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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Decorative Ice Buckets with Flowers

My mother toasting you from years ago! Note ice bucket in foreground.

 
(1995, Ann McCarroll)
I dropped a tear in the ocean. The day you find it is the day I will stop missing you.
...Anonymous

It is that hot time of summer in the northern hemisphere, so time to make a few ice buckets.  Just because they are pretty!

Here is a link that will tell you all about how to do it.  Back in the day, I did not go to near that trouble, using a half gallon orange juice container with an empty wine bottle placed in the middle and layered flowers in the waxed juice box.  Then the entire container was frozen overnight.  After the ice block was frozen solid and just prior to serving, the waxed boxed was peeled away and discarded and wine was decanted into the empty wine bottle.

Updating on that picture from the 1990's, last week I layered flowers into a plastic bowl, freezing differing buds and flowers between one inch layers of water.  It came out almost as pretty as the what the supplied link showed. If you go over to Betty's blog, she shows one she made June 23; she suggests putting a votive candle in the middle.  That would be attractive for entertaining in the simmer dim hours.

The local craft store supplied the clear plastic container that holds the ice bucket, keeping drinks cold with extra ice cubes melting around the drinks.  This time, I did not make an indentation in the ice bucket, but did include a couple of tiny plastic fairies frozen in the ice for a teeny bit of whimsy.

That ice block held drinks cold for several hours, even in 90 degree temperatures in the shade.  A couple of friends came over yesterday for lunch and drinks on the patio.  It was almost a party!

Speaking of parties, today is Prince George's First Birthday!  His maternal grandmother, Carole Middleton, gave a Peter Rabbit themed party that the Daily Mail reported to be very 'middle class'.

read here that "the now defunct left-wing Inner London Education Authority banned him (Peter Rabbit) and his cousin Benjamin Bunny from London schools in the 1980's because it said the rabbits were too bourgeois."  Now can you imagine that Peter Rabbit would be too bourgeois? Ha! Sniff!  What would Beatrix Potter think?


Happy Birthday little Prince George!

7 comments:

  1. It looks like a wonderful party! Loved the picture of your Mother:) Have a blessed day dear Nancy, HUGS!

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  2. Love your ice bucket pics, Nancy, especially the one of your Mom! Toasting her back across the years and an ocean! I've made ice bowls in the past - same principle but using an empty bowl that you sit inside an outer one but it's tricky to get it to sit down properly and to keep the ice "walls" even. You have to weight the bowl down with a tin or something heavy and freezer-proof so that it doesn't just bob along the surface of the water in the outer container. Having said that, the effect is very pretty - very nice for serving scoops of ice cream in on a hot evening. Beatrix Potter's world is I suppose very bourgeois! I don't care though - I love it whatever! And I defy any small child of whatever background not to find her world enchanting! Some things stand outside the barriers human beings love to put up around social behaviours anyway. Long live Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Tabitha Twitchit and Cousin Ribby and all their company! Have a lovely hot summery evening, Nancy! E xx

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  3. That's the Lefties for you - ban this, ban that, make sure no-one has any fun. Bet the LIttle Prince did though at his bourgeois middle to upper class first birthday party!
    That is a terrific pic of your dear Mother. She looks a lot of fun. Great ice buckets too.x

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  4. That is so neat! Never heard of this ice bucket before. I love the royals.

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  5. Such a pretty picture of your mom! Yes, I'm sure yours and mine have met up and are reminiscing over iced tea.

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  6. I love that ice bucket idea! I'm going to do that!

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  7. beautiful ice bucket, haven't done that but have always been tempted. the quote is a wonderful tribute. thank you for visiting Thistle Cove Farm on the anniversary of our wedding. unfortunately, Dave died 11/11 and life hasn't been the same.

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