Flower Pots for Next to Nothing pt. 2

If you’ve been keeping up with my admittedly sporadic posts, you know that I have been working on killing the overgrowth in my garden by smothering it with potted plants. My first experiment with Folgers containers are holding up well, so I used them as the base for this new design.

I started by removing the label, then measuring bamboo skewers to fit into the straight parts of the container. It has bulges at the top and bottom, and I wanted to glue the skewers flush with the sides. I cut the skewers down to size using old wire snips from my jewelry making tools. I attached them as shown using hot glue.

I'm afraid I waited a bit long to transplant these last begonias. Most of the blooms have gone. Still...

The bulges in the can I covered using jewelry making cord. I attached this with hot glue too. Once cooled, I flipped the whole thing over and stabbed a few drainage holes in the bottom. The finished project turned out even better than the first design in my opinion. What do you think?

Flower Pots for Next to Nothing pt. 1

When I moved into my apartment a few years ago, I was thrilled to have a tiny garden area I could play with. Small doesn’t really even begin describe the space, but its mine. Problem is, that being strapped for money, I couldn’t afford to buy much for the space. My neighbor worked as a landscaper at the time and was able to get me canna lilies, some sort of bamboo, some purple flower that grows on long vines that look like twigs (don’t know the name) and umbrella grass. I love his initiative, but these are all plants that grow wildly out of control. Rather than digging all of this up, I have come up with the idea of limiting them by covering them with potted flowers instead. Pots cost money though, and there just isn’t much (well any) to spare.

I started looking through my collected odd and ends and realized I had a few usable containers around the house. The one I started with was a small plastic Folgers Coffee can. Its bright red and obviously and old Folgers container so that needed changing. I remembered a post where a woman covered her whole floor in paper bags. It looked a bit like leather when it was done, and I liked that idea. I pulled out my trusty Mod Podge, a paint brush, a small paper bag and got to work. I ripped the paper bags into smallish pieces and applied them to the container making sure to overlap each of the pieces and the top and bottoms of the containers. Then I coated the entire outside in another layer of Mod Podge to weatherproof it. I like how it turned out, despite the fact that the red shows through. I paired the two I made in this style with red begonias (under $2 for a flat of 6 at Walmart). They look cute in the garden.

The first coffee can planter all finished and filled.

The terra cotta planter I already had made a good home too.

I haven’t come up with a plan for the next few planters. I have a few large coffee cans, plenty of glass bottles, and a few plastic bottles and jugs to work with. Any suggestions? Please leave them in the comments below.

Another Cat Toy Done on the Cheap

Willow (previously known as Test Kitten, T.K. for short) has grown, and so have her needs. She gained size, but lost none of her energy, and so needs more cat safe activities to keep her out of trouble. When I noticed how excited she got over some pool noodles that hubby and I bought (to be featured in  another project), I figured that would be the perfect building block for Willow's new scratchy-batty-chew toy.

Early test to see if she's even interested. She is!

The base was the side of a drawer from my soon to be replaced (fingers crossed) wardrobe. We stabilized it using small sections of pool noodle cut in half length-wise secured with duct tape . The longer vertical section of noodle was secured with my trusty Gorilla Glue.The fuzzy ladybug toy was from a package of assorted toys. She played with it maybe 3 times since getting it, and it had a dangle to tie it to something, so I did. I poked a length of ribbon through the top of the noodle and knotted it at a length to facilitate maximum swinging. 

Shortly after this pic, the toy was attacked from above.

I covered the base using some scrap fabric I had laying around. I figured she would think the duct tape was the real novelty and so this cover seemed like a good idea. It looks better too. Although this doesn't get as much love as some other toys, she still loves to beat this mercilessly. Another win on the cheap.

After many attacks a few weeks later. As you can see, it stands up to the Willow test.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Preparing Old Wine Bottles for Upcycling

I have been collecting old wine and liquor bottles since we moved into this apartment. On occasion so bring them home from work, the rest are from cooking and personal consumption here at home. Since hubby gathered them all together and they filled a whole box, I figured I better use them.

My first project will be a set of small organizers for a small metal rack in my bedroom. The wire shelves make using some containers here troublesome, so I figure heave glass containers will be the perfect solution for holding combs, brushes, and other small items that always seem to get lost and tossed around. Plus it has to look better than the old shoe box I am using now.

The first step is to clean the bottles and remove the labels. I hit up Pinterest as usual and came across a very useful pin that compared label removal methods. To spare you the trouble of looking it up, soaking the bottles and a mixture of very hot water and baking soda works best. Since not all ornate bottles were clean, I decided to combine the cleaning and label removing steps and added dish soap to the soak water. It seems that the cheaper the wine, the harder it is therefore the label. Ok, there's nothing scientific in that, just observational. Also clear bottles seem to be a bit harder to work with - perhaps a stronger adhesive?

