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​I have been container gardening for years. It started back when I lived in an apartment. I had no ground, so I had to plant vegetables in pots on my balcony. The harvest was not huge, but it was very satisfying to pick fresh peppers and lettuce leaves to put in my dinner salads.  Gardening in containers can be done anywhere you have sun!  

But this was just the beginning of my adventures in container gardening!

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​Then I moved on to planting Romaine lettuce in pots which I wrote about in my post  How to Grow Your Own Lettuce - No Land Needed. ​

​This container garden was pretty successful.  I had lettuce all summer and fall, enough green beans to feed us and freeze a few bags, not to mention fresh peppers for cooking and salads.  I was hooked on container gardening!  

Over the years I have made a few discoveries about container gardening, from trial and error.  Use these tips and save yourself a lot of grief!
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1. Never use metal pots, they overheat and can burn and cook the roots.
2. Make sure the container has generous drainage holes. Without proper drainage, the soil stays wet and roots will rot. Rocks or gravel, in the bottom of the pot, do NOT take the place of drainage holes and are a bad idea.
3. Use good potting soil, never just dig up dirt from the ground.  Do not buy top soil!
4. Fill the whole pot with dirt, don't put filler junk in the bottom. The more dirt in the pot, the less you have to water and the more medium you have to retain fertilizer, which help promote root growth.
5. Mix slow release fertilizer in the soil once a year.
6. Save the tags that come with your plants. Read them and take the information to heart. It is very important if you want healthy plants and lots of produce.  Stick them in the container, for handy reference.
7. Water in the morning or evening, and not in the heat of the day.
8. Mix a pinch of fish of emulsion in your watering can once a week to keep the soil nutrient rich.
9. Make sure veggies have at least 6 hours of direct sunlight for best produce.
10. If a plant looks bad, dont be afraid to trim, Trim, TRIM! If you have a plant that looks like it is dying, cut off all the brown parts and trim back the whole plant. Don't be afraid to cut a lot of it off, it may be the only thing that saves it.

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I hope that you will give container gardening a try, it really is fun and easy!  If you don't want to grow vegetables, you can grow fresh herbs or mini fruit trees!

Have fun gardening!

Jade    :)
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What are these vegetables that grow is shade, you say? Well, they are the following:

1. Broccoli - four to five hours sun
2. Beans - four hours sun
3. Peas - four hours sun
4. Kale - three hours sun
5. Leafy Greens - three to four hours sun
6. Radishes - four to five hours sun
7. Asian Greens - two hours sun
8. Spinach - four hours sun
9. Most herbs - three hours a day sun

Make sure to follow the directions on the seed packet or plant sets regarding how close together to plant them.  Seed packets will also give you information on how much sun a plant needs to grow properly.  They can say full sun, partial sun, partial shade or full shade.  But what do those terms actually mean?

• Full Sun - at least 6 hours a day, more if possible
• Partial Sun - at least three hours of sun a day
• Partial Shade - no more than 3 to 6 hours of sun a day, preferably in the morning or early afternoon
• Full Shade - Less than three hours of direct sunlight and filtered or dapples sunlight the rest of the time.

The sun is much stronger in the late afternoon, so partial sun plants are better planted in a location that gets late afternoon sun, whereas partial shade plants should be positioned out of the late afternoon sun, if possible.  Full shade plants still need some sunlight, no plant does well with no sun at all, other than mushrooms!

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​As a ​rule of thumb, you can loosely go by these numbers:

• 6 to 8 hours of sun - vegetables that bear fruit, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash
• 6 hours of sun - root vegetables, like carrots, potatoes and onions
• 3 to 4 hours of sun - leafy vegetables, like lettuce, kale, spinach and mustard greens

I planted broccoli, peas, and greens in containers this year, and radishes, cauliflower and beans in raised garden beds. They all seem to be doing great, and it's nice to know that some of them can be grown in partial shade. There is nothing quite like growing your own food. Knowing it is pesticide free and not GMO (genetically modified) means a lot to me and I feel good feeding home-grown food to my family.

