Vintage Water Bottle Lamps

Making lights out of jugs, baskets and buckets is really fun.  It's sort of that philosophy of:

 "re-think, re-use, re-cycle"

 I saw these old bottled water jugs in their original wood crates and knew they would work perfectly as an interesting lamp base.

Each bottle was different but both had great detail and a blueish green color to the glass. 

 I love the diamond pattern of pressed glass with the bottler's logo, Arrowhead and Bustanchury

The old crates were sturdy and only needed a good scrubbing to clean them up before I had them rewired.  This one has some great old green paint.

I have a small grouping of vintage seltzer bottles on that table too. 

 Probably about the same age (50's ?) 

which is why the glass seems so similar.

Recently I have collected some of this old Mexican tourist pottery.  It looks great filled with oranges and lemons from the orchard

No, I'm not collecting birds nests...... but this was abandoned with one perfect little cracked blue egg. 

 It was so interesting and simple that I couldn't throw it out!

Below is another lamp made from an old basket wrapped jug.  I used a rawhide shade on this one and the color of the light diffused by this type of shade is really nice.

Below is one of many ice cream bucket lamps I've had made.  You can still find them on Ebay or at flea markets with original paint.

The shades are covered in left over grass cloth wall paper.

These are some decorative jugs with really interesting wicker wrapping.  I got them from a local designers warehouse sale.  They were great just as a decorative item but now wired as lamps they are useful too.  The shades I had made from some vintage hemp fabric, run horizontally.

The shades for these little buckets are really fun.  I usually try to think of how the fabric will be best run on the particular shade shape that I choose.  I like the fact that these have very little in the way of detail.

I am working on a really unique ceiling fixture too and will be sure to share it with you when its all finished.


Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!
~kelley~

Vegetable Garden Ideas

I suppose this first year of vegetable gardening is kind of an experiment. 

I have never had anything quite this big or with quite the variety of plants.

  There are 13 different tomato varieties, all which need to be supported and so began the search for the best products I could find.

I started with these large turteurs for sweet peas in the early spring.  

These now are supporting beans and are working out really well.  

I like the height in the two rear beds, at the very back of the garden.

I next found these expandable bamboo teepees.  

These are being used to support  8 raspberry and blackberry bushes that are planted along side the raised beds.  I like the fact that they can be removed and easily stored at the end of the growing season when the plants get cut back

I recycled these little 3 legged bamboo stakes to use for the smaller pepper plants.  These are perfect right now but I may need to use larger stakes as the plants get bigger.  

As I said this is my "experimental" first season. 

In this particular bed I have 5 tomatoes plants and used a tomato ladder support with a more decorative iron tuteur in the center.  

The little garlic finial is really cute.  

These were pricy but they will remain in the garden throughout the year, even after the vegetables have come and gone.

Below is another bed that I just reworked this weekend.  It needed more compost and is somewhat shaded by the big oaks.  

The supports in the front are expandable willow teepees which are a great size about 24" high and you can snuggle them in with different plantings very easily. 

 Here they will be supporting eggplant.

The beans are really wonderful and we are already harvesting even though these plants have only been in for about a month or so.

I have basil around the perimeter as well as two zucchini varieties.

Below is the lettuce garden.  

I stuck a couple of miniature yellow bell peppers in the center with the willow supports.

This lettuce, actually a romaine variety is called "flashy trouts back"  and it has done really well.  There is also some butter lettuce, which I am sharing with the rabbits...this happens to be their favorite.

A variety of mesculun, I scatter by seed in little 18 x 18 " sections and let it do it's thing. 

 I love this stuff!!!

It grows in a big thick "lettuce rug"  and you can either snip of pull up the tender greens.

Here is what I cooked up for dinner on Saturday night with a couple of grilled steaks.  

Heaven!

Hope you had a restful and happy weekend

~*~

kelley

Michael S Smith Style...my (zero) budget

Remember this little post here

love this fabric...lot's of ideas...fun stuff

Pretty good I think....

Comments?

Good things for the garden: Composting 101

This post has nothing to do with  pretty homes or lampshades or great kitchen design

but...it's a pretty important subject if you like to garden

The composter is a gardeners best friend!!!

Lets just get to the facts...rotten yard waste and the adventures of vermi the worm equals great compost!

  It's a spot to dump the grass clippings, a huge bag of dried leaves, last nights salad greens and this morning coffee grounds and orange rinds.

  You can throw in  just about anything that gets pruned or clipped, mowed or arranged in a vase.  Many gardeners chuck in the morning newspaper too.

So here is our set up in Ojai:  and while this doesn't even begin to take care of the stuff we churn out of the garden every week, it's a nice place to start and the benefits for the garden are huge and better than any bagged product I can buy at the nursery...and its free!

We opted for this traditional 3 bin system, which allows you to move the compost along as the material begins to break down.  Our fence/deck contractor built this for us out of redwood.  Ours is 12 feet long and 3 feet deep.  

The bin sits directly on the ground with the back and interior sides secured and separated with chicken wire.

The advantage of having the bin sit directly on soil is that the material can get really hot which speeds up the whole decomposing process.  

  This bin system is also nice looking and it sits adjacent to the orchard and is relatively close to most of the large perennial beds and grassy areas

The slats along the front pull out for easy access.   

This stuff can get really heavy when its soggy and can be tough to turn, so pulling the fronts off the bins is really helpful. 

 The tops are done in galvanized metal and each bin has its own lid.  

Having the  lids secure is a must, because we have so many little critters (rats, possums, racoons etc)  and they look at last nights salad and a few rotten strawberries like a reservation at a four star restaurant....Best seat in the house no less!

So here is the big dilemma for most gardeners...  

How do you really get the compost going and rotting quickly so you haven't waited an entire year to add some good nutritious mother earth back into your garden?

The key is to use a compost starter layered in with your first batch of yard clippings.  I've read many articles that say a starter isn't necessary but it works!

  It is also important to get the ratio of Carbon(the brown stuff) to Nitrogen(the green stuff)  correct.  

Most manuals on composting will tell you a ratio of 25-30:1 is best.  

Depending on what else you choose to add i.e.:chicken poop, horse manure , etc., the ratio can change, usually allowing you to add more Carbon to the mix.

Our experience has been to add a bit more green and a few shovels full of garden soil at the start because that seems to speed things up too.  

When the compost finally reaches the third bin you will have a bout 2/3 less material than you started with.  

About three weeks before your batch looks like it might be done...you can throw in  some worms.
Worm composting is called vermicomposting.

When its done in conjunction with the regular process at the end you get some added benefits and super rich black compost.
Most garden centers now carry worms or you can get them shipped directly to your home from sites like this one here.

There are literally hundreds of good books about composting, but I like this book called Let it Rot by Stu Campbell.
It is pretty simplistic and clear and actually fun to read.  

I think this is now the 4th edition, so that's a lot of books sold to novices like me!

Most urban gardens are probably to small to warrant the 3 bin system but there are so many great alternatives out there right now. 

Here is an example of a tumbler that looks pretty easy to use and takes up very little space. 

 Wouldn't it be great if every new home sold in the US came with a compost tumbler....

 You will also need are a good pitch fork to turn the compost.   

Garden suppliers offer up other little gadgets like thermometers and auger turners,  but you really don't need either.  

You can tell how hot the compost is just by sticking you hand near the compost mix and it also gets really steamy. 

So there are the facts about some really good stuff for the garden.  

I would love to hear your own composting ideas and things that work in your garden!

~*~

kelley