Flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week

It's Teacher Appreciation Week!

My children's school organizes themes for each day of the Teacher Appreciation work-Week, and today's suggestion was to bring fresh flowers to your teachers. Although cut flowers are lovely, they are also short-lived; I wanted a gift with more staying power. I also like DIY, crafts done with my kids, recycling, and gardening. (You can probably see where I'm going.) This year, like last year (I just didn't have a better idea for this year, but we did improve our technique), we put marigold starts in a self-irrigating planter; the planter was a recycled craft we made together.

These marigolds are a dwarf marigold (Tagetes patula), in French Gold (orange, not yellow). Marigolds are self-seeding annuals, which means they will come back year after year, but from seeds not roots (like perennials). The best way to prepare the seeds, according to my mother, is to let the seeds dry on the plant over winter. I recommend pulling up the plants on a dry day to gather the seed pods (where the blossoms were) once the entire plant is gray and has thoroughly dried out. Take care to gather all the seed pods that have fallen off during the drying process so you're not over-run the next year.

The first year, I planted the six seeds from a 10¢ pack on a drizzly February 12, 2012; just casually scattered under the mailbox before I escaped back to the warm dry. All of the seeds germinated, and the one closest to the road with the most space grew particularly tall; almost two feet tall and nearly as wide! (Dwarf? Ha!) The next two years, I gathered the seeds (and passed them on), and let the ones that fell and germinated on their own grow with minimal thinning; those that grew outside the rock border around my mailbox were mowed without compunction. With lateral competition, the plants did not grow as tall, but I still had an amazing number of blooms all summer until the first hard frost. This year, I plan to thin the mailbox marigolds much more to see if they grow like the first year. I carefully pulled up the largest starts for this year's teacher appreciation marigolds; marigolds are fairly sturdy so they should survive this transplanting. I have more marigold seeds now than I know what to do with! In 2012, I thought 6 seeds for 10¢ was a bit steep, but in one year I had a hundred-fold increase and I think that dime has gone a long way now.

The Parts List:

• empty water or soda bottles, with their caps, to recycle; you need as many bottles as you want to make planters
• cotton twine, or any cord made of uncoated natural material that will wick water (including strips of cotton tee shirts)
• duct tape
• aluminum foil, or any opaque flexible material to cover the roots for root health

The Tools List:

• drill and two bits, maybe 1/16" and 1/8" (size isn't critical, just "small" and "about the size of the cord bundle"; careful adults only)
• utility knife (careful adults only)
• scissors
• a towel that can get gardening-dirty

The Resources List:

• Wisconsin Fast Plants on making this planter from recycled plastic bottles
• Seattle Sundries on making this planter, and especially the comments
• web search for self irrigating planter DIY

Based on what I learned last year, here is how we made the self-irrigating planters from recycled water bottles this year:

1. I drilled several small holes around the shoulder of the water bottles that were empty and to be recycled.
2. I drilled a larger hole in the bottle cap.
3. For the last "careful adult" step, I used a utility knife to cut the bottle roughly in half (a bit more on the top, a bit shorter on the bottom; see how one looks, and adjust the others).
4. The remaining steps were done by my eager children. First we cut two sections of twine, and put a big knot in the middle. Then we threaded the twine through the bottle cap; holding the bottle cap like a cup, it should have octopus-style legs of twine and the knot should be large enough to keep the cord from pulling through the hole. We sealed the cap back on the top of the water bottle.
5. We lined the inside top of the water bottle with aluminum foil to protect the plant's roots from light. You could instead wrap the entire planter at the end to do that, and to minimize algae growth. I chose to leave the bottom section visible so it's obvious when to add water, but that does allow algae growth.
6. If the cut edge of the water bottle top is sharper than you'd like, use duct tape folded over that edge to hold the aluminum foil in place, and to cover the sharp edge itself.
7. We carefully scooped potting mix inside the foil inside the top of the water bottle, shaping as we went.
8. We placed the water bottle tops inside the water bottle bottoms, and watered. The goal is for the potting soil to be thoroughly moistened, so we ended up pouring out some water from the bottoms.
9. We dried the bottles as needed before wrapping them with duct tape to hold the upside-down top to the bottom.
10. Add a few seeds or one small plant, and you are ready to gift or tend this!