I hope you enjoy your garden this summer and get a great harvest.  I think you will find growing your own food to be very rewarding, not to mention healthy!

Jade    :)
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​I love to find off beat uses for everyday things that I have on hand.  I have been collecting these little gems for a while, so I thought I would share some of them with you.  I hope you find some that are useful!

Oven Cleaner ​

​Mayonnaise​

Have a great weekend everyone!

​Jade    :)

If you do any kind of crafts, or have lots of smaller things you need to keep separated, you need organizers.  There are all kinds of organizers that you can buy, but if you are like me, you find they are never the right size or shape or have the right number of compartments.  It is so much better to make your own and it's easy to do.  Let me show you how!

After you have a plan and obtain your boxes, it is time to put them together.  I used masking tape because it is easy to remove an adjust, without tearing up your box, if you make a mistake putting it together.

When the construction is done, it is time to start covering it with your newsprint, or whatever pretty paper pieces you have decided to use.  You can use just about any kind of paper as long as it is not too stiff.  If you don't have any storebought sealant, you can make your own. If you are not familiar with how to decoupage or make sealant, you can find our how in our post:  How to Decoupage and Make Your Own Sealant

​I would suggest using smaller pieces of paper instead of trying to cover the boxes in one big piece.  Smaller pieces are easier to deal with and keep out air bubbles and wrinkles.
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After you get done covering the whole thing, it looks something like this:

I thought it looked kinda plain, so I decided to dress it up a bit with some twine.  I only had white twine, so I put some black paint in water and put the twine in to soak for an hour.  Pulled it out and set it on a paper towel to dry.

After it dried, I tied it on this is what it looked like:

I love the way it looks!  Here it is will all my brushes in it.  The perfect width and depth for the place I had to put it.

This organizer was easy and fun to make, if you would like other posts about making decoupage projects, I have a couple more here on my blog:

I hope you spend some of your time while you are stuck at home making some organizers, now that you know how easy it is!

Have a great weekend!

Jade    :)
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​So many people are home from work these days and they are not used to having so much free time.  Boredom is rampant!  If you are looking for some fun things to do that don't require going out, I have some great suggestions!
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These ideas can be for you alone or for your kids or whole family!  Some of them require practice to really get good at it, so if you enjoy doing it, it's even more fun!
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Learn To Do Some Magic Tricks​ - Everyone loves magic and it is a great ice breaker when meeting new people.  

 
​Learn Some New Solitaire Card Games - If there are two of you, see which can go through their deck first!  Click below for a video of easy instructions on how to place each.

1. Clock
2. 4 Corners Solitaire
3. Pyramid Solitaire
4. Spider Solitaire
5. Gravity

Teach your Dog Some Tricks - or just teach them some manners!  This takes time and patience, but in the end you will be glad you did!

Learn a Useful Life Skill - There are so many to choose from!  You can also teach your children useful skills like how to do laundry, cook a simple meal or vacuum and dust.
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Try Making Something from Scratch You Never Made Before - Could be anything from bread to hand sanitizer

1. Easy Bread
2. Hand Sanitizer
3. Almond Milk
4. Pancakes
5. Cake Mix
6. Refrigerator Pickles (not canned)
7. Salsa
8. Raised Donuts with Glaze
9. Farmer's Cheese
10. Lemonade

Learn to Mend and Hem Your Own Clothing - Stop paying for repairs or just tossing a piece just because it has a frayed seam or a button came off.  Stop rolling up your jeans or pants because they are too long.  Learn to fix it or hem it yourself!
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1. Five Ways to Patch and Mend Your Favorite Clothes
2. Ten Best Methods for Mending Tears
3. 10 Ways to Mend and Repair Clothes Using Embroidery

