Experiments in garden and a dish cloth May 7, 2009

So I’m attempting a gardening method called straw bale gardening.  Basically I’ve hunted down some cheap hay bale and I’m doing to be using them as a growing medium.  The bales are placed on cardboard to keep the weeds down.  Then you water them to encourage decomposition.  Once they’ve cooled off you plant your transplants directly in the bales and grow them there.  The benefits are sort of like with a raised bed, good drainage, easy to reach, not alot of weeds (tho if the bales have seeds they’ll grow and you have to trim them back).  So far I have 13 bales.  I’ve gotten cardboard under several of them.  I’m bringing home some boxes from work today and my little sister works in recycling so she brought me some yesterday.  Once the cardboard is under them I start watering (don’t want them to get too heavy and then add the cardboard).  Since nitrogen speeds up the process I’ve added some fresh horse manure to the tops of the bales and watered that in.  So I guess we’ll see how it does:)

A couple of months ago Matt and I stopped buying paper towels.  Mainly we did it to cut out an expense but so far I only miss them when I’m working on a craft project or when  I want a napkin.  I had some left over cotton thread so this last week I’ve crocetted up some napkin/wipe up towels.  This was the pattern for the one I liked the best.

Chain 22, Turn and single stitch in one back (would be the 21st chain). 

Single stitch all 21 back to end

Chain one to turn. Single stitch in one, chain and skip the next stitch, single stitch in 3, ch skip, single in 5, ch skip, single in 7, ch skip, single in 9, ch skip, single in 11, continue to end of row. 

Chain one turn and repeat on rows until you have the lenght you want.  Then Single stitch 21. 

Work around the edges as you want.  The pattern that I like to add to the edges is a simple ruffle.  Single stitch, chain three, single stitch in next place.  Shells are very nice too.

This pattern is really easy once you get it going and very quick to make.  It comes out looking a little lacy.  Something that really helps me keep the stitches in the right place is that after you’ve done the first row of single chain skips, the yarn of the single stitches will look sort of like a downward v.  Those downward V s are where you put the singles for the rest of the pattern.

One indoor project, One garden project March 13, 2009

A couple weeks ago Matt and I finally got around to using the Howard Restore a finish that I’d bought a while back.   One of my coworkers had told me about it when I mentioned that we were looking at refinishing our kitchen cabinets and I really didn’t want to.  The cabinets are ok, but they’re oak so they’d gotten dinged up and a little scratched and water faded.  I was kind of sceptical that the restore-a-finish could do much by just being rubbed in. 

 I was so wrong:)!  It worked incredibly well and didn’t take long at all.  You need the finish stuff, rags or tee shirt pieces, super fine steal wool is helpful, gloves, and some paper towels.  I also laid down newspaper so we didn’t get it on the wood floor.  

Basically you pick the shade that matches closest to your finish, scrub down the cabinets so your not finishing in dirt.   Lay out the newspaper if you’re using it.  And I’d recommend testing it on the back side of a cupboard or somewhere else it wont show.  If you like it, put on gloves and use the rag to rub it into the finish.  The steel wool is helpful to buff out deeper scratches but be gentle with it.  Rub the cabinet then use the paper towels to wipe off any extra residue.  That’s it!  We did the whole (admittedly not huge) kitchen in one day.

 

Garden project.  I really wanted to build raised beds and do everything just so in our side yard this year.  Unfortunately, the economy and fate have decided that we’re going to be broke and struggling for awhile.  I’m still hoping to build some of them but I’ve needed to find some other plans.

A bunch of the areas that I was planing on putting in beds are nothing but weeds right now.  First thing I have to deal with is those weeds, and do it before they take over.  So my current experiment is to use the buckwheat to improve the soil and to out compete the weeds. 

So here’s the plan that I started on yesterday.  In the sections that are weedy and I know I’ll put in  raised beds, I’m turning the weeds over.  Basically shovel them and the dirt up and turn it over to kill the weeds with darkness and any that do turn around should be weakened.  Then in the next few days I’m going to thickly sow the area with buckwheat.  Buckwheat sprouts and grows incredibly quickly, so works really well in out competing weeds.  Most of the buckwheat I’ll till into the ground to improve the structure and add organic material.  In a couple of patches I’ll most likely let it go to seed and collect it for next year.

Gods it feels good to be in the garden again.! even if the only thing growing so far is the weeds:)

The weekend that wasn’t January 12, 2009

Well my plans for a mellow and relaxing weekend didn’t quite work out.  Matt’s truck died on the way home Friday.  Bad battery and bad alternator.  So Saturday involved running to pick and pull to replace a piece the boys had broken on my car last week.  That part of the day went really quick.  Car’s all better.  The alternator, not so much.  They got the old alternator out without a problem but the new one didn’t fit.   Grrr.  So Matt and Jon spent the whole day working on that.   Then still spent Sunday working on it.

I decide I was sick of having a torn up kitchen so I wanted to finish the grouting this weekend.  Not a problem except there was a lot more left than I thought.  So I spent Saturday doing that, Sunday doing more grouting and cleaning and getting my hair die in.  And I’m pooped.

The good news is that I’ll be able to seal the grout tonight and by tomorrow put everything away.  And the other good news is that the pink dye we put in my hair, is seriously pink:)!

Easy Project November 20, 2008

One of my fairly recent projects was to contact paper my laundry room shelves and my pantry shelves.  I rarely see people use contact paper anymore but it makes shelves easier to clean and look a heck of a lot neater.  So I thought I’d share a little bit about how to do it.

Contact is the name brand and I’ve worked with other types too. There are lots of colors and patterns.  I use a blue green marble kind of pattern this time.  They pretty much all have the same idea.  The vinyl, smooth paper is sticky on the back.  To stick it somewhere peel off the backing and press in place.   If you like to to thing in an orderly way, you measure your space and then use the nice neat lines on the back to cut it to size before you put it in place.  It you’re like me you grab the roll, climb a chair, streach out the amount you need and hack it off with scissors.  Then put it in place and cut to fit.  Either way works and just depends on your ways of doing things. 

Couple of things that help-

To make it smooth just keep smoothing out wrinkles as you go.  A very lightly damp sponge is useful. 

Always cut it a little too big.  You can always cut it back.  I use a razor and a pair of scissors.

If the paper has a hard time staying in place on the underside of the shelves, just remember that duct tape fixes everything:).

I’ll also use it to cover boxes.  Makes them easy to dust, a little stronger, and you can make them match your decor.

The other place I love it is under bathroom sinks.