delightful alternative – three crystal glasses and a crystal plate. Thus, my adventure into Up-Cycling began.
Turning one glass upside down with the plate balanced on top, although lovely, simply did not provide a strong enough base to prevent the plate from falling off should the items it held become unbalanced. I did not want to glue the two together. Putting the three glasses under the plate in the shape of a triangle provided a sturdy base. Gluing did not have to be an option.
Yard Sales Offer Exercise for the Mind
At the same yard sale, I found several porcelain flowers which turned into an arrangement for a centerpiece after the original cake had been eaten. Tall slender candle sticks, topped with seven-inch candles framed the plate beautifully. Buying at yard sales, thrift shops and any other low cost place, offers exercise for our minds. How many ways can we use this or that? Once we look at an item differently, the options are boundless.
Altogether my centerpiece cake stand and flowers ran eight dollars. A larger crystal plate adds an extra touch of elegance. For a simpler look, try a white dinner plate with a raised pattern around the outer edge. As feet, use three slender glasses in a ruby red or deep blue. For a picnic, try using the skinniest Mason jars under a plate decorated with roosters or other farm animals. Don’t forget, if this is to become a permanent item, don’t be afraid to use fewer ‘feet’ when gluing them to the plate.
Up-Cycling, Ugh, Work. Changing Something into Something Else? Fun!
Up-cycling is the latest fad, although through their whole lives, my family has changed one thing into another, whether it was cloth flower sacks turned into summer play clothes via Mama’s deft sewing fingers or adding the wiring and light holder to a vase to make a lamp. We didn’t call it up-cycling; we called it fun. Taking the mundane and making it into one-of-a-kind treasures is much more exciting than buying an overpriced object to handle a task. Sis is especially talented in that regard. She can recover a chair or arrange antique manicure sets in a shadow box. However, if today, it is up-cycling, then up-cycling it will be.