Make Organizers from Cardboard Boxes - This is a really fun project and it givea you great results if your drawers or cabinets need organizing.  You can make organizers of any size or shape you want.  Make one to fit in places you could never buy one for!  If you are short on boxes (especially small ones) you can rob your cabinet of cereal boxes, Mac and Cheese boxes, etc.  Just put the contents in a plastic bag, label it (very important) and put it back in the cabinet, and voila, you have a box to use!  You can leave them plain or you can decoupage them to make them pretty! If you don't know how to decoupage or you need some Mod Podge like sealant, learn here:

1. How to Decoupage and Make Your Own Sealant
2. Make Organizers from Cardboard Boxes
3. DIY Cardboard Closet Organizer
4. DIY Socks | Baby clothes | Innerwear | Hand Towel Organizer
5. 20 Easy and Quick Ideas with Cardboard Boxes

Get Creative and Decorate Your Jeans - There are many ways to do this, with lace, beads, gems, even bleach, paint or sharpies.  Here are some videos with some innovative ideas!

I LOVE this one - the splatter effect!

This is also a really cute idea!

Try playing an MMORPG -That is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.  There are many free ones that are lots of fun!  These are not your regular video games.  They can be a competitive as you want them to be.  If competition and fighting and killing monsters is not your thing, there are many other things you can do.  Make a character,  choose a profession or two and spend time getting better at that, or if you like traveling, there are continents of interesting lands you can explore.  You can play totally alone, or you can make friends, join a guild and have fun with people from all over the world.  Some characters have pets that travel with them and help them fight, others have healing powers to keep themselves and their allies alive, while some others are best at fighting one on one with other players.  You can do and be whatever you like in this imaginary world.

If you are thinking:  I am too old for "kids" games, you could not be more mistaken.  AARP recently did a study that showed an increasing number of people over 50 are playing MMO type games on the computer.  Read the article HERE.  Personally, I have played an MMORPG for the last 14 years and I still love it!  My husband and I play together and it is such fun, even more when you can't go out, like in bad weather or when you are not supposed to be leaving your house!  I play World of Warcraft, which is not free (you can play 20 levels for free, after that it costs about $15 a month) however, there are many other games that are totally free to play.  Find a list of them below.  If you see one you like, click on it, download the game, make a character and go in and explore.  Tons of fun, totally free and the whole family can play together!

I hope you have found a few things here to help you have some fun during this awful time.  Please stay safe and follow all the guidelines.  We will get through this together.

Jade    :)
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If you have tried to get your hands on a face mask, to help protect yourself when you have to go out, you know that they are almost impossible to get.  I have personally looked on Amazon, Tractor Supply, Walmart, and other places and either they are out of stock or they cannot promise delivery till late April.  It is a scary situation, but I have the answer:

MAKE YOUR OWN!!

​The information for these patterns come from this website:  ​Sewing Surgical Masks

If you can make these, hospitals and first responders desperately need them.  If you want to donate them, please put the masks in a plastic bag before dropping them off at hospitals, firehouses or police stations.  They will be washed before use, so you don't need wash them before taking them.  

​Everyone stay safe, and please follow the safety directives.  We will get through this if everyone cooperates.

Jade    :)
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​Today I have a simple, easy to make recipe for chalk paint.  Why spend the higher price to buy chaulk paint for your country project?  Make your own!  It is not complicated or expensive!
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You can also make chalk paint by adding 1/2 cup of baking soda to 1 cup of paint, or by adding 4 tablespoons Calcium Carbonate to one cup of paint.  I have tried all three ways and I prefer the plaster of Paris recipe best, because it is cheapest and you can use the plaster of Paris for other projects.

If you are wondering why people prefer chalk paint over regular paint there are three basic reasons:
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1. You do not need to use primer, as chalk paint is self-priming and will adhere to most any surface without sanding.
2. Chalk paint is the best paint to use if you plan to distress the wood you are painting.
3. The finished look of chalk paint gives  your project an old, vintage look.  It is the most popular paint for getting the perfect rustic country or shabby chic look.

