A little tip

Just a wee little tip. Tiny.



Now I sound all cryptic and you're going to think it has something to do with miniatures. Nope! Just an uncomplicated, small tip.


I mentioned in my getting to know you post that I've been growing my hair out for...around two years. Yeah I chopped it and ever since I'm just incredibly paranoid about scissors. My hair is getting pretty close to waist length now (I'm pretty short, so that's not an impressive feat) and is in desperate need of a trim. I can't afford one, so I condition like a fiend. Thankfully I have an almost unending supply of free conditioner!

My mom has short hair and colors it frequently. However, she doesn't like to condition her hair because she thinks it makes her hair flat. Okay, well that's true. Since we don't subscribe to the same hair philosophies she gives me fists full of these tubes. Problem is, they are not the most convenient packaging. In the shower you have to unscrew the cap, squeeze the tube, screw the cap back on and hope the dollop doesn't end up on the shower floor before you get that cap back in place. You can't just leave the cap off because the darn thing is so tiny it'll try to wash itself down the drain...

Oh my goodness. I just envisioned all of this as one of those ridiculous commercials where the "real life person" can't perform the simplest functions and everything is overdramatized. Kinda like this.

Okay we'd better nip that in the bud.

My solution, since there are so many of these tubes, was to empty them into a handy dandy empty (and clean) soap dispenser with pump!

Now I have perfect ease of use and my poor, tired hair thanks me. Plus no oddly shiny-metalish-tube clutter! And check out that gorgeous countertop! *cue eye roll*

Please make sure, if you are getting these from a friend or family member, that you are not putting color specific conditioners into the mix. The tube in the middle of the picture way back there was bright red. It didn't end up going in the bottle. I had flame orange hair once and it was an accident that couldn't grow out fast enough.

So there's my wee little tip for Friday! Have a great weekend!

How does your garden grow?

Not too well at the moment!

But I am already excited about planting some fun, new seeds this year. A local store had seed packets for 50% off AND I'd been reading through an adorable book on potpourri so I got a little excited and did some shopping.

I already have lavender, sage, thyme, lemon thyme, and spearmint in the herb garden. I even had nice enough weather to go out and trim them all the other day - I smelled pretty good by the time I was done!

I also have plenty of roses and a couple of cedar trees which are also in many of the mixes found in the book.

Here's what I plan on adding:

I'm also a huge fan of cut and dried flowers (and also need some more for the potpourri mixes). So here's what I intend to add:

I suspicion I won't be able to leave it at that though. There's a specific area I want to till up and plant to all flowers of this variety so I can always have fresh cut flowers that last and enough pretty petals to add to all my potpourri mixes.

Another plant that's considered useful (and grows in horrific abundance) is calendula. The petals are supposed to be good for dyes and also for cold sores? Honestly I've never tried that. I just wanted to warn you that this stuff can and will take over if you don't keep on top of it. I have a HUGE garden and it almost filled the whole thing. I was pulling up enormous piles of these things so that the vegetables wouldn't choke out and die. Scary! They also seem to attract some gross looking beetle things that hang out in them and scare away any other attractive insects. Fan. Tastic.

Do you have any favorite flowers or herbs that you grow? Or would like to try? If you suggest something I'd love to try it out.

I'll leave you with some older shots of a few of the garden areas to perk you up and make you hopeful for spring!

Two colors of sunflowers with zinnias, African daisies and the odd cosmo.

One of my zinnias.

Two evil plants looking benign and lovely: morning glory and calendula.

FINALLY

Talk about the project that wouldn't end.

This right here is a Christmas present.

I am not even kidding you.

But I do have enough sense to be embarrassed about admitting it!

There's a perfectly reasonable (and totally long and boring) explanation as to why I just now finished it, but the key word is "finished" !! Weeee!!!

In fact it took me so long that I made a bracelet to go with it as "interest."

The reason for the post though, is the wrapping! I've seen several crafty and creative ladies taking ugly tins and making them into something really fun. If you've ever posted something like that, thanks for the idea!

I took a (sadly) empty can of Pirouette, spray-painted it black (after sanding it!) and do you recognize the flower? It was one of my leftovers from my vase project in the post below. It was a perfect embellishment (and also hid a square sticker mark that wouldn't sand off *wink*). I framed the image with polka-dot ribbon, bejewelled and monogrammed the lid and crafted a gift tag and hung it from the same ribbon as frames the image. I then lined the interior of the can with tissue paper and coiled the scarf in there - it fits perfectly! The bracelet sits atop it all. Easy and unique. Love it!

