Vase ala Dr. Seuss

 This was a super duper fun project.  Inspiration came from mobile done in the same way I had seen on pinterest.  It is floral wire and tissue paper.  I filled the vase with split peas to sink it all into.  All in all, the whole thing probably cost about $5.  I already had the vase.

I started out making circles, ovals.  As I went on, I found myself getting more and more creative with the shapes, and challenging myself to come up with new ideas for each "stem."  It was honestly hard to stop, and I can't promise I won't keep adding to it.

I have thicker floral wire as the main central stem.  Thinner floral wire makes up each "bloom."  I would shape the floral wire into whatever funky shape, ran a bead of clear elmer's around the wire, and adhered a roughly cut piece of tissue paper to the wire.  After that, I cut more precisely leaving about 3/8 of an inch around the edge of the wire.  Then with more elmer's, I glued that down around the edge.

It was very easy to bend everything to whatever height and shape I wanted it once it was on the main stem.  From further away, the blooms look like they are floating.  Definitely one of my favorite projects.

T

Hanging Basil

In my gardening experiments, I've learned that I do not necessarily need to plant all the seeds from the packet.  However, this lesson was learned after I planted many, many, many basil seeds.  Therefore, there are lots of little basil seedlings in my life.  In fact, if you are in town, come get some free basil.  I started this project in an effort to find homes for some of the basil seedlings.  

Another lesson learned in my gardening journey is everything is a container.  These planters were once a mayo jar, orange juice container, and seltzer bottle.  I cut the tops off and drilled drainage holes in the bottom.  Filled with gravel, potting mix, and my little basil seedlings.  

Bought a $4 2x4 at the Home Depot and screwed three hooks I already had in my craft drawer right on into the board.  The board conveniently rests between my two cupboards.  I'm thinking it will eventually get painted as naked wood doesn't last too long in my house.

Now for the fun part. I crocheted hanging baskets out of some jute rope I had.  I am hardly an experienced crochet person, but I have found crochet to be an easy and versatile skill to have.  Glad I picked it up.  With knitting I need a pattern, but with crochet I can just shape and make whatever I need.  Well maybe not whatever, but hanging baskets were no problem.  Below is an up close view of the hanging baskets.

This window is nice and sunny, so hopefully the basil will do well.  The arrangement will come in handy when the basil plants are larger and the inevitable caprese urge hits.  

Garden Discoveries

I grew up for the most part in apartments and condos, and this is my first experience growing vegetables.  I don't know if this process is as exciting for everyone, but I have been in awe and amazement at my little garden experiment.

I am in the learning process and sharing more of my harvest with caterpillars and other critters than more experienced gardeners probably do, but I say, "You're welcome in advance," to any neighbors for that butterfly you saw yesterday.  I probably incubated it in my tomatoes somewhere.  

Speaking of butterflies, moths, and other insects, this process of metamorphosis is incredible to consider.  They often go through completely different life forms in their lifetime.  A caterpillar crawls along, eating away.  Then pupates, spinning itself in a kind of silk attached to a branch or leaf.  Eventually emerges as some type of winged creature--moth or caterpillar.  This just amazes me.  This amazement is probably at the root of my inability to kill these garden eaters, but who am I not to share the bounty?  We all need to eat, right?  

This is an awesome picture of a baby cucumber in the foreground, with a  teenage cucumber in the background.    So exciting to see these guys growing strong

I don't think this picture does it justice, but this tomato
plant should be named godzilla.  The stem alone is probably two inches
in diameter.  Creole tomatoes, of course.

This cucumber is going to be all grown up soon.
They start out all little and spiny, and then start looking like
the grocery version, smooth and striped.

The Chair

 An artist friend of mine gave me a number of things from his basement for me to re-finish, re-purpose, etc.  This chair was one of them.  Kind of a sea-foam green, but chipping paint and not the right color for my house.




As you can see in the picture directly below, I removed the slats, sanded everything down and got all the chipping paint either removed or mostly removed.  I made sure it was nice and clean, and painted everything white.

