Visual Kei On a Budget: A Photo Tutorial

Okay, I know it is almost an oxy-moron. Visaul Kei and budget don't even belong in the same post, much less the same sentence!

If you are familiar with cosplay, the Final Fantasy games, J-pop, or anime at all, then you have an idea of what Visual Kei is.

But only the vaguest of ideas...

See, Visual Kei is a music genre that encompasses a bizarre combination of what happened when 80's hair bands, Jpop, and punk smashed together, and created something altogether new. Born in Japan, it mixes cosplay, metal, gothic and glam. Visual kei bands are very extravagant, and you can usually tell a Visual Kei band or artist by their elaborate costumes, crazy-impossible hairstyles, and bold, daring makeup, usually applied over some variety of lighteining foundation. Want an idea of what I'm talking about? A simple example:

"Dir En Grey" Get the idea? Of course, this is not our favorite Visual Kei band, but this promo shot has the most varied imagery on which to base a generalized idea of the genre. *smile*

So, two days before Halloween, Willamina tells me she would love to be Visual Kei for her costume. Being me, I tell her that's no problem, and I can make that happen. She protested, saying we had nothing that would work for a costume that elaborate, and I gave her a short list of things to acquire from our closets, and the costuming bucket while I went out shopping.

A little while later, I returned with a can of hairspray, some red lipliner (I needed some anyway), a small jar of ivory foundation, a tube of white clown makeup, and some black eyeliner (useful for both her and her sister's costume). Total cost; about $20

Yes, that's all we're working with here. Budget-minded enough for you yet?

No? Okay, I didn't really have to buy the $7 hairspray, and I couldn't find red lipliner at the dollar shop, so sue me. *wink* If I had, though, or we'd had some liquid foundation at the house, I could have gotten away with spending a mere $6, tax included. Better? *grin*

When I returned, she had gathered my little stretchy vest, a red scarf, some leftover red hairspray from some other event, her little sister's white dress shirt, a couple of punk lace-up arm warmers I got on clearance last year after Halloween, some gold chains she had lying around, her black exercise pants, a punky leather collar, black pleather boots, and a sleeveless little t-shirt-like overcoat that buttons in the front. You know the kind that proper young ladies wear over their plain, long-sleeved dresses in the winter?

So with all of these disparate items, I got to work.

First came the sketch. A working example of what I planned on creating. Not pretty, but functional, and it gave a decent idea to W as to what I intended for her. But still she couldn't fathom how, exactly, I was going to pull it off with the seemingly meager supplies we had brought together.

Then I dressed her partially and set her in the chair for hair and makeup.

Doesn't she look so very excited? This, my loves, is a picture of teen disbelief. She was willing to let me try, but didn't think it would turn out very well, despite the fact that I told her that her hair alone would take me nearly two hours to complete...

Somewhat more excited here, about 45 minutes into her hairstyling. Resting frequently to assuage the complaints of "yanking my hair out of my head", these sacrifices were necessary for "the look" she wanted. We still have not touched the colored hairspray in this shot, this is the (dyed) color of her hair.

Of course, after a lot more time, and application of the colored hairspray to the tips of her spikes only, we achieved this (spray drift caused the blended-color effect).

Makeup was quick by comparison, custom-mixing the shade of pale that I could easily blend with the natural shade of her neck, drawing on the bold lip design and eye makeup, and finishing off with kanji on her cheek just for spice; the Japanese character for "candy". Perfect for trick-or-treating!

Hoping to grab a cheap pair of ears for her sister's costume before our homeschool group's Halloween party, we dropped off at a local big box store. We didn't find any pink kitty ears, but we did find something perfect for W's costume!

A broken umbrella, and I knew just what to do with it, too!

Ah, sweet broken umbrella, discarded, unloved. The most overlooked piece of costuming potential to ever sit abandoned on the ground at my feet...

Oh yes, I had plans for that umbrella, and my plans involved a pair of scissors and some safety pins.

After that, it was simply a matter of finding a suitable backdrop for a photo of the finished product.

Costume bonus; every time the spikes were pushed down, they sprang back into place!

Late Season Gardening: Beautiful Bountiful Containers

A commenter asked me about starting tomatoes in a container this late in the season.

Since we share similar interests, I thought I'd share my answer with you as well.

To get a tomato producing if you plant it now, you will have to pick an "early" type of tomato, and water the first three days with hydrogen peroxide to speed sprouting. You will still be able to get a good harvest, and if you fertilize weekly with vermicompost tea, and bi-weekly with organic fish emulsion, milk, Epsom salts, and randomly stick spent match heads around the root system, you will get a plentiful harvest.

As long as the tomato has 5 gallons of soil, it will be fine and produce well. I use 10-15 gallon planters, and plant a ring of herbs around mine.

I have frilled purple oregano, onions, and basil, planted alternately in a circle around each of my potted tomatoes. I am also starting flowering garlic chives for height and visual interest so the planters will be highly decorative as well as useful, and thus, not offensive to the neighbor's potentially delicate aesthetic sensibilities.

