Enjoying the spring!

at 04/17/10 1:37PM

We've been loving the warm weather, and I decided to spruce things up around here with some plants! I decided to start back up my porch herb garden which I loved having last year, and I decided to do some plants inside, too. I've always loved terrariums and I found some cool plants at Home Depot for a terrarium ... and I also spotted some cool succulents that looked really good with them. But, of course, succulents need much different growing conditions than the moist conditions of a terrarium. But I loved how the plants all looked together, and while I was at the thrift store, I spotted some light fixture pieces and I had an idea. ... and when I went up to the counter I asked how much the light fixture pieces were - turns out they were on sale that day for 10 cents each! So I stocked up! I had everything I needed...

different glass globes from lighting fixtures,

a variety of plants,

plenty of dirt,

and plenty of getting dirty

(Leila loved being my helper in all the planting and proved you don't have to have a yard to get muddy!)

... and here's how it turned out!

So, the big light bulb/globes hold the moss (Leila helped out with pretty much everything - and it was Leila's touch laying out the white accent stones in the first one), and then a smaller glass globe (the kind that always is open on both ends) holds the succulent and lots of draining rock, so that all the extra moisture can seep down from the plants that need to be drier to the lower layer where the plants are that need to be more moist. We'll have to see if it works! :)

And... while I was at the thrift store I also found a tiny apothecary jar and a fish bowl to make more typical terrariums, but I was on the fence whether to buy them -- and then the intercom came on and they announced that everything else in the store was 1/2 for the next 15 minutes - so I got the fishbowl and apothecary jar too and made terrariums in them! I made a tiny copper wire sculpture to go in the apothecary jar, too.

And, of course, we planted all our herbs, etc. out on the porch like last year. Leila loved it ...

... but she says watch out for wasps! They're all over the place right now. (Through the camera I thought she was smiling in this picture ... till I snapped it and hear her say Oh no! A bee!! Luckily, she wasn't stung, though.:)

And then the next day she asked me, "Hey, you wanna grow some more plants?"

16-35 of 35 comments « prev 1 2 next »

I love what you are growing - so sweet! Your plants are really nice too! :o)

by enyek at 04/18/10 8:43PM
How cute! I really like it!

by mjintexas at 04/18/10 11:55PM
very cool! You must have the best thrift store ever as ours don't even have sales. Booo.

by nthnswmn at 04/19/10 10:13AM
That's awesome!!! Way to go! I love your creativity and frugalness!! :)

by lilsis at 04/20/10 9:19AM
Neato mosquito, A.

by lori_in_pa at 04/20/10 10:19AM
I love, love, love it all! Including the people involved: )

by mamalady at 04/20/10 4:55PM
How sweet! Hope the beautiful soil containers don't break... they are delicately splendid!

by tweedledee at 04/20/10 10:44PM
I didn't think about that. I'm really bad with indoor plants. So tell me, are you supposed to put rocks in the bottom of all flower pots that don't have a drainage hole? I have trouble finding nice ones with holes, but maybe I just don't have all the info! :)

by praguer at 04/21/10 9:31AM
you are the best housewife ever. Also, those plant things are AWESOME and you DID use sedums!!! Also I like the sculpture. and what is the plant int he apothecary jar with the sculpture?

by riyankery at 04/22/10 5:55PM
Cool post!

by slave_of_jesus_jdb at 04/28/10 11:33AM
i love all those!!!

by spike427 at 05/17/10 8:28PM
You have quite the talent with plants! I kill most things that I touch. I'm jealous!

by hanban at 05/19/10 9:34AM
April, you never cease to amaze me!

by jody at 05/22/10 11:33PM
are you gardening in the blue containers? A neighbor is growing salad greens in a planter rather than the ground, may try that since mine in ground didn't even come up.

by krazyqwilt at 05/31/10 6:53PM
Can you sell these things? Commission at a flower shop or greenhouse maybe? They are beautiful!

by mr_and_mrs_berry at 06/03/10 4:45PM
So creative! What a great way to save money and be productive!
Thank you so much for helping with the wedding! It was great to see you and Leila!

by mayflower at 06/15/10 8:08AM
btw, you look so much like your grandmother in your profile picture up there... :)

by mayflower at 06/15/10 8:09AM
*Gasp* You have an encyclopedia set! I'm so jealous.

by bookworm14 at 10/27/10 5:22PM
Now you're enjoying the winter!

by timstarr at 12/14/10 12:21AM
^ now you're enjoying next year's winter!!

by enyek at 12/09/11 1:38PM

A heads up about Project Playlist

at 04/06/10 11:08AM

... it's not as legal as you may think.

