Condo Blues: May 2017

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

How to Make a Folding Camp Chair Carry Bag

Last summer I upgraded our first generation arm less quad chairs (they look like this) to these captain's camping chair with arm rests. (I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience) I didn’t go nuts with the bells and whistles because the two most important things to us are:

  • The chair has a study carrying and storage bag
  • The folding chair and bag are lightweight. We’re often carting a cooler, picnic basket, chairs, and an overly excited dog from a parking area which always seems like a million miles from where we want to be.
Oddly the more money you spend on a quality lightweight camping chair the cheaper and more flimsy the nylon chair bag that comes with it..

After barely two years of service, the seams of the bags are barely holding  together. The nylon fabric is so shredded I can’t repair it. The chairs are in great shape but the carrying cases are not.

I want a sturdy replacement camp chair bag.When I can’t buy, I DIY! I made one myself.

DIY Replacement Camping Chair Carrying and Storage Bag

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Friday Favorites Linky Party 373

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Sunday, May 21, 2017

How to Make a Self Watering Flower Pot

Last summer Husband and I planted green and Apache peppers in my DIY self watering planter box the Mark 2. Self watering planters are fantastic for nightshades like tomatoes and peppers because they looooooooove being watered from their roots.

There are other benefits to growing vegetables in self watering containers: you conserve water by only watering the plant and not the surrounding sidewalk or patio with the sprinkler (or is that just me?) and may be less likely to kill the plant if you forget to water it every day (also me.)

I built the Mark 2 in the Earthbox style (learn more about it herewith a plastic aeration screen making a false bottom to fill with water. Unfortunately the aeration screen collapsed during the winter under the weight of snow and heavy wet soil. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

There is another style of self wicking planter that creates the water chamber with gravel and allows the water to wick to the plant roots using a layer of  landscaping fabric as a wick. Both water conserving planter ideas work well but I want to to reduce potential spring maintenance of replacing aeration screens that collapse under weight of wet soil or decomposing cloth wicks on a yearly basis.

I combined the two styles to make self wicking and watering tomato planters from pretty flower pots for my container garden.


How to Make a Pretty Self Watering Container Garden

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Friday Favorites Linky Party 372

Hello friends! Before we get this week's party started, I want to remind you that we are looking for a few new host and hostess blogs to share and expand our circle of fun!

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Friday, May 12, 2017

Easy DIY Three Pocket Zipper Coin Pouch

 I don’t like my wallet because the dividers and padding make it quite thick when it is empty and worse when I put dollar bills in it. Which is an issue because that’s what wallets are supposed to do – hold money.

I’ve been hunting for the perfect wallet off and on for quite awhile. Ideally, I want something the same size and thickness as a coin pouch. Alas, those I like don’t have slim interior pockets for my ID and debit cards.

 Keep reading to learn how to more pockets than you could ever hope to fill to a coin purse!

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Friday Favorites Linky Party 371

I really enjoy discovering the DIY and craft projects, recipes, and clever ideas you submit to our link party every week. You make it difficult to select only one project as my favorite to feature each week!

For example, there were three projects last week that I would have chosen to features if I could:

A Wagon for the Riding Mower by Just Measuring up because it is MAD GENIUS side of cute dog giving the wagon a test ride. I am a sucker for dogs hands down.

Discovering Nara: Japan’s Ancient City from Sunny Coastlines because it makes me want to go back to Japan and discover this beautiful city with Husband.

My third pick is actually my first pick. Let's get this party started so you can read it below!



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Monday, May 8, 2017

How to make an Embroidered Dog Poop Bag Dispenser

When you have a dog, poop happens.

Being responsible pet parents means we need to carry potty bags to clean up after Lacey when she does her her business outside and on walks.

Being the green minded people that we are, I keep and fill two grocery bag holder for the stray plastic bags that cross my path.  I keep the empty grocery bag holder hanging in the kitchen to fill with random bread, frozen vegetable, and the occasional plastic grocery bag when I forget my canvas grocery bags when running a quick errand. When it is full I swap it out with the grocery bag holder I have hanging in the closet by the front door so we can reuse the bags for doggie duty. It isn’t perfect green solution but it works for us.

The big grocery bag dispenser in the closet is too big to take with us on walks. I sewed a small plastic grocery bag holder that attaches to Lacey’s leash to fill with repurposed bags from hall closet holder.


How to Sew a Clip on Dog Waste Bag Holder

Friday, May 5, 2017

Friday Favorites Linky Party 370

My apologies for posting this week's link party so late in the day. LinkyTools was down yesterday and wouldn't let us generate and run the code we use to let you add your fantastic projects, recipes, and ideas to our weekly party.

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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

How to Naturally Kill Grubs, Fleas, and Fungus Gnats

Japanese beetle grubs decimated our “easy to care for landscaping” shortly after we bought our condo because our builder planted the entire neighborhood with plants that attract Japanese Beetles.  Our final solution was to rip out every bush and plant in the yard and let it lay fallow for a year. It wasn’t pretty but it worked.

They’re back.

Dang it!

Commercial grub killers from the big box store do not work for me (hich I only tired as a last resort.) I was leery of what the "90% OTHER INGREDIENTS" listed on the label actually were next to the warning about not using the stuff around kids, dogs, and fish ponds.  So, yeah. I'm glad it didn't work.


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