One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish

Ok, I've never really thought of myself as compulsive, but I'm starting to reassess my tendencies. Well, let me explain.......it all started with Pinterest - which I'm convinced is some level of hellish torture. It makes us desire things that up until we saw the picture, had no idea we even wanted. I say go experience and explore the wonders of  Pinterest but I must add I am in no way taking responsibility for the addict you might - ok, for sure- are going to become. I won't bother explaining it, just look it up and spend a few minutes or a few HUNDRED hours and you'll get the picture......heh, heh literally..   Anyway, I saw this really cool fish aquarium so my first thought was, of course, I can make that and probably better too.

Then I started looking around and decided, yes, I probably could but would have to take out a second mortgage to make it happen. Then this dialogue happened,
Me1: Oh, just suck it up
Me2: No, I can do this, I am talented and creative, and it would mean so much more if I made it.
Me1: But you can let your fingers do the walking plop down the $40.00 and call it done.
Me2: Ok
But then I look again.........WHAT!! out of stock, that means not only will I not have immediate gratification but prolonged and possibly never gratification. Oh the horror!

So back to trying to make one. I had this glass bowl thingy, oddly shaped -kind of like a child's spinning top (oh, youngsters.....look it up) and the base was too small and it tipped easily and it was a crackley glass so that wouldn't work, but it had this oh so cool top........what to do?.........I know, I'll break the glass and just use the base and top and put something better in between.

So the adventure begins. I break the glass bowl off, no problem, but then I realized that the bowl had been F26'd or gorilla glued or some dynamite withstanding source of sticktoittiveness and was perplexed. I know, i can put some sort of base stuff like styrofoam over the bottom and then the bowl........no.doesn't work. So i go to get a standard fish bowl type glass bowl and come home with one, perfect, fits well on the base, but the top doesn't fit exactly......well there it this fitting ring, I'll glue it on as an adapter ring......perfect........glue dries......looks like crap. Ok, plan B - I had an old candy jar which coincidently was the exact size of the base and the top, the heavens opened up and glory shown round. BUT.....what about the glass and glue residue.....hmmm problem.......but if I put decorative marbles all the way around the inside of the lip of the base it'll work, right? So I did. and it did work but was going to be unstable. So, if I put a decorative plate between the marbles and the glass it should work, right? yes, and it looks beeee-uu-ti-ful. Success!

Which would've been fine but, I really wanted a light in the bottom. SO..... I tootled my butt down to radio shack (after looking high and low in Hobby Lobby for a led night light type cord that plugged in) and sought assistance -after waiting for an older Amish gentleman looking for a CD player......no, I didn't ask- from the lone Radio Shack employee. He was nice enough and didn't question my motives, probably because of his previous customer, and helped me find an LED bulb, asssured me I could wire it myself without losing a hand and sent me skipping back home. In the meantime however, I asked my super duper tech guys their opinion and they suggested using an old adapter of some sort, not exceeding 5v and give it a whirl. I did and it was successful. No animals were harmed, no eyes were lost. Greg helped me drill holes which I am pretty sure I could have accomplished on my own but he wanted to help and who am I to deny that pleasure. We put the light up inside the base and VOILA! it's not bright enough. It probably would have worked had I not wanted a red plate but it did visually make a difference and the light with a clear plate was still too diffused to make an impression. I didn't feel I could go to  a stronger bulb because my new little friend Max did not seem like the hot tubbing type. So I put the light away for another project, which when needed and I won't be able to find it and will just buy another one.......but I digress.

So, I know what you are thinking, what did you do with the first bowl? Well, I'm glad you asked, since I could not just throw it away and it was darn ugly at this point, I did what any upstanding crafter unwilling to admit defeat would do - I got another fish for home. It's a blue one and he is quite lovely and that ugly bowl has got to be better than the little plastic butter tub-like container he was living in at the pet store.

So now you have the story of how Max, the red fish came to my office and how Frank, the blue fish, came to live at my house.