Shiny Things

Do you ever feel like a ferret? You know… distracted by shiny things…. A little bit of a hoarder…. Running around frantically trying to find your secret stashes….

Yeah, that describes me pretty well most of the time. Especially since the dawn of the poison otherwise known as Pinterest. I see it…. I am enchanted… I hoard materials for it…. and then I run around like a crazy person trying to get it all done.

As was the case with my most recent project. The Penny Ball.

I saw it… I had to have it….I got the supplies together for it…. and two months later I find myself still trying to get it done. Its not hard… its not even time consuming. It just had to get STARTED in order to get finished.

Maybe its because my subconscious knows that I won’t be able to foist the penny ball on its intended purpose until at least April, if not later. I mean, why work on something that you can’t use, and you’ll have to find a place to store it for months at a time, right?

The penny ball is purported to have some lovely outdoorsy benefits. For one, when placed in your garden, it will (supposedly) repel slugs. Also, if you have hydrangeas, having a penny ball in their vicinity is reported to turn them a lovely shade of blue.

I have neither slugs nor hydrangeas…. But I DO have a penny ball. I just really think it will look cool in my low-to-no-maintenance garden. See, I don’t do flowers. I have a brown thumb. My garden is made of rock and pavers and the occasional potted plant. And now…. the addition of this lovely little gem. There are pins all over pinterest for these, so I am not going to link up to any particular one since I pulled information from several. True, I will have to wait until spring to finish my garden and give the coppery dome a new place to live. But, in the meantime…. It doesn’t look half bad in my dining room. Just don’t ask my husband what HE thinks about it….

SO, how did I make it? First, I managed to get an old bowling ball from a local freecycler. Then I ransacked our change jar (shhhh don’t tell the Big Guy) for every last penny I could scrounge up. I didn’t count how many that was. The pins I looked at quoted anywhere from $4 - $10 worth, depending on the size bowling ball you started with. Then, Liquid Nails. Or another temperature-resistant silicon adhesive.

I worked on this in several sessions, leaving the ball poised in a cereal bowl on my kitchen counter while it was in progress. First, I filled in a good size section on the top of the ball and gave it a few days to dry thoroughly. Once they were solidly attached, I turned the ball over and continued to fill in the remaining space with pennies, one section at a time. No particular pattern, just however many I felt like putting on while I was standing at the counter that day. Just for kicks, since we live in Illinois, I made sure that Lincoln was facing out on each penny. Why not, right?

 So, what do you think? Maybe in a few months I’ll post a picture of it in its future home.