Shaken, not staired

It all started one night when Mr PJ was mixing up one of his speciality scalp raising, eyebrow singeing Bloody Mary's. 

I was watching with interest, through a welders mask (which I keep for just such occasions), from the safety of my kitchen high stool, as he sprayed coarse ground black pepper and red hot chilli flakes around the room, like the Devil's confetti. A dash of Dave's Insanity Sauce here. A glug of Worcestershire's finest there. All hammered home with a stick of celery, and a squeeze of lime.

The inspiration for the Mini House stair rods,

our first cocktail parrot served in New Orleans

He's never been the same since we went to New Orleans and discovered that the real McCoy does not consist of one tiny bottle of lukewarm Britvic and a nervous splash of Lea and Perrins.

In the Big Easy, they like their Bloody Mary's red hot, and dangerous. With enough garnish to stock a garden centre.


Mr PJ was especially impressed when they topped it all off with a little pickle parrot, complete with olive eyes, to keep watch over his drink, long after he had stopped being able to focus on it for himself.

He says that if cocktail swilling special agent James Bond had wanted to look really suave, he should have been ordering Bloody Mary's topped off with a stuffed olive parakeet, instead of his usual girly dry Martinis. 

But it appears author Ian Flemming thought otherwise.

And so, it was at the moment my very own, er hem 007, was skewering a couple of Scotch Bonnets to a dill pickle, in an attempt to replicate Polly, that I saw the light! 

I had been struggling to come up with something small and cheap, preferably but not necessarily in metal, that I could use to make stair rods for the Mini House. And here before me, was the perfect answer. 

No, not the boss-eyed vegetable budgie that he was constructing to pop in his aperitif, but the very bones that kept it on its perch. Cocktail sticks! 

Yet again, they have come to the rescue. First for the mini Mini House balcony rails and now the stair rods. And I must say I'm very happy with the results.  

Although Mr PJ will now have to use something else to stir his Bloody Mary's.  But I'm sure if he talks nicely to "Q" they'll find him something....

The finished cocktail stick stair rods

How they were made

Use Tacky Glue to glue glass beads on to each end of a trimmed and sanded cocktail stick, to make finial ends

Crimp covers used in jewellery making are glued in place, to become the stair rod brackets

Sprayed with two coats of Pewter spray paint and then polished with a soft cloth

Glued in place with tiny drops of wood glue and left overnight to dry