It’s magic — those tiny lights that twinkle in the wine bottles in the rooms at our own North Carolina Bed and Breakfast, Big Mill Inn-the perfect romantic getaway.

The idea is really simple: just drill a hole in a glass bottle and push the lights in. Guests ask me all the time, "How do you do it?"  Now is the perfect time to learn and these glowing wine bottles make great gifts.

First you need an empty bottle; wine bottles are good because they are free. The best ones are light green, usually Chardonnay, or blue, usually Riesling, but not always. The dark green bottles used for red wines like Merlot just don’t illuminate well.

You can either drink the wine or beg your friends to give you their empties. I have been saving wine bottles for years and now I have quite a stash.

Supplies and Equipment you will need:

Light green or blue wine bottle

1/2-inch ceramic tile drill bit (each bit will drill 6-8 bottles)

Small piece of masking tape

Electric drill (battery ones just can’t cut it)

20-count tiny Christmas light set. You need the kind that has a plug on one end only, not the end-to-end kind. The best time to buy these is at Christmas, they are difficult to find otherwise. It is a good idea to wear glasses or protective goggles. Gloves are also a good idea. Some of the bottles will break.

Place a small piece of masking tape on the back of the bottle about 3 inches up from the bottom. Start drilling; don’t use too much pressure, the bottle might break. The tape is to keep the drill bit from jumping around when you first get started.

Be VERY careful; this is a slow process and is not to be attempted by impatient folks.

Drill until the bit goes all the way through the glass. There will be glass dust in the bottle so you will have to rinse this out.  Allow bottle to dry.

Push each light into the hole that you have just drilled. This can be tedious and is not for the fainthearted. After all 20 are inside you are finished. Voila, it is gorgeous and magic!

Some folks decorate the bottles with all kinds of sequins, glitter and bottle covers. I don’t add anything because I like to see the wine labels.

We have these pretty wine bottles everywhere here at Big Mill B&B.  Everyone loves them and the price is certainly right. Oops, forgot to tell you that the ceramic drill bits cost about $16 each.

 What a fun way to recycle!  

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I saw my first Brown Bag Cookie Mold in the early eighties in a tiny shop in Virginia Highlands, a small Yuppie neighborhood in Atlanta, where I was living.

This love affair has never ended. I have St. Nicholas from the 1983 collection, which was the first year they were made. The Brown Bag name comes from the philosophy that small, ordinary things can be wonderful works of arts.

With these clay molds you can make gorgeous cookies, cast beeswax ornaments and hand cast paper. From what I have read it seems the originator of these clay molds now only creates one a year and she donates the proceeds of the sales to charity.  For 2007 the mold is a gingerbread house and any monies will go to Habitat for Humanity.

I have about 20 of these Brown Bag Cookie molds, some made by hand, and I cherish each one of them. Many of the molds are now collected and you can find them on EBay and other sites on the internet; they are no longer sold in stores.

If you buy beeswax directly from the beekeeper, it is cheaper, but it can be dirty, so you will have to clean it.  I used to keep bees; I even had bees in my early Innkeeping days here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast. I had a great teacher, my cousin Bobby who was blind. I was his "eyes" when he checked the hives. I ordered my first colony of bees from Sears & Roebuck and they came by mail in a small screen box. My rural mail carrier was a wreck. En route wild errant bees had attached to the outside trying to join my bees.

Beekeeping is really a science, and without Bobby around, I couln’t protect my bees from all the dangers. But I still find them fascinating. Did you know that all the bees in a hive are women? There is even a book Beekeeping For Dummies. There are many good websites and books out there now, so if you want a fascinating hobby, you won’t be bored.

My bees knew me and could tell when I was upset or nervous; the pitch of the hum in the hive went up an octave. Bees have taken a bad rap. They are not naturally aggressive like wasps, hornets and yellow jackets. Please don’t kill them; we really need all the bees here on the farm at Big Mill. They are one of the reasons our blueberries are so prolific!

