No. 36 Car Seat Covers

Making car seat covers is one of craft projects that I would like to start very soon.
This summer, I went for hiking a lot, and every time when I got into my car, I thought, “Gee, I should have a seat cover.” After taking a hard walk, I became very sweaty, and, the car seat might be absorbing great amount of my sweat. My husband says, “Smell like roses to me,” but, to be honest, I have a concern that my car might smell like a wet dog driving.
I have found a book, Victoria Romantic Touches by Gillian Haslam(Hearst Books, 2004), from whose chair cover projects, I could get a good idea how I would make car seat covers.
I am very excited that I have already found several vintage sweet floral print sheets and pillow cases that could make pretty car seat covers like the one attached above.

No. 35 Applying Sink Drain Nets to Kitchen and Bathrooms

Covering sink drains with an old style simple net was one of the best things that I had started to do. I applied the nets to the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink and the bath tub. The nets collect the garbage very well and it is so easy to clean up them.
Regarding the bathroom sink that I had a drainage problem, after cleaning up the drain, I replaced the former drain device to this simple net. And, the problem was resolved!

No. 34 Hand Washing Summer Light Weight Clothing

I hand washed light weight tops in a bathroom sink right before taking shower. It is so dry in Colorado, so, the wet light weight clothing would dry overnight. It was a good way to reduce the amount of dirty clothing for laundry. But, on the other hand, the soapy water seemed to slow the drain in the sink, and, I needed to give the really good cleaning. Less than 1 year before, our great house maintenance guy cleaned the drains of the sink and the bath tub and replaced the main pipe, so, before starting to hand wash the summer clothing in the sink, the drain was in the great shape. I assume that hand washing was too hard on the skinny sink pipe.

No. 33 A New Cooler, Kuur Aire

I didn’t have any cooling system and this summer for the first time, I had tried a portable evaporative cooler, Kuur Aire. The referenced portable evaporative cooler worked just fine for my need. I had several reasons why I didn’t want to set up a permanent swamp cooler, which is one of the common cooling system in my area: I live in a two story house and didn’t want to have a swamp cooler on the roof where I wouldn’t be able to go to put a cover on the swamp cooler for winter season, I didn’t want to lose a window in a hallway to set up a swamp cooler which was an alternative location except on the roof, and mostly, I didn’t need a big swamp cooler to cool the whole upstairs since I usually spend my day using only one room. The referenced Kuur Aire has 8 gallon water capacity and cools up to 400sq ft according to the box. My room is bigger than 400sq, so, I set up the Kuur Aire near to my desk and felt cool enough while working at my desk. The best efficient way to utilize the Kuur Aire was to put some ice cubes with water to make the air coming nice and cool. While working, the Kuur Aire would make noises, and, it was a little bit too loud to listen to music. But, for overall result, I am happy with my new portable evaporative cooler. I have already cleaned up the Kuur Aire for the next summer. It wasn’t too heavy for me to carry around and it was easy to clean up. And, probably, it saved energy as well.

No. 32 Homemade Strawberry Jams, Yummy!

One of the best treats this summer was homemade strawberry jams made by ME! I purchased fresh strawberries from a grocery store, King Soopers, washed them, chopped them, and boiled with white sugar(1/2 amount of strawberries, for example, 2 cups of chopped strawberries and 1 cup of white sugar) in a sauce pan, and added freshly squeezed lemon juice from a lemon and boiled down for a while, and added a little bit butter right after turning off the stove.
To me, it is sweet enough to add ½ sugar to the total amount of any berries, and to add a little bit butter is the trick to make jams taste so good.
Long and long time ago, for the first time when I entered a blackberry jam, I won the blue ribbon, the first place at a County Fair in California. Yes, believe it or not, I was the blue ribbon blackberry jam lady, but, to tell you the truth, I don’t feel comfortable to make jams preserved in a jar because I am not so sure whether or not I could sterilize enough not to let the jams go bad. So, I always make a jar of strawberry jam and keep it in a refrigerator. My next lesson will be to learn how to preserve homemade jams. And, I sincerely admire anybody who can fill cabinets with a lot of homemade preserves.

No. 31 Successful Cherry Tomatoes

My friend, who has a well taken care of veggie bed, reported me that her sweet cherry tomato 100 has been giving her around 400 fruits so far. Yes, only one sweet cherry tomato 100. Is it amazing? I had a great harvest off of my sweet cherry tomato 100 as well and they were delicious. I will make a note for next summer that the sweet cherry tomato 100 is the winner of the home grown tomatoes.

