Repurposing (and a great reason to drink vodka and lemonade)

Bottled water is expensive and, more often than not, no better for you than tap water. The plastic from the bottles can leach into what you are drinking, and the water, sometimes, isn't even purified. While there are companies that offer pristine spring water, again, the bottles sort of contaminate what's inside.

However, the convenience factor is valid. It's much easier to drink from a bottle of water while running (though a SIGG filled with tap water is equally effective), and transporting a big bottle to a football game makes more sense that running back and forth to a water fountain.

Years ago, I starting buying Effervé, which is a sparkling French lemonade. It's sold in an embossed glass bottle, with a swing top cap that has a rubber stop and a metal flip. They are beautiful bottles, and great to reuse for other beverages. I started buying Effervé for the bottles, drank the contents, washed them out, and began putting tap water into the bottles. I'd keep them in the refrigerator so that the water would stay cold. 

Next, I picked up a vintage milk bottle carrier and started storing a handful of empty vintage bottles in it, a ball jar to hold napkins, and left a few slots open for our glass bottles of tap water. When I'd bring water to the dinner table, I didn't have to worry about filling a pitcher, or filling (and getting up to refill) each glass individually from the kitchen. Instead, I'd bring a few refillable glass bottles.

Vintage milk bottle carriers go for about $60. I got mine at a barn sale for $7.

Eventually, I had so many bottles that I had no place to store them. I gave most of them away. And of course, the minute I parted with them, I found I needed more. Tired of drinking lemonade but desperate for more swing top glass bottles, I was happy to discover that 360 vodka had a similar bottle. The only difference, really was that the embossing said 360 instead of whatever it was that the lemonade glass said. 

360 vodka makes a nice looking bottle, and practical to boot. Now, to get that label off!

 
Being a vodka drinker, I thought I'd give it a shot (pun intended). As soon as I finished the first bottle, I was thrilled to see that the bottle was both functional and attractive. The label has been a bit tougher to remove, but the drinking of the 360 was far more interesting that the lemonade had been. Not a bad trade off.


Tiffany Palisi is the owner of Domestic Goddess Ltd., a company that specializes in hand poured, scented candles. In addition, she refinishes furniture and sells vintage items through her online shop, Second Chance Vintage. She resides in New Jersey with her family. She can be reached at domesticgoddessltd@aol.com.