On the other hand, if you aren't particularly set on tomatoes, there are many other food plants that thrive in containers and produce very quickly, as well as the cooler-weather plants that it is already time to plant in time for fall production before the frost such as Brussels sprouts, lettuces, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and cauliflower to name a few.

Among the many plants that can be grown in containers successfully, there are beets, peppers herbs of all sorts, potatoes, tomatoes, bunching onions (the tall ones), radishes, lettuce, rhubarb, celery, dwarf fruit trees, chard, zucchini, squash, corn, any vining fruit or vegetable, beans, peas, cucumbers, greens, gourds, turnips, lettuces, strawberries, and blueberries.

Pretty much anything can be grown in a container if the soil area is large enough for the roots of the plant. That said, however, most plants can be planted twice as close to each other as the seed packet recommends for higher yields. Frequent natural fertilization and reliable watering practices can decrease the area needed even further, depending on the plant type.

Most herbs, short-rooted root vegetables, and vines with smaller (1lb or less) produce can be plated high in hanging containers, and simply trail their fruit downwards in a beautiful cascade of greenery, flowers and food. Some strawberries also trail quite nicely.

If you wish to hang a plant that has up to 3lb fruit, use a larger container, strong hooks, sturdy hanging material, and hang it just below shoulder-level, under smaller hanging plants to add visual interest. Bulky hanging plants should be part of a full living arrangement instead of stand-alone to avoid them looking clunky and unwieldy.

On hanging tomatoes; Cherry or smaller-sized tomatoes can do exceedingly well hanging upside-down as well to conserve even more space. A few tips; Mulch the top of the tomato's soil, or plant herbs at the top of the container to reduce evaporation and the need for constant watering. Be sure to hang tomatoes out of a breezeway, as they can spin in a wind, and too much spinning leads to a broken plant. Larger tomato varieties don't produce as well when hanging inverted, as the weight can easily become too much for the plant, which may sense it's difficulty and slow flowering, ripening, and potentially decrease your overall harvest.

A bonus: container gardens can be brought indoors when it begins to cool off in order to extend the harvest throughout the winter if desired.

There are a lot of great books out there on container gardening for food, and growing in cramped quarters. Visit Amazon.com and search for "Square Foot Gardening", "Container Gardening", and even "Worms Eat My Garbage". Be sure to also check the recommendations of similar books below the description to find precisely what you are looking for.

Happy Harvests!

8 Steps To A Packing Party

We are moving, and having one heck of a time getting it all done on time, so we need help. LOTS of serious help. So I put my head together with a couple of my friends and we came up with some resources that I had forgotten about in my "old age". See, I've used these types of resources before, but had seemingly forgotten about their availability in my time of stress. I'd only ever used these techniques when I wasn't stressed.

So here it is, 8 steps to a moving party!

1. Find that extra food you don't want or need, that you aren't in the mood to move to your new place.

2. Find your hungry friends; Folks who don't have the money to eat really good food, or those that don't have the time or means to cook for themselves most of the time.

3. Load up on flattened boxes and tape.

3. Offer your friendly square kids a gourmet meal and food to take home with them in exchange for helping around the house.

4. Badger your friends in a friendly manner for several days after the agreement is made to get them to actually come over.

5. Start cooking your meal and send them word that food will be ready in about an hour if they want to come over right then and get to helping out.

6. When they arrive, set the helpers to work while you finish dinner. Let the food cool a bit after it's done until you get at least 1/2 hour's work out of them to make sure they are geared up and set into the work frame of mind for the next few hours.

7. Feed them really well, and with food they haven't been able to afford for themselves. (I used shrimp kabobs, venison, and bison from my freezer that I got on clearance or gifted to us during the past year, and that I didn't want to have to move to our new place, and macaroni & cheese.)

8. When they day is done, send each person who helped home with at least one bag full of food for their own home.

That's it! Soon your house will be nearly swarming with folks just itching to work, and more stuff will be done by the end of the night that had been done on your own for over two weeks.

Optional step seven: Ask them to come back the next day and help some more for more food and happy helping goodness.

43 Things

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Tree Hugging Extroverted Builder 0% of the 35,068 people who have taken this quiz are like me

What do you want to be doing with your life tomorrow?

How about next year, or in 10 years?

43 Things is a social goal-setting site where you share your goals, no matter how small or large, with the world as both an affirmation of your plans, and a motivational tool.

There's even an added bonus of being able to view other people's goals, see what everyone else is dreaming, how many people have the same goals as you do, and the ability to cheer people on towards achieving their own goals (and get cheered, of course).

Join me on 43 Things!

Autmn Gardening

It's that time again, time to plant your cold-weather crops for the fall season and start thinking about bringing in the planters from outside in the hopes of an all-year crop, or at least extending the harvest.

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Outdoors, plant your greens leafy vegetables again, and don't forget your quick-growing root crops like radishes. If protected from frosts with a floating row cover or other such thermal happiness, they can be convinced to produce throughout the winter.

