Best of Three

Goodness, but I've been very Tinkly lately with all of these posts!


What makes today's post the "Best of Three?" Well, in this one post I will showcase all three of my main categories in a cohesive way. This is the Tinkling of Bells mystical planetary alignment!


#1: Fartsy

This gorgeous fabric print was designed by Jessica Jones at "How About Orange." I love this site and I love this fabric. You can buy this fabric at....

#2: Buy
J Caroline Creative. I love this shop. Not only do they have some loverly fabrics, but they also have tutorials. In one of their tutorials, they have...

#3: Carp

Yep, groovy bins (I adore storage). Made with Jessica's Modern Flora fabric.

This worked out so well, I'm going to declare today a ToB's holiday. Every year on this date -- wait, it's leap year?!? Crud. Nevermind.

Lovely Rot

This is a picture of my kitchen compost caddy contents. I have two giant compost bins outside, and this caddy collects a whole pile of things until I'm ready to brave the elements and dump my organic waste in the bin. But up until recently, I never used it. During the time it would take to fill the caddy, the contents would grow gross and slimy and furry. Emptying the caddy bcame this huge job that involved me scrubbing out nasty things that had melded to the side. So I stopped using it.

And then I found biodegradable bin liners. Actually, I had tried one before but thought it was stupid to waste my money on them. No longer stupid. These look just like a plastic bag. They are waterproof (and furry fruit proof) for a few weeks, and when the caddy is full, I just bag up the contents and drop the whole thing in the compost bin. Hey presto! They're actually made of a starch and within 6 weeks, the bag has become part of the composting process.

In the UK, I've used Greenfingers for all of my composting needs. However, Lakeland has the best prices.
In the US, I've found two possible sites: Ecosafe and EcoProducts
If anyone finds these bags at your local shops (US or UK), let me know in the comments section. I absolutely love the ease they bring to composting.

Recipe for Good Eating

I know. I have a different blog for the sharing of recipes. But those are for food. This is a recipe for dirt. My best pal Dana called asking for this recipe (as we normally exchange the normal kind, this seemed completely natural). So here I'm going to share it with you:

Container Soil and Seed Starter:

• 2 gallons garden soil
• 2 gallons vermiculite
• 2 gallons shredded peat moss
• 2 Tablespoons garden lime
• 10 Tablespoons bonemeal
• 10 Tablespoons bloodmeal
• 5 Tablespoons greensand

Mix on a big tarp with a shovel or dump everything in a 10-gallon garbage can, attach the lid, and roll the thing around until everything is mixed. I like the bin/bucket method and I add enough water to make it moist. You'll find this useful when you use it as if it's dry, it's hard to water it in the container. This is organic/chemical-free.

Next: JennyB's Seedling Cups

• 1 pack of 4-inch tall paper cups (the waxed kind - Dixie)
• 1 3-pack of aluminum, disposable cookie sheets (found in the foil secton, next to the paper cups)

1. Take a utility knife and cut an X in the bottom of the cup. Do this to as many cups as you want or will fill your cookie sheets (this is about 12 per sheet for me). The bottom will stay intact as you next scoop up a cupful of moist soil. Plant your seeds in the cups, arrange the cups on the cookie sheet, and then cover them with cling film. Water when the soil beginsto dry out or when the seeds germinate (whichever comes first) by filling the cookie sheet with water. Never water directly into the cup/soil.
2. When your seedlings are ready to go into the ground, take a spade or a bulb-planter (the perfect tool for this), dig a cup-sized hole, and plant the whole thing, cup and all. The cup will disintergrate during the growing season, and the X in the bottom will encourage the roots to grow downward.

Ode to Google

I love Google. I have had a gmail account since 2004 when it was by private invitation only. If there is a Google version of an application, I use it. My webpage has been an iGoogle page since it was released out of beta (technically, Google never comes of out Beta).

One of the things that I use on a nearly daily basis is Google Maps. In addition to the maps, I like to look at the satellite view, or cruise around on Google Earth. Occasionally, when the satellite was taking its shots, some clever things were found:
Gazelles leaping.
View Larger Map
Hippos wallowing, and a dead one being eaten by vultures.
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A plane in the very moment that it is looping the loop.
View Larger Map

On this premise of things caught by the cameras, Australian art studio Cream created some manipulated satellite images for a show called "God's Eye View" which I found really interesting (except for "Eden" which was not very clever, really, so I haven't showcased it here).