 

Recipe for Cast Beeswax Ornaments
(Download the Brown Bag Idea Book for more projects)

• Brown Bag Cookie Molds
• 1 pound beeswax (this will yield about 6-8 ornaments)
• Small amount of thin wire (like in a twist tie)
• 1 yard very thin ribbon
• A small amount of vegetable oil, 1 Tablespoon or thereabouts
• Small paint brush to apply the vegetable oil to the molds
• Old double boiler and ladle (or 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup if using microwave*)
• Wooden spoon or paint paddle for stirring

Chill the cookie molds at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator.

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler over medium to low heat, checking often to make sure the water does not boil out.  Remove the mold from the refrigerator and brush or rub a wee amount of vegetable oil onto the inside of the mold. Place the mold on a flat surface covered with some protective covering of waxed paper. This allows you to reuse any spilled wax. The mold MUST be flat and level.

Using a lipped ladle, gently pour beeswax into the mold. At this time you can tell if the mold is level. If not, correct this.  

The wax will immediately pull away from the mold and dry quickly. When it is cloudy, insert a twisted piece of very thin wire into the back of the mold at the top. This will be your hanger. If you forget you can heat the wire and do this later. Or you can use ribbon. You do not have to wash the molds between pourings; but you may have to add more oil.

 

To remove from the mold, turn it over and rap gently on a table. Do this before the ornament is completely cold. If you have any "over pour" you can trim off the edges using a heated knife blade. If you make a bad pour, don’t fret. Just put the wax back in the pot and reheat. This is true if you break an ornament…they are very fragile.

Now for the cleanup: Call the National Guard. But DON"T let any of this wax get into your drains…or you will rue the day. Actually, a hair dryer and paper towels work well.

 

 

The Rocking Horse design is from 1984, the second year of production for Hill Design’s Brown Bag Cookie Molds. Gingerbread Man and the Cherub are from 1992. These delicate ornaments are translucent and the tree lights glow through each one. The beeswax aroma lingers and is not lost through the years.

I store these treasures flat, with sheets of waxed paper between each one. They must be kept in a cool place.

I still have my hive, my bee suit and my pith helmet!   Chloë

 

 

*You can use the microwave to make these ornaments, but I prefer the stovetop because it allows me to keep the wax at a steady temperature.

 

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Now that the holiday season is approaching, I have to try to shed the Bah Humbug attitude. The best way for me to do that is to make something pretty or make a gift for someone. My mother and I used to cook and bake fudge, brownies and cookies and we made all our decorations mostly from things we had available. We dipped sweet gum balls in the handy five-gallon buckets of silver roof paint. Wonder if it was toxic?

I just love the dehydrated orange and grapefruit slices; they look like stained glass when hung on a Christmas tree. The apples are also great for stringing garlands and for wreaths. Funny, but I have noticed that men love to eat these dehydrated apples; women walk right by them. And no one can deny loving that wonderful, fresh citrus smell.  

Commercial dehydrated fruit is often sulfured to aid in preservation and to retain color. I don’t use any sulphur.

To make these yummy dried fruits you will need a dehydrator**, a knife and some fruit, either oranges, grapefruit or apples.

Recipe for Dehydrated Oranges

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

12-15 oranges (it just isn’t worth it to do fewer).  Any type of orange is fine. I usually look for the juice oranges because they are cheaper.

Using a sharp bread knife, slice the oranges crosswise and thin. Remove any seeds after you have sliced the orange. You will get 7-8 slices per orange. 

Place the orange pieces in a single layer on the dehydrating trays. Trays can be stacked on top of each other up to about 12 trays. Since the dehydrating process generates heat, it is a good idea to place the machine somewhere you might like to have the warmth. Do not leave the dehydrator unattended.  

Turn on the dehydrator to a medium setting. As the oranges begin to dehydrate, they will shrink so you can move them closer together, making room for new fruit. It could take all day for the oranges to be transparent and completely dry. If they are especially juicy, it might take longer.

Store in an airtight container until you are ready to display.

During the hot months, this fruit often attracts moths. Around April, I put my orange slices in the freezer and they will keep until the next season.  

–>  So, what are some of your favorite childhood Christmas memories?  Click on the "comments" link below and share your best recollections.  I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 ** You can buy a dehydrator at stores like Wal-Mart or online for under $100. Cabelas sells the same one I use.

 

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