How to Make Faux Dirt-Pottery Barn Style
I know, I know. Making faux dirt sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. It’s really cool! The idea of making fake, I mean faux, dirt came to me as I was perusing my local PB. If you’ve been, I’m sure you’ve seen their faux plants in those little terra cotta pots. They go for about 12 to 15 bucks a piece. Not much for the money, really, considering the quality of the faux plants themselves isn’t really any better than the kind you can buy in a craft store. HOWEVER, the thing that sets these little plants apart and makes them better than your average faux is the ‘dirt’, in my opinion anyway. Which is exactly why I decided to make my own faux dirt. The cool thing about this project is it costs nothing, because I’m guessing you have everything on hand to make it, as I did. Now, on to the tutorial!!!
Supplies:
- a plastic bowl rescued from the recycle bin
- any kind of black acrylic paint
- a craft stick
- newspaper
- and the secret ingredient….pencil or saw dust.
Note: The pencil leavings or saw dust should be of the fine variety, not shavings. If you don’t have either of these on hand, I’d suggest taking a zippy to your nearest Lowes or Home Depot and visit the area where they cut wood to size. There should be some saw dust there!
Add a tablespoon or two of black paint. I’d start out with a bit too little than too much and just add as much as needed to coat the dust. I started stirring with the craft stick but found my fingers to be more efficient.
When the dust is coated, flip it out onto a piece of newspaper and let dry.
And there you have it, faux dirt! Wanna see what to do with it?? Follow this jump and we’ll replicate those Pottery Barn plants.
Turning a Hinged Jar into a Pottery Barn-esque Lamp
The jar you see above used to hold our penny collection. A few months ago we took it to the bank and cashed it out. (Over 4000 pennies!) We weren’t interested in saving them anymore, but I still rather liked the jar. After some consideration, I decided it would be perfect for a lamp, Pottery Barn style.
Removing the glass lid was super easy. I just squeezed the harms of the hinge together and separated it from the wire that goes around the jar’s neck.
Next my boo made a wood replacement for the top. Then it was just a matter of installing a lamp kit.
A PB lampshade to finishing it up and voila. I imagine I’ll be changing the contents of the jar lamp as the seasons change.
Review: Quick Knit Baby Afghans
A month ago or so I bought Leisure Arts’ Quick Knit Baby Afghans by Evelyn A. Clark. The book’s been around for 15 years, but it certainly doesn’t show its age. It’s still a GREAT little collection of patterns that are–yes–quick to knit. I’ve made one afghan from the collection of 7 so far (pictured below) and I’m about 1/4 the way through a second. What makes them so speedy is using two strands of worsted weight held together and big honkin’ #15 circular needles. The patterns are easy but the outcome looks ‘experienced’. The pamphlet is available at Amazon ($5.50), but I went the JoAnn’s + 40% off coupon route. Love that!
How to NEVER miscount a cast-on ever again!
It happens to the best of us. We cast on dozens and dozens of stitches. We count and re-count to make sure we casted on the RIGHT amount of stitches.* When we’re satisfied we did, we start our border. Several rows later when we FINISH our border and start the pattern repeat and are approaching the end of our first row we realize we DIDN’T, in fact, cast on the correct number of stitches. ARG! What to do? Increase as necessary? Decrease as necessary? Frog it????
Instead of putting ourselves through the pain of having to decide what do to and doing it, mark off ten cast-ons at a time with a stitch marker. Counting in tens is MUCH easier than counting by 2′s to 100+, especially with your boo, your cat or your kid, demanding attention at a critical juncture in your counting. Making a habit of marking your 10ths is the best way to never miscount a cast-on ever again!
*Counting cast-ons can be especially tricky when using double strands of yarn, as I’m doing in the picture.
New Lamp Makeover
Okay, so I was on the hunt for new lamps for our bedroom. I didn’t have a particular budget in mind, but I did have a style. Minimal candlestick. I adore PB’s Chelsea lamps, but we already have two of them in our living room (a floor lamp and accent lamp), and I didn’t want the repeat. SO, on a whim I perused the lamp aisle at my local J.C. Penney and spotted a couple of brushed nickel lamps–on sale for 50% off– that nearly fit the bill. Only they were brushed nickel, albeit a little corroded in spots, and I wanted bronze. A peek at the price tag said they were regularly 80 on sale for 24 (should have been 40 a piece based upon the 50% off sign, right?). Okay, I thought, for 24 bucks a pop, I can sand them up, address the corrosion and shoot them with some Rust-Oleum oil-rubbed bronze paint.
I took them to the register. “That’ll be 25 dollars (and change),” the salesperson said. I gave her a hum-an-ah. “So they’re discounted off the sale price?” I asked. “Yes,” she beamed a smile at me. “Good deal, huh?” Aaaah….YEAH! Anyhoo, to make a long story short, here’s what the lamps look like now. And yes, I did spring for some PB shades. (Had the finials on hand.)
