PonderEthereal

I had a ginormous bromiliad in the front yard that had no less than 20 plants all bunched together into one.

I HAD two of them but I gave one away. Today, I performed surgery on this remaining one and separated out 8 separate plants with at least 1 pup each. I lined 4 of them up along the wall that the big one used to be on. The other 4 I used in the back yard.

The owner of the house has this unnatural attachment to these vines all over the back fence. So much so that they died like 10 years ago and when they up and decided to do THAT… well, he just tied them up to the fence and installed posts to HOLD THEM UP. Some living vines have since managed to crawl down the top of it all but it was literally this hanging wall…

I’m no expert… but I’ve learned a few things here or there. Last week, one of my students commented that she’d tried to make a good cup of coffee at home like I make but couldn’t do it. Here’s what I know :

• Start with FRESHLY ground whole bean coffee, not pre-ground coffee. Use your ground coffee within a day of grinding it. You can get a regular old coffee grinder for like 10-12 bucks or you can get really fancy. My DH paid about 25 for mine.. its a hamilton Beach Custom Grind Deluxe. I tell it what kind of beverage I’m making (drip coffee or espresso) and how many cups of coffee i’m grining for and push a button and it does the timing and such for me. The finer the grind, the stronger the coffee. The more beans in the grinder, the longer you have to grind it to…

The REAL first step to organizing a room is to figure out why you are disorganized and find the motivation to do it. I’m going to assume that stuff is done. The next step is the start over. I go through this step in November with my kids to clear their stuff out to make room for new stuff for Christmas and usually mid-spring. They are becoming pros! :)

You Need

1. Clear your space completely out. Remove everything from the space.
2. Get three trash bags. and have more on standby. One bag is is trash, one is give away, one is sell. Anything you are going to keep can go into a pile in the space.
3. Bring your camera with you.

The rules are :

1. Anything that is broken, missing pieces, is torn or is otherwise unusable must be thrown away
2. Anything that is easily broken or torn but salvageable but you haven’t done…

We’ve lived here for a full year. But right when we moved in, I was renovating the shop space… and then I was working 7 days a week and yada yada. So… I’m finally moving in. I’m not a decorating diva but I enjoy doing it and I’m really good at intuitive energy flow of a space. I’ve picked up some tricks for pulling a room up a few notches on a budget and portably, in case we move again (sigh). I did all of this for under $200 and did it in spurts over about a week. I wish I had before and after pics. Who am I kidding.. I never take pictures of anything these days. But it’s a really HUGE difference. It’s actually starting to seem like a home that someone put some thought into planning instead of a rental.

Inside

• Paint 2-3 accent walls a color other than…

You could chip away at it, groan in frustration and figure it will just have to do… OR you could :

1. Put your oven on warm (or it’s lowest setting)
2. line a 9×9 or 9×13 baking dish with heavy duty aluminum foil - or 2 layers of regular foil
3. put your candle holders in the pan face down
4. leave it in the oven till all the wax melts off into the pan
5. pull each one out and rinse it in hot water to get the melted wax off (before it hardens again!)
6. let the melted wax in the pan cool and harden and then pull all the foil out and trash it, melt it into candles or whatever

I have this overstuffed couch, chair and ottoman set that I bought like 9 years ago. It’s the cuddliest, comfiest set ever. And it’s indigo. As it’s gotten older though, the back cushions have become more difficult to manage because they are always ’sinking down’ and you have to re-plump them frequently. And I have a kid and although we don’t let the animals up on the furniture, it happens now and again. So there is an assortment of spots here and there and smells, I’m sure.

The furniture it’s self is sturdy and although the cushions thing is annoying, I still really like the overall shape and look of it. So last week, I figured I’d give refreshing it a shot.

• The back cushions are filled with firm batting. I took a handful out and went to Walmart. They have good prices on their craft stuff. I got a…

We are taking lunches this year! The thing is, we have two kids who’s behavior depends upon having healthy lunches and they both like and dislike different things. This is a new endeavor for me and as always, I need a way to make it more painless - and cheap. So… last time I went grocery shopping, I picked up some ‘disposable’ Glad bowls the size of fruit cups and (surprise surprise) a big can of lite fruit cocktail in water (NOT in heavy syrup) as well as a big jar of unsweetened apple sauce. I also got the prepackaged flavored water as it’s lower sugar, a block of cheddar, dill pickles, lots of lunch meat (I get it when it’s on sale) and a gi-normous block of American cheese from Smart N Final (I divide it up and freeze it for later.. it’s so much cheaper).

Once a Week
Divvy up…

You need :
1 bag of unsweetened frozen strawberries
one big ‘ole thing of plain, nonfat yogurt

Mix :
1/2 cup yogurt (65 calories)
1 1/2 tsp Splenda (0 calories)
1/4 cup sliced strawberries (14 calories)

I mixed several at a time and put them in the little ziplock containers and stuck em in the fridge so that I could eat them when I was ready. It tastes just as good as any yogurt from the store, is cheaper, has a better berries per bite ratio and is about 79 calories. As an added benefit, strawberries are said to cost more calories to burn than they actually have in them so TECHNICALLY, you’re probably adding less than 79 calories to your total calorie eat/burn ratio. If you have quite a few calories to spend, double it and it’s really filling.

OMG. I have totally turned into one of those old women that I laugh at. Next…

Sphagnum moss retains SO MUCH moisture that the soil was never drying out and the plants didn’t like that. So I took out the few dead plants, clipped the dead off of the remaining plants, pulled them all out, removed a trash bag full of soil/sphagunum mix and replaced it with a square foot of top soil, mixed it all up and replanted everything. The plants are happier and there is more leeway between the soil and the top of the pond liner which = no chance of escape.

In the upper left of the picture, you can see the half-log hiding place. There is also a stone surface near the bottom that will soak up heat from the sun as well as provide more a more textured surface which is healthy for their nails.

I took out some of the dead and dying lettuce and added two more leaf lettuce…

I went to my local nursery the other day to look for pots for a couple of plants. The planters that I like are muted blues and browns kind of blended all over the pot and they have a gloss glaze. Thye run 35 bucks for a 14″ pot though. Eek.

So, this time, I made them. They are, first of all, beautiful. If I spent some time ironing out my technique, I could probably do some cool stuff. They are also a fun craft project that the kids can help with and WAY cheaper. I saved about $60 on 4 of them and I have enough materials to make quite a few more. I also now have the option of doing all sorts of stuff to coordinate all of the pots I make to match.

Pictures and instructions below the cut.