what's happening in the alley

There's an awkward area of our yard that's about six feet wide and borders the neighbors' property . . . where, in defiance of -- I don't know -- a million local building codes, they've built an addition about a foot away from the property line. It was there before we moved in, it'll be there after we leave. Unless the branches of our nut tree fall and crush it. I'd kinda love to see what kind of insurance claim would attempt to be filed on something like that.

Anyway, I digress. This awkward area of our yard is something I've ignored since moving in several years ago because: a) I'm an expert at avoiding things that drive me bananas; b) it's a very narrow area; and c) we had to break into our house through the fireplace one Fourth of July, and the alley has been full of rubble. 

That last bit is a funny story; it starts with an unusable sixties-era fireplace separating from the foundation (Ha ha! Funny already, right?). The plot thickens when we lock ourselves out of the house on a holiday weekend, then, to regain entry, bust through the decades-old brick and mortar with a sledge to the shock and awe of the house cats. Finally, in the conclusion, your intrepid hero and heroine patch up the wall and, eventually, re-side the entire house, but leave a pile of urbanite, pea gravel, concrete blocks and river stones in the alley. For a couple of years.

It's a major unfinished project to just have laying around, and I started to finally tackle it because my kiddo is getting older and more exploratory, and I don't really want to leave him to the mercy of (possible) rubble-dwelling black widows and (possible) rusted nails from our roof replacement. 

Here's a sneak peek, then, of some of the projects going on in the alley. My goal is to use mostly recycled materials and stuff we have on hand to beautify the alley and make it safer to traverse. This trellis, for example, is something I built using some cedar garden stakes from an estate sale (25 for $5!) and a busted extension ladder.

The raised beds are built of fireplace rubble ("urbanite") and filled with dirt from another spot in the yard, mulch from the city's Free Wood Chips pile, and plants from the local garden center's end-of season sale plant rack. I searched out shade-happy vining plants to help fill in that trellis.

And I made these planters out of a couple of old buckets and some split garden hoses. 

There's a lot of work to do here still, but I'm feeling good that progress is happening. It was a scary, weedy, rubble-y mess that was in desperate need of attention . . . and now it's getting a little. I'll definitely be back with updates and details as this project progresses as it's far from finished; I have so many ideas! So much to do before the weather turns! So much stuff for my kiddo to get into while I'm slaving away in the alley! What about you? Are you trying to make something out of nothing this summer, too?

Thanks for reading.

p.s. Hey! You can make these images larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that, clever you.


Linking up to:

Catch as Catch Can at My RePurposed Life

thrift store finds: steel storage box

Update: voting for "So You Think You're Crafty" is completed for the week (as of today, January 11th) and I've made it through to the next round!

Thank you all for your votes, and please check back; I'll have a full tutorial for my project up within the next few days. Woohoo!


I found this great steel box with a sliding lid out at Bring awhile back ($4) and have had it sitting in my carport on top of a set of lockers for a couple of months now.

Finally, right before Christmas, when we were expecting house guests and I was trying to get things just a smidgeon organized, I went out and cleaned it up and decided to finally hang it on the wall like I'd intended to do since finding it. Its purpose: to hold cleaning supplies and the kitchen fire extinguisher.

I don't know what purpose it served in its previous life, though it looks to be from the first half of the 20th century. I thought at first it might be a flammable liquids storage box, except the vent on the front (or top, depending on how it originally sat) wouldn't make much sense.

My sister-in-law suggested that it might have been a bread box, which would make sense. Maybe one that stored inside a drawer or something? The sliding lid could still have functioned that way.

At any rate, there were no holes or hangers on the back, and a note (written in marker on bright pink paper) attached to the side (with masking tape) read, "curtains to mend". Not that those two clues narrow it down much.

I admit it: I drilled holes in the back and tried hanging it with picture hangers, but that was just a temporary fix and was really unstable; it needed to be hung with drywall anchors, screws, and washers. I'd normally woman-up and do it myself, but I didn't want to brave the shed right now to find the drill. When the mister offered to take care of it for me, I let him.

I always like the character that beat-up old things add to the house. And it inspired me to put in a little more time priming the kitchen walls, so hey, double points for me!

So: what fun old stuff are you bringing into the house these days? Anyone getting any eye rolls? The mister is a master of hiding his, if he's rolling them at all. He's a good guy.

Thanks for reading!


Updated to add: Yup! Bread box for a cabinet drawer!

Linking up to:

Junkin Joe Vintage and Thrifty Finds

bring ( trash - to - treasure hunt )

The kiddo and I took a little field trip today to BRING; they're calling it the Planet Improvement Center these days, a play on "Home Improvement Center", but we always just call it Bring. I think it used to be an acronym for Builders' Resource . . . I -- N -- G. I'm not sure. The website doesn't say. (UPDATE: a reader named Brett sent in a comment letting me know "BRING stands for: Begin Recycling In Neighborhood Groups. It harkens back to the days when we collected glass around town." Thanks, Brett!)

But it's a pretty cool place. Picture old lumber from deconstructed buildings, bins of shiny brass doorknobs, tile leftover from construction jobs, old furniture and tools and light fixtures, bits piled up from office building remodels. And tons of stuff you'd never imagine until you get there. Like this. This almost came home with me.

Ooh baby. Vintage turquoise gas range. But check out the scale.

It's only like 18 inches high. Best the mister and I can figure, it must have come out of an old RV or something. I can imagine gutting it and making the perfect play stove for the kiddo. But I left it behind . . . and can't stop thinking about it . . . but I don't have enough room for a play stove. I really need like, twice the house I've got; my ideas can't all fit in this one.

I also spied these wood bi-fold doors, just begging to be made into a privacy screen / room divider. Maybe painted some bright color?