So, I have loved using project playlist and have several times posted playlists here. Before I used their service, I read up and it seemed everything was legal - by making playlists you didn't "own" the songs and you couldn't download them, you were just streaming them from other places on the internet, such as artist's sites themselves where they offer a few of their songs to listen to for free to familiarize the public with their music. Personally, this made sense to me, as I became more familiar with more music, I could then go and buy it from e-music or any other number of places.

And in one sense, I guess that's true. Project Playlist itself isn't illegal, from what I understand - but some of the songs that are posted online that you can stream to your playlists ARE illegal. In fact, MOST of the music available on Project Playlist are pirated and illegal copies of music. So while the concept of Project Playlist itself may not be the problem, you're using them to access illegal music, much of the time.

In fact, Project Playlist was being sued by nine record label companies for helping distribute illegal copies of music. Not sure how that all turned out, but I do know that some sites like MySpace, etc., ended up banning the use of Project Playlist on their sites.

Anyway, I've taken down my playlists from here, and I just wanted to let you all know that I didn't realize all of this initially. I do think there are ways to use Project Playlist legally - if you make sure the sites the songs are streaming from has the legal right to distribute them - but I don't have the time to do that, and its easier just to not use it at all. From what I've read, it looks like things may be in the works for Project Playlist to team up at some point in the future with record companies to put music out legally (and then would have to pay royalties) but until then, I don't plan to continue using their site.

Anyway, since I had previously advocated the use of Project Playist (if by nothing else than posting playlists on here), I thought it only right to let you all know this. :)

Thanks for letting us know. I plan to leave the site as well for now.

by kread at 04/06/10 4:01PM
Wow I had no idea either! Thanks! You can also use Tim's ut student email to access Ruckus.com. It is a similar concept but I think it is more user friendly, and I'm pretty sure it is all legal (or else UT wouldn't endorse it. We've had several illegal music downloading busts.)

by moonpi at 04/06/10 4:11PM
Wow! Thanks for posting this! I just took down my playlists.

by autumn_rain at 04/06/10 4:27PM
Good thing to know! Thanks for the heads-up.

by laurar209 at 04/06/10 4:49PM
I didn't know that. That's good to know, though, since I had intended to check it out....
I've been using slacker.com recently and really liking it.

by a_starr at 04/06/10 11:58PM
... brought to you from the local jail, where a wonderful mother of one is doing time for Project Playlist pirating. j/k Thanks for the info!

by snickers63 at 04/07/10 9:21AM
Oh, what a pain! I haven't used it, but I can imagine that would be disappointing to find out. Kudos to you for sharing the information.

by mjintexas at 04/07/10 2:41PM
I really like "Where Rainbows Never Die" by The Steeldrivers, too, but for some reason "Sticks that Made Thunder" really got me. : ) Sorry about your music site. Bummer! So...are you feeling like a late summer visit to Illinois this year?

by cbonk at 04/08/10 6:26PM
there's still pandora tho

by justcallmejoe at 04/09/10 2:16PM

Fun stuff

at 04/02/10 10:35PM

Kids music doesn't have to be boring. Just came across this guy's stuff on youtube and we love it- all three of us! Check it out. Here are a couple examples.... they crack me up.

Cool beans.