We're seeding winter wheatberries in our yard this fall to see if we can produce a crop over the winter season, or at least keep a little green in the area. It will be worth a try, and if it doesn't work as well as we'd like, at least the soil will reap some pleasant benefits from the planting. *smile*

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All containers can be brought in, and if placed in a sunny window or supplemented with a timed grow-light (if in a shady spot), can grow and produce fresh food happily well into planting season next spring. Just do yourself a favor, and make sure your planters all have saucers under them, or someone may just end up watering the floor too. Those saucers really are important!

If you don't have room to bring it all inside, that's okay!

Most plants, grow and produce really well in micro-hydroponics, which take up a lot less room than planters, and require about the same amount of work.

Some plants, like tomatoes, root really easily if a cutting is simply dropped in a cup of water for about a week. They'll root even faster if you use willow water, which is full of natural rooting hormones. If you want to save your tomatoes indoors this winter, but don't have room for the containers, or if they're firmly in the ground, and still happily producing, just snip off a limb or three and set them to root. In about a week, you will have a good root system developing, and you can plant them inside however you wish, for a year-round harvest of deliciousity!

We'll be building a microponics system inside sometime in the next few weeks. Plans are to forgo the usual route of chemical fertilizers commonly used in hydro systems, and try out a few methods of natural fertilization, but with the same type of system. We'll see how it works out. The project would be underway now, except that we are so broke that we have to wait for a gift card I earned online to come in so we can buy the supplies. That's the only reason we're waiting, as I'm raring to get started. I'll be sure to post photos and instructions for building your own as soon as we get it done.

Delightfuly Decadent Eco-Decor On the Cheap

Fall is rushing upon us, and if you're anything like me, you don't have a lot of cash lying around to outlay on cutesy decorations, but you still want to add a festive air to the house.

Here's how we decorate for fall, a little at a time, as the season rolls on.

Notice I said, a little at a time? That's your first clue.

With everyone's busy schedules, nobody really has the time anymore to sit down and craft their little hearts out for an entire day at a time, and with apartments constantly getting smaller and smaller, a lot of us simply photograph their decorations from year to year, and dispose of the decor after the holiday to cut down on clutter.

Most of my family's decorations are made from recyclable materials so that really helps to cut down on things going into the landfill, as we can take it to our local recycling center for re-use after we're finished with it, or simply toss it in with the compostables.

The only things that aren't recyclable in some way are the things that we are keeping from year to year, or that we can give as gifts later. For example, our Halloween box is a mere 4"x2" in size, and goes into our overall decor box for all the yearly holidays, which is small enough to be easily stuffed into the top of our closet.

We have no autumn decorations this year, so we're gong to be building things as the season progresses and posting them here for you to enjoy and create for your own home. Every craft will contain at least one re-used item, and most of them will be fully recyclable when the season is over.

Stay tuned for detailed instructions for beautiful, fun, and elegant crafts in this ongoing series.

Recalibration

A good friend of mine, Maurkus, left a fabulous comment on my last message to you that is going to save me about $25!

If your scale is reading wrong, you can do it too, save yourself the price of a new one, and be able to save that money for other important things.

So here's how it works.

Most scales have a dial on them that you can use to reset the scale to zero. If your zero, like mine, is not really zero, you can take an item of known weight, like a gallon of water, and put it on your scale, then set your scale, using the adjustment dial, to read the weight that it should.

If you have a digital scale, and not a dial one, check online at the manufacturer's website for the user manual. Most places have their manuals downloadable in PDF format, and if you are capable of recalibrating your scale, the information will be there in the manual. Dial scales are easier, as you just locate the little dial or knob on the scale's body, and twist it one way or the other until you find where it needs to be.

Why not use a gallon of milk? After all, a gallon is a gallon, right? Actually, not exactly. A gallon is a volume measurement, not a weight, so a gallon of molten lead would weigh a LOT more than a gallon of oxygen, for example, but they are both still one gallon measures. That said, a gallon of water weighs precisely 8.33 pounds, and a gallon of milk weighs between 8.62-8.68 pounds depending on it's fat percentage. It's a density thing*.

I'm not a big stickler for the tenths of a pound thing, but if you are, or you're on Weight Watchers (I've heard they're sticklers on that), use a gallon of water for your calibration, because we know exactly what that weighs. We'll end up using a gallon of water as well, but only because we buy the organic milk in the recyclable glass bottles from our local dairy. (amazingly, the local, healthier, and much more flavorful and rich milk is less expensive than the big factory-farmed milk that causes me intestinal distress from all of the chemicals and additives they put into their cows). It's a no-brainer for our family!

Thanks to Maurkus, and his great suggestion, I will be able to go fix my scale sometime here in the next couple of days, and finally get an accurate weight! Hooray!

*Average milk weighs 8.6 pounds a gallon but as cream has a wide range of variations in the per cent of butter-fat it contains, milk varies in weight in proportion to the change in the per cent of fat. Butter-fat or Milk-fat is the lightest constituent in milk, having a specific gravity of .93 while the average specific gravity of milk is 1.032. ~ Source~ "Standardization of milk and cream" from the library of the University of Illinois

UnGuzzling

With the rising cost of gas gouging holes in everyone's budget, and the 5 cent off per gallon Kum&Go gift cards no longer reloadable, I decided it was time to tackle some of the methods you can use to cut fuel costs.

