Really Cute Fabric Filled Vases

Heres a great way to use up all those really small pieces of fabric you thought couldn't be used. Check out the tutorial at Craftaholics Anonymous

Great Ideas for Reusing Wrapping Paper

Every Christmas I can remember after all the presents have been unwrapped there were piles of wrapping paper that got stuffed into trash bags and taken out. Although I now use a lot of reusable boxes and bags there are still things that get wrapped in paper. So I have decided thois year that instead of stuffing all those wrappings into a trash bag and adding to the landfills I'm going to try some of the crafts at the following links.

How Recycled Wrapping Paper Crafts Work

How to Make Recycled Wrapping Paper Bows

Recycle Cards and Wrapping Paper

Summer Crafts - Recycling Craft - Decoupage Fun with Wrapping Paper

Quick Recycled Purse Tutorial

I found this while I was looking through youtube, check it out!

Recycled Paper Tables?

In the gift shop at the Missouri Botanical Gardens they had some recycled crafts for sale. What I really liked were the items that were made from magazine pages. The pages were folded and then wound up into various items there were platters, plaques and even a table. It was pretty awesome and I am searching the internet to see if I can find out how to do it. Not sure if I would have the patience to fold all that paper and am wondering if they didn't have some mechanical help. The pieces were all so even.

Missouri Botanical Gardens

Just wanted to show you one of the nicest places just to take a walk!

Turn Plastic Bottles into Wire for Crafts

I love this one, I really need to try it. If I do I'll be back to tell you all about it but for now I'm just posting the link. Use soda and other bottles to make "wire" or plastic stems for flowers, check it out and let your imagination go...

How to Make a Wire from a Plastic Bottle

Turning Shirts into Little Girls Dresses

I found these links about turning a button down shirt into toddlers dresses. Then someone went another step forward and made capri pants out of the sleeves. These are absolutely adorable and I wish I had a little girl to sew for. But alas, I don't so I'll pass this on to you in the hopes that you can use it.

Turning a Shirt into a Dress Tutorial
Making the Sleeves into Capri Pants
A cute example
Another cute example

Recycling in the Garden, Some Unique Planters

I remember some time ago, in a gardening magazine, seeing an old tennis shoe set in a garden, filled with soil and planted with hens and chicks. What a wonderful idea! It looked really neat sitting there nestled in between other plants.
.
This year when I started my patio vegetable garden I scrounged planters as much as I could but still had to go out and buy a few (made from recyclable material of course). But it got me thinking about using other things to make planters from. So I did a search and here's some great ideas. Some are small, only suitable for indoor use and some would have worked for my garden, so here they are.
.
A wooden orange crate and more
.
Old wooden toolbox
.
Recycled Pop/Soda Bottles
.
Empty cans
.
Seed starting planters out of newspaper
.
And some kids projects

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

OK, so I don't much care for rosemary but I do have the first two and more! I just bought a sage plant and a, well OK, it's marjoram not thyme at a BOGO free sale at our local veggie stand. The parsley and basil have been growing like crazy and I've been freezing a lot of it.
.
What I'm trying is a way I read about years ago. You chop up the herb like you were going to use it fresh, then you measure out by teaspoons or tablespoons into ice cube containers. Fill with water, then freeze. When a recipe calls for one of these herbs you just take out the required amount of cubes and add to it! Just remember that it usually takes twice as much "fresh" as it does dried. Don't forget to compensate for the water although in most recipes it will be so minimal as to not make a difference.

My Patio Garden Experiment

OK, I know I've been ignoring this blog, I promise to try to do better. This spring I decided to experiment with growing veggies on my patio. Now I live in a small apartment and my patio is the only space I have and it's only about 4 feet by 7 feet. Several of the articles I read had you putting your garden in all kinds of containers but this wasn't an option for me. I live on the first floor and everyone else in the building has to walk past my patio to get in. I had several planters already because I've always grown flowers and I begged and borrowed some more.I have to keep it neat or the landlord would have made me get rid of it.

This year was an experiment to see what will work and what won't. You can see in the picture the ripening tomato. So far I've gotten two tomatoes off of it and theres a bunch more small green ones. One parsley plant has not only supplied all my needs, but also my daughters and I've been freezing it a little bit at a time! I haven't frozen any of the basil but theres plenty there!

Have I saved any money? No, at least not yet. I had to buy a couple of planters, the plants and the seeds and the potting soil. but I will be ahead of the game next year! But the real benifit is the tast of fresh picked veggies. The other night I had a salad with oak leaf lettuce, fresh picked tomato, broccolli (that was a bust which I explain in another post and radish, all from my little patio garden.

For a recipe that used ingredients from my garden try my Zucchini Saute.