Thursday's Throw Aways - Upcycling a Tea Strainer

March 2nd happened to be "Old Stuff Day" and I've had a couple of old metal tea strainers hanging around that a friend gave me to use.  Not sure she thought I'd be using them in this way, but this is the way it went.  I started with the larger one she gave me and used the seed beads that I had from the 2022 temperature spiral to add some color to it.  At first I thought it would be a problem getting the long beading needle down to that lowest level but it wasn't hard at all.  

Knowing that the light purple and the light pink on my temperature chart were way too close in value, I left out the light pink and in my mind thought I was going to have to add another color after the top orange row, so I went on a search to find the rest of the set of beads that these came in to find the yellow ones.  That set off a series of small catastrophes including my sewing box sliding out of the cupboard and the contents spilling all over the floor.  Bobbins, needles, spools of thread, scissors, and other assorted sewing notions in all directions.  Plus a box of hooks and eyes opened and pretended to be confetti.  Luckily for me, HWNSNBP was asleep at the time and did not hear the clatter and subsequent colorful grumbling on my end.  Thankfully the box did not crack or break.  After cleaning that up I did manage to find the container of beads and got back to work only to realize that I didn't need the yellow ones for the top row on the side - I hadn't counted right to begin with.  So I decided to used them alone on the top to make it worthwhile.

I added a battery operated string of lights that another friend had gifted me inside the strainer and although you can't see it very well in the picture, it does light up from inside nicely.  The strainer has a built-in hanger so it can hang on a plant, shelf, tree, or perhaps my gypsy rod.  It's a nice size of a little over 3" tall and 2" wide.

I have a second smaller one that I haven't done anything with yet.  The beads will mostly likely be used again, I just have to decide on the color and pattern.  There are more holes on the top and bottom not visible in this picture.  This one can hang also but I don't think it will have a light in it which is fine.

Friday, March 3rd was Dress in Blue Day and I was surprised to find HWNSNBP already in a blue shirt when I came downstairs so I didn't even have to tell him to change his shirt for the day.  We did some errands and he wanted to get a Popeye's Flounder sandwich for lunch so that was our last stop.  However, with all the signage advertising them he was disappointed to find out that they did not have them there so he settled for something else (I had lunch waiting at home).  I told him to ask the woman at the drive-up if it was just a temporary thing and she told him that they don't have them in the warehouse and don't know when they'll be getting them back.  We're meatless on Fridays during Lent and usually have pizza for dinner, but I know he's already calculating where he can get a good fish sandwich next week.  Then there's always tuna fish at home.

We've wished our son a Happy Son's Day today and looking forward to next week will probably be celebrating Cheese Doodle Day (or Goose Turds as Mary Anne's family calls them), Oreo Cookie Day, Meatball Day, and HWNSNBP B'day.  In addition, next Sunday is Art and Found Day and I'm contemplating if I will participate again and with what.  I'll have to see.