Our family just moved closer to the majority of our daily activities so that we could walk or ride bikes more often to where we needed to go. This alone has cut our fuel consumption by 75% in the last month.

The first rule of driving to conserve fuel is to drive as if you were riding a bicycle. A lot of the ways I drive a vehicle, I learned when I was taught how to ride a ten-speed. Now, many years later, I am truly surprised to discover that a lot of the methods I have been doing since I bought my first car are now being suggested by the people who vehemently encourage fuel efficient driving.

Hooray for instinct! *grin*

Find out if your town is flat or slanted. We were happy to discover that our entire town slants down hill towards the southwest corner. This means that traveling to run certain errands or visit some of our friends takes less gas than going other places, as we can coast almost the whole way in one direction. We've begun to plan our trips so we can take advantage of the slant more effectively.

There's a lot more conservation methods on my advice & services blog; Earthereal Guidance.

Since we're talking about saving money, the freebies have started back up over at Products & Places as well. It's just a weekly thing until I get the time on my hands to do more, but with the prices going up all over, every little savings means a lot!

Weekly Weight Report

My flexibility is returning, and I can fit better into some of my jeans, while needing a belt for other pairs. I am starting to really notice a difference in my body and the way it feels.

Me:
Starting weight (August 2007): 245lbs
Last Week's Weight: 208lbs
Current Weight: 204lbs
Weekly Loss: 4lbs
Total loss to date: 41lbs
Weight Goal: 135
Pounds to Loose: 69

Keebler:
Starting weight (August 2007): 179lbs
Last Week's Weight: 170lbs
No Change
Weight Goal: 145
Pounds to Loose: 25

I am going to have to get Keeb to drink more juice if he's to keep losing to his preferred weight. He's so close already, that loosing may be more difficult for him right now than it is for me.

We still haven't managed to find time to work out, but the new lifestyle is going strong. I woke up starving-dying-hungry a couple of nights in a row last week for some bizarre reason, but instead of eating something, just drank a 1/2 dose of slim fast to tide me over until morning. I think it had to do with not eating two hours before bedtime those two days. The diet drink as midnight snack worked rather well however, and didn't encourage my body to store it like a sandwich or something with more substance and calories would have done.

Living smarter, without doing without, and still speeding towards the goals.

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Snow "Ice Cream"

Remember how I said the other day that it had snowed and we had saved some in the freezer to make snow "ice cream" with later?

Yep, today was the day. With everyone feeling almost all better, we dragged the snow out of the freezer and had a go of it.

My usual variety of this is plain olde vanilla, created with some granulated sugar, a little milk, snow, and a dash of cheap vanilla extract, just like my mother used to make. It's grainy, liquidy, and not really all that great, except as a fun little novelty in the winter.

This year, we decided to try something different.

Radically different.

I added some dye-free, all natural, no-sugar-added blueberry syrup to the snow and mashed & fluffed it together until it was all about the same color. Not quite ice cream and more like a snow cone, this was by far, the best snow-based concoction I've yet to come up with.

Easy and tasty, just how we like it.

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Stink Free

Quick household tip: Gently crumpled newspaper can get even rotted-meat stink out of almost anything that closes, from microwaves to cabinets, freezers and refrigerators. Gently crumple, stuff, and close the door for about 8 hours. If it doesn't work all the way the first time, replace the paper and wait some more.

Spraying the air with a little Ozium air freshener works wonders (Created for use in hospitals, Febreeze is nothing compared to this stuff). Spritz the furniture, drapes, and surfaces with a spray made with mostly cheap vodka and a splash of white vinegar. No stains, no odor, and it evaporates in minutes!

Burning candles in the house along with a couple nag champa sticks of incense in each room will overpower nearly anything, including you if you aren't careful.

I am a participant in NaBloPoMo.

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Ecomoving: a Tutorial - Blog Action Day

Moving house is one of the most potentially toxic things an individual can do to the environment, and green moving is very rarely discussed. Here's how to make your next move have minimum negative impact, while still remaining frugal.

Take as few trips as possible.
With greenhouse emissions steadily rising, you can do your part to quell the flow by renting a moving truck. Less trips make for less pollution, even if the moving van has twice the emissions of what you would otherwise be using, making less than 1/4 of the trips really does make a difference. It may cost a few more dollars than a bunch of trips in the car and friend's trucks, but it's worth it not only for protecting the planet, but also for saving gas, saving time, and maintaining non-mooching friendships with said truck-owning friends. *wink*


Use recycled boxes and packing materials.
* A month or two before you have to move, ask your friends and family to save their newspapers for you. Many will be happy to comply, and you will have a good supply by the time you are ready to pack up the breakables.

* Collect boxes from local grocery stores, liquor stores (fantastic strong little boxes, and easy to move. Great for books and canned goods), and ask for moving boxes on Freecycle(tm). If you start collecting a month in advance, even at a leisurely pace, you will have plenty to pack everything you own.


Cleaning the old place.
When I move, I want to make the place I am leaving as clean as possible. Using harsh, toxic chemicals is out of the question, so what to use to polish everything to a showroom shine becomes the question of the day.