Here is the chair reassembled and painted.  I screwed the slats back on with wood screws.  In trying to stabilize one of the supports for the wooden slats, I stripped one of the screws and could not get it further in nor take it out.  It turned out to be a very happy accident, though, as I was able to attach a feather-flower I had, and now it is Maya's new favorite cat toy.

There is jute rope glued to two of the bottom leg supports, that adds some earthy texture.  As you can see in the last picture, I use this chair as a plant stand.  The terra cotta pot on the chair was another quick project.  I spray painted a terra cotta pot with chalkboard spray paint I had left over from a project, and now leave myself little messages. I often chalk a bit of inspirational philosophy (often gained in yoga class, thanks to my wise and wonderful yogi).  Currently chalked on the pot is a countdown to an upcoming Florida vacation.

Faux Stained Glass Window Treatments

 This faux stained glass look is tracing paper that I painted a simple design on.  All of the supplies were things I already had laying around the house.  I cut the tracing paper to the size of the window, came up with the simple design, and painted it on with some paints I had laying around.  It is attached to the window with double-sided tape.

It keeps the room nice and bright while remaining private.  My street is centrally located in New Orleans and well lit in the evenings.  The street lights give the windows a gorgeous glow at night.

Here is a day time view below.  A neighbor already commissioned some for his windows and I was able to trade the window treatments for lawn care.  This was a great project, completed in one evening and cost me nothing to make.  It also made the room seem much bigger as there were bulky blinds up when I moved in.

Swamp Wreath!!

So my friend brought me one of those wreaths made of straw.  I knew I wanted a wreath for the door, but just wasn't sure what I wanted in terms of style.

I usually start by cruising around the internet for ideas, and usually find some inspiration.  This time, not so.  I found the wreaths I was seeing to be too seasonal, or too country.  Nothing spoke to me.

This time, inspiration came from the kayaking the local swamps and bayous.  I thought, "Swamp Wreath!!", and it was on.  I launched out in search of swamp critters.  I found some dragon flies and spiders at Le Jouet, a toy store in a nearby suburb.  Faux alligator head, frog, crawfish, and snake all came from a place called Accent Annex which is a kind of Mardi Gras supply depot.  The Spanish Moss and Magnolias came from JoAnn's fabric and Michael's respectively.

Just a note, this city is full of real alligator heads for sale, but no alligators were harmed in the making of this particular swamp wreath.

I lined the straw wreath with some burlap garland, easily pinned in place.  Spanish moss was secured with floral wire, which is also securing the alligator, frog, snake, spiders and dragon flies.  Pins secure the Magnolias and crawfish.  Once I had the accessories, the wreath took all of an hour or so to assemble.

I love the dragon flies in flight and spiders hanging down on their "silk".  The pictures don't do it justice, but this wreath has a very 3-D quality when you see it in person.  The bugs and arachnids are all at different depths.

My step-mother gave me the advice once, that if you want to buy something, ask yourself if you love it.  If the answer is yes, purchase away, if no, walk on by.  This sage advice has saved me countless dollars over the years.  In terms of crafting, I'm so grateful that I didn't settle for creating something I didn't love just to get a wreath on the door.  It took me a few days, and a lot of thought, but the delayed gratification was completely worth it with this swamp wreath.  I love coming home to see my mossy, magnolia-laced creation.  It is quite unique, and not like anything I've seen anywhere else.

Upcycled Pallet Swing

This porch swing was made from a shipping pallet.  My idea came via pinterest, via a post on Sheryl Salisbury's photography website entitled Weekly Wanderings.  Here are some general instructions.  Let me know if I can give you any more specific guidance if you want to try this project yourself.

First, find the pallet.  Quality is highly variable.  I posted on facebook that I was looking for a pallet, and got a surprising number of viable responses.  More people in my network have access to pallets than I ever realized.  You don't need a perfect pallet, but it shouldn't be highly warped or water damaged.  I grabbed a few of the best ones in case I needed spare parts, or in case of mess-ups.  (Note:  Mess-ups are just learning opportunities with bad PR.  Don't let them get you down.)  Also, enlist the help of a friend.  Pallets are heavy!

