We are now 23 days away from the New Years Eve Open House. I’ve decided to start the event at 6:00 pm – I have a lot of friends who want to stop by, but also want to go downtown for the annual Pinecone Drop at 10:00. This way I can have people meandering in and out with the ones who really want to celebrate at midnight, coming by around 10:00 pm.
Since I promised to talk more about the decorations and how I do them here we go. The large ice sculpture sounds much harder than it really is, but you will need a large freezer. We happen to have an upright that I put all my food in and then a chest that I plug in when needed. It’s time to plug in old Betsy and make a couple of ice sculptures. First look for boxes that are the size and shape you’d like to have for the base. It’s pretty easy and can be as simple as a wine box, a long flower box (check with local florists for this one) or any box will work. Next step is to line the box with a garbage bag. The smaller the box, the smaller the bag, because every crease in that bag will show in the ice. I usually like to find the “front” of the sculpture and tape everything around so the back side is the one that shows the imperfections. I also like to add a little decorations to my ice blocks, so what I’ll do is get a slightly smaller box, wrap the outside in plastic wrap, spray with cooking oil and once again tape a garbage bag so the fronts line up and place the smaller box inside the larger box. Next step is to add the water to the inside box first – only filling it about 1/3 of the way and then the fill the outer box with a strand of outdoor lights and some pine boughs, making sure I keep the plug coming out the backside of my block. Keep filling like this until it’s full and set it inside your freezer. It’s going to weigh a ton, so get help. Plan about a week for the water to freeze completely and if the days and nights are below freezing find a shady place and you can keep it outside covered with a tarp.
Once my base is done I’ve decided this year to place a large white candle on each bases. This adds to my fire and ice concept and with the lights in the base will be a nice welcome for my guests. You can also use food coloring to tint the ice, however it tends to get a tad “watered down” and not very vibrant – use latex paint and you’ll get great color, just make sure you’ve got a container that will keep it from melting into the ground. Now that I’ve got my outside decorations dialed in, next week we’ll work on how to bring fire and ice indoors!
Debbi