diy: gardening hand scrub

Oh my gosh I've been so busy lately! There's just so much to do in the summer (especially since we only see maybe, if we're lucky four months of it).

So if you're like me, you're probably out there, too. Mowing and weeding and digging and planting and generally getting downright dirty.

I had seen a lot of scrub tutorials, face and body mostly, so I went on a little search for a hand scrub. I guess a gardening hand scrub, as I'm calling it here, but really you can use this for any time your hands just need a little extra cleaning.

On the whole, most "gardening" hand scrubs I read about had sugar mixed with hand-friendly dish soap. And that's totally fine. If you like washing your hands with dish soap. I know, I know. It's Palmolive or hand-softening or what have you, but I just don't like those (and don't think I haven't tried them, either. I felt like they neither softened my hands nor cleaned my dishes).

So mine's probably a bit of a cop out cuz I kept the sugar but used a favourite hand soap instead. It doesn't really matter what soap you use, the method's still the same.

I made enough to fill this jar and I've already used a lot of it! It scrubs really well and surprisingly leaves my hands feeling a lot softer and less tight and dry than they usually are. I don't know if the sugar has anything to do with it, but I do know that this is one of the better uses for sugar!

So here's how you do it:

Grab the jar you want to use (honestly, I've been scooping a bit out with my fingers, so choose something you can dip into.) and fill it 3/4 of the way full of sugar. That's just about two finger widths from the top of your vessel (or consult a measuring cup to get a better idea if you need to, but it's not an exact science). Pour the sugar into a bowl and slowly add liquid soap and mix until you get a medium-thick paste. You don't want it to be all sugar and you don't want it to be all soap (initial experiments had too much soap and the sugar ended up dissolving into the soap so I really just made myself some sweet soap). It shouldn't be drippy, let's put it that way.

And boom! You're done! That was easy, hey?

If you're going to a BBQ or a picnic party, I think this would make a pretty good hostess gift, as well. Include a little spoon and maybe some gardening gloves and you're all set.

DIY: crow door decor

We love birds around here (even when Hermes is being an angry little dictator), so I thought the most appropriate decoration for our house this year would be crows (last year, I made a monster and went crazy with spiders).

This whole plan almost fell through because I could not find a single acceptable black crow. I was about to default to the Pacman and ghosts idea, when I stumbled on the perfect little crows at Superstore. And just like that my original idea was back on!

For the birds, all you have to do is find some silhouettes of crows through a google image search. Print them out at various sizes (to give the appearance of distance) and cut them out for templates. I used black poster paper that I found at the dollar store for the finished bird.

 

I also didn't worry too much about detail. Some images have every feather and foot perfectly outlined, but I just wanted to cut out as many as I could in as little time as possible, so I rounded the wing and tail feathers and just used wavy cutting to simulate feathers. Occasionally, I put in a feather slice but only randomly.

I had to do some testing with how to stick them up because tape takes off the paint on my doors. I found that sticky tacky actually does hold in the cold weather (I tested it in my freezer) and I'm even more impressed with it because I put all of this stuff up (in what seemed like) the hour before we had the biggest wind storm of the fall. I was so worried that night cuz I thought I'd go out the next morning and find a door covered in blobs of sticky tack and all my crows blown away, but I only lost one (and that wasn't on the door, I've got some around the window, too). And to further prove it to you, I put these crows up last week and these are pictures I took today. Everything's still holding strong.

The fake crows that I found at Superstore were only $3 which I didn't think was too bad (considering the larger ones I'd found). They did need a little fixing as their legs easily pulled out (and that's the main attaching part), so I added a little dab lot of hot glue and pressed them back in again. They do have wires on their feet for attaching and that seemed pretty good, but I didn't want to chance it, so I used some floral wire to further attach them to the branches of our front tree.

I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out (and I'm a little smug to see that other houses along our block have also now added some black paper crow cut outs to their Halloween decor, too). I did the spider web thing last year and putting it up was kind of a hassle, but taking it down? Trying to get all the webbing off my house was more of a nightmare than Halloween itself (there were STILL small web remnants left on my tree even through summer). This will be so much easier (and my heart bleeds for the house down the street that covered their junipers with spider web this year. Good luck getting that off!).

friday fixations

{michelle tanner} She's so right.