Here are my results from the first four bottles that I soaked. While I got all of the labels off, I am left with a bit of glue to clean up. Still, this is better than hours of peeling and scraping. To remove the left over residue, and even some left over sticker scraps from the second set I did (not pictured) I turned to canola oil. Just wipe a good layer over the affected areas and allow it to sit for a n hour or two. The oil beaks down the adhesive enough to be easily wiped or lightly scraped from the bottle. Then just wash away the oil with dish soap.

Here are the final results, all ready to be cut and decorated. I can't wait to get to the next step!

DIY Waste Basket from Upcycled Magazines (Redone)

Once upon a time while searching for craft ideas on the internet, I happened upon a site featuring recycled paper crafts. One young lady made sturdy and attractive baskets from old magazine pages. The idea stuck in my head, and when I found I needed a new bedside waste basket I knew what to do. While apartment hunting, we had picked up loads of visitors booklets and catalogs and luckily I knew where my glue sticks and hot glue supplies were. I even had an appropriately small box lid. I got to work rolling paper "logs" with the glue stick, and then fastening them to the lid using my hot glue gun. I loved the finished product and it served me well for 2 years. Then it got smashed. I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I regret to say that I have lost the original link for instructions on making the logs, but I have found another that covers it: Magazine Vase and Pencil Holder. The only difference is that I used glue sticks instead of Mod Podge.

Weaving the "logs" together

I spent a while testing it apart and picking off old bits of hot glue. Once I had the bare components of box lid and paper "logs," I got to work. Using 24 gauge wire, I wove the logs together in sort of a random basket weave. I could have been a bit neater, but I was aiming for strength. Since I had ripped some of the logs I had already decided that aesthetics were no longer an immediate priority.

I wove the wire at the bottom and center of the logs to create a long panel. Next, I returned to the original design by hot gluing the panel to the lid. I then added glue between the logs. The finished product is much stronger, (and a little lopsided - oops) so goal achieved. Now to decide how to decorate it...

My lopsided basket. I wove a little too tightly. I think if I make it look like twigs, the lopsidedness of it will look natural.

Cleaning Sand Dollars

This week, one of the servers in the restaurant I work for was given some sand dollars by a customer (along with a tip). He knows that I love to make stuff, so passed them to me to see what I could do with them. If you have ever picked up sand dollars on the beach before, you know that they aren't clean by any standard. In fact, they aren't even slightly white. These were brown, and a little fuzzy for lack of a better term.

Filthy sand dollars before soaking.

To get that creamy white color they must be cleaned first by a fresh water soak. I soaked mine for over 24 hours. This is largely because it was already 6 pm and the sun was required to finish the task. In the end, this was a good thing because most of the debris fell off in the last 6 hours. I also was careful to change the water a few times... it can get smelly!

Just added to bleach. See how much cleaner they look already.

Follow the soak with a ten minute bleach bath followed by a good rinse.

Out of the bleach and into the sun.

The final step is a sun bleaching session. This should help with any yellowing. I did not have yellowing after the bleach, but a few grey and pink spots remained. The sun cleared these right up in two hours. Please keep in mind that the times I used here worked for these sand dollars. Dirtier ones may need more, and cleaner less. Use your best judgement.

Finished product.

In the end, I was left with 4 beautiful sand dollars ready for crafting for the price of a splash of bleach... total win.

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

My husband and I met in the Chicago suburbs. I had lived in the region for my entire life, and my husband is from a military family, so after years of moving around the world, they settled there when he was in high school. Needless to say, the local treats of the area were a regular part of our daily lives. So now that we have been away for about four years, we are experiencing withdrawal symptoms. It is basically impossible to find Chicago style deep dish pizza in the pan handle of Florida. Dominos is fine for a quick fix, but we needed the real deal. It was time to get to work.

The pan seemed like it was going to be the biggest hurdle. I believed incorrectly that I would need an overpriced specialty pan. Then as luck would have it, while searching through dough recipes, I found that spring form cake pans were perfect for the task. I was also pinched  for time, so while I made the dough from scratch, I let the bread machine do the hard part. The recipe I used is found here on Food.com. Once the bread machine had finished its work and the rising part had completed, we simply shaped it into the pan. I cheated and used a rolling pin to get the process started, but finished by gently pulling the dough to the correct shape as often recommended.

This done, we began layering in our ingredients. This included a pound of mozzarella, onions, green bell pepper, mushrooms, and mini pepperoni slices. Stop this we added our sauce. We like ours chunky and so added a can of red pepper spiced diced tomatoes to the store bought marinara. I finished this off with fresh basil from my window ledge garden. The final topping was a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

After about 40 minutes we had ourselves a pretty good dinner. As this was an experiment, there are a few changes to be made next time. We may add ground beef. Also, I will perform the veggies a bit. I also really need to practice with dough. All in all though, this was good. Furthermore, it ended up not costing a lot since it easily made 6 individual meals. I'm definitely keeping this on our menu.

It got a little lopsided, but that's my lack of skill with dough showing.