The gourd bottle

I've always wanted a gourd-shaped bottle!!!

Oh wow, I have always wanted a gourd water bottle! Like for years and years, I've always wanted one. I had a mate gourd cup at one point (I need to get another one, my original didn't make it to England, lost in the mail or somethin'), but that was at least a taste of that style. And with the ol' mate gourd missing, that yearning was returning. Several weeks before this showed up, I'd even been considering buying like... a hollowed out dried gourd online, but was worried about cracking, mold, how long it would last, and so on. But it was on my mind. And then this showed up. Just days before my birthday, my social media feeds were swamped with ads for this gourd bottle by Enjoy Gourd (Enjoy-Gourd). And it's like... it's kismet, it's meant to be. This was to be my birthday present to myself. And so, looking around the site, I went with the thermos-style bottle for hot-drink carrying, and a threaded top for fall protection. And it was on sale for black friday, so ayyyy, added bonus! And so taking in the available colours, we went with lavender, and waited... It didn't take long, and it's everything I dreamed! No, it's not natural gourd, but this won't crack, is threaded capped, and will last for ages! And, on testing, keeps tea piping hot for 12 hours plus! But it needed to be decorated. The photos online had so many different decorative styles shown, I needed to personalise mine. Stickers! It came with a big sheet of stickers, which I had debated which to affix to the bottle. What won out was the three yellow banners that, as best Meta AI can translate, say "zǐ wēi dà dì shén xíng yuán yáng fú", meaning "Talisman of the Supreme Emperor of the Purple Star, Divine Action of Primordial Yang", a Taoist protective talisman for spiritual protection and energy balance. Given I'm a witch (also one of the english words on the bottle) and The Eagle who Flies through the Heaven, that works out perfectly. It also gives me 3 vertical texts to compliment with english words, choosing Zebeth, Witch, Merchant, and Prosper, to make for a lucky 7 words. On the top, I put the large gourd knot sticker, which compliments the bottom well. And then we needed straps, as I wanted something other than the regular black cording. Pink paracord to compliment! We removed the core from some of the paracord to make a flat braid to tightly wrap around the center of the gourd, the same to go through the cap, and a single strand to loosely connect them (being well loose enough to unscrew the lid). Attaching the "bell of cloudy sonance", which I ordered as well, I added a few strands of that pink paracord through the strap for that, strengthened the bottom-most ring connecting the bell with the 11 pound fishing line, and attached that more or less permanently to the central strap. I also added a connecting loop to tie the shoulder strap through, a four strand full paracord round braid, which matched in size nicely to the original shoulder strap. And it chimes with such a wonderful little chime, to go well with my merchant bell. But I wasn't done yet. I had one other vision in my mind for it... SEVERAL things hanging from the gourd! The nerd in me saw a teeeensy little pen, and tiny little waterproof notepad to go with it. And so we ordered a Forever Pen (WorldsTiniest), and set about making a tiny little notepad similar to the Rosary book. ****continued once said notepad is finished**** Finished December 9, 2025