Cyber Monday Sales

Just a quick note to remind you all that our 20% off sale ends tonight 11/30 at midnight.

I'll be changing the prices in the shop before I go to bed, so if you happen to make a purchase after the prices are changed back to normal, I will send you a refund via Paypal in the morning.

As of this writing, the following items are still up for sale.

Click here to view this item on Etsy.com

Click here to view this item on Etsy.com

Click here to view this item on Etsy.com

Click here to view this item on Etsy.com

Click here to view this item on Etsy.com

Take a peak at our shop to see all the goodies you can buy for your home and garden. And remember, handmade gifts are memorable gifts and really show that you care.

And to all my faithful followers, if you happened to miss this sale, just mention this blog post when you make a purchase and I will still give you the sale price through 12/1/09.

Happy Thanksgiving and Announcing a Sale

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Gary and I are sticking around the house today and just relaxing for a change. I cooked the turkey and made a pumpkin pie yesterday, so there would be less work to do today. I really need a break. Work has been mentally stressful lately and we are finally finished with the greenhouse (for the most part), so I feel like we can breathe for a change.

In case you missed some of the tweets I've been sneaking out on Twitter recently, our Etsy shop is having a huge sale this weekend to celebrate Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are 100s of other Etsy shops participating as well. You may have seen their badges in the side bar of this blog over the last two weeks.

There are several ways to find the sales. You can either search for "Black Friday" on Etsy, which will bring up thousands of search results, or there is a better way - just visit one of these websites below for lists of each shop. I'm not sure if every seller got on all these lists, so you may want to visit more than one.

This blog (http://wwsalemadness.blogspot.com/) was designed by Zeba who runs a wonderful jewelry filled Etsy shop. She spent hours and hours getting all the participants up on the blog in categories as well as in alphabetical order. All free of charge. We really need to give her a big hand. You can help, by visiting her shop now and during the sale. Her jewelry is beautiful and original.

The nice people at Indie Smiles were also generous enough to provide free advertising to those involved in the sale. This particular ad rotates on the page, so that all shops get a chance at equal exposure. I am pretty sure I will advertise with them in the future.

There is also a Facebook Fan page that was set up by newhopebeading. You can find that Fan Page here. Caroline at newhopebeading donates 5% of the proceeds from her shop to the Epilepsy Foundation of NJ, so we should all be supporting her as well.

Now for my shameless plug...Our Etsy shop will be having 20% off everything, even the items that ship for free. This is a huge deal for us and will be the only sale this holiday season. I can honestly say that you will not find prices in our shop lower than what they will be tomorrow. The sale runs through Cyber Monday, 11/30/09. There is also no need for a coupon code, as the prices listed will already be reflecting the sale prices. You'll know I've changed the prices because at the top of each description of the item for sale, I will have the regular price and the sale price listed (for comparison). If you don't see a reference to the sale on an item, please be patient. It will take a little while to get all the prices changed, and we may be making changes at the same time you are looking.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day Weekend. I doubt I will post anything new until the sale is over Monday night or Tuesday. But if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me or Convo me through Etsy. I should be near a computer the majority of the weekend.

Greenhouse Update #11

It's hard to believe it's been nearly two years since the planning stages of this greenhouse started and it's finally finished. At least finished enough to start filling it. There is still the issue of covering up or filling some existing holes in the front and back doors. And I will need to re-glaze the window in the front door and caulk the back door before I paint in the spring. I was hoping to get the cedar sealed on Sunday, but I was having too much fun putting stuff in the greenhouse to stop and seal the thing. It will be fine until Spring. Heck, the way the weather has been, I still might get a chance to seal it this fall...I won't count on it though. We are expecting some snow mixed with rain starting Friday, so this could be the start of winter for us. Finally.

This first picture shows the narrow counter, which is on your left as you walk into the greenhouse from the front.
Gary ended up making the counter 18" deep. This thing went from 12" to 16" and then finally 18"....sometimes you are just not sure until you are actually building the darn thing. We also try and design things based on the materials we have on hand and with minimal waste. Remember, about 75% of this greenhouse is salvaged materials. The only thing we bought new, that I can think of, is the polycarbonate roofing, the plywood for the floor, the majority of the metal braces for the framing, and at least half of the stud materials. We also purchased some fasteners (although we had many on hand), caulk, sealer, and of course paint, when the time comes.

