greeting card organizer It feels like every year, from Labor Day onward, the days and weeks fly by, and suddenly, the very busy holiday season is upon us! Feeling inspired by memories of back-to-school shopping, getting our supplies organized and anticipating the jam-packed months ahead, we made this very simple greeting card organizer. So many times in the past, we have been delayed a day or a week (or, um, a month . . . ) in sending a gift because we weren’t prepared with a birthday or baby card on hand to include with the package. Read the full how-to after the jump! Materials scissorspencilrulercigar box, shoe box, old recipe box, card file or other small boxfile folders or thick decorative paperlabels Instructions 1. 2. 3. 4.
How to Make a Pallet Garden With spring amongst us, I, like most of you, am excited to tackle a few new gardening projects. After searching the web for innovative ideas, I came across a nifty one that makes use of a simple pallet. My husband and his family operate bulk oil and gas companies in our local and have an abundance of these useful objects. Watch Create a Vertical Pallet Garden, a video tutorial by Andrew Martin, to learn how to create your very own pallet garden! For spring, I could see doing a porch herb garden with this or some nice lettuces. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Tutto Giardinaggio (giardinaggio). All MOTHER EARTH NEWS community bloggers have agreed to follow our Blogging Best Practices, and they are responsible for the accuracy of their posts.
Open Source Ecology sewing 101: branch handle tote Add a little autumnal flair to your fall wardrobe with this rustic tree branch tote! This sturdy piece is great for carting daily necessities on your commute or for more outdoorsy tasks like packing a picnic or carrying camping supplies. The bag itself features a basic construction that can be adapted and used with any type of handle, so if the branches aren’t quite your thing, it’s easy to make fabric straps instead. Look for nice, straight branches that have fallen from trees in your local park or woods or, if you can’t find any, check at a floral supply shop. Read the full how-to after the jump! Materials 1 yard heavy-weight fabric, such as canvas1/2 yard coordinating fabric for color blocking2 branches, about 1″ in diameter and 17″ longsawdrilltwinelong needlesewing machineironbasic sewing supplies 1. Cut the following pieces from your fabric: Here’s a detail shot of what the bottom corners will look like with a 2″ square cut from each corner. 2. Press all the seams open. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Vertical Pallet Garden Plan - Gardening Use these step-by-step instructions and build your own vertical pallet garden, perfect for growing your own food in small spaces. By Niki Jabbour Groundbreaking Food Gardens (Storey Publishing, 2014) by Niki Jabbour is a stellar collection of unique food garden plans from some of the best gardeners and designers in North America. Choose from 73 plans, each with its own theme and detailed illustration. You can purchase this book from the Mother Earth Living store: Groundbreaking Food Gardens. Pallet gardening is popular, and for good reason! Joe Lamp’l is passionate about getting people to grow more food—even in tiny urban lots and concrete balconies—and he has embraced the concept of a pallet garden for its incredible versatility. A pallet garden is a great project for do-it-yourself types, as well as those on a tight budget. Picking the right pallet. The best plants for a pallet. How to Make Joe’s Pallet Garden Top Row 1. 2. Middle Rows 3. 4. Lowest Row 5. 6. 7. Materials Tools 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
frontierlab + Atelier Ouvert: Jardin Suspendu v.BETA @ Espace Timtimol Suite au projet créatif « Bad Fruits, initié par l’artiste Pascal Nampémanla en décembre 2010, une discussion autour des différentes problématiques liées à l’environnement et aux déchets plastiques s’est engagée à l’Espace Timtimol. Interpellés par ces problématiques, les artistes Kyd Campbell (CA/DE) et Jérôme Lauer (FR/DE) travaillent pour imaginer et élaborer une nouvelle fonction pour des bouteilles plastiques récupérées. Adhérant au concept communautaire mis en place par le projet international « Window Farms », un véritable jardin, suspendu et vivant, prendra place sur les murs de l’espace culturel Timtimol, un modèle écologique, esthétique et reproductible librement par tout le monde. Venez participer à la construction du Jardin Suspendu, version BETA, à l’Espace Timtimol, vendredi 21 et samedi 22 Janvier, de midi à 18h. prochaines visites du Jardin Suspendu v.BETA durant le Forum Social Mondial :
How To Make An Envelope Clutch I know places like JoAnn's and AC Moore have classes sometimes. You can call your local ones and ask, but also check out the local "mom-and-pop"-type fabric/sewing machine repair stores and ask them! The "indie" stores that are owned by and aimed towards younger clientele will most definitely have info or even their own store classes on how to sew. I also recommend the book "Sewing for Dummies" on just the basics. I'm not this expert sewer, but I make my own bags and wallets of all kinds, and after you learn the basics and what your machine can handle, common sense and practice (along with lots of mistakes and wasted fabric along the way! Oh, and for some handy tutorials or just good advice, crafster.org is a great place to go, even to just snoop around and read (which is what I do). If you don't have a sewing machine, I just want to say that I'm still working on a cheapo, pretty small Brother sewing machine (since discontinued) that I only got for $58 total off eBay.