Once it was home, I cut about a third off.  I easily accomplished this with a cheap, hand-help saw.  Where I chose to cut wasn't based on fancy measurements, but more on stability of the final product.  There are boards that are clearly meant for support.  I kept those.  Depending on the size of your swinging area, you could choose to have a sort of swinging pallet bed.  Mine is cut wide, but not bed wide.  The width has resulted in comfort even without having a back.  I could have tried to fashion a back with the leftover pallet from the cut, but I like this one better backless.

In the Weekly Wanderings pallet, they took boards off a spare pallet and cut them to size to fill the gaps between the boards on the pallet turned swing.  I tried to get the boards off the spare pallets and would have broken the boards before ever successfully removing them.  I had a spare panelling type board from a diy picture framing adventure, so I cut it to size and affixed it to my pallet via wood screws.  I have been trying to use what I already have, but if you wanted to do this and didn't have a board, they are only $10 or so at the Home Depot.

Sand it!!  And sand it good.  Butt splinters will ruin any swinging experience, and pallets are splintery.  I used a mouse sander.  Some people don't care for mouse sanders, but I personally love mine.  I also painted it with some thick exterior kilz, which also helped to smooth it all out.

For about $22, I bought chain from the hardware store, which conveniently lists how much weight it supports right on the package.  I figured to be safe, about 1000 pounds.  New Orleans has really good food, and it won't always be skinny people swinging on this thing.  The chains supported about 900 lbs each.  Also got 4 big, thick screw things with the loop on the end.  (I realize that is not that helpful, and one of my blogging goals will be to develop a better hardware vocabulary.)   I do know they were 5/16 in width and I purchased the appropriate drill bit.  Drilled four holes in the sides of the pallets, all dead center in terms of height, all about 2 1/2 inches in from the edge.  Bolted or lug nutted them in.  Again, sorry for the hardware vocabulary, or lack thereof.  Six quick links, all capable of supporting about 900 lbs attached the chain to the hardware on the swing and to the existing hardware on the porch.  All said and done, the hardware came to about $30.

The cushions I made from clearance outdoor fabric.  JoAnne's was selling it at $5 per yard.  I used about 4 yards total.  3 yards to cover the foam cushions, which were $12 a piece.  One yard for the bolster, which is stuffed with damaged sheets given to me by a friend.  Too nice to throw away, not nice enough to donate.  Anyway, the cushions ran me about $45.  I would give you the sewing instructions, but I don't really know what I'm doing in terms of sewing.  I can sew a straight line, and take the approach that even if I can't see the whole staircase, I just start climbing and let the next step reveal itself to me when its time.  (It's not an exact quote, but the concept of that quote comes from MLK, Jr.  Wanted to give credit where credit is due.)

I had priced a number of porch swings and they run from about $180 on up.  Mine was a steal at $75, and I am super proud of the finished project.  Not counting the cushions, the swing was easily completed in a Saturday afternoon.  What a wonderful weekend project.

Welcome and Nice to Meet You

Hello and Welcome to my blog.  By means of introduction, my name is Audra and I live in New Orleans with my trusty feline companion, Maya.  

I have been making stuff for years, and recently have noticed, I may have actually have developed some skills.  I've been posting things on facebook here and there, but last night I thought, why not blog?   My inspiration often comes from diy blogs and pinterest, and I am honored to share.  I like to think of creativity and inspiration as a flowing river we can all dip into.  We might dip at different points, and get some different rocks and critters, but the river is there for us all.

As a sort of blogging mission statement, I'd like to keep the content parameters pretty loose.  If it's related to creating something, it's fair game.  In my mind, that includes music, gardening, and cooking as well as diy craft type things.  Here goes, and may you all stick at least a toe into the river!!