Fish Tank turned Terrarium - craft post

Hi Guys,

Today's post is pure 'craft' with very little (actually no) vintage.  Although I do promise to make a few references that people under 30 will have a hard time getting.

I have a few fish tanks around my house.  You never know when you will need to house a mouse or hamster or something else (to those that know me and my penchant for taking care of small furries, this will make perfect sense).  For those of you that want to play along at home,  you can usually find fish tanks at tag sales for under $10.    Tanks that have developed (water) leaks are also great to upcycle into Terrariums.

One thing I will mention if I haven't before - I am frugal when it comes to crafting. That is to say I don't like to buy anything new I don't have to. (up and up Yankee thriftness!)     At some point I will do a post about how I source some things for gardening without paying a lot, which may or may not end up being helpful.



1) Assemble your ingredients

• Drainage material (I used small white crushed stone )
• Charcoal - this helps with filtration and keeping the soil fresh
• Potting Soil  - should be self explanatory (though if you are planting cactii or succulents, you should get a soil suitable for those).
• Sheet moss (helps retain the moisture for the plants and prevent soil erosion)
• Plants & Decorations

"And Everyone wanted to get in the newspaper story about it..." (Arlo quote!)

So the above couple pictures are basically the kittehs checking out all the neat stuff I have assembled for this project.  Note, I am doing this in the middle of the living room rug, so have put a towel down to make things a little easier for cleanup.  Newspaper works well too,  but the cats tend to like to play (*read* shred) it.

2.  Creating the drainage layer.  - I used white crushed stone.  I had bought a few bags a couple of years ago and had half a bag still sitting around. I rinsed it a few times and soaked it overnight so as to remove any extra chalky residue and creepy crawlies that may have moved in while it was sitting around.

3.   Charcoal layer   - Sadly I forgot to get a picture of the charcoal layer, so imagine it in your head.

4.  Spread out the Potting Soil. ( Note the Quality Control Dachshund making sure I am doing it correctly.)  There should be a 3" to 5" layer of soil, at least deep enough to put the root balls of the plants you are planting in.  Note-  pack the soil down so there aren't any air bubbles.  This will keep the soil from settling too much later and exposing the plant roots.

5.  Figuring out the placement of the plants.   I left them in the pots and moved them around a bit til I felt I liked the arrangement and each plant had enough room.    The plants I chose for this terrarium are: Fancy leafed coleus, Polka dot plant, African violet, and Cock's comb.

6. Planting the plants - make sure they are spaced out enough so they have room to spread a little. You should have put enough soil down so that the root balls are not sticking above the soil level.

Investigating kitty

7.  I put sheet moss around the bases of the plants sort of sporadically. I have seen terrariums that have it covering the entire potting soil layer, but I didn't want to do that.  The sheet moss will help the plants retain moisture, as well as keep the soil from eroding down around the roots.

8. Decorate!   - Colored Gravel - you can categorize this under 'decorations'  I sprinkled some handfuls of colored aquarium gravel around because I thought it looked nice.

More Decorations - couple of plastic cows (Note the 'walking dead' cow on the left - Calvin (my dachshund) started chewing the cow's face before I realized what he was up to)

"A little Birdhouse in your soul..." (They Might Be Giants)

A small set of twinkle lights.  Yes, I am a sucker for twinkle/fairy lights and will add them to just about any craft I can.   I got this set at the dollar store - it is about 2 feet long and has a waterproof battery pack (takes (2) AA batteries)  so perfect for this environment.  (I taped them to the upper wall).

 The final masterpiece!  

Here is Lightning kitty relaxing on the top of the finished terrarium.   I had a screen top that goes with this size aquarium that I am using because well ...cats...plants..... 

Update - After about a 2 weeks, the cocks comb died.  The polka dot plants (there were 4 ind. plants in the container, and they were a little on the ragged side when I got them)  one of the 4 has also died.  The African Violet seems to be faring the best.   I think maybe I need to move the whole terrarium to where it gets a little more light.

Thanks for reading!

xo Yvonne

Is it August already?

I begin by apologizing now for the length of time it has been since my last posting.  I don't know if I have any regular readers, or if most people just happen across my site from other blogs or random internet searches.

Part of the issue was that I moved my computer to my daughter's room earlier this year (mine was better & faster than her laptop, and we were making a foray into the wonderful world of homeshcooling)  but then she discovered Minecraft.... so when she wasn't doing her coursework, she was adventuring with her friends; digging, mining, building, fighting Cave Spiders and Creepers.   I think anyone who knows about this game will understand.   Unfortunately, I never saw my computer again :(
I have been using her laptop, but it doesn't have the same 'feel' so I find that I am not as creative on it, hence the lack of posting.  So what have we been doing with ourselves the past couple of months?

• Some Home Improvement
• Anime Boston 2013
• Vintage clothing shopping in Boston
• Summer camps
• Baby kittehs!

Home Improvement

So first, my old living room curtains were tattered & torn (much thanks to doggies sitting at the window pawing at them, and kitties running up and down them)     I found this really lovely fabric with birds and butterflies (I am a nut for natural themed things) -

"It's Curtains for ya, Rocky! Curtains!"  (Bugs Bunny)

And Voila!    I am really in love with this fabric.  I got it at JoAnn's Fabrics,  and I think this is one of a family of fabrics (if that's what you call them?   Series maybe? ) Anyway, there are other fabrics that go with this one....so I may decide to do some accent pillows or slipcovers or something.

more Bathroom paint

Bathroom painted

The other project undertook was cleaning out and painting the bathroom.   This project is not yet completed, although we got a good deal of the clutter out;  cleaned and mildew-primed the walls and ceiling; and got the walls mostly painted.   I am  planning on erecting some sort of shelving unit (the old one was falling apart so my daughter had a lovely time dismantling it).   We chose a really pretty lilac for the paint color.   I also still need to make curtains for the window, though I'm really undecided about the fabric. I thought a complex pattern with a lot going on (like the fabric for the living room ones)  wouldn't be good for such a small space.  I saw some fabric that was a white background, had sort of caricature lines depicting trees, and owls dotted among the trees.  Although I did like the fabric,  I'm not sure it really goes with anything in the bathroom though.  Suggestions anyone?