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Enjoy your next craft project using chalk paint and know you have saved a ton of money by making your own!

Jade    :)
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​I really love Gingerbread Ornaments on my tree.  Not only are they cute, but they smell great!  If you want to make some for your tree, here is the simple, 4 ingredient recipe.  You don't even have to bake them, just roll them out, cut and let dry!  It's a fun family activity that is inexpensive and kids love doing it!

​If you want to decorate your ornaments, you can paint them, but i would recommend only using paint for colorful accents, like faces or gingerbread men or ornaments on a tree shape.  I would not paint the entire ornament because it may seal it and make it soft without air to keep it completely dry.  You can also glue buttons or bow on them for decoration.  As long as most of the ornament is open to the air, it should be good for many years, you just have to treat it gently, like you would any other ornament that is breakable.
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There are many different kinds of cookie cutters you can use to make these ornaments.  I prefer metal cookie cutters, but plastic ones also work well.  Recently I bought some 3D cookies cutters and they are really fun!

If you prefer regular cookie cutters, Amazon has a bunch of different styles just
​click here to see them.

I hope your holiday season is going well so far and you are enjoying it!
Have a great week!

​Jade    :)

​I have a cat that is really feisty.  He is an 18 month old ginger cat and he is as devilish as he is lovable!  He loves to play, but having all his claws (four wheen drive, as my husband calls it) he is very hard on his toys.  He can rip a catnip mouse to bits in record time.  He also has shredded his little cat house, along with several scratching posts.  After a while it started to get a little expensive, replacing toys and playthings for the little furball!
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After replacing my 100th cat toy, I decided to try making some myself, heaven knows I have enough old clothes, socks and towels to provide materials.  I decided to start out with something easy, so I went with a sock toy.  I found a pair of black socks that had an epic blowout on the left, but the right was still in good shape.  It was perfect to make a little Halloween present for the orange terror!  

I was able to make this in an afternoon, the thing that took the most time was waiting for the glue to dry.  If you want to speed things up, you can use a hot glue gun.  

For this project you will need:
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• a sock
• washable glue
• twine or yarn
• thread the same color as the sock

Take your twine or yarn and tie in a knot around the base of the tail, and start wrapping the tail with your twine, pulling it as tight as possible..  Knot at the end and leave the end of the sock in a ruffled poof.  Rub glue along the underside of the tail in a thick line to hold in place.  Let dry completely before moving on to the next step.
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This is what the tail should look like.

Wrap twine around the neck of your cat three times and pull fairly tight and tie a knot.  Put a drop of glue on the knot.   Tie a bow, knotting the ends.  Glue the loops and ends to the body

Drip a line of glue around the thread that is wrapped around the ears and tie twine on top of it.  Tie a tight knot and strengthen with glue, cutting the ends off very short, as shown above.

My cat loves this toy!  He drags it around the house and tosses it up in the air.  He thinks it is big fun!  It has lasted over a week, so far and it still in one piece! 

If you are like me, you have a lot of left over tin cans.  They have a lot of uses, pencil holders, craft organizers, I have even cut out the top and bottom and screwed it to the barn wall to hold brooms and rakes!  However, today I am going to share a much more fun use for tin cans.  Check out these cute cans!

To make this project, you will need:

Materials:

tin cans in various sizes
white primer
white and orange paint
string or yarn
a pair of yellow socks

7.  Take white cardboard (I used a paper plate) and trace some circles to use as eyes.  Cut them out and color the appropriate pieces with markers or paint.

8.  Glue the faces on your cans and let dry, then paint over with Mod Podge, and you are done!

With the hats so easy to take off and put back on, you can use these little guys for holding candy or treats.  Perfect for a Halloween party or hostess gift!  They are not only cute, but useful and they can be used year after year!

Have a great week!

Jade    :)
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