{aziz ansari's 50 cent grapefruit story} Surprisingly, this doesn't surprise me at all.

Source: canadiangardening.com via idle on Pinterest

{flower beds without removing grass} This problem was on the back of my mind until I learned of a friend's disheartening struggle to install flower beds in her backyard (also a newer build with about a foot of topsoil, the rest solid clay). I thought, "okay we'll just build some planter boxes and dump dirt in those, that'd be cool." And then I thought, "where the hell am I gonna put a bunch of planter boxes?" And then mom emailed me this link which kinda makes sense, looks pretty doable and like it would probably work. So now I'm thinking, "I need to find a bunch of newspapers."

{embroidered screen door} I had/have a hankering to put a screen door on our back door. One of those cutesy wooden ones with scrolls. I'd paint it bright yellow and now I'd embroider some Xs and Os in the screen to welcome my sweetheart home.

a garden plan

I read an article in last year's July issue of Real Simple magazine about flower arranging. It was kind of the typical flower arranging 101 article, but I really loved the way they described a simple bouquet.

"Create a foundation; add large face flowers; weave in wispy elements."

I thought this was the most perfect way to go about planning a garden. Especially if, like me, you love having plants that you can also bring indoors to enjoy. If you plan your garden like you would plan a bouquet, everything you plant will be useful and you should never be without enjoyable flowers all season long. Plus your backyard should grow into and form its own bouquet-look naturally.

{foundation elements}

You can think of foundation plants mostly as foliage plants. That is, those plants with either small insignificant flowers or none at all.

Some foundation plants I really love include solomon's seal, ferns, and dogwood. Any sort of tree or small shrub is perfect for this task as well so consider the colour of leaves and branches when choosing bushes and trees. When it comes time to trim back branches, you can easily add them to a bouquet to provide structure. And don't forget that flowering plants can be used for foliage when they're out of season, too. I think some great foliage can come from plants such as the leaves from bleeding hearts.

Large taller flowered plants like monkshood and delphiniums can also anchor a garden and create a foundation, so you're not entirely limited to leafy plants.

Foundation plants are the first plants you should think about when planning a garden. Beginning with a solid base will make figuring out the size and shape of the design that much easier. Planting the larger base plants gives you a better idea of what flowers can fit around, under, and between them.

{face elements}

Next are face flowers. These would be considered the star of the show so think large commanding blossoms. Some of my favourites are peonies, alliums, roses, lilies, irises, and oriental poppies. These are the fun and exciting plants that everyone is immediately drawn to.

{wispy elements}

I think wispy elements are the most creative and pretty element you can add to a garden. Typically, these are the light, airy, and sometimes oddly shaped flowers. They're beautiful on their own but don't command the same attention as face flowers. I would also include ground cover in this category. It would be easy to remove runners from some varieties to add to bouquets, plus they create a more layered look to a garden which is something I think wispy elements add to a bouquet.

I love the options given by Real Simple. These include columbine, bleeding hearts (the flower portion), sweet peas, and ferns. Some options that I've included in my garden so far are coral bells, speedwell, and lamb's ears. I'll be looking to add some of these next year: astilbe, baby's breath, fleeceflower, foxtail lily, honey suckle, clematis, lady's mantle, liatris, lily of the valley, meadow rue, poppy varieties (like icelandic and californian), and sea thrift.

I would also go so far as to include herbs in this category as well. Nothing would be prettier than a few sprigs of rosemary or basil mixed into a bouquet and it would add such a nice smell!

You definitely don't have to be an expert gardener to have a great yard. Just like decorating, whatever you like will always work together and you should never be afraid to make mistakes. If you really love a plant but you're not sure it'll make the winter, plant it and wait and see.

the complete book of the garden

It's been snowy, so I thought I'd warm myself with thoughts of spring by looking through some of my old gardening books.

I'd love to have some sweet peas climbing somewhere. They were one of my gram's favourite flowers. She always had a bouquet of them around.

I love this orange. I wanted all pinks in the garden, but I think I could make room for some orange, too.

I still have an old fish tank I've been meaning to convert into a terrarium.

I also want to find some bleeding hearts for the yard this year, too. They're one of my favourites. Wouldn't it be sweet to have a small hedge of them?

I wonder if we'll get any flowers on the apple tree this summer.

