I have a collection of colorful glass… mostly antique art-glass vases…
My display of colored glass vases.
I find myself attracted to any colored glass pieces though, and to dishes in general. I have my grandma’s antique china set, which I love, and many other vintage glass pieces I’ve collected over the years from antique shops and thrift stores. I think it’s great fun to hunt for them, and I get a lot of enjoyment from using them too.
The lure of colored glass prompted me to take a class on creating fussed-glass pieces. The first class I took, a few years ago, was detailed and instructional – it taught us how to cut glass and introduced the different glass and glass making tools and explained the firing/fusing process. In that class I made four coasters, two mini bowls and a star hanging. It was an interesting class.
My funky bird coasters, made in the first class.
When a friend recently told me of a class being offered making Christmas Ornaments from fused-glass, in the small town of Kenyon MN, I was all in.
The class was very relaxed. The instructor brought her glass supplies and gave simple instructions and let us use whatever we wanted from her supply. We didn’t have to do anything but create. No set up, no clean up…just show up and be creative. We entertained ourselves over and beyond the time class was to end, but it did, and we liked our results.
The snowman ornaments I made in the second class.
My friend wanted to start a tradition of making Christmas ornaments for her daughters so she made two wreath ornaments. I made three snowman ornaments, one for each of my grandchildren.
A friend and I went into a Christmas Store a few days ago, curious to see if they sold any fishing ornaments. She wanted one for her grandson. While looking around I saw a jet ski ornament. This friend has a cozy cabin up north, complete with two jet skis, and we vacation there together once a year. When I saw the ornament, memories of her and I on jet skis flashed through my mind…
My friend’s cozy cabin, with a beautiful porch.
The first memory is of the two of us, 60+ year old women, standing on the dock in our bathing suits and life jackets while she used her cell phone to call her son to ask a question about starting the jet skis. It was comical. We managed to get them started, back them out of the boat lift, tooled around the smaller lake before heading to a bigger lake and really taking off. We had a great time speeding across the water – up to 40 miles per hour. I always thought jet skis were loud, and they are, but now I understood their attraction.
The two jet skis in the boat lift.
My next memory was the year we were cruising around the lake and I ended up with thick weeds tangled in the motor, so my jet ski stopped in the middle of the lake. I drifted awhile until my friend noticed I was in trouble. She rode over and she decided we’d burn out the engine if we tried driving it back to the cabin, so the only alternative was for her to go get a towrope and tow me back. It took awhile but it worked. I was nervous that maybe the motor was ruined. When we got back to the dock I got into the water and pulled lots and lots of weeds from the propellers. When it was clear we started up the jet ski and it worked. I breathed a sigh of relief.
And then this year…we rode the jet skis fast then slowed into idle mode to follow the shoreline and look at cabins. We decided to go through the channel to the next lake to do the same, so we revved up and sped to Little Pine Lake. I was trailing behind when all of a sudden an alarm went off…”O no, not again”. The indicator sign was flashing “Fuel, Fuel”, the gas tank indicator went from three bars to a half bar, and the alarm kept going off. So I turned off the engine and waited once again for my friend to notice I had stopped – all the while the alarm kept sounding. She soon turned around and we decided to head back to the boat lift. We did so without incident, and with out running out of gas, but the alarm persisted until we pulled the key out. We got the skis safely tucked away and found out later the jet ski was OK, just low on fuel. I sighed another sigh of relief.
So when I saw that jet ski ornament in the Christmas store I just had to show my friend. As I picked it up it fell to the floor and broke. The store policy is if you break it you pay half price for it. So I did, and left with the broken ornament. (It was a clean break so I was able to glue it together and will add it to my Christmas ornaments.)
My new, but repaired, jet ski Christmas ornament.
On the way home from our outing I started to laugh and called my friend to tell her how fitting it was that the ornament broke… given my history with jet skis!
I’m glad she just bought a pontoon at the end of the summer.
Sunset over Daggett Lake in northern Minnesota (July 2017).
