Some Projects & Doin's

Our main project, The Backporch Refurb, is still in progress. I'll explain more about it later, when I have the Finished photos to go along with.

I got started yesterday trying to clean it off, throw away the trash and get rid of junk and put stuff that's been stored out there away somewhere else.
But then I got distracted by a project I've been wanting to work on, but needed some help with bending some copper pipe, which J finally did the night before.

I saw this DIY Hummingbird Feeder  idea at Pinterest. J loves Hummingbirds and we have some commercial/plastic feeders we hang around the front porch, but I saw this idea, and I had a bag of plastic, red bottles I knew would be perfect for this project.

Every so often, Walgreens has Arizona Teas on sale 2/$1.00. J and R love the drinks so I'll buy them when they're on sale.  Most of the bottles go into the Recycle bin when they're done, but I was so attracted to the vivid, bright red of the fruit punch bottle I just couldn't toss them. So I washed them and put them in a bag to hang on to until I either figured out a way to use them, or got tired of shuffling them around and tossed them anyway. Luckily I found a project to do with them.
(I haven't seen those blue bottles around here. I kinda hope I don't. I know I'd have to keep them, they're gorgeous, but what would I ever do with them??)

J had several rolls of coated wire he'd gotten from the BFF's GF's basement clean-out, in a few colors, but I went with pink for no particular reason and made a hanging handle around the bottom - which becomes the top - of the bottle.

Ryan drilled the holes in the lids for me. I probably could have done it myself, but when I said what I needed to do, he said he'd do it and took off to get the drill and bits. I guess he wanted to do it, lol.

We had a length of copper pipe on the carport that I guess came off of one of the old refrigerators we repaired or scrapped, I can't remember. Anyway, it had been laying out there for awhile, and I guess the older copper is the harder it gets (so J says) but I had to get him to work with it for me since I didn't have the strength to do it myself.
He cut the pipe into about 6-7 inch lengths and flared one end. Then he bent them into an arc.
I inserted in through the lid, with the flared end inside the lid, and hot glued around it to steady it and prevent leaks.

I bought a bunch of red, silk flowers at the Dollar Tree, I think there was 7 flowers to a stalk. The flowers are fitted together like pieces of a puzzle: I pulled the flower off the wire stem, then the stamen in the center came out of the green thing from the bottom, and I was left with two flowerys with holes in the center.
I had to cut out the holes just a little bit larger to be able to fit around the copper pipe, and I hotglued them on to the other end of the pipe.

Lovely red Hummingbird feeders.
They turned out lovely, but did not work. They are supposed to work by some kind of gravitational theory where the juice comes up to the end up the pipe for the birds to suck out, without running out like a waterfaucet.
Apparently the pipes angles are bent wrong, and need to be more like a "C" than a "J".

At the same time and during, because I can't stay focused on one thing at a time so I flutter from this project to that to another, I've also got the Mudroom idea on the brain.  I don't/didn't like the floor in the old laundryoom so before we build the mudroom thing (what is that even really called??) I wanted to re-do the floor.

But I couldn't re-do the floor until I got the room cleaned out. Ohh man, who'd'a thunk there could be soooo much crap packed in such a little room!

BTW, I found out I owned a pressure cooker. I had no idea, lol.
I don't know how to use a pressure cooker, to be honest I'm scared of them. I've heard too many warnings about what can happen if you do this, or don't do that. And I know me, if there's danger waiting to happen, I can make it happen.
Anyway, I have no idea where this one came from, or how long I've had it, or why I have it.

That's the kind of stuff I should be getting rid of from around here, but I can't get rid of it, and I don't even know why!!

Anyhoo, while I was shuffling crap from that room and packing it into another room, I came across a large stockpile of school supplies (that I had thought we'd donated to the elementary school awhile back?).
One of the bags had wooden rulers with the sharp metal edge that I wasn't sure was very safe for kids these days or that the school would even want.

I had seen a project for making Stars out of wooden rulers on Pinterest (natch) but didn't Pin because I didn't have any lovely colored or vintage rulers. But then I found these rulers and thought, what the hey, I'll give it a try. Just hot-glued them together.

This wasn't all as easy as it looked. My first one came out all lopsided and I had to pull it apart and try again.
I'll maybe try staining it dark, see if it looks more Vintage.

Also during all this, Ryan decided he wanted to change the innertubes in the tires of my Mamachari bike.
He's never really messed with bikes, and it's been so long since I piddled with a bike I forgot the easiest way to change a bike's tires is to turn it upside down on it's handlbars and seat.
The front wheel wasn't too bad, but the back one kicked our hineys, with all the attachments, brakes, and chain.

Ready to ride! Let's go!