The counter is braced very well, so it will hold all the heavy stuff I can put on it. The wire shelving underneath are cut offs or damaged pieces that were being thrown away by contractors. Since we didn't have the brackets that came with the shelving, Gary just made his own with scrap 2x4s. I wanted to be able to remove the shelves easily, so he attached slats to the wooden brackets to keep the shelves from sliding around. I'll have to get a good close-up of that to show you what I mean.

You've seen the other counter before, but here's a shot with the rolling carts I told you about. They will certainly come in handy for all my garden art. This counter is 24" deep. You may also have noticed that the counters are pretty high looking. Well they are. I am tall and wanted a taller than normal counter. I think they are about 40" tall. The windows are about 42" up off the floor, since that was the height of the window on the front door and I wanted it to be uniform. No straining my back when potting up plants, grouting or making hypertufa.

We were lucky enough to have a couple of longer pieces of this wire shelving, so Gary put one up in the middle of one of the windows that faces the back. I will probably keep this shelf free for plants or finished craft projects I want to show off. I don't want it to clutter up the window with junky looking stuff.

Hopefully, later this week, I can show you all how it looks filled up. I had a great time on Sunday groovin' to my mp3 player and arranging stuff around. I think this greenhouse will hope just about everything I had intended.

If I don't get back to you before then, I hope everyone has a relaxing and pleasant Thanksgiving.

Contest Winners - Instructables

I wanted to share some of the contest winners over at Instructables.com for the "Get in the Garden" Contest. Some pretty neat stuff here.

Mr. Compost: How to make an in-kitchen compost turbocharger! - More DIY How To Projects

VERTICAL VEGETABLES: "Grow up" in a small garden and confound the cats! - More DIY How To Projects

Growing Mushrooms! - More DIY How To Projects

More mosiac projects in progress

I've been trying to get some more projects finished so I can get them in the Etsy shop by Thanksgiving, in time for the Holiday shopping rush. Right now I have several mosaics started including another tray and several pots that can also double as stands for some of the birdbaths I already have listed.

I need to do some more cleaning on the tray above and I was thinking of doing some sort of shimmery wash over the grout to soften it and bring out the sparkle in the glass globs. I really like doing mosaics on these wooden trays, but have had a hard time finding any in the thrift stores of late. I believe this is the last one in my stash.

The following pot has a dragonfly on it...at least I hope it looks like a dragonfly, in an abstract sort of way.
The front side is filled in with gold stained glass and the backside is green, so it can look different from either side depending on how you want to display it. Again, I am toying with adding a wash to the grout to tone it down a bit, but haven't decided yet.

I already have a cement leaf casting birdbath listed on Etsy, but have two more I am going to paint and list next week. This first one is several shades of green. I think it needs another coat before I put it in the shop.

Greenhouse Update #10

This past weekend was pretty productive. We had great weather, yet again. It is unheard of for us to have such dry and warm weather in November for Upstate New York. I even mowed the lawn on Saturday. Amazing!

Gary got all the siding and trim finished and the outside completely caulked. If the weather holds for another weekend I'll get all the cedar parts sealed.

Now my only decision to make is what to paint the front and back door and the tiny bit of window trim that is exposed. I really want to leave the cedar natural, so no paint for the majority of the greenhouse.

My initial thought was to keep it simple and use an off white color that matches the trim on the shed that is across from the greenhouse. The color is called "Rice Cake" and it does indeed look like one. But now that there is so little to paint, I wonder if I can afford to get a little more bold with the paint color. What do you think?

This week Gary will be working on the second counter inside and some more shelving. I probably won't have pictures of that until next weekend. But I would love to know what you all think about the paint color. I'd also love to come up with a name for my little playhouse.

Emerald Ash Borer

Just wanted to share an article with you about a problem we are dealing with in New York on the Emerald Ash Borer. It's killing many many trees in this region. We have at least two ash in our yard, so this is something I am particularly paying attention to. All the more reason why wood should not be transported across state lines, as many of these pests have been brought in from other areas and other countries, even.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/how_a_tiny_beetle_can_take_dow.html

Amazing Giveaway - Ends Nov. 27th.