All parts came from the recycling bin or the dollar store, so this is a low-cost project. I raided the recycling bin at work because I'm opposed to bottled water.

If you leave out the aluminum foil, the plant will not be as healthy in the long term, but your children can observe the later stages of root growth.

Most plants need as much room for roots underground as they occupy aboveground, so clearly this self-irrigating water bottle planter should not be the final home for most plants. However, a group should be sufficient for a small (windowsill?) herb garden. You can also adapt this technique to larger recycled containers.

There you go! It's surprisingly easy!

Recycled and Reusable Produce Bag

I thought this was too simple to post, until two weeks ago. I was at the grocery store, and I handed my reusable shopping bags to the checkout clerk. He said, "I'm glad you remembered; sometimes I forget." I replied that's why the bags live in the back of my car, so I can remember them. Then he asked, "Where did you get these produce bags?" I explained that I ran some yarn through the top of plastic mesh bags, and the one he was holding right then was from the turkey I had cooked for Thanksgiving. After a moment of stunned silence on his part, he said, "That's awesome! High five!"

So in case it's not completely obvious, start with a plastic mesh bag. For me, the larger ones are more useful, and the most plastic-y ones hold up better. I typically re-use these from bags of onions, but this turkey bag is bigger. Weave a long length of yarn over and under at the top until you've woven all the way around; I used a crochet hook for the weaving. Make sure the yarn is larger than you ever expect to open the expandable mesh bag! I have tried plarn and shoelaces, but yarn slides most easily on the bags I've made. So I don't have to weave the yarn in again, I knot the ends together. Store your produce bags with your reusable grocery bags.

TIL: Tube Wraps

I looked at these reindeer printable wraps for tp tubes for a minute before running to the bathroom to test my idea. (That's where I could find an empty tp tube, of course!) I measured it, then tested against another brand that of course had slightly different measurements so your mileage may vary.

You do need to be lucky on the intersection of paper sizes (US Letter in my case) and tube sizes, but today I learned you can get four tp tube wraps on a single sheet of paper! I'm thinking of printing some faces, and letting my young artist color to his heart's content! Then my young builder can assemble the village, and peace will reign while they are happily decorating.

Make Plarn

The problem with plarn projects (for me) is how long it takes to make the plarn. Now that I've tried it, this is my new method to make plarn reasonably: spiral-cut plarn. I just tie the ends together if needed, without the joining splice.

Hit that link for the description with photos! What I do is fold the bag over (smoothly, neatly) four times, leaving an inch on one edge not in the folds. Then cut through all of the layers of the folds while leaving the spine untouched (that's fast!). For the last step, open the (remains of the) bag up and cut diagonals from one row to the next (that's easy). Now wind your plarn for storage, or get crafting!

I'm more likely to craft with plarn now! ... The first three projects were painfully slow due to plarn production.

Self-Irrigating Planter

This weekend, we made self-irrigating planters from recycled water bottles, and planted marigold seeds that I hope will germinate in time for Teacher Appreciation Week.

The Wisconsin Fast Plants program covers the basics of making this planter from recycled plastic bottles. I incorporated the helpful comments on Seattle Sundries, too. Those directions are really useful.

I started with my drill, and made many small holes on the shoulder of the water bottles. I put one larger hole in the shoulder of the water bottles and in the bottle cap. Next I used my utility knife to separate the top of the bottle from the base. I experimented with where to cut until I found what looked good to me. This completed the "adult only" portion of the craft; happily, they enjoyed watching.

I knotted two sections of cotton twine in the middle, and we poked the knot through the hole in the cap with a toothpick. The outside of the cap had four "legs" while the inside had a knot to keep from pulling through. Then the boys screwed the cap on the top of the bottle. Next we placed the top, cap down, into the bottom of the former water bottle. I handed out narrow strips of aluminum foil for the boys to line the planter. One of the comments was that roots don't like sunlight, so unless the plant is to be transplanted, the roots need to shielded. Aluminum foil was the suggestion I remembered, and, well, it's fun to shape! They put a straw over the foil and through the larger hole in the top, and used cotton twine and a small piece of duct tape to fasten the straw securely to the side. Then I scooped in potting mix. We soaked the potting mix with water, and poured out the excess water from the base. Next I cut sections of duct tape, and the boys wrapped all the way around to tape the tops to the bottoms. They put 4 seeds in each planter. To finish this (later), we will wrap the outside of the planter to minimize algae growth in the water (see last item on Fast Plants page).