How tricky am I to get both the before and the after in the same photo? Oh so tricky!

(sadly the other one is also empty)

When I was photographing the scarf and bracelet it was dim and drizzling rain so I decided to take the photos on the front porch so I could get some light. When I was finished with the shots I turned around and was greeted by a rainbow. How lovely!

And to top it all my inspiration returned! I was complaining about losing it when B was in her funk. Ronnie got in on that with this post.



Well I don't know if I should call it inspiration or insanity. I made all of these in one night.





They are almost ready to go in the etsy shop! Whew. Once I recover that is...

I love it, I love it not...I love it!

*cue horror film music*


Where did that ugly thing come from? How did it get in my house?! I bought that ON PURPOSE?


Yep, I've said that! On more than one occasion. Isn't it funny how tastes can change or how something will be "Oh that works" one day and "Ummm no it won't!" later?


I bought a vase to hold a spray of grassy looking foliage. My only requirements were that it be a certain height and not made of glass. I found one at Goodwill for...probably two or three dollars (this was quite a while ago, so I can't be exact but it still had the original sticker on it for $14.99).


It was the right height, right price and didn't clash horribly with my room or my ideals...that is until I took my blinders off the other day as I was glancing around the bedroom and it stuck out to me...ghastly!




Are you dying to see it?






Okay it's not that bad, but it was just suddenly more than I could bear to look at.




Yeah it doesn't look that bad from way back there. Let me get it closer.

Blotchy, yellowy, green! This isn't the 70's! The Harvest Gold and Avocado colored appliances are long gone!

Down it came and to the craft room we went.

I sanded the vase to rough up the finsh and make paint more likely to stick to it. I say likely because I discovered that the vase was metal and that can sometimes be tricky. Somehow the "metal" bit did not grab my attention when I bought it. But obviously we know I must have been hypnotized or possibly medicated.

Once I'd roughed up the finish I painted it with some acrylic paint in a color called Ivory Cream. (I'm way into tone on tone whites, creams and tans lately) It would have been way faster and easier with a rattle can, but this is a multi-process vase! Just wait and see what comes next!

I didn't want a pattern I wanted a flower. So I got myself over to The Vintage Moth and printed a picture of a lovely anemone that I changed to black and white. I cut the flower out with a craft knife/razor knife and decoupaged it onto the vase. Okay that doesn't seem much like what Cy did, but that's where the inspiration came from!

Once it was down and down well, I sprayed the whole thing with my can of clear coat gloss.

And the lovely "after"...

I did only put the flower image on one side because I was thinking I could just turn it around if I wanted it plain one day. I like options! And it has nothing to do with the fact that cutting around all those wispy leaves with the razor knife took me...well, a while.

I showed it to a couple of people who asked me if I painted the flower. Ummm yeah! I painted that on there *coughcoughwink*

Now it looks great on my bedside table. Oh, you'll have to forgive the horrible shots taken with flash, that room gets practically zero natural light this time of year.

And you can peruse the book selection while you're here - I love to read!

Do you like my table? It's actually...

A plant stand with a hat box on it. And covered in a vintage table cloth (that I have yet to iron *blushes*) I stole out of the "going to Goodwill pile" I mentioned in this post.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K...

The other day I came home and caught something out of the corner of my eye...what was that movement in the old truck that no one drives? Flapping against the window was a little finchy bird looking quite exasperated. I promptly let it out and then searched for how it got in. There is no way! I still have no clue how it got in there.

Later that afternoon I wandered around the garden area, finding a spot to take some photos of new shinies to put in my etsy shop. I caught another something out of the corner of my eye in the raised garden box. What the...

Carrots! A whole row of carrots! First, it's amazing that they weren't destroyed because the deer eat everything around here. Secondly, I distinctly remember pulling all the carrots late in the Fall.

As near as I can figure, they were some leftover seed that was simply too crowded to grow while the other carrots were there. *shrug*

If you have never grown your own carrots you don't know how good they smell when you pull them and how much flavor they have as opposed to the kind you buy in baggies at the store. I don't know what they do to leech the flavor, but it happens somehow.

So I pulled me some carrots and grabbed some leeks I'd grown that hadn't been eaten yet and made a nice pan of fresh roasted garden veggies...in February. What a treat!

To roast them I cut them into small pieces and lay them in a baking dish coated with non-stick spray. Then I drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle on plenty of herbs.

I got this mix for Christmas and I love it!

I baked my vegetables at 350 degrees until tender (about an hour).

And since I mentioned my photography was what led to this discovery - I did add a few new items to my etsy shop. Take a sneak peek...