UF News: So You Garden? You’re Not Alone - Urban Farm Millennials are leading the way as more and more people jump onto the gardening bandwagon. By Rachael Brugger Thursday, April 23, 2015 A report released by the National Gardening Association this month shows that 17 percent more households have started an edible garden in the past five years. To that, we have to say "Right on!” At the forefront of this "back-to-the-garden” movement are millennials (ages 18-34), who are gardening more than ever before in accordance with the independent, idealistic characteristics they’re known for. While the NGA’s report didn’t get into why people are gardening more, I suspect a few things might be playing into the current trend: 1. The push toward local food and the devastating reality that our children don’t know that chicken doesn’t come shrink-wrapped from the grocery store has caused a desire for more transparency in the food system. 2. 3. 4. Many gardens and urban farms have started as ways to help connect people with healthy food and jobs. 5.
Kokopelli Jewelery Holder I've been wanting one of these for quite some time now but I kept waiting for the perfect frame. Something like my Make-up Magnet Board but I think that was just a lucky find because I kept coming up empty handed. I finally settled on just a frame. Despite the plain frame I love it, and it's super useful and was a cinch to make. I'm sure you can see exactly how it was made but I'll give a little tutorial anyway, starting with my supplies. For the wire I used this Welded Hardware Mesh, it was exactly what I wanted except I had to buy a big roll. So once you have all your supplies, remove the glass and the picture from the frame. I lightly sanded the frame and then painted it with three coats.Using the original picture as a template I traced around it on the mesh and cut it out with tin snips. That was really all there was too it. And a picture of what this looks like hung on the wall. And one last plug, if you need mesh you just let me know.
18 Cool DIY Compost Bin Designs Building your own DIY composter is an easy way to save money on garden supplies and keep materials out of the landfill. Many DIY compost bins can be created from typical household items, making them extremely affordable. Construction methods range from simple to complex and a variety of materials can be used such as wood, brick, straw, plastic, and wire. We’ve scoured the web and picked out these different types of composters that you can build yourself so that you can easily choose a design you like and get started composting right away. If we left any great DIY composter plans out, please leave a comment with a link so that we can check it out and possibly add it to the list. Wooden Pallet Planks and Wire Mesh Composter Wood and wire: it really is that simple. Actually, it gets even simpler: a wire-mesh-only compost bin. All-Pallet Compost Bin Enclosed Wooden Compost Bin Like the idea of a wooden enclosure but don’t want all the work? Removable Front-Slatted with Metal Roof Decorative Brick
Make-up Magnet Board We all know with craft blogs that original ideas are often hard to come by, we find ideas we love and make them our own but we didn't come up with the idea ourselves. I feel like I've finally done something original here and I'm excited about it. I'll show you the finished product and then explain. Behold my Make-up Magnet Board. I have a friend who is beautiful and stylish and has always loved make-up but recently took a course that intensified her love. The basket was a mess and I was overwhelmed with all my choices never knowing what to use, digging through to see what I had and find what I wanted was a pain. I painted it (The hard way, with a brush instead of spray paint. I went to the hardware store and picked up some metal and had them cut it to fit inside my frame. Here comes the brilliant part though. Here's the stash of eye shadows we're talking about (I've even added a couple since this picture). Next I wanted a place to store my brushes and liners though.