I had heard that planting tomatoes and basil together is a good paring so did twice last summer and this summer. But, the basil plants next to the tomatoes didn’t grow much. It seemed the tomato plants grew too tall around basil and seemed to dominate the area. I planted 8 basil plants together in an area without any tomato plants around, and they grew much better. So, I will make another note for the next summer: Plant basil in a small sunny spot given only for basil or similar height herbs like parsley and etc.

No. 30 Full Moon

Did you get a chance to see the beautiful full moon?
Actually, I enjoyed watching the full moon at 9:00pm, 10:30pm, and midnight on Sunday, September 11. After watching the moon at 10:30pm, I went to bed, and I woke up at midnight and saw a small bright spot on the floor near to the window. Could it be the light from the moon? I looked up through the window, and sure, the moon was beaming. I went to the front yard to watch the moon again.
For a long long time, I had forgotten to take a moment to enjoy watching the beautiful moon. But, not anymore.

No.29 Full Moon on Monday, September 12

The full moon in the middle of September supposed to be the most beautiful moon in the year. I will enjoy the beauty of the full moon tomorrow night. Hope we will have a special clear sky.

No. 28 Successful Home Grown Veggies This Summer

I planted a pumpkin for the first time this summer.

First of all, the way how I planted several veggies in my garden was not a good way. I don’t have any veggie beds in my garden, so, I planted a tomato here, and then another tomato here, and four basils here, and so on. Feeding those veggie plants made it very difficult to control the weeds around them, and, probably, it was a very inefficient way to water them as well.
Yet, basils, Japanese cucumbers, sweet 100 cherry tomatoes grew well. On the other hand, hot peppers and regular sized tomatoes ended in very poor harvest again, so, I won’t plant them anymore.
For the next summer, first of all, I would like to plan a layout of my garden including a veggie bed and then to make the soil rich before the planting season would begin.

No. 27 Chicken Wire Cages Worked 100%+

The newly adopted method to put chicken wire cages around newly planted bushes worked perfectly to keep squirrels off. The squirrels used to damage the newly planted roses, berry bushes, and etc overnight and I had really a hard time to grow bushes in my garden. I still have several squirrels living in my garden, but, they don’t bother bushes surrounded by a chicken wire cage. For the first time, I made a success to plant bushes in my garden this summer!
My friend in California used to put chicken wire cages around her cactuses and bird of paradise bushes covering with cotton sheets to protect them against frosts during winter. I am not sure whether or not I would need to cover any of my bushes during winter, but, I am going to keep the chicken wire cages since it might be helpful.

No.26 Additional Bird Bath and More Birds and Bees

It’s getting the end of summer season and it seems to be a good time for me to review what worked and what didn’t work in my garden this summer.

The best new addition to my garden this summer was an additional bird bath. It was hard to find a garden store which carried bird baths since most garden stores including Home Depot seemed to stop carrying them. I was fortunate that the Abner’s Garden in Wheat Ridge, Colorado had a selection of bird baths and I could purchase a nice one for my garden. The store staffs at the Abner’s Garden were very friendly and nice.

Last summer, I had one bigger sized bird bath and one smaller sized bird bath under a big tree. Mainly, the doves and the red robins which had nests in my garden used them. And this summer, I added one more bigger sized bird bath under a different big tree and had new bird visitors to my garden, which seemed to be finches, and a lot of bees.
It was a new lesson for me that to put bird baths(water) in my garden would sustain wildlife.

No.25 Handmade Carrying Jewelry Pouch

I am always so impressed by creative ideas by artists, crafters, gardeners, cooks, and etc. While checking a book, Craft Hope that I had introduced the other day, I was like, “Who could come up with this pillow case dress idea? Oh My God, these sock monkeys are way too cute.” The very idea that someone could come up to make sock monkeys from socks itself is so impressive to me.
This tiny jewelry pouch is one of those creations that gave me the same kind of surprise long time ago. When I purchased jewelry at a store, the store gave me a manufacture made tiny jewelry pouch, and it turned to be a very convenient item to carry in my bag for going to swimming, traveling and etc.
I made the one attached here by hands using a black felt with blanket stitches. This is a tri-fold jewelry pouch measuring with folded dimension of 4” long x 2” wide. It consists of 1 pocket and a strap with a snap on one end for holding ring. A very quick and easy craft project.