Glass Block project

I have been wanting to try this project for some time now. The reason I had not done so until today...is that the blocks have to have a hole drilled into the side...with a diamond drill bit and hopefully not crack the glass. But, today I was at Lowe's and saw these in the Christmas section and they already have a hole drilled plus a plug. Bingo! DD was with me and said she would love to have one done up as a present for under her tree at her apt. Sooooo, I bought a block, picked up some spray frost paint and some ribbon and a strand of LED white Christmas lights...the LED since they stay cool.
At home, I sprayed the frost, let it dry and then stuffed the lights inside and put the stopper in. Then I used the ribbon around the outer edge and made a bow. In real life, this looks awesome with the lights in a dark room.
I plan to make another one and use battery lights so I can set it on a table with out being plugged in. I will either paint a scene or print something onto velum and attach it to the sides of the glass block and hope the lights show through.

I graduated last night.

The past 12 weeks, I have been enjoying a wonderful program called the Citizens Police Academy taught by the Beavercreek Police Department. Sadly, the course is over....I will really miss it but have many fond memories and experiences and have gained a wonderful insight to the way our local department operates first hand. This is a photo of our class....we are now proud members of the CPA alumni of only 134 members in a community of 40,000 people.
The other photos were given to me by the commander last night of one of the traffic stop exercises we were roll playing during one of our classes. I was playing traffic cop, stopping a suspecious vehicle...I got to use the siren, roof lights, spot light and microphone....and pull over the suspect and tell him what I wanted him to do...of course he didn't want to follow directions...the first few times and I had to use my pretend tazer when he tried to grab me and pull me down....LOL.
The commander took lots of photos during our classes and had them on display at the graduation....he is going to have the display in the lobby of the police station so visitors can see what all we got to do.
I must say that I think our law enforcement men and women are the finest in the state of Ohio and am greatly impressed by their ethics, behavior and what they do on a day to day basis to protect our community.

how impressed am I? I want to assist ....so I have already applied for the COPP class...which is Citizens on Preventative Patrol and will be volunteering at least 4 hours each week. some of the things I will be doing will be directing traffic during power outages, parades and accidents. Waiting for tow trucks, vacation checks, patroling neighborhoods, setting up the speed trailer, using the laser gun to clock speeders and notifying the vehicle's owner, setting up traffic cones, assisting stranded motorists, helping to unlock vehicles, transporting documentation to the courts, fingerprinting, etc....all things to free up the sworn officers so they can be out doing their thing. that course will be 7 weeks long and two nights a week of 3 hours each and then we also have to pass a polygraph and fingerprint background check and have a partner.

One of my neighbors is a COPP and he even attended my graduation last night....smile...he and his partner are going to let me do ride alongs until our class gets established sometime in the spring. So, I am looking forward to that experience too.
now back to the real world and ......laundry...ugh.

!2 Days of Christmas Diva Swap

Here are some of my gifties ready to be mailed out. Each participant was to make 12handmade gifts and send the rest of the 11 to the rest of the participants. Each person was assigned a number from 1-12 and on their day, everyone in the group opens that person's gift....doesn't this sound like fun???
I am getting excited....and I will share here what I made and what gifts I receive....so stay tuned...Dec. 1 will be the first day of the reveal.