Instead of counting the days until Spring arrives, we've decided to embrace the cold weather. We haven't seen our first snow fall yet so the sledding will have to wait but we can still make use of freezing temperatures by making ice lanterns. We found this great tutorial over at Chez Larsson.
To create your own, you just need to find 2 buckets - one larger, one smaller. Fill both up with 3/4 water. Center the smaller bucket inside the larger bucket and position with masking tape. Set outside and allow to freeze, then remove the smaller bucket.
Try this tonight and by bedtime tomorrow your kids can have a beautiful ice lantern to admire.
(via Chez Larsson)
© 2010 Apartment Therapy
this is a lot more work than the way we made them when I was growing up in AK. Water will freeze on the the outside of the edges of bucket first and then work its way to the inside. (Think about when you pull ice cubes from the freezer and the insides are still water.) Simply fill a bucket with water and set it outside but don't let it freeze all the way solid. When it has frozen enough that you have a shell of the bucket punch a hole in the top layer of ice and poor out the unfrozen water that remains inside. Un-mold the remaining ice from the bucket and you have a cylinder of ice
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Now I am really bummed that it will not ever get cold enough to do this in Los Angeles. My freezer is just not big enough!
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My swedish mother-in-law makes these, she also freezes plastic holiday flowers in them. There are really nice!
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