HE’S LIKE A PLANET that returns into your slice of the sky from time to time in a good way: direct, forceful, and something you can’t overlook, a happy nudge to go ahead and do something already. For me, here Jonathan Ellerby comes again.
11.07.2023 - 22:30 / hometalk.com
I love the Little Golden Books I don't know how many hours I spent reading them to my kids! I wouldn't normally suggest you destroy a perfectly good book, but when several pages have writing on them, or are ripped, you can always salvage some of it and re-imagine it into something else! I found several Little Golden books at Goodwill for 99 cents or less. I made sure none of the covers were damaged and they had at least a few usable pages. I wanted to make decorative birdhouses with them.
I bought plain wood birdhouses at Michael's for $2.50 each after a 50% off coupon. I used the book, Mod Podge and some green interior paint I had leftover from painting a bedroom in my house.
First I painted the base of the birdhouse....
...along with the edge of the roof, the underside of the roof and the perch with green paint. You can use whatever paint matches your decor or the book you are using.
I decided that I want to make several of these as gifts and to sell, so I made a pattern out of plain white paper to make the process faster.
Next, I chose the pages I wanted to use. I placed the pattern over the page (I could see through the pattern so it made centering the image easy) traced around it and cut it out. I used a paper hole punch to punch out the hole for the perch. It was the perfect size.
Here are all of the pages cut and ready for assembly! I painted the Mod Podge on the wood birdhouse and then placed the cut out page immediately on top of the wet Mod Podge. Then I applied Mod Podge over the cut out page and let that dry. I did one side at a time and after the first coat of Mod Podge dried I applied a second coat for extra durability.
I had removed all of the pages of the book so I could use the book cover for the roof.
I glued
HE’S LIKE A PLANET that returns into your slice of the sky from time to time in a good way: direct, forceful, and something you can’t overlook, a happy nudge to go ahead and do something already. For me, here Jonathan Ellerby comes again.
The English-born Capon, a doctor of botany from the University of Chicago who went on to be a professor at California State University, Los Angeles for 30 years, has since retired, leaving time for the revamping of “Botany for Gardeners,” the bestselling title for its publisher, Timber Press, in the U.S. and England.Not only did Capon write it; he illustrated it, too, and even took the plant photographs that further bring the text to life. Capon is also a lifelong gardener, though images of his own place never appear in the pages.“Botany for Gardeners” was born as a textbook out of lecture notes for a botany class Capon taught for many years to non-science students, so it’s thorough—but not the kind of dense, full-fledged botany text that will scare you away.In fact (even 20 years later), it just keeps drawing me back in, especially for tidbits like these. Did you know:That litmus, the dye used to indicate acidity and alkalinity, is
THE PATH TO FULLTIME LIFE IN THE GARDEN–to a little more peace than my former city corporate life included–keeps offering up unexpected extras, especially in the form of new friends. This week’s book giveaway–the biggest yet, with chances to win four copies of my upcoming book and four of “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” author Katrina Kenison’s, too–is a collaborative cross-blog effort with a kindred spirit that you won’t want to miss.
