welcome to here.

My front porch was looking a little sad recently. The three small Christmas trees bushes I planted back in December were LONG DEAD.  Like, if anyone had a match close to that porch, we'd have burned the house down. I had a pair of skis zip tied to the railing, and the light bulb in the front light fixture blew out. And I had a Christmas wreath still up. A Christmas wreath.

It was time for a change. I'm pinching pennies a little recently. I ended up quitting my job, and now I'm working part time at various places. While I absolutely LOVE IT, I still have to be wary of my spending. Especially since I just blew a ton of the money I didn't have on a family vacation. Which brings me to my latest craft to spruce shit up: DIY spring wreath making.

For my cheap supplies, I visited the local Dollar Tree. Seriously folks, if you need wreath supplies, don't go to JoAnn or Michael's, or even AC Moore. (I love those stores though, don't be mad at me craft stores, I'm only trying to create things cheaply.) I found a bird and some fake flowers, all for the staggering price of $2.16. (Philly tax, ya'll.) At home, I had a bunch of yarn left over from my Poofball Flowers and some Scrabble letters from who the f*%$ knows where. I found some foam in the basement. Plus I had wine. All of these things are magical. Here's what choo doo.

Step 1: Cut a wreath out of foam.
Step 2: Wrap the foam in yarn. This takes a while, so pour the wine and put Portlandia on Netflix. When you run out of that color, just keep going with another one because who cares?
Step 3: Adorn your wreath with cheap flowers, a bird, and Scrabble letters.
Step 4: Hang your wreath and marvel at the awesomeness it is.

signs for jumptown

Yesterday, boyfriend future husband asked me for a favor: If I could whip up a couple signs for the Jumptown Trail at Launch Bike Park. Stop looking for the trail on the map link, cause it ain't there quite yet folks. If you want to see the signs and some crazy DHer's in action, plan on joining them for the Gravity East Series this weekend at Launch, ya heard?!

Here's what we accomplished:

We did a little collaboration: Lou scoped out the garage and cut up a couple small pieces of plywood. One was 8x11 and two others were 6x14. He took care of sanding and priming, and sent me the text he wanted on the signs. So I went to work on Word 2010, just sizing and mixing up fonts. Nothing fancy, but the text we chose was effective and bold.

Now, here's a tip to save some time and frustration if you're looking paint text on signs: Make an investment in Sallys Graphite Transfer Paper. It will save you A LOT of time. I'm terrible at free-handing text. Drawing guide lines, centering text correctly... it's bullshit I say. BULLSHIT! Just print out your text, lay down a sheet of graphite paper, trace, admire and paint. BOOM. You done.

In about two hours last night, I had everything completely finished. It's nothing fancy, but if it saves a DHer from a gnarly OTB, then it's all worth it.

upcycled trash picker

Those who know me are aware of the fact that I love to trash pick. My dream would be to time travel to the 1980's, and scour through the trash of middle class America because let's face it: They'd be throwing away all their cool hand-me-downs from the 60's and 70's to buy Tupperwear and plastic EVERYTHING because that's just what'cha did at that time. Then I'd get back in my time machine and travel to 1990, so I could find Fraggle Rock memorabilia. But, since time travel isn't available quite yet, I settle for any opportunity that arises to save cool things from the ever growing trash heap.

Yesterday, I caught a co-worker throwing out an old coffee carafe because it had become cracked and gross. I don't blame him: That thing was indeed, cracked and gross. However, my little imaginative brain kicked into high gear, and images of the horrid coffee pot becoming a beautiful flower pot popped into my head. So I told him, "Why don't you let me take that home, so I can recycle it?" (a side note, our company does not have recycling, because they are evil.) AND RECYCLE I DID! Or to use my favorite Etsy term: I upcycled it. It's not my favorite term though. I hate it actually. At least Regretsy makes fun of people on Etsy for overusing it. But it fits, and so we shall press on.

I took Mr. Carafe home with me yesterday, and after a brief trip to Lowes for foliage and spray paint, I was on my way to creating my planty planter. One coat of primer, and two coats of red was all it took to make my little flowery dreams come true. I got this pretty little yellow flowering plant, and I'm so excited because it's a creeper, just like me.

Now if only I could find something to do with the rest of the crap I pick up from around town.