Idle Husband surprised me with a cyclamen last month, and I've actually kept it alive so far. It's even managed to put out some new leaves. That's pretty good for a house plant as I haven't really had much luck keeping them alive lately. I think it takes a while to figure out what plants will grow happily in a new home.

diy: window film pattern

Problem: Our neighbours have highly functioning, industrial strength, two-pronged, motion-detecting spotlights at the door to their garage. Or, in other words, they have two high-beam, vehicle-sized headlights attached to their garage that turn on whenever we leave our backdoor or a moth flitters by. This spotlight is in a direct line that goes through our backdoor window, to the kitchen and hits me directly in the eyes. Amazingly, it's been installed at the most perfect in-my-kitchen, through-my-door eyeline. Wonderful.

We don't really need privacy on our backdoor window. No one enters there except us and it's pretty near impossible to see through it from the alley or another yard. The doors aren't metal -- there goes my magnetic curtain rod idea -- but there's really not enough room for swishy curtains anyway (if the closet door is open -- which it almost always is -- the door bumps into it. It's a poorly designed entry. I'll be fixing that). So I thought I should put some window film up. I had some oddly sized leftover pieces from the old house that were just too damn pretty to throw away (i.e. it's my favourite window film pattern to date and I almost always hate throwing bits and pieces away if I think they could be used somehow). The floral pattern is not exactly an easy pattern to piece together, though, so if I tried to make the larger pieces work, it just would have looked like I was... trying to make the larger pieces work. And that wouldn't have worked at all.

What I did:

- printed out a simple hexagon after drawing it in photoshop -- i.e. clicking the shape tool, and dragging out the shape until it was approximately the size I thought looked good.

- cut out said hexagon for a template.

- tediously traced and cut out about ten hexagons (to start) from the scraps of window film I had. (I still have a scab on my thumb from using scissors all day.)

- found the exact middle of the window, and placed my first hexagon dead centre of that. I used a wet piece of paper towel to wet the window for each hexagon, then smoothed out the bubbles as best I could (I should restick some of the top ones to get the bubbles out, but bubbles are more visible from the outside, so it's not a humongous deal).

- eyeballed the distances between each subsequent hexagon thereafter. (Once wet, the film is really easy to move around and reposition.) I would have made another template that could have acted as a marker between the hexagons so I'd get the perfect distance each time, but I didn't want to get OCD about it.

- since I was working with limited window film, I made sure to do the important side of the window first (the right side) and I stopped cutting whole hexagons rather frequently to cut out edge and corner pieces so I was sure I'd have enough.

- to cut edge and corner pieces, I took the discarded backing from previously cut hexagons and put them on the window where I needed them, then folded them and cut them to fit. Essentially making new templates for the half and quarter hexagons.

And then I ran out of window film. But no matter. The left side isn't the offensive side. It's the right. And now that it's covered up, the eye-blasting spotlights create a soft, flowery glow seen from the kitchen which is a whole lot prettier and (come to think of it) safer. Especially when trying to use a sharp knife after being eye assaulted by burning harsh yellow high-beams. Check out the night shot. Now imagine a world without pretty window film.

If I actually look into the original source for this film, I might be able to get more and I'll do the window up properly (and the window in the stairs because I'd much rather look at this than poop brown siding). Until then, the hexagon look is really fun and interesting. I'd definitely make my own pattern using shapes again (I'm imagining triangles now!) particularly if my only option was plain, rice paper style window film -- which is seriously the best looking option at Home Depot. (Hello, grape-vine window film. I'm talking to you.)

DIY: fall wreath

This is the best wreath I've made so far. Of course, I've only ever made two, but that's not really the point now is it?

Remember the fabric wreath? That thing hung on my door all summer and I really never tired of it at all. The only thing I will note is that the fabric got a little droopy. I don't know why. Maybe it was humidity? Dust? Heat? Wind? Whatever the case, it started to look a little tired. So that's when I began thinking about making another wreath for fall or the in-between before Christmas wreaths are acceptable.

Lately I've been noticing a lot of pretty foliage on my daily walks. Berries and grasses and seed pods are quite beautiful this time of year and without showy distracting flowers taking all of the attention, these plants should get centre stage.