You can win one of two, three-book sets that I’ve purchased to share as prizes—no, not my old food-splattered copies, above, but new ones. Promise! All you have to do to have a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick a winner) is comment below, and be a subscriber to my email newsletter. All the details are at the end of this post.Your comment should simply tell us what you like to put up for later from your garden or the farmer’s market—and it can be as simple as a sentence or include a recipe or a link to one; up to you.Tips and Tricks:Immediate ideas and tips on coping with the harvest can be had from these articles:What’s in My Freezer at Harvest Time: a Roundup of Ideas Making Pesto: Garlicky Green Ice Cubes Growing and Storing a Year of Parsley (good for many other green herbs, too) Dan Koshansky’s Hand-Me-Down Refrigerator Pickles Vegetable Curry-in-a-Hurry ‘Love Apple
Just jump in (down below in the comments) and tell me a tip, trick or insight you have to share about saving some kind of food for later use (or simply say hello; I’ll count your entry anyhow). Here’s mine:I’m using Mason or Ball jars for freezing this year, gradually phasing out most of my plastic food-storage containers. That’s a frozen test jar up top of my first 2010-vintage tomato sauce (popped out of the freezer for a moment for its portrait).Why this change?I keep reading more all the time about food and their reactions to contact with various plastics. Apparently “p
Last month’s giveaway, my first ever on the blog, was such a hit that I promised a monthly event (though in April we might just have a surprise “extra” edition, so stay tuned). As a garden writer, it seems fitting that I should give away not just my own book (as I did last month, and promise to again) but also books by those who’ve taught me. I have been stockpiling some goodies from the used-book dealers the last few weeks.Crockett’s Victory Garden James Underwood Crockett (first published, 1977) The star of the PBS series “The Victory Garden” was also the author of a series of books on how to garden, and this is my favorite of his. It was my first garden book ever, given to me by my sister, so maybe that’s why, but I think its value far exceeds the sentiment attached. Dated (meaning chemic
From the first time I landed on her popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, I knew there would be a connection—again, though I was the hopeless (and embarrassed) girl who hemmed her junior high school dressmaking project right onto the lap of the skirt she was wearing, and when the bell rang for next period had to go there “wearing” both.Alicia (self-portrait, left) welcomed me into her sewing circle, anyhow, charming me in the funniest Alicia-style ways. I mean, what’s not to like about a woman you don’t even know who says, “I want to be a gardener. Like Margaret.”A woman who emails you—though you are still total strangers, really—and asks you about the potato she has planted in a smallish flower pot, and how to care for it? (Answer: Get it out of the confines of that pot, a.k.a., my curriculum of How Not to Grow a Potato 101.)A woman who sends you link
All you have to do to have a chance in the truly random drawing (I’ll use the tool at random [dot] org to pick a winner) is comment below, and be a subscriber to my email newsletter.It’s easy to sign up for the latter if you haven’t already, and free, and here’s what it’s like in case you are worried I’m a spammer.After I draw the winner, I’ll verify that he or she is, in fact, a subscriber…if not, I’ll draw again.I know, that Margaret, she always wants something, right? Well, not really—there are no ads here or anything; I do this a
Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aurea’ came to me like so many plants as a rooted cutting many years ago, a misshapen little nothing two gardening friends convinced me to order by mail. (You can sometimes get one at Forest Farm, though not every year.) It is about half way now to a mature size of perhaps 12 feet across and 2 to 4 feet high, and though it’s still irregularly shaped the yew has taken on considerable presence when I recall the wretched thing it was the day that I unpacked it from its traveling suit of wet newsprint.I actually have three of the spreading golden yews here. (Why is it that I order everything in threes? Is it my lopsided version of Noah’s Ark?). The one shown (top) is swimming in a lake of big-root geranium, G. macrorrhizum. It’s a bed where I recently decided to up the golden quotient by adding a cutleaf golden staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes’ (background), another plant whose leaves I lo
Now I have a third way to put up my annual bounty of parsley (the first two are here): three “bunches” will go into each batch of “Parsley Soup” that Thomas says is like “a rustic leek and potato soup that’s been taken over by a gang of parsley, but in the nicest way.”A double batch of “Green Soup With Sweet Potatoes and Sage” (top photo, in the bowl on the right) is already in my freezer; a whole section of “green soups” (using leafy greens as a key ingredient) is a particular delight, since I seem to have mastered their growing this year and have more than I thought I could ever otherwise use.T
Each of her 150 recipes is delightfully prefaced with what amounts to its provenance: a juicy and sometimes hilarious back story that Clark tells in as simple yet deft a fashion as the style of the dish that follows. I sat right down to chapters like “Better Fried” and “It Tastes Like Chicken” and “My Mother’s Sandwich Theory of Life,” the perfect mix of a good read and a good meal.For me—a flavor-fearing kid who rinsed most of her entrees off at the sink conveniently positioned halfway between the Garland range and the family dinner table—Clark’s childhood tales are positively hair-raising: Summer vacations were spent touring France with her psychiatrist parents, gourmands determined to eat at every Michelin-starred restaurant there. Worse yet (or to Clark, more thrilling): Th
PEOPLE WHO WORK ALONE AS I DO still need that water-cooler conversation and collegial encouragement…except that there aren’t any colleagues to get it from. (Yes, Jack the Demon Cat is nice, but his language skills: not so good.) So I’m often clicking around looking for virtual pats on the back and other positive vibes, like the funny little voices on the Save the Words website, or the Texas-based sociologist whose expertise in the subject of vulnerability makes her just right for someone about to have a very personal book come out February 23 (uh-oh).