* Carpets
Bissel has a high traffic carpet cleaning agent that reduces allergens, and contains no phosphates. Definitely the right choice. Exceedingly difficult spots can be scrubbed with a hand scrubber.

* Walls & Doors
With kids in the house, washing nasty little fingerprints off the walls becomes a priority. Amazingly, that same carpet stuff from Bissel works wonders. So does Doc Bronner's. You only need a bucket of water, a scrubby sponge, and some time.

* Windows & Mirrors
Here we get the old standby, vinegar with newspaper. If you have a lot of water spots, go over it with vinegar or water and a cloth first, then polish with the vinegar and crumpled newspaper.

* Sinks, Tubs, & Counter Tops
From Flylady we learn how to shine our sinks, and tubs are no exception. Get a scrubby sponge and some baking soda and scrub. It works amazingly well, and takes less time than one would expect.

Enamel sinks, counter tops, & tubs sometimes need a dash of something whitening. Grab that bottle of peroxide and use it with the baking soda. Not only is the foaming fun if you add water, but it also clears out the staining beautifully. If you have any chips in the enamel, pop over to the nearest pharmacy and buy a matching nail polish for repairs.

For steel sinks, rinse, wipe, then rub with a small amount of olive oil and polish with a soft cloth to get rid of the excess oil and acheive a true shine.

* Toilets
If you have hard water stains, this could be troublesome without harsh chemicals, but there is a simple solution. Drain all of the water out of your toilet bowl, then refill the bowl with vinegar. Let it sit about 24-48 hours if at all possible, then scrub hard. I have seen some of the toughest calcium deposits cleaned up this way.

* Grout & Tile
A couple bottles of peroxide will whiten and disinfect even the toughest grout staining if you let it sit long enough. Really badly stained grout should just be painted with a bit of grout-matching acrylic paint. it looks great, stick to the grout permanently, and is easy to scrape off of any tile you may accidentally slop it onto while painting.

* Faucets & Other Shiny Things
Treat the shinies the same as a mirror, and you will get a fantastic gleam for your troubles.

* Appliances
Appliances sometimes call for a little something special, so Simple Green is the way to go. A gentle, natural cleaner that cuts grease, and really helps you scrub spots that you may not have known existed before you decided to move.

* Odors
Does the fridge smell funny, or someone spill something odoriferous under the sink? Lightly wadded newspaper is amazingly effective at absorbing odors in enclosed spaces. Let it sit for about 24 hours, and even the toughest odors will be noticeably lessened. Works tons better than baking soda!

* Holes in Walls
Little nail holes might not seem like a big bother, but while they are considered normal wear and tear, I still like to make them disappear. A little bit of plaster of paris and a cotton swab work just perfect for these teeny spots. Apply the plaster with the swab, then smooth it to match the wall's surface with your finger.

* Don't forget to take your compact fluorescents with you when you go! Replace them with regular 60watt incandescent bulbs. The next residents might not know what a CF bulb is anyway, and throw them away, and you'll be saving yourself the cost of replacement in your new home. If you have a few days in which to move between places, take the bulbs out of the new place to put into the old one.

Recycle your Moving Materials
After moving and settling in, your green moving job isn't quite finished.

* Offer your used packing supplies and boxes on Freecycle(tm) There is someone preparing to move nearly every day, and they will be grateful for your gift and generosity.

* Ask a local store if you can add your flattened boxes to their recycling pile. Many places won't mind at all.

* Start a garden. Have some boxes that simply are too mangled to reuse for their initial purpose? Is some of that newspaper just a mess now? Start a garden or offer them to a gardening friend. Newspaper makes great pet bedding, and compost. Plain cardboard boxes with plain black ink are printed in soy and are safe for your yard. Lay them flat on your new gardening plot in the fall to kill the grass . Top with manure, peat moss, dead leaves, compost and such to build up some great soil that will be ready for planting in spring, no tilling required! Lasagna gardening is fun. Old boxes and newspaper are also great for lining the paths in your garden during the summer growing season to keep the weeds down.

* Your old newspaper can be taken to a recycling center to be made into cat litter or remade into new paper products.

Other ways to be green
If you want to do more for the environment, you can donate to any number of green charities from saving endangered species to protecting the rain forests and more.

Go ahead, donate your money, but the most impact anyone can make is to change the way they live so they do the least possible harm to the planet during their time here.

Living green is not only great for the planet, it's good for your health too. Organic or CNG, local foods, alternative energy, riding bikes instead of driving, avoiding toxins in your household goods and cleaning supplies, and conserving the resources we use every day like water and paper are just a few of the ways to be green. Life is made up of the small decisions and the little things we do each day. Pick one small thing to make greener about your lifestyle, and view the world through different eyes. No one person can save the planet alone, but together, each one of us doing what we can, can change the world.

Together, we do make a difference.

What is your favorite ecologically sound moving tip?

Today is Blog Action Day. One Day, One Topic, Thousands of Voices.

Many of my personal favorite blogs are participating, so stop by the website and read some of the posts by the other participants.

This article is part of TheWritersManifestoBlog's group writing project : tutorials.

