Terrariums- How to

Making terrariums is a fun little project that helps you bring a little bit of green into places you normally wouldn't see any. They allow you to bring nature indoors into your home or office. Terrariums are neat little ecosystems, that can be portable. I have made a handfull of terrariums in the past. See my previous posts Terrariums, Another one, and my tumblr for pictures. They're relatively simple to make. The hardest part is probably gathering up all the materials.

Here's what you need:

• A glass container with or without a lid (I have used vases, anchor hocking heritage hill jars, and candy containers, but I have seen them in those clear glass flour or pasta containers with the metal snap and fish tanks).
• The lid will help keep moisture in and literally create a mini ecosystem, you also will not have to water your terrarium as much.
• Gravel (another option is marbles or glass rocks)
• Activated Charcoal
• Potting Soil
• Plants

Some optional items are:

• Moss
• Decorations 

When picking out your plants keep in mind 4 things:

1. The size of the container that you got
2. The size the plants will grow to
3. The amount of water the plants need
   - Try to get plants with similar water needs, I like succulents because they don't need a lot of water and if you forget about your terrarium for a long time most of your plants should still be okay
4. The decor you will be adding to your terrarium
   -You don't want to have too big of plants and your tiny decorations get lost in the plants and vice versa, you don't want your decor to overshadow your plants, unless of course you like it like that. 

 Ok on to the actual creation of the terrarium.

1. Place the gravel in at least a 1 inch layer in the base of the container (this will give the water a place to drain to).
2. Layer on top of the gravel a quarter of an inch of activated charcoal ( to help with the water drainage and to keep the soil from seeping into the gravel layer).
3. At this point I like to take my plants out of the containers they came in and place them where I want them to go in order to make sure that they will fit and I like the way that they look.
4. Fill the soil in between your plants on top of the charcoal (the amount will vary based on the type of plants you pick and the size of the container, try not to disturb the charcoal and gravel layers).
5. Water your plants with just a little bit of water to see where the soil sinks down and fill in with more soil.

 You are basically done with your terrarium

• Add moss around the base of your plants to give it a more wild look or instead of moss you can use some glass stones
• Add any decorations you like (I have made some tiny mushrooms to hide in the moss before, it gives it a nice little forest look).

Enjoy!

Domesticity

Becoming a mom has changed several things about me and how I perceive myself. I never used to think of my self as domestic... it was almost a bad word in my mind I thought of my self as a wild and crazy independent person! But now I see domesticity in a totally different light. Domesticity means literally home or family life. I have a home! and a family! I guess that makes me domestic. Believe me I am no Susie Homemaker, but I have started doing some out of character things. Like cleaning and not just cause we're expecting guests, but just because, although I'm sure I'm still not up to my husband's standards... I started a garden. Well sort of, I bought some herbs, cleared some dirt and put down compost, but haven't planted anything yet and I'm planning to plant vegetables and start composting. I, of course love caring for my daughter and husband. Also I've been cooking. Ok I used to cook, but before they needed to be easy and fast meals. Recently I have made Quiche and Lasagna and Black Bean Soup (with several ingredients, not as easy as it sounds. I swear there was a lot of soaking and cooking and chopping involved). Check out my tumblr for more photos of my yummy adventures! West Coast Crafty Tumblr

Tumblr

Check out my Tumblr! It is pretty neat and makes for easy posting of super neat stuff!

http://westcoastcrafty.tumblr.com/

Enjoy this great picture of two of my creations, a knit sweater and my daughter, the latter of which is the greatest!

Combo Blog

I have decided to combine all of my blogs. I've imported them all to this blog so you may notice there are suddenly a lot more posts. I'm hoping this will inspire me to write more and get rid of any excuses I may have for not writing. Stay tuned!

That's Why They Call Them Jugs!

This baby girl has me feeling like a soda fountain. She is constantly eating and since I'm breastfeeding exclusively I am constantly pulling my breast out in all types of settings. Yesterday I plopped my boob out in the waiting room at Stanford's Opthamology Clinic. My husband was impressed, in his words, "Gangster!" I really don't have a problem with someone seeing my boob but someone else might... Today we were at Costco and I had to change her in the bathroom. She was still wailing. I tried giving her a pacifier, but she is just not into those. So in the middle of the handicap stall, while standing, I pulled out my breast and started feeding her. I fed her for quite some time and it seemed to work for a little bit, but she was still hungry so I had to go out to the truck and leave my husband to finish the shopping.

Sometimes after she's done eating she almost looks drunk. The cute little silly smile creeps across her face and she give me that satisfied look, right before she belches and pukes on me! It's great when she burps, I was prepared for that and even some spit up, but the every once in a while full on upheaval of almost her whole meal, they don't really warn you about that in the books. Every time she does that (which is not very often so I am rarely prepared enough) I am amazed, I didn't even know she was drinking that much. Then she can got one of two ways, fussy or tired. Sometime she'll pass out right there on the tit.

Another thing they don't warn you about is the amount of laundry you'll have to be doing. Don't get me wrong the experts and websites and countless amounts of advice I have received all warned me that my little one would produce mounds of laundry, but they didn't tell me that a lot of it would be my clothes too that she spit up on or barfed on or projectile pooped on (that's a whole other story). We have done more laundry in the 6 weeks she's been born than the whole time I was pregnant.

I digress; I was talking about breasts and milk. They say that your boobs are gonna grow. Man they were not kidding I don't fit into any of my bras. I bought nursing bras pre-birth. Bad idea! They may have fit before, but once those suckers (haha pun intended) fill up with milk, it's like we magically were transported to an adult film set and we're doing a cover shot for the Jugs magazine. I never got it before. Why was Jugs a term of endearment for my breast? They aren't shaped like the jugs I've seen although I have learned that there are some jugs out there that are quite similar to the roundness of breasts. They reason is because they fill up with milk and they are heavy just like a milk jug when it's full.

Leave comments below on breastfeeding, boobs, parenthood, anything. Let me know what you want to read about. There is sooo much going on in brand spanking new parenthood, tell me about your experiences!

Smile You're Amazing

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my new blog! I am a brand new mom. I had a beautiful baby girl almost 6 weeks ago. Everyday I am amazed by how much she is changing and growing. I'm gonna be writing about all of the little amazing things I learn and notice about my wonderful baby girl. She has been smiling for a few weeks now, the parenting magazines and emails say that before 5 weeks it was just gas, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't just gas. She would smile when I talked to her and kiss her cheeks. Which sounds like social smiling, something that the experts say doesn't occur until 5-6 weeks. Above is a picture I took after kissing her cheeks when she was 3 weeks old. My baby girl is gifted and talented! I'm not sure when babies are supposed to be able to roll, but Mikayla has been rolling from her back to her side for about 3 weeks. I caught a video of her rolling last week. Maybe she is so advanced in her development because she was one week and 2 days past her due date. I don't pretend to be an expert so please don't take anything I write as fact. I'm just sharing my observations.

More Baby!

So I really stepped outside of my box for this project. I have never attempted something like a cardigan. It was good that it was just a baby sweater because if it had been bigger I might have given up, but since it was small it was definitely a great starter project. I'm actually encouraged and motivated to knit more challenging things. See below a bib I knitted for Mikayla, that is my soon to be born Baby Girl's name. I am 41 weeks pregnant as of today. For those of you that don't know it that means I am one week over due, I am scheduled to be induced on Saturday! Stay tuned for more and more baby knits!