Sunday, November 6, 2011

Vertical Gardening Prettified



I recently watched a great video on YouTube about vertical gardening or bottle gardening where this guy strung together a bunch of plastic soda bottles in front of his window, sorta like curtains, and grew veggies out of them. For apartment living on the umpteenth floor, I'm sure that works great.

Then one day I happened to find myself in a local thrift store. I saw this cd rack in the shape of a lizard and thought now that's cool but what would I do with it.


Before I even finished that thought, it hit me....vertical gardening. So I drug it home, replaced the missing screws, painted it, added some doodads for eyes and set about building the garden part of the equations.

I started collecting vegetable oil bottles which just happen to fit perfectly inside the body of the lizard. I froze them, drilled them, screwed them all together, filled them with soil and installed the line of bottles I had created. The result is a great little system and I love the recycling of not only plastic bottles but of water. The top most bottle is filled with water. Water drips slowly down through the other three, which are planted into, and what isn't used collects in the bottom bottle which I can pull off and pour back into the top bottle. So far it's working out really great. The plants love it.




The Family Jewels Find A New Home


Ran across this thing and remembered seeing a facebook post of a picture frame that had been turned into a earring hanger. Really cool idea I thought so I stole it...hehehe. I painted some features, added beads and buttons and whalla! My family jewels now have an new home. I'm loving the organization. The earrings hook onto the hardware cloth, hooks for necklaces and a basket for bracelets and watches.

Oh My!



While hunting for treasure in my backyard this summer. I came across some old chairs that were a mess. They were falling apart, paint was faded, the dogs had dug holes right in the middle of the cushions! They didn't look like they had much hope. I was thinking about ripping out the seats and turning them into planters when a friend (thanks Jayne) said they were too nice and to re-do them. I was skeptical. Look at what I had to work with:



The metal frames seemed intact so I took on the challenge. Afterall I still had and was using the matching table on my patio. I live in the Southwest and wanted something festive and colorful. Digging thru my craft room I found this old fabric that I had once used in my office at work as curtains. It is a cotton denim type fabric and I'm hoping tough enough to give me several more years of use. Here's the end result:



Amazing what a little paint, fabric, foam and a staple gun will do huh?



Silver Mining

Yup folks I've struck silver. Yeah right? If only! But I have discovered that even flatware can be fun. We've been remodeling our kitchen and I wanted to do something sorta shabby and chic. While surfing the internet I found some kitchen hooks that I just loved made out of silverware and would be the perfect way to hang all my old cast iron pots. So I set about going thru the yard and collecting up all the tools I'd need to hammer and bend and break and twist and drill. Found a vise, an anvil, lots of hammers, a grinder, a drill press and and old metal table. My former sanctuary became a work shop of sorts. As a result I've turned common everyday old silverware into key fobs, pendants, kitchen hooks, and even a new kitchen chandy. Whatdaya think?










Flowers in Winter



Garden totems and stuff was a lot of fun but with winter coming on and the flowers and gardens receding I wanted something to keep things colorful and interesting thru winter. So how about dish flowers. I love these! And it sure has slowed down the cars going by. Like any garden this one has plenty of room to grow.

And what's a garden without a bottle tree or in my case a bottle shrub? Well, something has to keep all the evil spirits from invading the garden. Oh if only a leaf eating grasshopper where an evil spirit! You all just knew it would be fishy right?




Glue and Junk A Match Made in Heaven

Wow! It's been almost a year since I posted anything. Guess it's time to catch up and tell ya all what I've been up to. Basically, on-line selling died so I decided to do something creative will some of my junk. Never thought of myself as the crafty type but I'm loving it.

Lets look at what I've done with some of the old dishes and glassware and figurines I've had lying around. Not a new idea but every one every where is different. I've seen them used as garden totems, serving pieces, candle holders, planters, solar lighting...and the list goes on. Building these is easy and only limited by your imagination and of course the junk on hand.