I had an idea

And it turned out to be a light bulb terrarium. Michael's sells the little light bulb jars for $1.99. Having looked at million of them on line I thought it would be too difficult to reclaim a real light bulb. This one is great because it stands on its own.

I will admit the cheat on this one - the plants are not real. I wanted something that was always going to look good and I really don't have a great place to keep a tiny jar like this that it will get decent light. 

In addition to my projects this weekend, I also got back on the stationary bike. I did only 10 minutes at first, but after re-charging my iPod and buying a few new songs, I was able to do a whole 30-minute workout this evening. I gave up the bike for a long time because, thanks to the myths perpetrated by the diet industry, the last time I used the bike it was for the purpose of losing weight. After 30 minutes a day for 3 months gained me a pound, I decided exercise was rubbish. It is if you want to lose weight, but I'm finally coming up on holding my own about not falling back into the weight loss mythology anymore. My concentration is on health - and I know I need to get more exercise just to stave off the stiff joints and the genetic pre-disposition I have to develop arthritis. I'm going to use the bike because I want to move, not because I want to lose. Hopefully having a proper goal in mind will help me stick with it and not become disgusted when it doesn't 'work'.

Life's a beach, in a jar

I mentioned my garage sale finds yesterday - here's the lemonade stand jar I got for $1. The spigot was broken, which was fine - I just removed it and glued a clear plastic gem over the hole. That will go in the back when the terrarium is finished.

The little house cost $2. It fits inside the jar perfectly. Today I picked up some preserved moss and a gorgeous set of river rocks in green and red and white.

As much as I want to run right out to Metropolitan and get more plants I'm forcing myself to wait until Thursday/Friday to start working on my next two live-plant projects because I've done so much procrastinating this weekend. [Still doing it, as you can see.] I'm trying to work up to sitting down and doing some actual writing, but the big, giant writer's block is weighing me down considerably.

Last night, having stumbled upon a photo while surfing, I made myself a beach memory bottle with the mason jar that used to house the caterpillars. I think it turned out pretty cute and gave me an excuse to use the scrap booking stickers I've been holding onto for a couple of years.

Yep, that's a cat investigating in the background. 

If I can't go to the beach, at least I can have one on my shelf. 

New projects

I've been busy since my visit to Metro Wholesale. I got wonderful little ferns to plant in the giant mason jar along with the mini-Stonehenge and Great Wall. It's a little disjointed as a theme for a terrarium, but one of these days I plan to add a mini-TARDIS to this one and then it will all make sense. This one has no moss in it - which I'm hoping will actually be a good thing.

This is a new outdoor garden I made in the plastic pot that used to hold parsley. The caterpillars ate all the parsley, so this one ended up with the tiny purple and white flowers. I love it! I want to go for a walk down the little cobbled lane.

I made another one built up with sea shells in a new terracotta pot. That one has the little flowers and baby's tears. It looks a little messy, but hopefully everything will take root and it will fill in nicely

Finally, I actually got two gorgeous salmon colored flowers on the plant in the desert terrarium. No feline mischief so far!

I got some great containers at garage sales today, so I have more projects in the offing. Yes, I'm running out of space for them, but I'm not running out of steam. Hopefully my little projects will give me inspiration over the winter, which I fear is going to be harsh this year, since the summer has been so mild. 

Fine fakery

I'm no longer the biggest fan of fake plants -they used to be my go to because of my brown thumb, but now that my thumbs are very slightly green, I have less affinity for plastic and silk.

Nevertheless, the felines despise real plants [which is why I have to put mine in glass] so on a table at the top of the stairs, a fake fern and a cute little owl statuette make for a nice, cat-proof display and they add a little maintenance-free greenery to the place.

Today, I stopped into Metropolitan Wholesale and found out the place is awesome! I picked up some ferns and some outdoor plants and a nice terra cotta pot for a reasonable price, so I spent the evening making more gardens. Pictures tomorrow! I started late, so I lost the light and I don't really know if they turned out okay or not, so hopefully they'll look okay in the morning. 

I really wonder what my sudden craving for green things is all about. I've spent years ignoring plants because they didn't seem to like me, and now I can't get enough of them. I actually spend more time on line looking at plant pictures than I used to spend looking at cat pictures! [Maybe that's why the cats hate the plants so much?]

When is a vacation not a vacation?

You'd think putting in for a week long vacation would make me happy, but I'm filled with anxiety after submitting my request for a week off in September.

It used to be the thought of staying home for a week doing nothing but writing filled me with joy. Now it fills me with dread. I'm actually terrified of wasting those 9 glorious days writing crap - or worse, writing nothing at all and accomplishing utter zilch.

Hopefully by the time that week rolls around I'll have figured out how to spend it, until then, I'm wishing I could be sitting in that chair staring out an ocean somewhere. I wouldn't do a lick of writing, but at least I wouldn't feel bad about it.

Another moment of Zen

Found a cute set of plastic world icons - including Stonehenge, the Easter Island giants and even Mt. Rushmore as well as this little figure who fits perfectly in the previously Pikachu terrarium. A permanent moment of Zen.

Health every day

The last way I would describe myself is as a health nut. Because of the way our society views health, exercise and weight and because of all the misinformation and blatant lies out there, I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. I would love to exercise more, but I hate feeling like I SHOULD exercise, so that paralyzes me sometimes. The dichotomy between wanting to do something because I want to do it and feeling like I have to do something because society tells me I should and therefore I refuse to.

I have a love/hate relationship with dieting. I hate dieting and I love to rag on people to advocate it because they are morons.

That notwithstanding, I understand the importance of health and I try to be as healthy as I can. I may not belong to a gym [disgusting places!] or count calories [I've got better things to do!] but I have a long list of healthy things I do or [don't] as the case may be. My new goal is to make a better effort to do [or not do] these things or more than one of these things every day.

For instance the givens are:

I don't smoke, never have.
I don't do recreational drugs because I like my brain cells and want to keep them.
I drink very little alcohol. [Maybe not enough?]
I take long walks.
I meditate.
I like to laugh.
I have pets that bring me joy.
I have hobbies that calm and center my mind.
I'm creative.
I like food that is good for me.
I try to keep a positive attitude and reduce my personal stress.

So today's healthy thing was a protein shake for breakfast, my usual light lunch and a sauteed chicken breast and a salad for dinner. Fruit for dessert. None of this was 'perfect' on the let's be obsessive about our healthy habits scale, but it was good. And good is good enough.

Yesterday, I got some sunshine and a I took an afternoon nap.

Tomorrow I don't know what my healthy thing will be, but hopefully I'll be able to find one that's above and beyond the givens listed above.