DIM. Did It Myself.

My pallet garden: still vertical, but better.

05.20.2013 § 1 Comment

Last year I made a vertical pallet garden inspired by the many that I was seeing on Pinterest.

But what I hadn’t seen on Pinterest was how to deal with a pallet garden that sat on a deck in the sun and high heat for a majority of the day. This left me dealing with daily (sometimes twice daily) watering and, even then, by midsummer I’d lost about half the plants.

So this year, I changed my strategy.

Instead of the plastic pots that drained too easily, I went with terra-cotta pots. Instead of placing them behind the pallet slats, I thought I’d try hanging the pots on the front of them. And instead of planting flowers that needed a lot of attention, I went with some succulents and a few geraniums for color.

Here’s this year’s finished product:

And here are some visual steps on how I got the pots to hang:

Oh. My last bit of advice whilst palleting … wear sunscreen. I got overly into my little DIY project and didn’t realize how long I was on my deck soaking up the sun.

Now I know how last year’s pallet felt.

- etc. -

If your pallet garden will sit in a little more shade and less heat, here’s the how-to from what I did last year: Vertical Pallet Garden

You can also see my second, flat pallet garden how-to that I used on my back deck for vegetables: Flat Pallet Garden

And don’t forget, can always find great pallet ideas on Pinterest

Weekend Lampery

05.07.2013 § 3 Comments

Don’t google “lampery.” It’s not a registered word. Well, not yet anyway.

But you can find the definition right here on natepk.com.

lampery (lampə’rē) n. an act of DIY where one restores an object that would not typically be expected to emit light into a functioning lamp that does.

Use that in a sentence, you request? Surely: ”This weekend, my dad and I practiced successful lampery when we turned an old family telescope tripod into a functioning (and beautiful) lamp.”

And really, all we had to do to be successful was buy a lamp kit, similar to this one from Lowe’s (lamp kit), drill a hole into the plate that the telescope would attach to, and top it with a lamp shade. For a total of under $30, I now have a fun new lamp in my dining room (plus the sentimental value factor) that would have cost me well over $250 at Pottery Barn or $1,300 at Restoration Hardware.

Yes, I can say we’re now official lamperists.

Celebrating 10

04.20.2013 § 1 Comment

I never pass up an opportunity to participate in a little DIY.

So when planning out my “Celebrating 10” soiree, some button bracelets in the event’s colors were the party favors of choice.

Custom, handmade and personal. My perfect thank you for coming.

All that was needed were some black buttons, a gold paint marker, string, and clothespins. Oh, and time. Threading a bunch of buttons with thick string … yeah, didn’t plan for that properly.

For the finishing touch, I added a “thank you” tag and clasped that inside the clothespin before wrapping the bracelet around it.

I think they made for a special way to say thank you for celebrating 10.

For the backstory behind “Celebrating 10,” read here:

Today, ten years after coming out

For the backstory behind button bracelets, read here:

Button button, who’s got the button bracelet?

Post-it Heart.

04.04.2013 § Leave a Comment

Yes.

This is exactly what happens when you’ve been at the office too long and you have a fresh stack of Post-it Notes.

Time to go home.

Chapstick vs. Elmer’s

03.02.2013 § 2 Comments

Yeah. This is exactly what happens when you craft a little too often.

You end up grabbing your keys, wallet, phone … and “chapstick” on your way out the door to the gym.

Luckily I always have a back-up Baby Lips in the car.

Whew. #CrafterProblems

Button button, who’s got the button bracelet?

01.18.2013 § 3 Comments

The answer is, I DO.

And it’s what happens when you realize you’ve built up a drawer full of buttons from dress shirts and sweaters that you know you’re never actually going to remember to search through if you were to lose an actual button.

So I decided I may as well put this drawer to better use and make pretty out of all the surplus that is my drawer full of buttons.

Here’s the final product. The how-to is pretty obvious, and I encourage the 2-minute project to anyone with extra buttons. And string.

Instant fun.

And also answers the question of who’s got the button.

DITNY. And the year of kraft paper.

12.15.2012 § 3 Comments

Yes, DITNY Volume III has been released. As has yet another kraft paper creation.

For those of you that don’t know, DITNY is short for “Dancing In The New Year,” which has come to be the name of my yearly holiday card. The CD, which doubles as my card, captures all of my favorite tracks from 2012 that you can, well, dance to.

And this year, due to yet another Pinterest idea and my continued love of brown kraft paper, I decided to step up my packaging.

So now I’m thinking one of two things needs to happen. I need to either disengage from Pinterest (which let’s face it, won’t happen), or I need to embrace it and turn my office into an office/crafting room.

Yeah, probably a better chance for the latter.

Reduce. Reuse. Resparkle.

12.02.2012 § 3 Comments

This Christmas my tree is adorned with homemade ornaments made of old newspapers (luckily my mom still reads them), paper towel tubes and brown kraft paper. It’s been a work in progress and I’ll probably keep adding to it throughout the holiday. Or until I run out of newspaper.