Cookies, Crayons, Classes, & Chaos: January 2012

DIY Curtain Rods and Finials

The folks at Apartment Therapy and Better Homes and Garden remind us that there are lots of unique materials to use for hanging window treatments.

Better Homes and Garden via Apartment Therapy

Can you guess what these curtain rods are made from? Click on the links for great tutorials for inexpensive DIY tutorials for these curtain rods.

In My Own Style - See answer #1

My Life as G - See answer #2

Apartment Therapy - See answer #3

Christy's Thrifty Decorating - See answer #4

House of Hepworths - See answer #5

The Creative Mama - See answer #6

Answers:
1. PVC pipe
2. Bamboo
3. Unpainted steel conduit
4. Cardboard dowel
5. Painted steel conduit
6. Painted or stained wooded dowels

Okay, now for the finials!

Rubber furniture feet from Squidoo

Tennis balls from In My Own Style

Old door knobs and cabinet pulls from In My Own Style

Drawer pulls from Home Works

Electrical tape and slip on finials from House of Hepworths

Corks and screw-in finials from In My Own Style

Drawer knobs from Design Sponge

Wood beads from Polish the Stars

Twisted hammered copper wire from Twists on Wire etsy shop

Antique glass salt and pepper shakers from the Art of the Home

Glass marbles?! Photo from media absurdity

Once you realize you can glue stuff to the cap for a finial I guess the options are endless!

A new use for watercolor pencils?

My 6 year old daughter has declared she no longer has face paint on her wish list. And here is why.

My beloved clown ♥

She has decided that her watercolor pencils work just fine.

Do I look like grandpa now?

Ouch! grandpa!

Finding the missing Polly Pocket doll shoe and other great tips

They are positively insanely clever tricks, most of which I had never heard. I'll bet many are new to you too!

This was one of my favorite tips. I immediately thought of using it to find those insanely small Polly Pocket doll shoes lost in the carpet.

Polly pocket loot from Megan Makes

"Drop a small object on the carpet and can't find it? Place panty hose over the end of the vacuum hose and start vacuuming. The panty hose will trap anything to large to fit through the tiny hose and keep it from getting sucked into the vacuum. "

Here are my "Did you know?" tips:

(1) Secret information on Happy Meal boxes. Did you know you can turn over the McDonald's Happy Meal boxes to find out what the next toy promotion will be? Not that any of us should be eating this stuff or adding to the material consumption of often useless toys from China, but I digress....

Looks like Build a Bear is up next!

(2) Secret signals on traffic lights. Did you know that many traffic lights have an additional white light light that flashes when an emergency vehicle is in the area? If the emergency vehicle is close to the actual intersection it can preempt the signal to change colors to stop traffic to allow the emergency vehicle through.

Communication and Technology Society

Pixie Dust Recipe

My six year old daughter came up with this recipe for pixie dust.

She said "quick, mom! Let's post it before anyone steals the idea!" (My little foodie blogger.)

So here it is!

1 part white sugar
1 part brown sugar
1 part powdered sugar
Lots of food coloring droplets

Combine and stir! The droplets form sugar clumps so it looks like confetti.

It's perfect for sprinkling on those midwinter strawberries and raspberries that aren't quite summer sweet.

Or for eating right out of the bowl while mom is blogging and doesn't notice.

DIY Garden Art

In addition to using upcycled drainage tiles and cinder blocks in the garden, here are some more DIY projects for creating your garden paradise.

Sand cast concrete stone project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Mosaic bench from The Garden Forum
Uses reverse technique with tiles on contact paper

Cement molds from The Garden Forum
This one really sets the bar high!

Leaf casting and loads of inspiration from Garden Therapy

Woven grasses project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Branch trellis project from Squidoo Garden Crafts

Breathtaking pebble mosaic from Tatoo Donkey

From The Garden Forum
Faux hanging log using hypertufa

Pebble Mosaic Tutorial from This Old House

More Resources for Inspiration from your ♥ local library or bookstore ♥

Cement blocks in the garden

Somebody help me! Here's another craigslist posting that I want so badly! Free cinder blocks.

If only I had a truck to pick them up here is what I would do....

Raised beds and paths from Personality is Preferred

Raised stone garden bed from Wild Ginger Farm

Simple raised bed from Container Gardening Ideas

No dig garden from Permaculture Power
Notice how they even use the spaces in the perimeter blocks

Garden wall from Home Improvement

Decorative planters from Remodelista

From Elephant's Eye garden
Is it a bench or a garden? Read more to find out!

Bench from Organic Farm*
*attributed to Better Homes and Garden
but I cannot find the original link

Strawberry pyramid from the Green Thumb Alliance

More raised beds form the Green Thumb Alliance.
See how you can add mini hoop houses?!

My Life as an Ex-Foodie* shows how fencing is easily added to raised bed
*original attribution for photo not provided

Sub-Irrigated Gardens: Easy to water, perfect for small spaces

Why haven't I thought of this? It's a perfect use for drainage pipes!

I'm thinking of using this in my raised beds that are so far away from the water source which is a pain to hook up to the soaker hose.

Visit Inside the Inside Urban Green site with instruction for many different types of Sub-irrigated gardens aka SIP's.

One type of SIP garden from Inside Urban Green

My 6 year old's emoticons

My artist daughter spontaneously created these emoticons over the holidays.She queried all the different family members about their meanings. I guess she was testing our facial expression recognition. It created a few laughs.

Before the go into the Styrofoam recycle bin I wanted to share them here. What are your guesses for each of these?