I don't know how well it will work, but I added the straw to refill the water in the base so the plants can continue to self-irrigate by wicking up the cotton twine indefinitely.

Book Corner Bookmark

I made a book corner bookmark (with those very nice instructions) with my boys this weekend. I like this origami method because it uses a small square, no fancy shapes or templates. The fun part for me was selecting an interesting bit of "paper" - I like how the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa label looks as a bookmark. The fun part for them was using a white envelope corner, and coloring it to suit themselves. In fact, coloring was so much fun, we never got around to the monster inspiration!

Compost Bin

I was inspired by this post to build your own compost bin from a trash can. I got a trash can with wheels already attached because the cost of the cheapest large trash can plus the heavy-duty wheels with nuts and bolts to attach to it was about the same price, in which case I'll save my time.

So far, I remember that I prefer composting to throwing everything in the garbage. I just feel uncomfortable throwing all waste in the garbage when I know some of it biodegrades nicely.

I've learned that my yard has far too many lawn clippings after a single mowing! for this 32 gallon compost bin. I probably need to build or designate a containment area for lawn clippings and leaves.

And I recently learned that the 40+ holes I drilled with my boys (who loved watching, and pulling off the plastic curlicues) was probably far too few based on this other post (echoed by MAKE as well).

A nice start, and lots more composting to go!

World IPv6 Day!

World IPv6 Day starts in just a few minutes!!! And just in time, here's an IPv6 cupcake wrapper as an SVG file for your electronic cutter (and Sure Cuts A Lot or Makes The Cut or other software).

T-shirt Upcycled to Gift Bag

One thing I love about the green trend is that now I can upcycle a gift and not have to work so hard to make it look new while satisfying my urge to reuse before I recycle. This afternoon, my serger and I turned out a quick upcycled T-shirt bag to hold presents for my 14-year-old nephew. (Well, he'll be 14 tomorrow, and we had his family party this afternoon.) I lifted my serger's cutting blade for step #1 to close off the bottom. Where the instructions say to cut, I used my serger with woolly nylon to finish the edges while also cutting. The part that worked out the best was step #2 where the instructions reminded to trace the shape (I just traced the shape of the front neckline on the back so the two sides match without removing much material).

I was going to embroider his name on the back, but I accidentally put the wrong bobbin in and broke a needle (yes, I was wearing safety glasses) while creating holes in the tee-shirt. Fail! To fix those holes while still adding his name to his gift bag, I cut a letter E out of iron-on patch material and patched the holes in style. His mom and sister were ready to take over the upcycled bag but I pointed out it was personalized! So I guess I should grab some more teeshirts that haven't been worn in years to make more gift bags.

(He got a very sun-faded now light salmon orange but still in good shape tee that said 55 Thunderbird Rock-n-Roll with a picture of a jukebox and a 1955 Ford Thunderbird. And the blue E on the other side to cover the first holes in the shirt from that failed machine embroidery. I just can't use that embroidery machine when I'm in a hurry. I can kick out a quick serger project, and sergers are supposed to be hard, but they're easy for me next to the embroidery monsters. Make sure you master your sewing machine first!)

Groundhog's Day Craft

So my idea for a Groundhog's Day craft was to print a groundhog (see groundhog coloring pages where I like the first one), have the kids color their groundhogs, cut them out, glue them on craft sticks, and then have the groundhogs peek out of a toilet paper tube burrow to check for shadows.

There is a fancier, three-dimensional groundhog to print and optionally color at the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability.

And since there's always someone on the Internet who had that idea first, here's another pop-up groundhog craft in a cup instead of a tube.

Pillow Pal

Karston said he wanted a ladybug pillow pet, but we just don't see buying more toys so soon after Christmas. So I said I would make one with him. I read the pattern PDF from Twelve Crafts til Christmas, looked at Jen Goode's bed bugs, and also Dollar Store Crafts.

