Homemade Clay Craft - Penguin Project to do with Kids

I wanted to make some little penguins  so I bought some clay and started modeling the little guys.

Here's how to do it.

First buy some clay at your local craft or hobby shop.

Make sure you get the clay you can bake and not the remoldable clay - which doesn't harden and can always be squished back into a pile of clay.

Then make a pear shaped object out of your clay.

After you've made the pear shaped object, cut out some wings and stick them on the sides.

After you have the wings, you need eyes, feet and a beak.

Stick the beak, feet and eyes on to the pear shaped figure. Rub them into the figure at the connections. Then bake the little guy - per  directions on the clay package.

When he is finished baking, add a little paint or you can use markers.

Before you bake him, you can smooth him a bit. I accidently made indentations in his  body with my fingernails.

I think this little guy is cute but I want to practice a bit so I can make a little penguin pond in my garden ;D I think kids  walking past my little "pond" will think it's fun. 

Fairy Gardens

I've always wanted a Fairy Garden...so I decided to make one 

Or two...

Here's how I did it:

First I grabbed a broken ceramic pot that my dog knocked off the porch when she ran past it. And I began painting it using a gold acrylic paint. When I was done painting, I started gluing...

I glued some moss and little garden-like embellishments all over the pot. Next I  painted the chipped-off piece yellow. Then I took an old  button and sewed a bead on the  button and glued it to the chipped piece because I thought this would make a perfect doorknob. I glued the "door" back onto the pot using a strong epoxy glue.

Then I used my handy-dandy hot glue gun to make a wreath to hang over the door.

I hung the welcome wreath over the door but I still wasn't finished. 

I also painted some windows on the sides and glued more moss onto the "house". 

I thought it turned out really cute but I'm not finished yet.

I also made a birdcage fairy house to hang on a post.

Now all I have to do is find a nice spot in the garden for these tiny homes. 

Cheap Garden Trellis You Can Make at Home

If you've ever wanted to make a beautiful but inexpensive trellis for your garden, here's how you to do it: 

Homemade Perfume from Flowers and Herbs from my Garden

Have you ever wanted to create your own perfumes or stylized scents?

 I have. And I've always loved the aromas of flowers cut fresh from my garden.  Hyacinths in the spring are hard to beat. With their sweet and spicy scents that are overpoweringly pungent - you'll have to love or hate them.

And the wild hyacinths grow like weeds around here. I just love the pretty blue bells. But lilacs are my favorite with their sweet floral notes and soft hints of vanilla. So of course, I have  them all in my garden. And, I thought why not make my own liquid floral scents?

Here's how to do it:

1.  Picking blossoms for perfume is just like picking grapes for wine or berries for jam, pick them early in the morning when the oils, flavors and juices are at their peak of perfection. Blooms just getting ready to open hold  the richest most powerful fragrance. Blossoms that have already bloomed are already losing their aroma.
2. Pick the petals from the flowers and put them in a zip-lock storage bag then lightly tamp the petals with a rubber mallet to stimulate the petals, which will make them release their oils.
3.  Put the petals in a mason  jar and cover with oil. You can use any oil (including olive) but you might prefer the sweet nutty aroma of almond oil mixing with the floral scents. Shake the jar to mix the oil around.
4.  Put the jar in a sunny spot to give the petals plenty of time to soak in the oil--24 hours is best. Then shake  the contents gently and strain the petals with cheesecloth. Toss the old petals, unless you want to let them dryout in a cool, dark location.
5. Pick  new petals and follow the  procedures above--only cover the petals with the previously used oil. Repeat  this procedure for 3-5 days or until you've achieved the fragrance you enjoy.
6. Keep your mason jar filled with  oil in a  cool, dry location. Feel free to use your freshly created fragrance as a perfume.

And, if you make  some perfume of your own, please tell me about it. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.  Kim

DIY Garden Trellis - Homemade Garden Accessories

If you've ever wanted to create your own custom Garden Trellis, here's the way to do it.

If you have any questions, please let us know. Lars would be happy to answer any questions.

Plus, if you make a garden trellis, please share your story below in the  comments.

Happy Gardening!

From Kim and Lars

Do You Remember Door Dashing?

Kids used to knock on the doors of their neighbors and then dash away. It was called Door-Dashing or Ding Dong Ditch - do you remember it?

Well, our family did it, like most things, only differently - especially on May 1st.

We'd make May Baskets and hang them on the  neighbors' doors. Then we'd knock on the door and dash away. We'd  usually hide somewhere and watch what happened when they found a basket - or cone - filled with flowers hanging on their doorknobs. That was they way Mom taught us to celebrate the  beginning of spring. 

May Day has been celebrated for centuries as the time of festivals to herald the beginning of spring and what better way to celebrate spring than with a basket (or cone) of flowers?

Here's how I used to make these little gifts to give to friends and neighbors.

I hope you have a bloom-filled May Day!

And, if you make any of these May Day baskets,  or if you remember the tradition of  hanging them on the doorknobs or neighbors,  please share in the comments below.

DIY Victory Garden

Victory Gardens were a common sight during World War I and World War II. They were started to help supplement rations and keep up morale. 

And, gardening can be more than useful. It can be fun.  Plus, you can have your kids help you create this garden and even start it inside the house using old plastic pop bottles, as makeshift greenhouses.

Homemade Greenhouses

Seeing herbs, vegetables and fruits, you've planted from cuttings and seeds, sprout and bloom is thrilling to watch.

Victory Gardens were also called Food Gardens or War Gardens. And since this historical pandemic is a World Wide War against the Coronavirus or Covid-19,  I think it can’t hurt to have some extra food in our own yards. 

Most of us who live in a big city, have already experienced some shortages at local grocery stores,  such as flour, sugar, yeast, and  toilet paper. So, although we  might not be able to do much to stop the toilet paper shortages, we can try to limit some of our own food shortages—at least during the spring, summer and fall by being a little proactive and starting our own small Victory Gardens and by preparing our own jellies, jams, and preserves.

So, I thought I’d share some tricks, tips and ideas I’ve been using to create my own personal Victory Garden. I live in a big city, on a small city lot, but I've found ways to grow-up rather than to grow-across a wide area. And, if you live in an apartment, you can grow plants in pots and out on balconies, or in shared spaces. Some cities even have community gardens, where you can share a plot of land to garden on.

I’m hoping these ideas might help other people build their own Victory Gardens.

Here is a small list of recommendations:

•  Don't waste food.
• When you have food that starts to spoil, such as potatoes, onions, beets, etc. think about whether or not you can take a cutting from the vegetable and plant it out in your garden. 
• You can use old wood to make stakes, trellises and tomato cages to grow your plants up toward the sky.
  

This is the top of a  potato I cut off, while I was preparing a pot of potatoes for dinner. I simply stuck some bamboo skewers in the cutting and placed it in a cup of water. The raw edge of the potato barely touched the water (using a type of hydroponic gardening) or gardening without having the plant in soil. Usually people amend the water (or enrich it with nutrient mineral solutions), when they hydroponically garden. But, I simply placed my potato cutting in a little water inside a coffee mug. Then I watched it grow.

Some people have simply planted rotting potatoes and had a lot of success that way.

I'm hoping you'll try this because it's one way to help stretch your food budget and keep your food supply within reach.

And, if you try your hand at a Victory Garden, please let me know. I'd love to hear how you do.

I’m also planning to share some of my successes and failures growing my own sour dough starters. Sour Dough starters can help you always have access to bread, even if the store is out of yeast or bags of bread. :D