{ the jaunty magpie }

If I could save time in a bottle.... EVERYONE SING!  I admit to having an at-times unhealthy obsession with Pinterest, going through pin-binges, collecting scads of ideas for projects I'll probably NEVER do. You know what I speak of. But when I do get a bee in my bonnet to make something, it's usually because I have miscellaneous crafty supplies that need a special purose! Case in point: one random, tiny glass bottle.

It started out as a small cork-topped glass bottle that was packaging for another little piece of jewelry. A charming way to package something, no? And as much as I love tiny bottles, I knew I couldn't afford to hoard more teeny-tiny bits of junk. So I made it into a teeny-tiny crazy piece of junk, hung it on a chain and called it "jewelry." 

I took to the Pinterest-iverse, scanning through others' ideas of making charms out of tiny glass bottles. They ranged from charming to goth-crazy. I almost considered making a tiny paper boat in a bottle (yes, there are how-to's on Pinterest to make that), but I liked the idea of making a kind of wearable keepsake jar, and what more keepsake subject is there, than the city of Paris. There are pin boards aplenty dedicated to all things Paris, and country-French-everything. I picked up a small pewter Eiffel Tower charm at a craft store, which I knew would dangle nicely from the cork, inside the glass bottle. And I took a mix of beads and pearls, and tossed them into the bottle, like a collection of sparkles. A few miscellaneous charms pulled from my own random hoard of beads and baubles, and it was an instant craft creation. 

It's probably too baroque for some -- this will be a gift for a friend in the near future. And even if it's never worn, but simply admired, it's nice to give something handmade, with the recipient's best-loved things in mind. And, I admit, it's a good prefunc for the holiday season, which I hate to say, is nearly upon us. Get crafty, kids. 

Jaunty Fine Print: Photograph by Denise Sakaki