Thanks for sharing this!
I'll have to sample some more, but I know the kids will love the elephant song and I laughed out loud at the pirate song. :-)

by nthnswmn at 04/02/10 10:47PM
I can't wait to look at his other stuff.

by nthnswmn at 04/02/10 10:52PM
I just came across this guy tonight as well! He's great! That pirate song is Hilarious!!

by mrs_worm at 04/02/10 11:22PM
Thanks April! Jack loved these!

by heatheronthehill at 04/03/10 11:04AM
We've seen these and the kids love it!

by missy at 04/03/10 2:28PM
I love kids' songs! Tom Chapin is good too. And lullabys - I'm a sucker for lullabys.

by enyek at 04/05/10 10:50AM
Cute!!

by marieb at 04/05/10 11:20PM

Happy Belated Winterfest!

at 03/02/10 2:22PM

Well, I have been meaning to post about winterfest for awhile ... it was the last Saturday in January. Now it's march! But its snowing today ... so somehow it all works out. :)

We had a white winterfest - and quite a lot of snow for TN! Someone up the street made snowmen:

A few highlights ... leading up to winterfest Leila and I had been making little white felt snowmen for a snowman hunt. She loved it! She sits on the couch and closes her eyes while I hide the snowmen around the room. Every few days she remembers it and asks for another snowman hunt - its fun!

And since this year's theme was Japanese, we painted kanji (which are japanese writing characters, but I don't have pictures of them on here) and had a Japanese meal. We were going to build a gingerbread house that looked like a Japanese building, but we ran out of time! The meal was a lot of fun, too. Plus, Leila and I cooked up a bunch of sweet treats, as well. :)

I have a lot more pictures of Winterfest in this gallery ... feel free to browse through. And happy belated Winterfest! Next year's theme: Spain! (Tapas! Woot!)

Looks like you had a lot of fun! Leila looks so like such a big girl!

by meridith at 03/02/10 2:26PM
I love it April :)

by mr_and_mrs_berry at 03/02/10 2:53PM
I cannot *believe* how grown-up your little girl looks! And I love, love, love the dishes in the last picture -- where did you get the bowls and tea pot?

by laurar209 at 03/02/10 4:02PM
Looks like you had fun! I am glad you posted I was starting to wander about you :-)

by marieb at 03/02/10 4:25PM
April, what is the quote on your coffee table?

by snoopy at 03/02/10 4:55PM
I love all the pictures!! I started to get all teary-eyed looking through them! :( Have I told you recently how much I miss her joyous little self? :)

by a_starr at 03/02/10 6:18PM
And you! I miss you, too! :)

by a_starr at 03/02/10 6:18PM
Is your tea set cast iron? Just curious. They just bought me one for my birthday. I love it!

by marmee at 03/02/10 8:04PM
Oh, Leila looks so precious! Happy Winterfest!

by sarahphim at 03/02/10 9:05PM
Looks like a lot of fun - snow was a nice addition to your "Winterfest!"

by video_nana at 03/02/10 10:02PM
The joyful effort you are putting into making family special family times is an inspiration to me. The photo of you smiling, cooking at the counter... love it. So special.

by raifhaus at 03/03/10 8:38AM
making memories!! love it!! good job april & tim!!

by enyek at 03/03/10 10:31AM
Hi April ... if you scroll down on my blog a few posts you can see a photo of mine! I love it! It came from www.enjoyingtea.com if you're interested. I will tell you they are not cheap ... it was a lovely gift. :) I'm a tea-any-way-drinker, too. :) Happy day to you!

by marmee at 03/03/10 12:22PM
My fave is of you and Leila in the kitchen -- so proud of you and happy for you!

by lori_in_pa at 03/03/10 2:53PM
How's the novel coming?

by cbonk at 03/03/10 5:55PM
Lovely and joyful: ) My heart is happy: )

by mamalady at 03/04/10 12:13AM
I love the pics!!! Great job with everything!

by thewifeofbud at 03/06/10 9:14PM
i hope there's tea in that teapot! and i love the pic of her with the snowman. so sweet.

by chooselove at 03/10/10 11:38AM
You should listen to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUJPAG0ns8 ...I love the Steeldrivers and I don't really like country. Their raw bluegrass is pretty awesome though. But, as someone from Gettysburg, I thought you might find it an especially good song.

P.S. Also, I found a postcard that you wrote to me when you moved from Prague to PA - I would scan it to show you, but the pencil has not held up well over the years! I'll have to try to remember it when we see you guys again! It was cute!

by cbonk at 03/27/10 7:12PM