Anime Boston 2013

Last year Anime Boston was a mother-daughter trip. It fell right around Autumn's birthday so we made a special weekend out of it - stayed in a fancy hotel and ordered room service.  This year, the convention was a month later, and Autumn got an invite to spend the weekend with a friend who lives right outside the city, and was having several other of their friends stay too (sleepover!)  So this year I didn't go with :(  but Autumn had a great time and got to see many of her friends that she only sees once or twice a year at the conventions.
This year Autumn was Aradia from Homestuck.  I'm proud to say she did the entire cosplay herself

Horns         (ordered from a party store online, she attached them with heavy duty glue to a headband)
T-shirt        (basic black one from Wal-Mart, fabric painted design)
skirt           (second hand long gray one ordered on ebay, we shortened & hemmed it)
Arm socks (gray tights from Target, she found instructions on how to modify them on the 'net to make them into armsocks)  This was a    last minute cosplay change,  she originally planned to use the same gray make-up on her arms as she had on her face.  But                      it didn't look a smooth, especially in the elbow crease,  and kept getting gray dust all over the rest of the clothing.
Tube Socks        (Hot topic)
Gray Make-up   (theatrical make-up from a local art supply store)  

Peter & I went up on Sunday (last day of the con) to pick her up, and spent a few hours vintage clothes shopping in Boston.  We found a few neat new places, but I want to do a separate post on that so as to give it justice as some of the places were faboo!


Summer Camps

Autumn went to a Youth Group camp sponsored by one of the local churches along with a few of her closest friends.  It was near Mount Monadnock in NH. She had a great time, they did team exercises and swimming and stuff. (sorry, I haven't got any pictures of this, you will just have to imagine a blue haired girl taking NH by storm)

Peter went to Boy Scout Camp at Camp Yawgoog in RI.  He has also been working on his Eagle Scout project this summer.

Peter at the Dining Hall

New Additions to the family

Et finalement, nous avons les petits chats noirs maintenant!

By way of one of the kids' friends who has a friend whom she visited in Tennessee,  3 baby kittens made their way back (via plane then bus ride).   We got 2,  their friend kept the other one.
This is Princess Kashi and Mama Cass.   (Mama Cass has a little crimp in her ear and a little white fur under her arms, Princess Kashi also seems to have a deeper 'meow')   I'm sure to tell you more about them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Warner Cat Brooch

In the fifties the space age was upon us. To commemorate that, there were fins everywhere in design and decoration to pay homage to the rockets that would take us to explore the final frontier.

Something else that could be found in many places in the fifties: Cats...
cats eye glasses, kitty cat clocks, cat jewelry...

Secret cat plot to take over the world? Could very well be.

(quote attributed to Terry Pratchett-
Chicken Soup for the Soul)

When I was little, my grandmother gave me some costume jewelry.  Among the pieces were a couple of cat pins.    One was a flat metal Siamese looking one, looked something like the one here, but it was a gray color and not in relief.  I wore it frequently as an accessory in High School, and subsequently it got lost :(

The other one was a little bulkier and I always thought a little big to be worn regularly (being as shy as I was,  I didn't like having much attention drawn to myself either)

It measures about 2 inches, has many faceted rhinestones that make up it's body and head. A single black rhinestone for one eye and nose, Three little gold whiskers on either side of its nose, and one single whisker wrapped whimsically around the eye.   It also has a small row of clear rhinestones for the collar and one on the tip of its tail.  

       

So it sat in my jewelry box for the most part.... And then one day I decided to see if I could find out anything about it.   I did some descriptive searches and found that very interestingly, it was made by the Joseph Warner Jewelry company.

The J.Warner Jewelry Co. was in business between 1953 and 1971.  He did mostly rhinestone work it seems, floral, fruit, insect designs, plus a few Christmas trees. And cats, lots and lots of cats.   Because the pieces are rare and of a higher quality and fine workmanship than others of that time period, they are highly collectible.  Many of the pieces incorporate a technique called 'japanning' which is a process derived from coal tar that they blacken the metal with.  The pieces have a 'Warner' stamp on the back. (on mine it can be found in tiny letters on one of the ear welds)

Here are some other examples of his pieces that I found around the internet:

Pink Ducky (ebay)

Okay, so I lied, there are a few Duck pins too.

Cat Head pin (ebay)

Yellow cat brooch (ebay)

Clear Rhinestone kitty

 So it seems many of the pins/brooches I found
are just of floating kitty heads, and a few that have the bodies are a single large stone, or no eyes or nose...not quite as pretty I think.

Here are some examples of his insects...

a  green butterfly, and a stunning blue beetle

Butterfly pin (ebay)

 

Light blue beetle (ebay)

This is an example of the japanned metal on these fruit pieces:

Strawberry pin (Etsy)

Pear Brooch & Earring set (Etsy)

and Christmas trees!

Christmas tree (ebay)

Christmas tree (Etsy)

So finding the history of the pin my Grandmother gave me makes me love it even more.   Do you have a favorite jewelry item?  How did you come about it and why is it special to you?

Thanks for reading!


Note: I found information in the following sources for the history of the Joseph Warner Jewelry company:

http://jacksonjewels.com/Reference/Jewelry_Companies_U-Z.htm

http://imageevent.com/thejewelryring/cowwarnerjewelry/