DIY repurposed herb planters

Over the course of the past week my friend Aaron and I (you can check him out here!) have been transforming tea tins into herb planters. These are a few that he had previously made in action.

To get started you will need:

• Tea tins, we chose to use Tazo's full leaf tins
• Drill
• Screws, we used wood screws because they seem to work better
• Screwdriver
• Strong Stik, available at Home Depot

The first thing you'll do is drill eight holes into the bottom of your tea tin. One in each corner where you will later add screws and four in the center for drainage.

    

Next, use your handy-dandy screwdriver to add screws to each corner of your tin. We eyeballed ours but left roughly an inch of the screws out so they could act as feet to attach the drip tray.

 

Once your screws are in place, use the strong stik to reinforce the them. We left ours to dry overnight but the glue should be solid within 90 minutes.

Dab a bit of strong stik on the end of each screw and gently set the tin on top of the lid to create a drip tray. Play the waiting game for a bit longer and ta-da, your planters are all done!!

Now it’s time to get creative and decorate your new indoor garden!! For our tins we started by taping off the top and bottom, then we gave each tin a few coats of Krylon Chalkboard paint (be sure not to spray too close or you will get some weird drippage!)

Let dry, remove tape, and chalk it up!!

A big thank you to Aaron for sharing this project with me, helping me make my own, and manning the drill the majority of the time!

Weekend thrifting

I know it's only Thursday... but I'm considering today and tomorrow my weekend since I'll be working (lame) the actual one.

The good news is, everything is unpacked! It took two weeks, but I've said goodbye to the boxes and it's a relief. The bad news... while I love our spacious digs, we have a lot of open space to fill. With this in mind I headed to The Salvation Army to try and find some inexpensive furniture. I fell in love with an end table (which I am going to pick up later today) but other than that I found few smaller items that I think will fit in around here.

Love this glass bottle and matching stopper. I was just talking about how I wanted some of these... first piece in my soon to be collection?!

Simple serving tray in great condition and a yellow "coffee" jar!

So, what's next? Well... my friend Aaron recently made an herb planter out of a repurposed tea tin and then made this fantastic timelapse video (isn't watching something grow magical?) This week he has been helping me to create my own and tomorrow we are painting and putting the finishing touches on the tins. I'm excited to share the finished product with everyone!

Ombre' love

We haz interwebs again! Hooray!

I did manage to make good use of my time without it though.... TA-DA!

Everywhere I look I see this ombre' trend... like here, here, and here! (Can't wait to make a couple of those embroidery samplers!) I even noticed new ombre' decor walking past Urban Outfitters the other day. It's all over the place, and I love it.

Our washroom was in need of a little color so we picked out an aqua colored bathmat and some matching hand towels... then I decided to take it a little further with some fun, ombre', open storage!

I had two old milk crates laying around, picked up some spray paint last time I left town (can't buy it in Chicago, what a pain) then spent some time painting!

After making sure all the dust as dirt was off the crates, I gave them a quick coat of primer. Using a Krylon gloss paint color, Global Blue, I painted the a little more than the bottom third of the crates. The nozzles on these cans were perfect for my project (so many tiny spaces) because they rotate around so you can paint at any angle! I let my first color dry for a few hours then moved on to Blue Ocean Breeze. After going through the same process I moved on to plain ol' white.

I let everything dry overnight and then gave it a quick wipe down with a damp rag. Zip-ties are a simple solution for holding it together, and after being trimmed and painted they are pretty much invisible. 

I'm quite happy with how it turned out and really glad I was able to repurpose the milk crates which were previously an eyesore! I will say that next time I paint plastic I'll be sure to get this product instead (my bad) which doesn't require the coat of primer and bonds to the surface better.

Anyways, I found out a ton of kids live in our new neighborhood...

...which means the ice cream truck frequently roams the streets. I'm truly looking forward to a summer full of waffle cones. Yum!

Flea Market Fun

The past few days have been a blur... but we did it! I'm actually writing this post from "The Blakewood" (our old apartment where three of our good friends are now living) because the internet isn't up at the new place. But anyways, I wanted to give everyone a quick recap of the week.

This past wednesday I met my parents roughly half way from their home in Indiana at a flea market my mom sells at weekly. My plan was to pick up a few chairs that I had at home, but I ended up walking around the flea market and finding some great stuff...

...like this vintage globe that lights up! One of the vendors was packing up and this beauty was one of the last items left on the table. He gave me a huge discount, and I couldn't say no! I also found a rug for the kitchen and some other utensils that we were in desperate need of.

Also, can we just talk about how cute my mom is?!

My mom, Joy, and my aunt, Cheryl started a company called 2 Sister's Glass Garden. They create glass topiaries out of found glass and build solar sticks for them sit them on. I think they are precious, but unfortunately I don't have a yard to display them in... wamp, wamp.

Although I wasn't able to take home one of the topiaries, my momma did give me this beautiful necklace that she cut out of a plate!

She has always been such a crafty and clever woman. Growing up there was always some kind of project or craft going on in my house, so I have always been submersed in a DIY environment. I've watched her build ponds and patios, create stained glass pieces, etch glass, and so much more... but most importantly she always managed to turn our house into a beautiful home. I'm getting a bit sentimental writing this, but she inspires me so much!

Anyways, like I said, we did it! I can't wait to start finding a home for everything... though it may be tough to locate things when I find boxes labeled like this-

Wish me luck!