a little bird house in your terrarium

 

 
The 3rd annual Point Breeze Yard Sale is this coming weekend, and my friend, who lives in PB, is having a yard sale. Or more accurately, her mother is having a yard sale.

When one is at the right place at the right time, one happens to be the beneficiary of many free things. Like an epic candle holder for her non-working fireplace. [Never mind that she already shoved a book case in there and has it full of books and vignettes. This was one of those things that brain said "you will have occasion to use this, or lend it out, don't pass it up.]

Seriously. I couldn't pass that up. Especially with a price tag of "FREE". Now I just need some pillar candles.

Also, one gets to poke around in the yard sale offerings well ahead of time. And takes home a bird house necklace. Which, with the help of of a popsicle stick and a little wood glue, is then turned into a feature item for the terrarium.

 

.... which also desperately needed to be hacked away at with a machete scissors. [Someone also brought home a watering can on waxed string, but it's still in her car, hanging from the rear view mirror.]
And now, after a little TLC, the terrarium is a little more cleaned out, plus a bird house.

prime[r] time

Let me open this post with the caveat that I discovered that I don't actually own a screwdriver. Of any persuasion. Lies; I do own the kind you fix your sunglasses with. Yup, the record has been set straight. No people sized screwdrivers. Okay, now you can keep reading.

So the fish bowl terrarium is kicking along swimmingly - it may need another gnome or owl from Targe's garden section; we'll have to see what this season's selection has to offer. My friend was in town for the Singing City event this past weekend, and we did what we always do when she's in town - drive out to IKEA [we also found the new-ish Goodwill store while we were there, and the Volkwein's music store]. I'm not sure why we always drive out to IKEA... but we do... and oggle the housewares and such... which is funny because neither of us really has a house or needs housewares. I contemplated the trundle beds and futons. Briefly. [the Rapunzel /Sleeping Beauty/Princess and the Pea bed gets old sometimes - also, there was talk of getting a different bed for my room at the parent's house, and I'm madly curious about the merits of a trundle over a futon, which I'm convinced are stuffed with anger, hatred and the tears of sad puppies.]
We both managed to leave without buying any furniture - and A drives a Prius now, which means she actually has a trunk with a hatch to put things in. Unlike her last car, which was a bit like riding around in a cut off cardboard box. She will confirm this.

I used to have this mossy stuff  growing in the fishbowl that didn't quite take, and there were pots of it at IKEA [sometimes you have to check and make sure it's really alive... as opposed to plastic]  So I brought it home to transplant some into the fishbowl and remembered that I have picture frames that were supposed to be turned into a terrarium from last summer gathering dust at the bottom of my closet. Time to do something about that. Literally; there's time.

Sanding and primer time! I had the foresight to put everything in the box - the mending plates, the screws, the  hinges, the tack cloth, and all the glass and the frames. I even had a can of spray primer kicking around left over from this project . I vaguely followed the directions laid out by Country Living - by vaguely, I mean I have most of the materials listed, but that's about it. Didn't get the frames in the recommended sizes, because I found some at PCR for a dollar, and I wasn't about to argue with that. Probably should have waited to prime the whole thing until after it was put together, but I think it's just going to add to the minimally distressed look. Besides, I can always do it later. Again.

This is the point at which I wanted to begin assembly. And discovered I do not own a screwdriver; no Philips heads or flat. I don't have any orange juice either, so no wise cracks. What do I own? 4 hammers. Yup. 4. facepalm.

terrarium 2.0K

terrarium 2.ohnoes

Discovered a gaping hole in the bottom of my terrarium the other day. Bad, bad bad since the terrarium was a re-purposed glass vase. No idea when the chunk decided to fall out, but it did. Thus began the search for a suitable replacement and I almost bought this beautiful terrarium from IKEA -

so... when did IKEA climb on the Shabby-Chic bandwagen?

And there's more where that came from. I wouldn't have said S/C went with Scandinavian Minimalism, but there is something appealing about accenting the spartan with a little frill. The plant stand makes me think of made over Mission/Arts and Crafts, which painted white does go with the whole cottage thing more than the traditional dark, oxidized oak hallmark of the A/C movement.

Did I mention I'm ADD? Sorry. Terrarium. Found a $5 goldfish bowl at a thrift shop. Twice the real estate as the vase, so I added a little more plant life to it, and some other umm... decor. 

While at IKEA, I purchased a GORM for the reduced price of $30 (the website lied and quoted me $40). This to replace the dresser that I guess I never posted about... I gave the dresser a face lift, and then discovered that the glue holding the drawers together was failing... again, and again, and again I got tired of running to the hardware store and purchasing brackets to keep it together. I can't install a ClosetMaid so I went with the next closest thing I could think of. I chose a GORM simply because it was wood, and I would be able to cut it down to the height requirements of the closet, unlike the other metal shelving options avalible. Since GORM has all these handy pre-drilled holes for positioning shelves, I was able to put my knob and drawer pull collection to work, installing them as decorative hooks for holding purses and other accessories. If I were going all out, this puppy would be framed in bead board, whitewashed, have a pretty paper on the back, and have pretty matching bins corralling my socks, tee-shirts and the like. Hackers gotta hack. When they have the money to do it :). Baby steps.

stalled and terrarium fun

two, well, really, one and a half weeks of school left before I have a month (!) off from school. Then I have four summer classes, but details. I am very seriously thinking of purchasing a serger, after years of threatening, I think it's coming down to the wire. Preempted by a garment project that I am loath to start because the material will be fray-happy, and I just don't want to deal with that.

last month I took a class on terrarium building at Creative Reuse with GreenSinner. Since then, my container took one for hte team, and is missing a chunk out of the boom... so I'm watching it a little more carefully, and on the look-out for a new container.

setting it up with little plants...

A companion container!

All finished!

Chillin' on the patio outside