We Love this Re-purposed Flower Container

Tad has outgrown his "turtle sandbox" and I couldn't bare to toss it out. Since it was located at the edge of my garden behind the fence. It's the one I like to call my secret garden even though everyone who comes to a plant sale sees it. Anyway, It was the perfect place for a little rock garden. All I had to do was mix some potting soil mix into the existing sand and it was the perfect mix for sedum. I planted several kinds among the stones I had gathered the last time I went to mom's creek. The center seemed a good place for a strawberry crock full of Hens and Chicks.

We all loved it - even Tad, Well, after seeing it all fixed up different, he did want to run his trucks around in it one more time... no no!

Earth Day from a Child's Perspective

Happy Earth Day! To celebrate the day, my town is holding a "Clean Up Main Street" event next weekend. To promote the event, they asked children to create posters using whatever design and text they seemed fit. I just spent the last hour walking through town admiring all the posters with my children, while my 5 year old took pictures of them. He learned about Earth Day in his kindergarten class and was telling me how important it was to pick up garbage, recycle and turn off lights when we are not in the room. It was too cute but I love that he's being taught the importance of keeping our earth green at such a young age.

So in honor of Earth Day, here are few of the posters we found in town. I hope they inspire and delight you as much as they did us.

MY DIY SUET GUARD

If you have read my blog for a while you will know that I feed the birds and even grow meal worms in our art studio for the blue birds. For that how to click here but be sure to come back. This week I decided it would be fun to have some peanut butter suet near the window so we could see the woodpeckers and blue birds up close. I knew from past experience that they can be quite messy... slinging suet all over the window and figured the parts that they dropped on the deck would attract ants too. I wanted a tray to catch the crumbs. The first thing I tried was a bakery cake clear top from a birthday cake I purchased. It worked well until a Downy Woodpecker got in it and could not climb out! I turned him loose and went to plan B. Bill remembered the little salad containers we saved from Wendy's take home so I got the lid from one of those, heated an ice pick on my stove burner and melted a hole in each of the four corners. Next I tied jute twine into the holes and tied them all together at the top to make a way to suspend the little tray under the suet. It works great as you can see from the picture above.  here's a closer view:  Next week I'll tell you about the butterflies you see on my door glass.