What I learned from the pattern PDF was to appliqué all the decorations on the top piece of red felt. So I started with two large red felt squares, using the felt selvedge on the "head" end of both red squares. I appliquéd on four spots and four feet (verisimilitude not required) from black felt. I cut out the spots by cutting around a cup with a scalpel; I cut out the four black feet by cutting around a bowl with a scalpel and cutting it into quarters, and two more red circle from the same bowl for the head. I did freehand cutting of black felt for two eyes, nose, and a smile.

I made two wide red strips, added black velcro, and sewed the strips into tubes (straps without loose ends). I put the straps and the appliqué side to the inside, and sewed most of the red squares together, leaving a reinforced 3 inches open in the middle of the selvedge (head) side. Turn right side out, stuff, hand-sew the opening shut.

Appliqué face, tuck antennae and appliqué to the inside while sewing front to back, leaving a 2 inch opening between the antennae. Turn right side out, stuff, hand-sew the opening shut (optionally catching some yarn to make loops of "hair"). So far, about an hour of sewing.

Now to attach the head to the body ... time to finish, not blog!

Stencil Cutting: Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress vs. Xacto

Cale lost his beloved "cheep cheep" (a yellow bird he made at the art museum's craft activity) last month, so I needed two circles of yellow construction paper right away to make a replacement! I found cheep cheep between the couch cushions before we actually had to make another, but I was on the circle-cutting goal right away. And of course once I found cheep-cheep, Cale was over it. Kids!

For my first round of circle-cutting, I started with my old Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress that hasn't seen much action. I didn't have a circle stencil, so I had to improvise right away. I cut the large 4-inch (body) circle by moving the Ultra ShapeXpress around a toothpick. The circle was very nicely circular, but pretty large for my needs.

However, for the 1.5-inch bird head, I either needed a stencil that I didn't have, or another idea. (Using a positive template instead of a negative stencil would be A Bad Idea at that size, since I wouldn't be able to hold on to the template and move the shape cutter too -- its buffer zone is too big for that!) So for my next act, I used a medicine cup for my template and cut around it with a craft scalpel with a retractable blade (I need at least token safety to use it around my small kids who want to watch everything we do!).

I found the directness of the Xacto-style scalpel to be much more natural than the ShapeXpress. If you're really worried about your fingers, or your children's fingers, you might prefer the ShapeXpress. But I think mine is going back to gather dust.

Easy Robin (of Batman) Costume

Speaking of easy costumes, the one I pulled off last week was also easy. Karston went as Batman for Halloween, so I made a Robin costume for Daddy.

• matching green sweatshirt and sweatpants (I already had an oversized set)
• solid red teeshirt or muscle tank ($2.50 at craft store)
• adhesive-backed craft felt in yellow and in black (under $2 at craft store)
• for more authenticity, add a black eye mask (or those not-too-over-the-top bat glasses I saw in a costume flyer), and a black or yellow cape [we didn't]

Then I made the "R" logo for Robin. I traced a coffee mug on the black felt to cut out a black circle. Then I cut out a yellow R to fit inside the black circle. First the black circle went on the red tee, then the yellow R went on top of that. Voilà, one Robin logo! The "work" was cutting the sticky-back felt, since it's rather stiff. Other than that, this was thoroughly easy!

Easy Mickey Mouse Costume

My kindergartener was so good on Saturday (we didn't go anywhere, he spent the day with his Legos, and we think he needed the time to decompress because he was especially angelic) that I prepared a special present for him: a Mickey Mouse costume! It was surprisingly simple, once I thought about it.

• hat with Mickey ears (we already had this, $15 souvenir from the Magic Kingdom)
• white child gloves ($2.50 from Oriental Trading Company); you may add those three lines with a permanent marker
• black long-sleeved shirt ($3.50 Garanimals)
• red pants ($3.50 Garanimals)
• yellow felt (under $1 per sheet at craft stores that sell by the sheet, and some are adhesive-backed already; I used Quilt Basting Spray to make my scrap piece of yellow felt be sticky)

Only the Mickey Mouse hat and the white gloves were "special" purchases; we had the other items. And the hat was a souvenir, not a special purchase for this costume.

You can also find puffy yellow Mickey slippers for "shoes" at the theme parks (and some costume stores) to be thorough, but my kids didn’t complain. The theme parks also have white puffy gloves with the classic three metacarpal stripes, but that also seemed overkill for my kids who prefer dexterity to authenticity.

