Upcycled Light Fixture Terrarium

Recently, Pinterest and Tumblr have had me lusting over pretty pictures of succulents, many planted in geometric containers that look like or actually are glass light fixture domes.  Never one to turn down a good upcycling project, I went searching for the materials to make this happen last weekend.  Here is what I came up with:

I call this a diy, but once you find the right materials, this is the easiest diy ever!  Hardly any explanation needed.

I found these cute succulents at A Lot of Flowers in Fairhaven (they were about $5 each). I love that one of them looks like a rose.

The key to this whole thing is finding the right light fixtures.  When I went looking, I really had no idea what I was looking for or how I was going to connect them.  You could of course use just one dome and leave it open on the top but I really wanted the enclosed look.  To achieve this, you need to find light fixtures that are uneven on the bottom like this:

I found mine at an amazing recycled building materials store that we have here called the Re Store ($3 each). When I first saw that the bottom was uneven like this (anyone know why?), I thought hmm that's okay I guess. It took until I found a second one for me to realize that this meant the two halves could just click together if you turned one upside down! The assembly process is simple:

1. Turn one of the dome upside down (or I guess the right way since that's how it goes on the ceiling!) decide if you want to cover the hole. I put a small clear lid over it.  Succulents do not need much water so you shouldn't have seepage anyway, if you are caring for them correctly.
2. Cover the angled bottom with rocks. I just covered the bottom but you could add more, if you want them to be seen on the sides.
3. Add soil and transfer plants in.  I also added some shells for decoration around the plants.
4. Now, just line up the uneven edges of the other dome with the bottom one push down to click them together and ta da!

Now, I just have to decide where to put it!

Cheers,

Life Lately: Snow and Spring

I don't know about you, but in the last couple weeks I have been getting a bit of cabin fever.  The warmer weather (compared to the teens and twenties we had for a while) turned my mind to thoughts of flowered dresses and planting gardens.  Although I know that these things are months away, it was like a part of me was itchy to be outside and ready for spring.  Yet at the same time, I absolutely love snow and have been jealous of all the fluffy white stuff the rest of the country has been getting.  In northwestern Washington, we seem to either have dry below freezing temperatures or wet and windy but never wet and cold at the same time.  This week it was in the 40s with wind warnings but then it snowed this morning! All this to explain my conflicted state of mind. Here is a little bit of snow and spring:

Last weekend, my mom came up to visit and we spent some time poking around my favorite bookstore where I found this gem for $3

 I might use it for a project one day, but for now I just love to look at it. I wish I had more space to grow flowers. Right now all I have it my porch, so I have to be as economical as possible.  I discovered a great online tool for doing just that. The site is called Smart Gardener and it allows you to digitally lay out the space of your garden, including telling you what plants will grow well in  your climate and creating to-do lists for the season.  I can't wait to plant my garden, but I will need some more containers first.

Day two of my mom's visit we went cross country skiing at White Salmon Road on Mt. Baker.

When we reached the top of the ridge, there was too much cloud cover to see much of the view but the you get the general idea.  It snowed the whole time, and as we started back, the wind kicked up making visibility difficult.  I'm glad we turned back when we did.

I had a bit of a second Christmas because my mom brought up with her a box of fabric given to me by our friend Kim.  Thanks Kim! Here are some of my favorites:

In other news, my office recently moved to a new location where I have more desk space than I could ever need.  I'm thinking that I should definitely get some houseplants for one end.  Anyone have any favorites that are hard to kill?

Always,

Design your own fabric with Spoonflower

So, last week I spotted this beautiful little number floating around the internet:

Via

For the untrekie among you who can't tell, the fabric is a draft of the USS Enterprise; and it is beautiful.  $45 is a bit steep for a skirt that would take less than an hour to make, and once I saw on the Etsy listing that the maker had the fabric specially made, the hunt was on!  A Google, Amazon and Ebay search turned up nothing.  Then, my friend Courtney showed me this site called Spoonflower.  At Spoonflower you can design and buy your own fabric, wallpaper, decals and gift wrap.  Not a designer myself, I was happy to find that you can buy fabric with the designs that other people have submitted here (the designers get a commission too).  Bellingham lacks a decent fabric store like Fabric Depot and sorry Joanns, but most of your fabric is outdated and just plain out of stock.  Spoonflower has tons of beautiful and modern (and nerdylicious) fabric offered in many different types of fabric.

Here are some of my favorites:

While pursuing the designs, we realized that we had just so happened to stumble across the very fabric that had sent us on the search in the first place!

Lucky for me, Spoonflower was having a 24 hour sale where you could get a swatch of any fabric for absolutely free!  My roommate and I both got one and our lovelies arrived a few days ago:

I'm really glad that I found this site and I hope that I have a project do to soon that necessitates the buying of copious amounts of beautiful fabric!

XOXO

Working on

Not dead, just busy.
Here are some snippets of what I have been working on:

Hope to have some finished stuff to show you soon!

Cheers