Win an beautiful 3-dimensional glass star from Katie Did It Stained Glass. Her work is really amazing and her prices are good too. I've dabbled in stained glass myself and her work is flawless.

Enter now, but hurry, the giveaway ends on Nov. 27th.

http://audreysgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/10/katie-did-it-glass.html

Greenhouse Update #9

We had gorgeous weather over the past weekend and got a lot done on the greenhouse. It seems like the trim work takes forever. And since we are building this as we go along, there is a lot of stop, measure, cut, measure, attach, going on...LOL.

I finished shredding up a bunch of leaves from the yard while Gary was able to do a lot of things on his own. He decided to put in one of the counter tops so I could start putting stuff inside if I needed to. The counter is a few inches higher than normal since I am so tall and I shouldn't have to strain my back when I'm working in there.

This bench is solid and even has trim along the edge so there is no sharp edges from the plywood. It's 24" deep x 8' long. The underside of this counter will be kept open for now. I'll be using some wheeled carts under there to hold containers and anything else that needs a space that might be large and bulky.

We also have some 1/2" foam insulation that will go between the studs in case I will heat the greenhouse in the future. We were going to put it under the siding, but miscalculated the size of the trim, so the easiest way to fix that would be to put it on the inside instead of redoing all the trim work on the outside.

I've already placed my double washtubs on the left side of the double door that does not open. I'll be using these tubs to store potting mix on one side and for actually potting up plants on the other. There is also a wheeled cart to the left of the counter that holds my worm castings, vermiculite, perlite, and another tub for potting mix. Since the potting mix will now be stored in the wash tubs, I may wheel this cart under the counter instead. We'll just have to wait and see how much stuff I'll be putting inside here.

There will also be an 8' long counter on the opposite wall, but we've decided to make it only 12" deep so that it doesn't feel so crowded inside. There will also be a built in fixed shelf under the counter for storage of small pots, organic fertilizers, and the like.

Here is a close-up of the cedar trim around the windows. As you can see, we finally got some siding up. The siding is cedar as well and will be coated with a clear sealer and left it's natural color.

Pest Buster Series - Fungus Gnats

Fungus gnats are those annoying little mosquito like bugs that seem to invade our indoor plants from time to time. They don’t bite and they tend to feed on dead plant material more so than live plant material, but they can be pesky just the same and it’s pretty easy to get ride of them. The larvae look like tiny little white worms just below the soil surface. The adults tend to stay on top of the soil and you might see them fluttering around when you water your plants.

For the most part, they are attracted to moist soil and dead plant material, so reducing the amount you water and keeping dead foliage cleaned up will help prevent them from invading in the first place.

If you already have a fungus gnat problem, you may want to repot your plants to help remove the larvae that are in the soil. Try not to disturb the root ball too much and remove as much of the soil as you can. Putting a ½ layer of sand on top of the soil will help keep the top of the soil drier and therefore less attractive to them.

If repotting is not an option, you can catch the larvae by putting a cut piece of potato on top of the soil. The larvae will be attracted to the potato and start feeding on it instead of the dead plant material in the pot. Check the potato daily and discard when you see larvae. Keep putting out a new piece of potato until you see no more larvae.

To catch adult gnats, set out yellow sticky traps near the plants. This is not the most attractive method, so you can also drench the soil with pyrethrin which is an organic pesticide made from the chrysanthemum plant. This will kill the adults and many of the larvae as well.

Another option is sprinkling Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) on the soil. Bt is a bacteria that kills caterpillars and larvae, so take care when using it around butterflies, but it is excellent for using indoors and will not harm children or pets when used as directed.

If fungus gnats are a problem in your greenhouse, you can plant pots of wheat to attract them to those plants instead of your prized plants. Once you see activity around the wheat plants, remove them and compost the plant and soil away from your plants. Replace those pots with new pots of wheat. Keep repeating the process as necessary. Since greenhouses tend to have a large number of plants in small area, this method works well with minimal effort on the gardener.

These Roses Must Think It's June

I still have some miniature roses in bloom. They are blooming better now then they did in June, it seems. They really love the cooler weather and the extra rain we've been getting. I have two of these and they are called "The Fairy".