Of course, these old chrome stools are kinda awesome as-is. Vintage cool.

I might go back for one of these. Surely I can find space for one of these.

And then, there were things like this large display case. It's one of a pair at Bring that came out of the Eugene Nike Store. They're doing a remodel in anticipation of the upcoming Olympic Trials, so . . . nifty display cases up for grabs.

AND these free shipping crates that I almost loaded up (telling myself that if someday I'm a prop mistress for an Indiana Jones movie, they'd be perfect . . . and if not, I could always use that industrial hardware for something cool).

Anyway, aside from some bits and pieces for finishing up a project (more on that later), I came away with these. These boring shutters. These boring old shutters that are not an adorable, miniature turquoise stove.

Well, I came away with two of them, anyway, to solve the problem of one of our two bedroom windows. We've been living with lime green curtains. They shall not be photographed. But I'll post the shutters when they're done.

What gets my imagination going out at Bring, really, is that it's not just piles of stuff with potential, it's the building and courtyard that really show what you can do with all this stuff.

Like this gate made completely of recycled bits of old bicycles and buildings. (Not sure where the rhino in the background came from, but I love him.)

Or this siding made out of old records (an old bridge railing in the foreground fills in as a fence for the little path that wanders through the garden).

Or this area of the courtyard that resembles a temple.

I think you'll agree, though, that this tile mosaic structure and wall really push the envelope.

Recycled toilet tank lids. That's pretty awesome.

Check it out sometime! Or, if you live out-of-area, lots of cities have re-building centers or Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores. It's a pretty limitless pool of possibility.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

Linking up to:

tie-dye mania !

My sister-in-law always comes up with great birthday party ideas for my niece and nephew; my favorites are the ones that include a little project for everyone to do. A couple of times, we went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery studios; this year, she bought some white t-shirts and a couple of tie-dye kits (similar to this one, but larger, to dye more shirts). Awesome!

We all watched a short video that came with the kit, then went to town.

Here's how our three came out:

We ended up with a huge variety of shirts between the twenty-or-so of us at the party, and each one was beautiful and different.

Some tips for keeping things tidy:

1) Keep it outdoors if possible. Spilled dye is easier to clean up with a hose or the rain.

2) Cover your work surface with a water-proof cover if you care about your work surface staining.

3) Keep clean-up supplies close at hand. This might include paper towels if you use them, or reusable towels you're not concerned about staining.

4) Keep ziplock bags at the ready. Tie-dye needs to sit overnight; party guests can transport their shirts home for washing if they have the mess contained.

This is a pretty awesome party project for large or small groups, and people can spend as much or as little time on their shirts as they like. Thanks for inviting us, M!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

zelda party round-up

For anyone looking for all my Zelda party posts in one easy-to-navigate post, please enjoy this:

Zelda Party Round-Up

Zelda Party Hats






Zelda Birthday Cake




Rupee Crayon Party Favors




Zelda Party Invitations




Large Cardboard Character Cut-Outs




And several party details I haven't blogged yet, including

Building cardboard forts with Make-Do connectors




This large picnic pavillion




Stringing balloons with a needle and thread instead of using helium (thanks to friends!)




Making treasure sacks from ultra-suede




Printing fabric on Spoonflower and making iron-on patches for party favors




Letting the guests try out their new rupee crayons on a large butcher paper banner






There you go! Now you're all caught up!

(some photos on this page were taken by family members. thank you!)


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


Linking up to:

I Should Be Mopping the Floors

rupee crayon party favors

As part of the upcoming birthday party for Baby P, we made some crayons shaped like rupees (the gems used for money in the Zelda game series for Nintendo) for the kids to hunt for in the tall grass . . . and maybe inside some conspicuous clay pots.




This required a bit of planning. First came the rupee hunt idea, then the search for a jewel-shaped mold (I was willing to settle for anything vaguely jewel-shaped, and large enough not to be a choking hazard, but not so large as to use thousands of crayons). No luck. I thought about using cookie cutters, but couldn't find one the right shape, and in the end, wasn't sure that a cookie cutter would cut crayon wax well enough to warrant investing in a make-it-yourself cookie cutter kit.

I searched around a bit and finally happened across this silicone mold-making kit. i bought a one-pound box for this project, carved a rupee the desired shape and size from a bar of glycerin soap, then cast it in the silicone compound that my husband mixed up using the kit.




Note: there is a very short cure time on the silicone compound, and several people had posted product reviews mentioning that they couldn't get larger amounts of compound mixed before the cure time ran out, so their molds failed. My husband's trick is to pre-knead each part of the two-part compound separately to get them warm and pliable before kneading the two parts together. It extends cure time and I'm happy to say it worked like a charm.

We ended up with four molds made from one box of compound, and three were useable for casting crayons (the fourth ended up with some unfortunate air bubbles).

We sat down to peel a few hundred recycled (thrift store) and new crayons. Part way through the process, I discovered soaking them in a solution of warm water and dish soap serves the dual purpose of cleaning the recycled crayons and loosening the paper wrappers; give it a try!




The crayons were sorted by color to match rupee colors, then broken to bits and loaded into the cured molds.




With the oven temp set to 230 F, the molds were loaded into the oven atop a wax-papered cookie sheet and cooked for about 20 minutes until nice and melty.




Cooled, popped out, burnished with a spoon, and ready to be discovered by a bunch of little adventure kids. So fun!




The molds held up pretty well through the casting, cooling, and extracting process of close to a hundred crayons (hopefully enough for each kid to take home a full set!). In the end, a couple of molds had small tears at either end, but still held melted wax.

Thanks to this Flickr image, discovered via Pinterest, for the pinspiration!

Pin It



(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)