The Mavericks Refashion

 I just love transforming regular t-shirts and making them into something different.  This is The Mavericks shirt I redid that I got at the last show I saw them at in L.A in April. 

Here's another quick redo I did with this Mavericks shirt.  My original plan was to turn this around so the V was on the back but I liked how it looked better in the front as it is supposed to be.  Just a simple refashion where I took in the sides and added in the banded bottom.  I kept the sleeves on and took it in a little to give the shirt a more feminine feel .

Before the redo.

The back of the shirt

Mario!

I made this Mario magnet a while back.  I actually forgot about it until just now when I was looking through the pics of stuff that I'd made :)

Urban Gardening Update

So my second attempt at growing vegetables indoors is not going so well.  One of my cucumber plants died, the second one is sick, my squash plant is near dead--also sick.  Both the cucumber and squash are being killed by mildew.  I've been having an infestation of soil knats (they sure do love the organic soil I'm using) and I've been spraying often with a neem oil/dish soap/water mixture to keep them under control. In the meantime, unbeknownst to me, mildew is forming on the leaves of the squash plants from being sprayed with the mixture.  I can't help it.  I see one or a few of those buggers on the stem, and I spray to kill it.

Even though the cucumbers and squash have all but died, the cherry tomatoes are doing decent.  I have a few bunches between the two plants although one of the plants' health is questionable.  It seems wilt every other day and I can't tell if it's from a lack of watering (seems like I'm watering every other day) or something else that is causing it wilt.  When I do water, it perks back up within a few hours. 

Surprisingly (or maybe not), the sunflowers and the cosmos are doing awesome!  Can't say the daisies are doing too well but that is from a lack of watering.  I tucked the container of daisies into a corner and forget they are there most of the time since the vegetables plants tend to obscure that corner. 

Minature sunflower.

 Orange cosmo.  This is my new favorite flower. 

Urban Gardening Year 2

Suffice to say, last year's attempt at growing some vegetables didn't pan out. Out of the numerous lettuce plants, two tomato plants, 4 cucumbers plants and 2 strawberry plants, I got 2 grape tomatoes, a few lettuce leaves and 4 or 5 strawberries.

This year, I am armed with more info, more experience, fertilizer and more determination.

Here is this year's attempt at container gardening inside my apartment. These pics were taken a few days ago on the 8th, so there has been some more growth since then.

The red bucket is a yellow summer squash plant flanked by a pair of cherry tomato plants. The little cup in the window sill are basil seedlings. The little cap in the squash container contains neem oil (see next post for what it is), which is a natural essential oil that helps to repel pests, particularly spider mites, which killed my cucumbers last year.



I am also trying my hand at upside down gardening in order to conserve space. A 2 liter bottle was converted to grow cucumber. I also planted a lettuce seed on top since it is a companion plant to cucumber. In the bag, I have another cherry tomato plant growing. On top of the soil, I have also planted some basil seeds since it can help to improve the flavor of the tomato plants and can also repel pests. So far, the cucumber is doing great and the upside down tomato plant looks a little sad but no hope is lost yet.


A closer look at the cucumber.


My container of black eyed simpson lettuce (same as I grew last year). Most lettuce varieties grow better in cooler weather but the black eyed simpson is more heat and sun tolerant. Next year, I shall try a cooler variety in order to free up some space for other plants that need more sun. This year, I added in used (but dried out) coffee grounds since coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and lettuce craves nitrogen.


And last but not least, a family of sunflowers and cosmos (on the end to the right) that I will hopefully be able to have flower this year. Last year's attempt with flowers didn't work so well.


One thing I am doing different this year is actually using fertilizer and pollinating the flowers by hand since I don't have any bees that live inside my apartment. I just didn't think about it last year :)

New Magnets: St. Patty's Day!

Plastic Bottlecap Farm Animals

Ever since I found out a few years ago that plastic bottlecaps were not recyclable (they are a different grade of plastic than their recyclable counterparts), I've been hording them and searching the internet for projects on what I could with them. I really didn't find many projects (if any at all) that I liked so when the idea to make animal magnets popped into my head, the gears in my head started turning. I started with three: a panda, a koala and a pig and shared them on facebook...which became a hit.!

So, here is the first set: the farm animals. I have plans for a few more sets but they will be unveiled one set at a time. Stay tuned soon to see what the next one will be!