So after weeks of forgetting, I finally brought a bag and some clippers with me and walked around to all the spots I remembered seeing great grasses.

You would not believe how many looks you get when you're carrying around a bag of grasses and weeds. People looked at me like I'd gone mental. It probably would have helped if Idle Husband didn't stop at Save-On to get an ice cream for the walk home. I guess you might look a little more crazy if you're also in a grocery store carrying around a bag of weeds.

The ice cream was totally worth it though! (This flavour is always sold out and now I know why!)

Once home, I put everything in a vase of water and formulated my plan the rest of the day.

The vase of water is pretty important if you're not planning on doing this the day you collect your weeds. You don't want them drying and becoming brittle. It will be impossible to bend them into a circular shape without them cracking and breaking at that point.

I don't really have much of a tutorial for this one since it's kind of something that depends on the weeds, what you want it to look like, your own personal esthetics, yadda yadda. I will say that it's super messy and as grasses dry, they like to pop out their seeds. So if you think my table is messy, you should see the floor. Work on this project outside or somewhere where you can do easy clean-up (i.e. not on a carpeted floor like I did).

just a reminder

My first thought was to use sturdy branches as the base, but that quickly changed since I found them too floppy and they wouldn't attach to each other very well. I still had a metal coat hanger leftover from the fabric wreath, so I did exactly the same thing. Bend, pull, push, shape the hanger into the best circle you can. This time, I left the hook part intact so that I'd have something to hang the wreath with (just use a pair of pliers to bend the hook around into a closed circle). But if you'd like to add a nice ribbon instead, feel free to use the hanger part in your form as before.

Next bend your collected branches, berries, and grasses around the wire frame and attach them as you like. Initially I attached mine with twist ties, but once I was done, I went back through and tied everything on with brown and green string and then removed the twist ties so the attachments would be less noticeable (am I the only one who longs for the days of paper twist ties when you could easily strip it all off with your fingernail to reveal the bare wire? Or the ones that were orange or brown or just clean white without a bunch of printing on them?).

Now if you were smart and planned ahead and wanted to spend just a tiny bit of money on this project, you could buy some floral wire and you'd be able to skip my extra step. I'm still happy I started with twist ties since they're a lot easier to use when attaching with one hand while holding branches with the other. I definitely wouldn't suggest you start with string. It's a little too fussy and I think you'd get frustrated trying to hold and tie at the same time. Otherwise, this project cost me exactly zero dollars and I think it looks pretty amazeballs.

Note to future self: please please paint the door hook the same colour as the door! (The hook has been digitally enhanced -- for now.)

I love the red berries against the turquoise on the door. So pretty! They've now turned a deeper shade of red which makes this a nice evolving look. I've also since rounded out the branches in the middle a bit more so our peephole actually functions. Be wary of that if you're a peeper like we are!

I constructed the wreath about three weeks ago and it still looks pretty fresh. The leaves have drooped and dried a little more now that it's gotten colder, but it still looks pretty good from the sidewalk. I'm hoping it lasts at least into November. I'm kind of entertaining the idea of adding some Halloween charm to the house, but I'm not completely sold on that idea yet. (gah I've always wrinkled my nose at Halloween decorations cuz it's not technically a holiday I feel needs decorating for but there're so many cute and whimsical dark and macabre ideas about now, it's terribly tempting.)

DIY: invisible gate

One of the things that irritated me at our old house was the gate latch. It was one of those sliding bolt-type locks. It's not that it was particularly hard to use, it was just very annoying trying to reach it and slide it over from the other side and it was even more annoying trying to shut it since I had to line the bolt up into its little slot (and the gate was less than straight). And those few times I didn't line it over completely or didn't put the little handle down, the gate wouldn't close properly and I'd find it swinging open. And I'd never be able to open it with one hand or push through it with my shoulder. Oh no. And can I just mention how terrible it looked? Like, really terrible. Not modern at all. (I'm starting to realize that nothing's ever modern when it comes to things like this. What's up with that?)

Then I saw this post from The Art of Doing Stuff and I really loved the idea of using a magnet as a latch. I thought it was so smart and actually in the realm of possibilities for me. We have a Lee Valley Tools! I don't have to order anything from the internet! (Which is probably the number one reason why this was possible for me. I still haven't gotten over this ordering-online hiccup of mine.)

