Wood Burning Stage 1

While we were waiting on the load of soil to get here, I had been looking at our little garden boxes thinking… creating… grinning.. aha remembering that I had that wood burning pen I’d never even TRIED!

So without knowing how I’d like doing it at ALL, I made the decision. I’d put quotes and flowers and decorate those boxes ALLLL UP. I jumped online and listed quote after quote.. decided how many I’d start with (in case I hated doing any of it). I printed and cut out 16 quotes and headed out armed with one of my thick graphite sketch pencils.

Stage 1

Wood Burning Stage 1 Closeup

I laid out all of the quotes. I placed four quotes on each box in the first row of the garden. I placed the remaining four down the center aisle. After switching them around to get the order I wanted, I began placing smallish rocks on all the corners to hold them down. I grabbed one of my daughter’s play mats and covered it with a sheet and sat down to work.

Stage 2

Wood Burning Stage 2

I began with the last word of the quote. Using my pencil, I’d press down onto the paper and trace the word. I learned with each word that the wood is different in texture AND hardness. Sometimes the wood would be soft and the pencil would glide into the wood and leave a good groove. At othertimes, it was necessary to press really hard in one or two spots and then freehand the letter out.

I could have used my own writing, but I’m not crazy about my writing. I wanted all of the words to be uniform and the same writing. So I chose a handwriting font from KevenAndAmanda.Com’s Font For Peas. They have a load of handwriting fonts to choose from and I had downloaded a couple I liked long ago.

After each word was traced on, I would tear off the paper and get it out of the way. This made it easier to lift and check the word I was working.

Wood Burning Stage 2

On the corners, I freehanded a little flower around the center nail head. From the flower I drew swirly vines with little leaves coming off each one. Because flowers are awesome and imperfect, I had no worries about differently spaced nails, different shaped petals, none of the above applied!

It took a couple of mornings to complete. The only mistake I made was in the size rocks I chose for pinning down the quotes. The winds picked up that first afternoon and the little rocks I’d used were virtually useless. So I spent some time running and chasing quotes and replacing all the rocks with bigger ones as well as placing a third in the middle. This time it held fine until the next morning.

Stage 3

Wood Burning Stage 3

I began burning off my traced images with my wood burning pen that I picked up last summer for about ten dollars at Walmart. It was a spur of the moment purchase with a craft project in mind that never came to pass. So it’s laid unopened for a year on my shelf.

Wood Burning Stage 3

Now that I’ve started using it, I love it! Instant gratification! I chose the large round tip and will be doing nothing more than what you see. A sharp clear line that fleshes out my little sketch line.

Tadaa!!! Okay, so that’s it. Easy as pie (if a little time consuming) project to dress up your garden area… just wait till I get the pergola in and burn it off as well!!

Lately whenever I see something that was once a plain piece of paper or a plain plastic bottle or wrapper, or a metal can turned pretty… I find myself singing ‘take a sad song… and make it better’. That’s what recycling or upcycling is all about. Some people have this amazing ability to see what something can be as opposed to what it is. I’ve made paper beads and paper bowls and various other paper crafts… I never thought of bracelets from plastic grocery bags.. that’s brilliant and I’ve no idea how they accomplished that!
The pictures truly speak for themselves. Just loads and loads of creativity out there to be found.
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Seedlings 2009

During the early spring, I decided I wanted to raise a garden this year. It will be my first garden ever. I started seeds indoors. I figure if I’m going to raise it, I might as well try it from the ground up literally. The price difference is also radically different to start your own or to buy plants. So above you’ll see the seedlings in their first couple of weeks.

Raised Garden Beds
Raised Garden Beds

After making this decision, I decided to read up and learn more about gardens. The one thing I found I loved more than anything was the square foot gardening layouts. According to the Square Foot Gardening method, one 4×4 box (which is what size all nine of mine are) replaces a regular garden that is 8×10.

The 4×4 boxes are planted in grids. If plants are to be 12 inches apart, one per square foot in the box. But, if they are 6 inches apart, the individual grid is broken up further.

Depending on the mature size of the plant, grow 1, 4, 9, or 16 equally spaced plants per square foot. If the seed packet recommends plant spacing be 12 inches apart, plant one plant per square foot. If 6 inch spacing; 4 per square foot. If 4 inch spacing; 9 per square foot. If 3 inch spacing; 16 per square foot.

Square Foot Gardening

The one thing that I’m not following with them is the composting mixture used in place of soil. I realize it’s easier but it’s also much more expensive for the size garden I’m using. Expense is something I can’t afford to overlook being a work at home mother on a very limited income. The cost of the garden beds themselves, my mother and I split the cost since the outcome will benefit us both.

You can see in the one picture that the layout of the garden is right off the side of my house. We left enough room between the garden and house for me to build a flower bed next to the house and create the walkway that will blend into the garden walkways overtime.

The front edge of the garden itself is in line with the edge of the house. The porch is six foot wide and once I have my stairs built they will come off of that edge with you walking right in front of the garden. Next year I’ll be adding a pergola in front of the garden.

Anyhow, the garden beds are ongoing (yes, I know it’s a bit late for planting which is why the plants are in pots and being transplanted as they grow). Today we have four more beds to drill and nail down with the largest nails I’ve ever used. They’re really cool nails. Maybe I’ll have a couple left and I can incorporate them into something decorative to show them off. We shall see!

Morning Glory Transplants

Every day Kaitlynn and I go outdoors to ‘play’. I work, she plays. Her idea of playing sometimes is doing exactly or as close to what I am doing as she can get. Yesterday I wanted to finish up with the transplanting of my vegetable plants and morning glories, I was not surprised when I lost the argument before going outdoors as to what shoes she would wear.

Elegant Gardner

So she won of course, and outside we went with her high heels clomping around beneath her. She loves her princess shoes! They don’t slow her down either. She began the day with watering every little weed she could find.

Elegant Gardner

She was quite proud of herself and so was I. She’s such a great kid, she loves to ‘help’ and to try to do anything I’m doing. It doesn’t really seem to matter if it’s cleaning, writing, planting, painting, or even yesterday when we were putting together the flower beds.

Planting a Pepper
Planting A Pepper 2
Planting A Pepper 3

I helped her along to plant a bell pepper plant, and by the end she was feeling her wheaties! When I watch her or help her, I just can’t figure out how I ever lived without her. The earth truly revolves around her for me, as does my life. She’s a continual source of inspiration.

In all my life, I would have never dreamed of a house like these. The first one and the last are the two that I’m not sure I’d even be able to WALK next to much less live in. I would forever be afraid it really would just fall right on over!
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Upside Down House of  Daniel Czapiewski (8)  5
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Norman Johnson's Upside-Down House.
Japanese Upside-Down House
Other Upside-Down Houses (4) 1
Other Upside-Down Houses (4) 2
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