I used this template:

Directions: Cut out two ovals (about 1.5” by 1.1”) of yellow felt. Attach to the front of the red pants, centered to either side below the waistband. Voilà, Mickey pants! Now dress your small child in Mickey hat, black shirt, white gloves, and these red pants.

Craftitunity

On The Simpsons, Homer uses the neologism crisitunity. I spent so much prep time gathering kid-friendly crafts for our trip to Atlantic Beach that I see craftitunity at every turn. The kids got "leaf buddies" last week, just colorful maple leaves with happy faces drawn on. Cale carried his around (for a couple days), and needed me to repair the stem with a little tape. The rest of that day was all Mommy fix my leaf buddy. With tape! I think the tape was very exciting.

Custom Printed Fabric

I knew about Spoonflower already, but I was impressed when I looked at the options to print fabric on demand.

• Spoonflower: Print custom fabric on-demand
• UMadeUp: create personalized gifts and photo gifts - pillows, cushions, silk scarves and other personalized gifts
• Digital Textile Printing: Cotton, Linen, Lycra, Silk, Trevira CS, T - Shirt printer
• KarmaKraft - You design it, We print it

I was trying to decide between buying printable silk scarf fabric to print my own (includes the headache of figuring out how to print a "page" much longer than 11 inches), and to send out that print job. I was a little disappointed that Zazzle doesn't do silk scarves. I've got a gorgeous sunset photo we took in Key West that I think would be beautiful repeated along a silk scarf! (I also love the look of old-timey silk scarf maps, and I know where to find old maps online.) I still haven't decided how to do it yet. Then again, I haven't stitched together the long version of that sunset photo either. After I do that, I suppose the next test is to print to a 14-inch legal sheet of paper to see if that works as a custom paper size. If it's easy, I'll DIY; if it's a headache, I'll send it out.

DIY leave-in conditioner

I don't have the patience to put "product" in my hair. Getting my hair to behave is a losing battle anyway, so I'm sure it would take too much time if I ever did find something that works. The one product to come around that fits my patience level and has a positive effect on my hair is spray leave-in hair conditioner.

My hair stylist suggested making my own. Kelly, who was very cool even back when we were in high school together, said to fill a spray bottle with water and then to add my favorite conditioner. Well, I don't have a favorite conditioner. But I do have some conditioning products gathering dust that are thick goop that I don't use because they go on too thick when I do it. Kelly can make these work well in a jiffy, but I don't have her touch. And even with a simple recipe like that, I didn't follow it (no surprise).

I boiled two cups of water, and let two chamomile tea bags steep overnight because I was tired. I filled a 12-ounce spray bottle nearly to the top with this tea, and then I added two Tbs of Sunsilk De-Frizz 24/7 Creme. (I poured the excess chamomile tea on some plants since I'm not a fan of drinking chamomile tea.) I do need to shake it before each use, but it works so much better than the straight goop ever did! It smooths frizzy hair, and it's easy to apply! It even has a slight bit of holding power! Talk about easy. I like the combination much better than the parts, since I don't drink chamomile tea and I couldn't use the thick goop effectively.

UPDATE 03/31/2011: Consider adding up to 1 Tbs of sunscreen as well, to protect your hair from ultraviolet damage.

DIY moisturizer

I don't know why it took me so long to try this, but I mixed my own. I've got a number of moisturizers that aren't quite right on their own. I like the coverage of Neutrogena Skin Clearing makeup in blushing ivory since I'm pale, but towards the end of the day, my face is shiny. It's difficult to apply a thin layer, but Neutrogena Pore Refining Mattifier really controls shine. I've tried several moisturizers with sunscreen, and so far they all go on greasy. However, if I mix equal parts moisturizer with makeup and add a small dose of mattifier, it works out well! The sum of the parts is better than the parts ... and no, I don't want to take the time to put on three separate layers when I can mix it together in advance.

I had some eye moisturizer that was too thick, so I mixed in a little witch hazel (for your eye skin, make sure the witch hazel isn't cut with alcohol that would dry your skin out), and it became much fluffier and easier to spread. For daytime eye moisturizer, I added some tint as well, and that adds a nice subtle glint.

