Nest Place Card Holders

Another spring project...

My inspiration...

Image from potterybarn.com

To make each holder, I used a 4" bird nest and two 18" pieces of wire. I used 22 gauge brown cloth stem wire. You can get both items at your local craft store, usually in the floral department. I was able to make 8 place card holders for around $15. I added a few fake bird eggs for an extra touch, but you could fill them with anything.

Now come on over for dinner, we saved you a place at the table :)

Garden Planters

I've been busy with spring projects...

No, not that kind of busy.

My mom, master of finding valuable items in the trash, found six of these white plastic planters, and gave me three of them for our patio.

I cleaned them up and gave them a coat of metallic spray paint, the kind that binds to plastic. Then they sat empty on the patio for a few months, until the weather warmed up and I felt motivated to plant something. I filled one of the planters with herbs: sage, oregano, mint, and basil.

With only four herbs, you'd think we could remember which one was which. True. But I look for any excuse to start a craft project, so I made garden markers.

It was a pretty simple project. I bought a roll of copper sheeting, copper wire, and a paint pen at the craft store.

First, I drew my shape and cut it out of a piece of cardstock. Then I taped it to the copper to keep it in place while cutting. The copper is thin enough that you can use regular scissors to cut your shape out. After I cut out all four shapes, I sanded any sharp edges. Using a mechanical pencil (without the lead sticking out), I wrote the plant names into the copper. I then went in with the paint pen and filled in the letters so that they would stand out.

Zach helped solder the wire to the back of each label and they were ready to go!

Leak Detectives

S: We filled up our swimming pool last week. Oh wait, we don't have a swimming pool....but if we did, the 20,000 gallon water usage on last month's bill wouldn't be as shocking. Hmmm, let me think, we watered the lawn. Once. For about 30 minutes. Oh, and I took a bath. That explains it right?
Z: You only took one bath? That's gross Sarah. Although you managed to smell flowery as ever all month. Conclusion: my wife sweats rose oil. Thankfully we have a responsible water company that informed us that our water usage quadrupled before we ever got the bill. The first point of trouble shooting was to turn off each water valve for every toilet and faucet in the house. If the meter stops running , then the leak is happening with a faucet or most likely a toilet, which can easily be DIY. If the meter continues running, this means the leak is located in the main line to the house, or worse in the foundation, which can easily require a professional. In our case, the meter kept running! We hoped it was in the yard line, somewhere between the meter and the house. A leak in the foundation is usually expensive....removing flooring...jackhammering concrete...$$$.
S: What puzzled us most was the lack of water, where did it all go?
Z: A leak in the foundation or wall pipes could lead to soggy walls or a wet spot somewhere around the foundation. Since we had neither of these, we figured the leak was in the main line between the meter and the house. We had just had a few inches of rain so it was hard to gauge where the ground was soggiest, but I discovered a small soggy patch in the lawn and after digging down several inches found a pool of water.
S: We still weren't able to locate the pipe, so we made an appointment with a plumber. The plumber never showed up, which was really frustrating. So we got back out there and started digging...and guess what, Zach found the pipe. Amazingly, the spot Zach chose to dig was directly over the leak, we just needed to dig a little deeper.
Z: How did I do it without a divining rod? Magic. Take that lazy plumber.
S: After purchasing $4 worth of supplies, Zach had fixed the leak! So in the end it was actually a good thing the plumber didn't show up. Plus Zach's lack of behind helps prevent unsightly plumber's crack.

Z: The double bend in the PVC was the source of the leak. I believe it had been installed under tension and eventually failed after 25 years. So all that needed to be done was to cut the pipe and replace that double bend.

S: We kept the water turned off as much as possible until we could fix the problem. Let me tell you how much I appreciate running water! I felt like I was on the show 1900 house. Ok, it wasn't quite that bad but still.

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Ruffles

Too many ruffles can be a bad thing...

but when used in moderation, ruffles are any easy way to add a little interest. Take these simple beige curtain panels for example:

After using a few yards of inexpensive white muslin to add ruffles:

I measured out an 8" wide strip of muslin, then folded it in half and sewed along the long open edge. I then turned the tube of fabric inside out and pressed it flat with the seam at the side. By hand, I sewed a gathering stitch about 1/2" in from the edge and pulled tight to create ruffles. I pinned the ruffle into place on the back of my curtain panel and sewed along the edge to secure it.

Baby Blanket

My friend Laurel is expecting a little girl this spring. I made her a fleece baby blanket using a cute pink and green turtle print paired with a simple pink stripe for the other side. I got to try out one of the fun stitches on my new sewing machine, and finished the edge of the blanket with a row of pink hearts.

Growing like a weed

S: You could say we have green thumbs. We're very good at growing weeds.

S: Winter left us with a pretty sad lawn, but magically, at the first sign of warm weather, a blanket of weeds sprung up. I'm just grateful that the worst of the weeds are confined to the backyard, leaving our frontyard looking somewhat respectable.

At 43 inches, I think this may just hold the record for tallest residential weed...

Z: We have to give weeds some credit as masters of stealth. Similar to the rabbit, or more aptly, the roach, the weed simply takes to the tactic of living to germinate, you know, weed sex. One weed in your yard recieves pollen from another and the lovemaking weeds soon spread their progeny all over God's green earth making it more, uh, green. And ugly. Below, you can see a dramatic interpretation of the weeds desire to rule the planet.

Z: Since weeds only care about sex and reproduction they are luckily shallow, in their root system of course. They are also shallow morally, but I won't proselytize you weed lovers out there. After a few hours of pulling, tugging, and some minor digging, I had uprooted the majority of the weeds.

S: Now if we could just keep them from coming back...
Z: That's easy Sarah! We can teach the weeds about birth control and monogamy. Or we can spread atrazine everywhere and destroy them. Seeing that weeds can't hear and are also pagans, we'll go with the weed and feed and burn them out