How to Make a Self Watering Planter Box

Husband and I were cruising the nursery when an apache pepper plant caught his eye and we decided then and there to  grow peppers in our patio garden. Yummy!

Unfortunately the self watering planter I made from a plastic storage tub had different ideas and cracked when visiting the Land of Ice and Snow (although most people call it Winter.) I wasn’t surprised because I used a light duty storage container to make the first planter.

There wasn't any love lost because while the self watering planter worked great, having a plastic storage tub taking up space on my patio wasn't' very pretty. I promised Husband a new and more rugged planter box we won’t be embarrassed to have in our back yard.

Pin this How To and share it with your friends!

 

Self Watering Planter Box Tutorial

Zero Waste Candles and Friday Favorites Linky Party 369

I like to clear cooking smells after dinner with a scented soy wax melt in the candle warmer  I keep in the kitchen. While Husband is fantastic about giving me eco friendly wax warmer melts (affiliate links for your convenience)  as gifts, I want to switch up the scents in my collection (thanks Honey!) I decided to burn a soy candle and wouldn't you know it, all but one were spent.

I spent a rainy Saturday morning making my old spent candles into new soy candles. It didn't take very long at all and I got a fancy two toned candle out of the deal because I had more purple wax than I felt comfortable pouring into that candle jar.

Upcycling old soy candles into new candles! What are you making today? #zerowaste

A post shared by Lisa (@condoblues) on Apr 23, 2017 at 9:58am PDT

 Who knew a mistake could look so fancy?

I showed you my project, now you show me yours. Let's party!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

9 Ways to Replace Plastic Wrap in the Kitchen

I have a like – hate relationship with plastic cling wrap. I like on those rare occasions that it actually and fully sticks to a container to keep food fresh. I also hate it most of the time because, no matter what type or brand, it never sticks, food dries out or gets freezer burn, and I end up tossing the spoiled food and the plastic wrap in the trash.

So it was no great stretch for me to find a way to keep food fresh without plastic wrap. Once I started using my Swiss Army knife of easy alternatives,  I noticed we also reduced the amount of weekly household trash by quite a bit. Yay!

Pin me for later!

How to Make a Brick and Pallet Rain Barrel Stand

There is an issue with the French drain in my side yard which leaves my side yard is wet and spongy days after it rains. I installed a rain barrel as a temporary fix until I can get my Homeowner’s Association to repair the poor drainage problem. Not to mention being able to capture and use rainwater to water our flowerbeds. A quick drainage fix, free plant water, and being green – high fives all around.

Originally I planned to hook a soaker hose up to the rain barrel as a lower waste way to water the front yard and garden but it didn’t work as well as I hoped because the rain barrel water pressure was practically nil. Turns out the height of your rain barrel determines how much water pressure flows from it and not what I thought – the amount of water in the rain catch system.

How to Increase Rain Barrel Water Pressure the Quick and Easy Way

Friday Favorites Linky Party 368

Let's Party!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Renaissance Noble Dress Project Part 3: Princess Dress Reveal!

I blogged about designing a new Elizabethan Nobility Dress to perform with Husband at Renaissance Festivals. This project was harder than any other costuming project I’ve done. I like the finished dress for the most part, but I don’t love it as much as I do the costume it replaces. There are a bunch of mistakes, and the bodice fit (among other things) needs tweaking which is why I haven’t shown you the finished project.

But I promised you a DIY renaissance festival princess dress and that you shall have, warts and all.
I started with a sketch after pouring over my favorite Elizabethan costuming books working backwards by buying the fabric first and coming up with a dress design second. I like to work the other way around.

Disclosure: affiliate links appear in this post for your convenience.

I started with the overskirt and underskirt (forepart) first. I attempted hand embroidering the brown velvet trim but didn’t liker my test pieces, not to mention  that kind of hand embroidery means an extra year for construction I didn’t have.

Friday Favorites Linky Party 367

Have you started Spring Cleaning yet? I've been cleaning and reorganizing a cupboard shelf, closet space, and such bit by bit for the last couple of months or so. I like to think of it as "shopping the house" because I always find something I misplaced or forgot about. It's almost like getting new stuff even though it's my stuff already.

Small projects like this keep my Cabin Fever which rolls into Spring Fever in check while I'm waiting for it to be warm enough to work on projects in my garage workshop.

It not only pays off in more organization, and clearer shelves and closets (after I drop off the donation box) but this year it paid off in cash money. I tossed the stray coins I found while cleaning out my drawers and purses into my Travel Fund coin bank instead of chucking them back into the drawer.

I put over ten dollars in my coin jar without even trying. I don't know if I should proud or embarrassed we had so much money laying around the house. Oops.


Let's Party!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!  

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

DIY Magnetic No Soliciting Sign

One of the few downsides of living in a condo community with neat little sidewalks is we are an easy target for every single organization that thinks door to door sales is a fabulous way to pester people in the middle of their day with stuff they don’t want.

Like most of neighbors, I put a No Solicitors sign on my front door. Sometimes it works.
Often it doesn’t.

Every surveyor, free offer, or people offering to register me to vote (only me, never my husband, and even though I have been registered to vote since I became of age,) ignored my No Solicitors sign because they clam they “aren’t selling something.”

Even thought they end their spiel with some sort of sales pitch. Every. Single. Time. Grr!

How to Make a Quick and Easy Front Door No Sales Sign

 

Pin this tutorial for later and to share with your friends!

 

Friday Favorites Linky Party 366

I can't wait to see what super fantastic awesome projects, recopies, and idea you have to share with us this week so let's jump right into it!

Let's Party!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jen at Creatively Homemade - Twitter | G+ | Pin

Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin

Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!  

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

What’s in Your Trash and How Do You Reduce it (or Not?)

I’ve been thinking a lot about trash lately. The stuff in the bin outside your house, not about tawdry things. Lacey is a genteel lady who not tolerate dirty things in her home (unless it is something muddy or smelly to roll in.)

 I love mud!

I’ve been mulling over ideas to share how to reduce your household trash since the New Year.  I’m coming up short because every draft I write sounds like some big green guru sitting on a mountain top looking down  her nose at the world thinking that my Swiss Army knife of low waste options are the Pinnacle of One Size Fits All Solution to reducing household waste.

Or at least it feels that way and that is not my intent at all.

I want to offer options not absolutes because, honestly, there aren’t any one size fits all eco friendly low waste living solutions. It all depends on where you live, how you like to live, family size, etc.

How to Make a Farmhouse Industrial Wine Cork Wreath

Many (OK, most) winter weekends husband and I mull a bottle of table quality red wine until it gets too warm outside to drink hot drinks then we switch over to making sangria. So between that and enjoying a bottle of the good stuff from time to time, I have several vases full of wine corks in my craft room.

Quick and Easy DIY Wine Cork Wreath Idea

My wine cork stash is getting high, my door wreath stash is letting low so with my creative powers combined (just like Captain Planet and The Wonder Twins!) I made a quick and easy wine cork wreath and you can too!

 Pin this recycled wine cork craft idea for later!