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Seed Starting

The first harvest. Fresh Certified Naturally Grown radishes from our rooftop garden.

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This just in: Hydrogen peroxide decreases sprouting time in nearly all types of seeds.

I heard about it on an organic gardening group I'm on, and decided that it was well worth a try. There's not a lot about it online from what I saw in a quick search, and I've heard of an 8% solution being ideal, but the store-bought 3% is fine as well as far as I can tell in my experiments.

I have pre-soaked seeds as well as "watered" directly planted seeds with dilute peroxide to surprising result. All of the seeds have sprouted faster than expected, less than a week after only two treatments. Even the corn (avg sprout time: 18-21 days) came up in less than a week. I am now attempting the same technique with rooting plant cuttings, and I'll keep you posted on how that turns out.

From what I understand, Peroxide used to be used for nearly everything, but it fell into disuse mainly due to easier (chemical) products. It could be that the lack of information is due to it finally beginning to re-emerge as a popular household tool.

Here are a few of the links I found in a quick search;
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ista/sst/2003/00000031/00000001/art00008

http://www.agron.missouri.edu/mnl/60/191greenblatt.html

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/PlantBio_p001.shtml

Give it a try and let me know how your experiments pan out!

Making Organic Dirt & Natural Gardening Tips

Seems nearly everyone is having a shortage of good, organic dirt these days.

I have been hearing from a lot of my gardening friends about how this spring they will be needing to purchase quite a bit of organic dirt, but I have found a solution!

You can make your own healthy soil pretty easily by tossing some cardboard in the bottom of a container (or straight on the ground where you plan to plant), Then add manure, top with leaves, then sand or vermiculite, some kitchen waste, straw, more manure, more sand or vermiculite, more leaves, and repeating until full. It takes a bit to get great soil out of it (more of a start-in-the-fall type project), but I've done this with dirt in place of about half the manure & leaves in spring with good results. For regular ground instead of containers, forgoe the cardboard in spring projects and instead opt for two layers of newspaper as the first layer.

If you don't have a lot of kitchen scraps (we don't), you can contact your local grocer, and they will likely save their out-of-date produce for you if they know you are going to use it for compost or feeding animals, as it saves them on their trash bill while helping the enviornment. Most stores will jump at the opportunity.

Manure can be acheived free at most horse stables and cattle ranches, Leaves are free by the pre-packaged bag-full at area yard waste drop-off facilities, Shredded newspaper or peat moss can be used in place of leaves if necessary, and dirty straw can be found by contacting stables and animal shelters.

I still have to buy sand or vermiculite, but that is only because I am in the Ozarks, and there aren't a lot of great resources around here for those.

Warning: This soil will be high in nitrogen if created in the spring, and you may need to add some rock-based mineral ammendments to create the precise mix you want and lower the nitrogen content if desired. Then again, you might want some other ammendments anyway, depending on your prefrences.

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As an added soil bonus, some people like to sprinkle water absorbing polymers to their manure layer to increase water absorptopn and decrease the need for extra wateringin containers and during the hottest months.

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Newspaper spread over the top of your ground or container dirt after planting acts as a water-preserving mulch and also keeps most weeds from disturbing your gardening joy.

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Last year's holey hose works great (enlist the kids to poke lots more holes) as a drip irrigation system when strewn around the base of your plants.

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Get your repellants ready now!

Mix baking soda, cornmeal, roughly ground eggshells, and grits in equal parts, and keep it in a dry spot for sprinkling lightly under your plants to deter most fungi, cutworms, slugs, snails, and ants. Should require only 1-3 applications all season.

Make a gallon of spray by making a tea of 20 teaspoons ground red pepper and a gallon of water. After straining, add 10 teaspoons of organic natural castille soap and mix thoroughly. Pour your mix into a spray container and mist your plants weekly or after each rain (tomatos may require more frequent spraying). Be sure to get underneath the leaves with each application. The hot pepper repells most plant eating animals and some insects, while the soap eats away the protective oils from other insects like ants & aphids.

For extra light in low-light areas and additional bug deterrant under your plant's leaves, place some aluminum foil, shiny side up around the base of the plant.

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If your neighborhood has a problem with Japanese Beetles, don't buy a trap for your yard, buy one for each of the neighbors down the street on either end from you. The traps send out a pheremone that attracts the beetles from as much as 5 miles away. Wouldn't you rather your neighbor had them going over there instead of coming to your yard? Bonus: The neighbor will think you are awefully nice to buy traps for them to help them fight the battle, and it really does help in controlling the neighborhood population. *grin*

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Image above is "Totally Impromptu", a painting I created at a local drinking establishment, and my entry for this week's Illustration Friday.

Busy Mom's 102 Steps To Writing A Craft How To During the Holidays

"Frazzled" was created with an optical mouse in Paint Shop Pro

in about 15 minutes and measures about 8x8".

1) Set goal to do a tutorial for some craft during the holidays.

2) Decide what that craft is going to be.

3) Foolishly promise your readers said tutorial sometime in the next week.

4) Discover that you are loved beyond all reason as friends and family worldwide descend on your home both in person and via telephone for random visits.

5) Somehow make it out of the house for long enough to buy supplies.