I think it's easier to get exactly the features I want in a moisturizer by mixing several to get sunscreen, tint, matte coverage, and vitamins! So don't be shy, give it a try!

Bib Clip and Hat Attach

This was a very quick project using found items! I saw bib clips that look really convenient for travel, but it's not worth $12 plus shipping plus the wait to me. Dishwasher-safe and rounded is probably very good for babies, but Karston seems mostly grown now. So, since we'll be on the road next week, I thought I'd make one set of bib clips. I cut off the blue cord from a trade show pen that didn't write, and held a lighter to the ends to seal off where I had cut to keep it from unraveling any more. I put a white cord toggle over a loop in the middle of the cord, and I tied a bulldog clip, also from trade show visits, to each end. I looked through the Klutz Book of Knots, but ended up making up the knot anyway. I pulled a loop through the hole in the bulldog clip, ran the short end through the loop, snugged it up, and tied a half-hitch to finish the deal. It seems very secure. Voilà, one bib clip! Total cost, zilch; and I got to clear away some lingering trade show leftovers.

Since I was on a project roll in the right room, I kept going. I used a leftover piece of embroidery thread, two lanyards (one at either end), and one more bulldog clip to make a secure hat attachment for Karston. Fasten a lanyard on the hat, clip the other end to your collar, and the wind won't take your hat. The kid's ready to travel now!

Birdsnesting

Daddy bought an embroidery machine for me as a mom present while we were at the mall the day before my water broke the day before Karston was born. It is a Brother PE-180D, I knew it was well-liked, and it was an incredible price (1/4 the best price on Froogle, and 1/8 the best price I had ever seen in person) because it was the display unit. However, I've had to solve a number of open box problems. The first was that I didn't have the manual. Luckily the on-screen help covers almost everything. Then I found a link to the manual at SewForLess. (I couldn't find the manual with Google, and Brother's web find only wanted to sell me a printed copy. The kicker is that the link goes to Brother's web site!) The second problem was that I had the wrong hoop. Yes, the dangers of open box: not only are some components like the manual missing, others could be just plain wrong! After careful analysis of how the hoop went on the arm (don't forget, we're a two-engineer household!), we knew they didn't go together. There was no way to latch the hoop securely that also held the fabric flush with the bed so that it wasn't a hazard. (I broke two needles proving this before the careful analysis. The first needle break launched one shard just below my left eye, and now I always wear safety glasses when embroidering. I bet you didn't think safety glasses belong in a sewing room! but they do in mine.) I ordered the hoop from SewForLess since they supplied the manual link. But I still had a serious problem with a large snarl of thread on the underside of the fabric that eventually would break the upper thread. First I had to discover the name of this problem: birdsnesting. Once I knew that, I could troubleshoot with Google. At the sewing machine fault finder, I learned that birdsnesting is usually caused by improper upper threading. At first I scoffed, since I have a lot of machine threading experience. But I re-threaded it very carefully and slowly, following the on-screen directions, and the bird's nest disappeared. In this case I think my sewing and serging experience was part of the problem: I was sure I could just whip that upper thread through its path, no need to read the directions or to be careful! Now I know that I need to be very careful, and that following the on-screen directions helps. I still feel that I can thread the needle faster by hand than with the F.A.S.T. system, so I do let my experience over-ride that part of the directions. But slowing down vastly improved the results! Then my final problem, on my second test embroidery, the upper thread broke. When I grabbed the thread end, it was obvious: the large embroidery thread cone, 6 inches tall, wasn't unwinding freely. I was using my serger's stand and thread arm and reaching over to the embroidery machine, but it wasn't a good kluge. So Daddy installed the thread cone stand from my mom, the thread flowed easily, and the embroidery just worked. Ahh... since embroidery was part of our Christmas gift plans, the last two solutions were just in time!

I can now embroider when I want (OK, a year and a half later). The only remaining problem is that sometimes the bobbin thread pulls through to the front for a while. To keep it from showing up, I just wind a bobbin in the same color. Having equal weight upper and lower thread usually helps sewing anyway, and Singer Type 66 bobbins are easy to find. I might solve that problem in time, but for now I'm happy that I can now embroider what I want when I want.