I also thought you might like to see a full view of the 'Kousa Dogwood' (on the left) and my 'Limelight' hydrangea (on the right) in full fall color. The leaves are just about gone on the hydrangea, but the flower heads will hold all winter if we don't get too much snow at one time. I usually cut them off when we get a January thaw. They start looking raggedy by then and I'm usually itching to get out in the garden anyway.

I'll need to do some pruning on the dogwood next spring. The branches are way too low to the ground, and it has started sprouting a couple of suckers, so need to get them off of there.

I also noticed a Calendula starting to bloom. I wintersowed these last year and got them in the ground late. They are an annual, so it's a shame I won't get to see more of their blooms. Oh, well. They can tolerate cold pretty well, so maybe I'll get to see this fully opened. Since it is dark now when I get home, not sure if I'll be able to get another picture to show you all.

This last picture is of my zebra grass. I'm so glad I planted some grasses. I wish I had better soil to grow more. Someday I will have amended it enough to grow anything...just takes time.

Greenhouse Update #8

This past weekend wasn't as productive as I would have liked it to be, but we can only do so much with the weather given to us. Gary was able to work on the greenhouse for about 5 hours on Sunday. It's going to be tough now that it is getting dark so much earlier. The majority of the work was tedious and time consuming, but I believe we are now able to start siding the greenhouse this coming weekend, if the weather cooperates. Finally!

In the first photo, you'll see the trim is up on the side. The trim covers any seams and makes the corners look better in places that weren't perfectly square.

This is a picture of the back peaked roof area. Gary put up fascia to finish it off and put a trim piece across the bottom. All the trim pieces are basically scrap wood.
This picture is of the soffit and the trim pieces that were added to seal the gaps along the edges. Once caulked and painted, it should look pretty good.
This is the peak on the front of the greenhouse, at a little different angle, so you can see how the fascia was used to finish off the edge. As you can see, the window on this side is a 6-paned window, but the one on the back is solid. I had to work with what we had...LOL.

The final photo is close-up of the trim along the bottom of the one of the windows on the front side of the greenhouse.

How to make a high volume rain barrel system

I am a huge advocate of installing a rain barrel or two on your property. Here is a great tutorial on how to do just that.


High Volume Rain Barrel - More DIY How To Projects

Fall Clean-up of My Own

Saturday it rained most of the day so I was unable to get anything done outside, but Sunday was clear though a bit cold. Our high was only 52 degrees, but it felt good to get some work done outside. I sucked up a huge bunch of leaves with my Toro Blower/Vacuum. I only got the front and side yard done before my back decided I couldn't do anymore. It was too wet to just go over everything with the lawn mower, and I wanted the shredded leaves bagged so I could protect some tender plants and to add organic matter to a few beds.

I was able to cover a temporary bed used for holding some plants that I still have in containers. You may recall last year I lost dozens of plants to vole damage and some to rabbit damage. I'm hoping to prevent that this year by fencing the area against the rabbits and putting down a granular product called Molemax. I've used it many times with great success. It's made from castor oil, which they do not like. I sprinkled the pots and all around the pots with the granules and then watered it in. I will sprinkle more around the bed through out the winter, whenever there is no snow on the ground.

I also had plenty of leaves to put on some newly planted bridal wreath spireas and my Endless Summer hydrangeas. I did not cover them with leaves last year and I got very few blooms this past summer. They bloom on new and old wood, so they are a good choice for northern gardens, but they do need a little extra protection so you can get more blooms. I also covered to garden beds that hadn't had any organic matter added to them this year.

I still need to shred up the leaves in the back yard. Hopefully I will be able to do that next weekend and have some leaves for the compost pile and for the new round bed that was just put in this year.

I forgot I had some potted tulips to plant. Gary brought them home when a fund raiser was going to be throwing them out. They were selling potted tulips last spring to raise money for the school and were throwing out whatever didn't sell. I don't know if they will bloom next spring, since tulips are so iffy in this area, but I figured since they were free, I'd give it a shot.

Plastic Bottle Planter Box

Plastic Bottle Planter Box - More DIY How To Projects

I'm not a big fan of buying anything in small plastic bottles, but this is a good use for them if you have them already.