6) Attend several festive events.

7) Acquire and wrap gifts.

8) Watch and record eldest child preforming in the local holiday parade.

9) Loose supplies in the jumble.

10) Rush around like mad looking for supplies.

11) Decorate house.

12) Try to return unwanted gifts to the store to get something the kids can use and enjoy, and fail miserably because some idiot wrote on the toy's box before giving it away.

13) Accidentally adopt a family for the holidays.

14) Take a bunch of pictures.

15) Buy supplies again, hide in a closet where they will be "safe".

16) Develop strong yearning to zap plethora of slow-moving last minute Walmart shoppers with cattle prod.

17) Discover that non-returnable items make great gifts for adopted family.

18) Switch out Camera memory in preparation for an event.

19) Accidentally leave camera at home, not getting any pictures of event.

20) Go to a Freecycle(TM) Free-For-All. Pick up more gifts.

21) Rush around shopping for food and gathering donated goodies for the adopted family.

22) Attend baking party to prepare goodies because broken oven still hasn't been replaced by landlord.

23) Spot someone leaving the scene of a crime and call 911 to report the sighting before the crime has been reported by the victims. (A person running full tilt down a road and looking repeatedly behind their shoulder with a fistful of cash can cause a body to do that, you see.)

24) Pick up and wrap more gifts.

25) Deliver holiday goodies to adopted family, spend 4 hours talking, baking baklava for them, and allowing the kids to learn horrid habits from their children.

26) Ban two exceedingly rude members from an online community group.

27) Eat and/or give away all of the cookies.

28) Frantically search house for "lost" craft things... again.

29) While tearing apart house in search (28), find gifts you hid several months ago. Wrap as quickly as possible.

30) Attend beautiful Solstice ceremony.

31) Have friend drop by for a food basket to tide him & his roommate over until his next paycheck.

32) Have different friend unexpectedly drop by to deliver a gift. Take opportunity to gift them and visit for a bit.

33) Have yet another different friend unexpectedly drop by to give gifts to the children as you are running late to leave the house.

34) Deliver some gifts at the last possible moment.

35) Pick up last minute gifts for kids at a friend's house, stay and talk for an hour.

36) Arrange for guitar lessons for eldest child for after the first of the year.

37) Go buy craft supplies one last time. Arrive at store 15 minutes before closing, walk in right after the paramedics, and get out just in time for the doors to be locked.

38) Get stuck at a friend's house for an hour while the children play.

39) Have panic attack because you need to bake more cookies, none of the crafts are done, dinner needs made before bed, and it's getting late.

40) Go back home just in time to do car repair, take laundry off the line and feed fish.

41) Yell at children to clean their room and get ready for bed the umpteenth time.

42) Give up on getting cutsie picture of kids helping with crafts.

43) Stop youngest child from whining and crying... again.

44) Order eldest child to stop being such a meanie-head to her sister.

45) Ponder making the crafts and waiting 'till next year to make the posts about them.

46) Swear to have all of the time-sensitive or seasonal posts done at LEAST a week in advance (preferably a month or more in advance) in the future.

47) Spend 2 hours trying to write a post summarizing the journey to crafting while being constantly interrupted by overexcited children obsessed with Santa's imminent arrival.

48) Bake more cookies.

49) Take strong headache pills.

50) Get into fight with spouse over who is more stressed.

51) Work long into the night desperately trying to finish the craft.

52) Take pictures as the craft progresses.

53) Set up craft as prettily as possible and photograph finished product.

54) Pass out from sheer exhaustion.

55) Awaken to mother banging on door for scheduled family holiday.

56) Put remaining cookies in oven.

57) Upload pictures to computer.

58) Watch children unload stockings.

59) Remove cookies from oven.

60) Edit pictures.

61) Upload pictures to internet server from computer.

62) Put turkey and duck in oven.

63) Start writing post.

64) Take pictures of children with craft as backdrop.

65) Open presents.

66) Find forgotten stocking stuffers in purse while looking for a marker.

67) Clean up present mess.

68) Give stocking goodies to kids when they aren't looking by tossing them randomly into present heaps to be found later.

69) Wash face, take more headache medicine.

70) Sing strange holiday music with family.

71) Curse Martha for making you think you can do this all by yourself. She has staff and a camera crew!

72) Receive instant message letting you know you are late to a friend's house.

73) Serve dinner to family. Late.

74) Prepare to leave the house in a rush, then realize that you are too late and too exhausted to drive reliably.

75) Cancel visit to friend's house.

76) Send man to buy soda for mixer.

77) Shuttle kids off to bed.

78) Pour a stiff drink and nurse it for an hour.

79) Pass out again, waking well after noon in a panic to try and finish up all of the numerous goals you had set for completion before the end of the year.

80) Spin like a top all day long finishing many things that needed done but were not goals or even near the top of the priority list.

81) Write more on tutorial, feel really bad about tardiness.

82) Get late night notification of family in need, arrange community sponsorship.

83) Spend all day gathering and delivering goodies.

84) Get interviewed on local news.

85) Watch self on news.

86) Have miniature birthday party for youngest child.