Of course, I didn't install it myself, our neighbour did. But I did have to explain to him what was floating around in my little brain and I did have to sit back and cross my fingers that he actually understood what it was I was asking, so it's almost as if I did the work myself!

Thankfully, he understood it PLUS he made it even better than how I would have done it.

This is the back or inside of the gate. I still have to find a handle, so it's not quite done yet. Just use your imagination to install a modern looking handle on the right side. I'm thinking long and black. (Oh. There's a "that's what she said" joke if I've ever read one.)

This is the front of the gate. It doesn't look like a gate, does it? I think that's the absolute best part! The original plan discussed with us was to put handles on both sides and cut a little hole out of the wood for a latch or, you know, we could totally (in your slow-mo voice, please) do the string over the top thing, too.

Jaw drops. Speechless. Eyes glazed over. It was pretty much at that very point that I thought, "As scary as it is for me to drive to foreign places (especially foreign places where I know construction exists), I MUST find this magnet. I may not be able to have the super modern cool fence of my dreams, but damn it, I'm going to have a friggin' awesome gate."

So you want to see how it latches?

The top board magically comes apart (ok, not magically), and one piece becomes the latch! This is the part I didn't think of. If you cut the boards on an angle rather than just a straight cut, the seam is even more invisible. Who'd've thunk it?!

The latch is a super-powered rare earth magnet. It's really strong. Before installation, I had to slide the two pieces apart so I could separate them. I couldn't pull them straight off each other. And these magnets come with a warning to keep them away from electrical devices and credit cards. Thank goodness the guy at Lee Valley Tools said something cuz it's so small, I was just going to pop it in my purse.

They don't have this particular style online, so I can't link it for you, but I promise it's at the store if you go (they keep these behind the counter, so ask unless you want to spend two hours of your day looking around Lee Valley Tools -- which isn't a half-bad way to spend two hours of your day, actually. They have some great stuff).

It took me a while to decide to purchase this style over the other since Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff used these, but I liked how the two-piece model was a little more straight-forward for installation (since I wasn't doing it myself and I didn't really want to invite him in and sit him in front of the computer so he could see how it was done).

The best part was that this one magnet cost me only $3! That's it! An entire gate latch for $3 (plus some wood pieces that were going to be used anyway). I love that the most!

So maybe by now you've had a chance to look at Karen's gate (and if not, you should cuz her fence is super cool and if there weren't dumb fence regulations and standards around here I totally would have wanted to copy that, too) and maybe you're wondering why we didn't counter-sink the magnet into the wood like Karen did. The reasoning behind it was that if the gate should shift during the winter or settle, it'd be a lot easier to unscrew the magnet and move it if we had to. Plus it's less work. Less work is always better, right?

the metal striking disc is screwed onto the gate

Now maybe you're thinking, "Hey! Won't you hit your head on that piece of wood sticking out?" And to that I'll quote Idle Husband, "What? Am I stupid?!"

The neighbour brought it up before anything had been built and I had this weird worry dream where all I could think about was how many times I'd bump my head on it and maybe I should think of a better way to install it and oh god! I have to tell him before he installs it and oh man! What if he installs it before I can tell him?! (worry worry) But now that it's there and I've had a chance to walk through it, the wood part is completely not in the way. Unless we were to walk rubbing right up against the house and inch our way around the post, there's no chance either of us will hit it.

The only other thought I've now had is to put a couple hook and eyes on the hinge side so that I can lock it closed or lock it open. I'm still kind of thinking about that. I know that this gate has a tendency to swing shut so a hook to keep it open would probably be really handy. More pondering needs to be done!

So if you were looking for a super simple latch that's easy to install, makes your gate invisible, and is super cheap, this just might be the latch for you!

miniature roses

I set Hermes' cage down beside the roses, but I didn't think he was that close to them. We were eating dinner, and I could hear him making his, "Oh this is good!" chirps and I thought, "But I haven't given him anything today..." and looked over to see him hanging off the side of his cage, nibbling away. He seems fine. Don't worry.

I figured out how to add different gradient and texture layers in Photoshop, so I had a little fun with these pics.

I've always loved miniature roses. They're so pretty and delicate and this particular pot has four different colours in one. I've since planted them outside. I hope they survive the winter. (The internet tells me they should.)