How-To: Soda Bottle Drainage System

This is my second How-To Video, although the first one for THIS blog.

You'll need a soda bottle, a flower pot and sharp knife.  And of course, potting soil and the plant you want to pot.

Please be careful with the knife, I don't pretend I practiced good knife safety in the video, but you should anyway!  It's tough to cut something elevated enough to be in frame and also facing away from you.

Enjoy!

Hanging Gardens of My Kitchen

I've always wanted an window garden in my kitchen.  Grow a few herbs (this was before I realized I'm apparently incapable of growing herbs indoors) or maybe some tiny little succulents like aloe or hen and chicks.

THE PROBLEM:

I have one window with a good sill in my kitchen, and I have cats.  Who love the window sill.  Desperately.  And who are about as graceful as a dumptruck.

I figured my window garden was doomed.  Years ago, I had some plants on a little tray table in my apartment, and I was constantly picking the pots up from the floor.  I assumed this would be, if anything, even worse.

Then I saw a friend link to this list on Buzzfeed.com and the wheels starting turning.  It's all about small space and container gardens for not a lot of money.

THE SOLUTION:

Hanging window garden!

I don't have the plants yet, because apparently I'm crazy and you can't buy succulents at Lowe's in January, but otherwise I'm ready to go.

Total cost out of pocket = $16

• painted tin buckets - $4 at Target ($1 each)
• 7/8" dowel rod - $2.50 at Michaels
• curtain rod brackets - $6 at Bed Bath and Beyond (clearanced for $2.99 each)
• cactus soil - $3 at Lowe's (markdown for torn open bag)
• jute twine - was already laying around the house

Just need the valance/cafe curtains on the window and the plants for my buckets and I finally have my kitchen garden!

Laundry Day!

So everybody and their brother has a trick to keep your whites whiter,  and we all know, some of the work and some of them don't.  There's bleach, which works, but doesn't smell that great (unless you're my mom) and an assortment of whitener/brightners that work to varying degrees.  The Rit one pretty well, but it can be hard to find sometimes.

But what about your blacks?  How do you keep your blacks blacker?

Ooh!  I know!

More Rit Dye!  This is all you need:

1 pack Black Rit Dye
1/2 your usual amount of detergent
1 cup of white vinegar
a pile of faded black clothes.

Add your laundry and detergent the way you always do.  Then add the whole pack of dye and the cup of vinegar to the washtub.   Run through on a regular wash cycle, plus an extra rinse to get the excess dye out of your clothes and any residue out of your washing machine.

If any dye residue still remains in the washing machine, run a load with bleach, but no actual laundry, but I've only had this happen once, and it was when our old washer was acting up.

This can also be used for adding blue back into fading jeans or for re-dying and changing the color of items.  Changing a color altogether may take twice through with dye, but it depends on how dramatic a change you're going for.

Enjoy!