Mini Succulent and Cactus Garden

I have many, many cacti and succulents in my home (and not just the fake ones I make for my Etsy shop). I loooove them ... There's so much variety, they hardly grow so they basically look the same all the time, and I can forget to water them for a month and they somehow still survive. So when I saw this post from A Beautiful Mess, I was inspired. I found the perfect planter for a dining table centerpiece at Salvation Army, then went to Lowe's and bought some cactus soil, a four-pack of succulents, and a couple cacti.

Since the pot doesn't have a drainage hole, I put some rocks in the bottom. The rocks are some I already had from using them as vase filler. Then I put a little soil in the bottom over the rocks ...

... Arranged the plants, then filled soil in around the plants and added some decorative stones to the top. This is what I ended up with:

I think it's pretty cute and makes a good centerpiece for our square table. This project was quick but a little more than I usually spend on my projects (around $30 for everything). I think it was totally worth it.

The Garden Build

Ready for a lengthy post? Planning and building a 450 square foot vegetable garden is part of what's been keeping me occupied this spring and summer. You may remember my garden of broken dreams from the past...

The worst part of this garden was that it was difficult to access, and the deer would still jump through the circus tented netting and eat the plants. It's also a difficult shape for a vegetable garden. Now this garden is back to a perennial garden (thanks to my great neighbor and all of the transplants I got from her!) and I've moved on to bigger and better gardens. Meet my new space:

My new vegetable garden has 308 square feet of planting space in one continuous bed. Here's the plan and lumber cut list:

When I was planning this garden, here's what I considered:
1. I wanted to use soaker hoses to water the plants and also didn't want to waste space between beds so the garden is one giant bed rather than eight separate 8'x4' beds.
2. Another reason why I made one continuous bed was for ease of installing deer fencing. If the beds had been separate, I would've had to build the fence around the beds, which means more fence posts, more mulch, and more fencing. The way the garden is now allows for one-100' roll of fencing to go around the entire perimeter with some extra left over for the door.
3. Maximizing lumber was essential. The dimensions of the garden allow for that. Even though I have to step into some of the beds to reach plants, it was worth it to me to keep the project economical. I used 1"x6"x12' boards and ended up needing 17 with little scrap left over. Each color on the plan above is a separate 12' board.
4. I wanted to be able to enjoy my garden. That's where the cut into the bed comes in at the top, straight back from the door. I left enough space for two chairs and a table.

After my plan was set and Bobby said he thought it was a good plan too, we started building! This is the site:

Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies + Instagram

If you can't tell from the filter and frame of this photo, I've hopped on the Instagram bandwagon. I'll be publishing everyday life photos, works in progress for the shop, and other projects that I'm working on (my next big project is making a couple sofa tables). If you'd like to follow me, my screen name is harvestinghart.

Now, moving on to the cookies. These cookies are melt in your mouth delicious and so unbelievably easy to make. I made them for a potluck Tuesday, and I think people thought they were just circles cut from a roll of cookie dough. Should've made a sign .. Oh well. Now I have about eight of them left just for me! You can find the recipe on Paisley Jade's blog here. I follow this recipe by the book. It's so great.

Ann Arbor Artisan Market

If you live in the Ann Arbor area, the artisan market is a great place to see local artists and crafters every week. I've been setting up the last two Sundays and it's been a really great experience. Not only have all of the artists and customers I've encountered been friendly, but I'm also selling some things and getting to spend time with my sister. The Sunday Artisan Market is every Sunday from April through Christmas from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. in Kerrytown in Ann Arbor (where the farmers market sets up on Saturdays). I won't be there every Sunday, but if you like Harvesting Hart on Facebook, I'll be sure to post when I'll be at the market. I try to have new items there each week I'm there, and there are many items (earrings, bracelets, pins, hair bows, etc) that I don't have listed on Etsy yet. You can also like the artistan market here.

Chair Makeover - The Remaking a Curbside Chair for Under $20

So I drove by this chair sitting out by my neighbor's curb and absolutely loved it but had no space for a green chair (or any chair) in my house. After thinking about it for the evening, I decided I couldn't resist this freebie. It may have been the half bottle of wine, but I somehow convinced my husband to walk with me to get it. Here's what we picked up:

Cute, right? Once I got a closer look at it in the daylight, though, I just about completely regretted my decision of picking it up for a few reasons:

1. The vinyl was stained. No cleaning would get it off.

2. It was really dirty. There was no getting the dirt and nastiness out of the seams of the cushions. 

3. The bottom burlap was torn and the padding underneath clearly needed to be replaced.

4. There were spiders everywhere in the underside. Eeek!

I decided that I'd take a stab at recovering it. It doesn't have arms, which I thought would make it easier, and the frame seemed in good shape. If you're planning on recovering a chair, make sure it has a good foundation. This one had springs and I decided to keep them rather than switching to plywood since the springs looked okay. I took a lot of photos taking the chair apart to make sure I knew how to put it back together. I also made sure to keep the outside pieces in good shape to reuse them as a pattern.

Then I cleaned it with disinfecting soap and got all of the spiders and spiderwebs out of the underside. Yeesh, that was gross. I then let it dry, and primed and painted the wooden legs and back support a mint color from a paint sample. After those dried, I used an old burlap bag to cover the springs. This bag was free from a local coffee shop and was washed so it would shrink and not ravel as easily.  I purchased a couple yards of quilting batting from JoAnn's using a coupon for padding the chair. I stapled one layer of batting around all sides, used three layers for the seat, and two layers on the back support. It's turned out to be really comfortable. 

Making sure the cover would fit over the batting.

Then I used the old cover pieces to make the new cover by tracing them on the new fabric with a half inch seam allowance. The new cover is made from a 6'x9' painter's canvas drop cloth I bought from Lowe's for $10. I still have over half of it left for other projects too! Then my husband and I stretched and stapled the cover to the underside of the chair, covered the back and reattached the back to the chair. Here's how it turned out!

Before and after:

It's perfect in our living room and makes it seem more welcoming than before when we had just our gigantic sectional and one chair. I'm so excited to have this pretty chair in my space, and only for the cost of some batting and a drop cloth. 

On a side note, check out this sweet compound miter saw I found at a garage sale this weekend for $60. Barely used. Guess I have some projects to get started on!

Crochet Cushion from a Twin Sheet - Free Pattern

This project originally came from wanting to make a crocheted floor poof. I thought that a twin size sheet would totally make enough fabric yarn for something that big ... Wrong! It did, however, make enough yarn to make this 12" couch pillow/cushion. See below for instructions on how to cut the sheet and the pattern for you crocheters.

Free Cute U.S. Map Printable Download

I created this map to put pins in where I've made sales in my Etsy shop, but you could use it to mark places you've been, teach children (or adults!) the states, or frame it and use it as decor. Note that Alaska is shown at 50% scale because it's huge!

For printing, I took it to Office Max and had it printed on card stock for $0.70. If you have an inkjet printer, just watch your print margins and try it as "fit to page." Download here on Google Docs and enjoy!