Thursday, November 21, 2013

Earth-friendly Gift ideas --tis the Season

The gift season is upon us when undoubtedly we'll hear countless stories about gift giving etiquette when no doubt the dreaded "Re" word [re-gifting] will come up.  The general consensus being:

Re-Gifting --not cool.
but...

Re-Purposed or Re-cylced Gifts --Very Cool!


You would be surprised the "priceless" treasures that can be created from what might otherwise be considered useless "trash"

Here is one idea that i have seen many times on Pinterest and finally got around to actually trying it myself:


Hollowed out old light bulbs; re-purposed and transformed into magnificent, tiny, decorative  containers and vases.

... my first attempt and it was quick and easy.

  

I used an old broken candelabra  to display multiple bulbs instantly creating a unique centerpiece that can be easily revamped or decorated for different looks or occasions.







ideas:
have a plant that's getting to big; needs thinning? gift a starer plant in a creative display "old light bulb"

I'm sure yo can come up with many other ideas and ways to use these hollowed-out light bulbs.

inspiration:
Pinterest | tutorial from TeamDroid - very good
Tumbler | Tiny Terra make awesome miniature terrariums using old bubs


~dlb

Saturday, August 17, 2013

DIY Fabric Flowers from Old Curtains

i love a good recycle project...

i changed old sun-damaged curtains into beautiful fabric flowers,


fabric flower garden

Ruffles
Petals



rag rose


if you want to create your very own "fabric" flower garden, i have a video tutorial on making the
silk chiffon "petal" flower pictured below


Happy Gardening.....

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Butterflies

i love butterflies...

Red-Spotted Purple



and my butterfly garden brings all these lovely beauties to the yard


 they can't resist my buttterfly bush




also called summer lilac,


 or orange eye, is a species of flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae,



native to central China, and also Japan






 ...and this beauty showed up as well, been coming around for a while, now. She is a camera hound!


Swallowtail


 she loves striking posing,


and let's me come in close...







Sunday, July 14, 2013

Rose of Sharon

Rose of  Sharon
Sunday…

swt-btrfly 085-001r1

Rose of Sharon is mentioned in the Old Testament book of Song of Songs. During these times, shepherds would use the rose of Sharon oil to treat cuts and wounds.




Swallowtail Butterfly

swt-btrfly 267-001r

Wings…

Monday, July 1, 2013

Flowers in July

These are the beauties observed on my morning bike ride. Come take a look.


"I think it pisses God off to walk by the color purple in a field and not notice it." 

~Alice Walker, "Color Purple"




  sunlight





flowers





~silence~


 as we



~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~

fade to PiNk ...

~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~





Sunday, June 30, 2013

DIY Braided Bracelet




Braids are all the rage these days. Check out the latest magazines or internet sites like Pinterest and you will find braids showing up in hairstyles as well as fashion and accessories…They are everywhere and so I was inspired to create my own “braided” accessory, a bracelet.



It is made of miscellaneous bits of fabric from an old t-shirt, ribbon, beads, and a bit of chain from an old costume bead and chain necklace. I love taking items that might otherwise be tossed out and repurposing them.





Armed with a variety of scrap materials, a few jewelry findings, scissors and glue and I was able to create a pretty cool bracelet. The t-shirt was white and I used a bit of fabric dye to create a new color: turquoise, another hot color trending this season.  I now have a hot new one of kind bracelet and you can too. It so easy and so much fun.  I couldn’t wait to share.


Hope to update this post with step by step tutorial eventually but I know some “crafty creatives” out there will be inspired by pictures to come up with your OAK braided bracelet; I bet you can figure it out yourself...
Now go get Fashionably Crafty ;-)

Remember Tutorial coming soon.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Container Gardening

Gardening runs in my family. I never cared much about until I got my own apartment then I wanted plants, lots of plants. Who did I call for advice about them, my mom, of course.  My mother has always planted flowers and most of the time a vegetable garden. I always tell people that she has two green hands.  She could grow things and cook things that made you pay attention.  What that? How’d you do this or that? She usually had answer if was about plants or food.

When I finally had my own house and full two acre lot, I really became interested in gardening, flowers that is, still wasn’t real turned on about the vegetable garden thing but now I am what with the cost of food amongst other life changes.  I know I still can’t commit to a the “old-fashion” style vegetable garden my parents and grandparents kept for many reasons.

Container gardening, urban gardening, small space gardening is my solution.

SONY DSC

I have a new obsession, now, looking for alternative ways and methods of growing vegetables.  One of my favorite sources of information is the internet, so I thought I'd share my results here as well.

SONY DSC

So far I’ve learned to grow lettuce, potatoes, onions, and  all from kitchen scraps.  I've been growing herbs fairly successfully for a quite a while from seed

grow-ur-veggies copy

It’s so easy and the results will astound you.  I felt like I had planted magic beans when my plants began growing. Any type of lettuce can be use, just cut the “root-end” off; you know the part you never use and usually toss in the trash or compost, yep that part.  You’ll want to leave about 2-3 inches of “fleshy” part. Then place this in a shallow bowl and fill with just a little water. I’d try to stay about 1/4-1/2”.  Keep it water and watch for signs of rot from the “fleshy” part you left on and if you see the leaves getting a little mushy take it off.  You don’t want your water getting all moldy and yucky.  You will see growth in about 3-4 days, no kidding, that quick. That’s it.

Easy Peezy….

Look for future post on growing celery, onions, potatoes and ginger.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Daily Pin

Music
Artsy instrument
Crafty Stars
made from salt dough

DIY (do-able 4 me) bracelets..


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