So, a few months ago in a junk shop I found a small flock of  6 of these clip-on mercury birds with spun glass tails. I was smitten instantly, they all still had their tails and a clip on a spring….but just couldn’t put my finger on what was missing with them….

Once I mixed them in with the thousands of ornaments I already have …it hit me. The matte paint was a little lacking . They didn’t have any “sparkle”.

No worries…..that is a quick fix.

Lucky for me, and the rest of humanity, Martha makes a line of superfine glitter….AND, wait for it, clear craft glue with a superfine tip. Now I can “draw” the glue on the wings and head. I didn’t want them to look too new…so I tried to only accent the original red and blue paints with coordinating glitter ( Garnet and Lapis ) ….and not completely hide them .

 So….craft glue + glitter + time =

Way , More, Much , Better……. ( and they still look weathered and aged )

Last year after Christmas we picked up a several boxes of bead garland at Restoration Hardware, by far one of my favorite stores, but pretty far from my everyday shopping price range ( that would be Target ) . So trust me , I think they were about 75% off of retail.

I love the perfectly aged look they have , but each string has only one color and one shape. Pretty Boring.  Since we got several sizes and shapes…and a couple different colors……we decided to restring them in mixed patterns.

So we cut them up, one bowl per bead, and restrung them on 28 gauge wire ….into 6 foot strands.

This couldn’t be any easier………..