87) Visit Incredible Pizza and play games for a few hours.

88) Visit friend , get angry, throw fit, recover, write really flowery post to Internet group.

89) Notice youngest child breaking out in speckled blotches. Give Benadryl, blame MSG in Korean shrimp chips.

90) Discover everything (or most of it anyway) was a big silly miscommunication. Stop being angry.

91) Bake more cookies & baklava.

92) Pack eldest kid to leave town for relative visiting.

93) Prepare & pack baklava, ship kid off to biodad's for visitation.

94) Give up on thing I was angry about & shrug whenever asked about it. Forget to care about the entire situation any more except for random bursts of subtle fuming.

95) Complete another craft.

96) Finally get door completly repaired, get bonus of added deadbolt lock!

97) Have oven/stove removed at 3pm only to find out that the new one will be coming after noon the next day.

98) Take speckled youngest child to hospital to verify allergy rash suspicions. Let doctor prescribe a bunch of carp (spelled wrong on purpose) that you refuse to give to child. Don't say a word to DR. Continue feeding Benadryl.

99) Go shopping at grocery store and meet people who Dh hasn't seen in nearly 3 years. Have embarassing moment when he tells them his late wife passed and introduces you.

100) Take pictures of other craft and spotted child with her favorite birthday gift.

101) Post tutorial with deep apologies for late completion.

102) Completly forget about winter craft tutorials until next fall and repeat process.

Well, I may not have gotten done hardly any of the goals I had set to complete between Thanksgiving and New Year's, but I did get a lot done, and spread some joy around, and that's what really matters, right?. *grin*

Tags: frazzled holiday panic mom busy mom guide tutorial diy how to post blog blog tips advice satire comedy humor christmas yule holiday joy happiness surprise unexpected hives hospital no stove adopt a family help the needy assistance craft art party parties disorganized disorganization organization paint shop pro mouse drawn image digital camera free for all Freecycle(tm) baking party robbery crime theft cookies sibling rivalry homestead hanging laundry exhaustion holiday stress visiting friends resolve resolutions promise self martha stewart Incredible Pizza december birthday

Cool Weather Craft: Faux Fireplace

Quick and easy to create, this stable fake fireplace with sturdy mantel serves all the decorative purposes of a real one.

A temporary fireplace when you have no Santa portal. Supplies

* Six milk crates
* Brick red acrylic paint (2 jars)
* 10 brown paper grocery bags (used)
* Foam paintbrush
* Paint dish
* 2oz clean water (an empty paint bottle full)
* Large cardboard box
* Packing tape
* Piece of 2x12 wood
* Warm colored tissue paper (reds, oranges, & yellows)
* Wrapping paper tubes


To Build Fireplace

1) Disassemble paper bags.
2) Tape three bags together widthwise, two bags widthwise, and two bags lengthwise.
3) Empty paints into bowl and add water. Stir together.
4) Paint red rectangles (bricks) onto paper bags and lay flat to dry.
5) wrap each column of milk crates with the painted brick paper.
6) Line up columns to fit board.
7) Place board on top of columns and wrap, leaving a drop of paper about 2 inches long in the front.
8) Tape last bit of painted paper to the wall behind the columns to complete fireplace.



To Build "Fire"

1) Cut two "firey" shapes out of cardboard box.
2) Cut a slice 1/2 way from the top to the bottom of one cardboard piece.
3) Cut a slice 1/2 way from the bottom to the top of the other cardboard piece.
4) Slide them together to make a standing cardboard frame for the fire.
5) Tear tissue paper into random uneven chunks and crumple lightly by hand.
6) Lay the frame flat and apply glue to entire surface.
7) Beginning with lightest color, apply layers of crumpled tissue alternated with glue.
8) Repeat tissue & glue procedure on each of the four sides of the frame, creating a "merrily roaring fire".
9) Stand fire up and fluff up tissue, placing your "prettiest" side facing the front.
10) Cut wrapping paper tubes to size to represent firewood.
11) Stuff some scrap paper bag bits into the ends of the tubes and arrange in front of fire to complete the effect.

Optional changes:

* Make your wood more realistic by painting the tubes dark brown or even rolling newspaper into "logs" and painting for further realism.

* Place your fireplace's center right in front of your heating register so that when the heat is on, it blows the "flames" about and exudes warmth.

* Put a mirror under your "fire" and place small blinking and solid lit LED lights in yellow and orange between the "legs" of the fire to provide a flickering effect and ambient light in your fire.

Hang stockings, decorate mantle, and enjoy!



Apologies for posting this craft so very late in the season. At least it is still good for bringing a warm feeling into the home during the winter months, right? *sheepish grin*

At the end of the season, take down the fireplace and toss all the paper and cardboard bits into the compost heap to make mulch in the spring. This is a great (and frugal) way to recycle some paper grocery sacks, teach the kids about reuse of things, and spend some fun time together.

Tags: craft family diy fun environment healthy planet solstice yule enviornmental cheap health channukkah money arts decor decorations seasonal cold weather tightwad season creative frugal project christmas winter art hannukkah crafts holiday hobbies hobby life living holidays gift gifts build