***Commercial Break***

My friend Andromeda makes amazing things out of high polymer clay.  Things in the shape of octopuses, flowers, jellyfish, squids, clover - and whatever else your heart desires.  She does custom orders.  She has reasonable prices.  And I suspect she undercharges for shipping.

These treasures can be purchased at her Etsy shop "Octopus Stew". You can see a gallery of one-of-a-kind and sold items on her Facebook page. And "like" it while your there, why don't you.

Now, enjoy these pictures of things she's made for me!
(All images belong to Andromeda)

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/47281130

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/47281131

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/45609436/

Wheelbarrow

Last weekend we decided that it was time to get started on our 2011 garden.  So we went to Fred Meyer to get the necessary supplies: a heavy metal rake and a wheelbarrow.  Our chickens have been busily making nutritious composty soil for us all winter, so we planned to muck out their coop and move it to our raised beds in the front yard (where the sun likes to hang out).  We quickly found a decent cast-iron rake for $10.  But when we found the wheelbarrows the miser in me just about fainted.  Nearly $70 for a bucket with wheels?!!

So we built one.  Well, Boyfriend built one.  We had to buy a wheel - $2 from the Rebuilding Center.

Pretty sweet, right?  We're gonna paint it bright red with silver accents.

The fruits of our labor.  And yes, our raised beds are made from wine bottles.  And no, I didn't drink all that wine by myself.

Starting Seeds for Spring!

This year, I've been seeing a lot of people promoting the use of egg cartons for starting seeds. While I love the idea of re-using what would otherwise be (hopefully) recycled, they just don't work very well. I tried it last spring, and the results were overall, pretty disappointing:

1. The egg carton paper is too thick and acts as a wick, taking water away from the soil.

2. The egg pods are too small, and seedlings do not have enough room to grow healthy and strong before transplanting.

3. The egg carton paper is, again, too thick. You cannot just plant it into the ground and expect it to decompose and allow the seedling to flourish, and it is otherwise very difficult to get the seedling out of the egg pods.

(For a defense of the egg carton seed start project see the comments below. I posted my issues with this project elsewhere, and got a rebuttal - which someone intent on re-using their egg cartons may find very helpful)

This year, instead, I decided to try something completely new and just as recyclely:

Origami seed start pots!

Materials needed:

Scrap paper

Cupcake tray you don't plan on using for a while

Seeds

Soil

To make the cups, find detailed origami instructions (with charts and graphs!)  here.

Next, place cups in cupcake tray, fill the cups with soil, place in the seed according to the packet's directions, add water and a few weeks later...

Since the scrap paper is pretty thin, you could theoretically just place the cups directly into the garden bed you intend them for. Though, it will probably be a good idea to cut a hole in the bottom (if one hasn't already developed) before planting.

Good gardening to you!

1960s Crafts for the Modern Woman

In a 1965 issue of McCall's filled with how-tos for hideous crafts that look much like those you made in kindergarten out of toilet paper rolls and construction paper, I found a craft that actually looked kind of cool:

Embroidered styrofoam trays!

Ok, it still kind of looks like I made it when I was 5, but it was my first one. I also encased the tray in silver satin and gold crepe. A little over the top, maybe, especially with the brass buttons, but I decided to just go for it.

We like to shop at our local Vietnamese market because 1) it has an interesting variety of items that are difficult to find nearby and 2) super cheap produce. The downside is: much of this super cheap produce comes wrapped in saran wrap (which we save and re-use) and on styrofoam trays. Which are pretty much useless.

But this tray, at least, served as the medium for a not too terrible likeness of my cat.

The American Dream

Scientists and historians may find it difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that the American Dream became synonymous with 'Buy as Much Crap as Possible and Throw it Away to Make Room for More Crap we Absolutely Have to Buy', (more commonly known as 'Consumerism'), but I would suggest the moment was sometime around August 1960, when the following ads appeared in an issue of House Beautiful.

'Sure,' you're probably thinking, 'This looks wasteful, but it's no worse than using tissues.'

And you may be right. Many people seem to have some issues with re-using cloth handkerchiefs. And they don't notice how wasteful it is because, unlike people with hayfever, they don't really have to blow their noses too often.

People with spring-summer-fall allergies (like me) learned by about age 10 that tissues are the most ridiculous inventions ever - not to mention how expensive they are! I can blow (hah!) through a travel-pack of tissues in a single spring day. Simply imagine how much trash I would be creating if I didn't have my rotating supply of handkerchiefs.

This is like having a disposable table cloth. Or disposable plates and silverware (although some people do actually use these items in the home, regularly).

How filthy and/or lazy does a person have to be to get to the point where they are actually seeking out disposable clothing items?! Keep in mind, also, that in 1960 simple and convenient home washing machines not only existed but were commonly owned. They also had bleach.

This is my personal favorite.

These apparently solve "an ever-present problem for the summer-hostess."

What on earth could this problem be? How many showers are her guests taking that it is too much trouble to wash and dry the bathmats?

On top of how wasteful this is, the very idea of touching my bare, wet skin to paper fills me with dread. It is a most disagreeable sensation.