DIY Dog Bandana

There's several things on my Pinterest that have left me thinking "I could probably DIY that." Typically, I'd pin it and forget it, never justifying the expense of buying it or taking the little bit of time to make it. This week, I decided to remedy that.

At least my next two DIYs are going to be ridiculously easy/obvious mainly because they are the low-hanging fruit of my to-do list. Sometimes, doing a few little projects can make you feel as accomplished as doing a larger one. How easy/obvious you ask?

DIY Dog Bandana.

I love Boone in bandanas; he's just so stinking cute. For me, bandanas are the dog equivalent of a graphic tee, which I generally dislike on humans. It's not quite as kitschy as dogs in clothes and not as annoying as people in witty t-shirts. I think the key difference is the dog does not expect you to perceive him as clever and the person invariably does. I've found a couple websites that sell bandanas with cute sayings, but they also cost like $10-$20...for a bandana... nope, no way.

So, I bought a solid black bandana (not my favorite color choice, but Michael's was a little picked over) and a couple of fabric markers and viola!

Notice there is already a substanial amount of fur on it.

This one is intended for Boone to wear to the dog park. He's that dog, the one who is covered in mud about 3 minutes after we arrive. People always tell me how dirty he is and I'm all, "thanks, I hadn't noticed." I imagine this is how hugely pregnant women feel when they go anywhere.

This is so simple, I won't bore you with DIY instructions. A few quick hints: I left the fold lines in it to make sure I got it relatively centered. It is centered, but I wish I'd place it lower so it would be more visible, especially because he has long fur. Something I'll do on all future bandanas. I also picked a dark color since this one is for the dog park and I don't want to see crazy stains everytime we go.

My summer resolution is to not take Boone anywhere in public without a bandana. In addition to all the holiday/life event options, here's a few other sayings I thought of for Boone's future bandana collection:

• Blondes do it better
• You may pet me while I wait for my human
• I call it an "ascot"

 Here's Boone wearing the newest addition to his closet.

And here he is having the more fun than all those clean pups with "self control."

DIY Terrarium

You know how they say succulents are impossible to kill? It's a lie.

About two months ago, on an impromptu trip to Home Depot to price out several big ticket items for the house, I convinced a begrudged husband to let me bring home a small assortment of succulents to go in some DIY chalkboard pots (a revamp of a sweet wedding gift that just didn't jive with my decor taste). He was skeptical at my ability to keep them alive, despite my well documented track record of keeping him and several animals from perishing.

After the initial "that's $10 I'll never see again," he agreed and I happily brought a small assortment home with me and carefully repotted them. Very proud of one of my first Martha Moments, I went to bed.

Now before you say Pat was right, there's more to this story.

That first night, I did not realize the allure of small water-balloon shaped leaves. I placed my new little friends on an accent table, which, unbeknownst to me, was well within the cat's reach. I woke up to find potting soil and little succulent guts everywhere. I attempted to save them and while several held on for a few days, there was only one survivor. One very boring survivor.

Due to my very fast failure as a plant parent and some pure laziness, I left him like this for the better part of two months, in a succulent graveyard. I've come to call him Charity Plant, because he's a complete charity case. Every time I went to water him, it made me a little sad and eventually I realized this little guy needed new friends.

In an effort to make my next attempt more cat-resistant I decided a terrarium was a good fit. And considering I already had a hurricane glass and river rocks, the total price of this project appeared to be just the cost of the new plants, a very affordable $6.

What you need:

• Glass container
• River rocks or sand (allegedly sand is better for desert plants like succulents, but not nearly as pretty)
• Potting soil
• Plants

Now, I've heard that if you do a closed-top terrarium, you need to add some activated charcoal between the river rocks and soil to prevent mildew. Since I'm doing an open-topped hurricane glass I decided to save my money.

 

First, add the river rocks or sand. This provides drainage at the bottom so the soil doesn't stay too moist for plants that love arid weather. I originally added about 1 1/2 inches, but it pushed the plants to high in the glass for my tastes. I took out several stones from the center, leaving extra around the edge creating a concave surface. 

I filled the center with potting soil and placed the root ball of the largest plant in the center. I let the river rocks show a little higher at the sides so you see more pretty stones and less dirt. I then placed a thin layer of soil to hide the large root ball.

Here's where my plan went astray: I pull the middle sized plant from it's pot and it had hella scary roots. You can only see the big pieces in the pic, but it looked like dozens of little snakes in the soil.

No way that's going in a terrarium with glass sides. It looks like claws that want to cut all the other plants. And Charity Plant has been through enough. I instantly knew the one big plant and Charity Plant couldn't fill the terrarium by themselves, but I went ahead and put them together to get an idea of what types of new plants to get. Pretty sad, right?

Since nearly everything would make charity look diminutive, I decided several small plants would be good with the one large plant being a focal.

After a quick trip to Lowe's and Boone/me getting approached and verbally berated by some lady who could not believe my audacity to bring a dog to the pet-friendly garden section of a home improvement store ("it's not PetSmart, you know") I came home with a few smaller succulents to help Charity Plant not look so sad. And yes, I checked the root balls at the store to make sure there were no unexpected surprises. Total cost including new plants and fresh potting soil: $18.

Then all that was left was to put the new plants in place and finishing it off with another layer of potting soil which I gently pressed down to make sure the plants were adequately supported, but not smothered. A little compressed air got most of the loose dirt off the leaves. Here's a look at the finished product:

You can barely even see Charity, he's on the left side behind some glare. Even though this project is technically inspired by him, I'm kinda happy his boring-ness is hidden by the other more interesting plants. He's like the nerd who inexplicably is friends with all the cool kids.

Boone wanted to show off the new, hopefully cat-proof home of my succulents.

And in a moment of blog honesty (blognesty?), here's the mess I made on the balcony to create my terrarium:

Addendum: Root Rot is a thing. I retract what I said about not using activated charcoal. Use it. For your plant's sake, use it.

House Update: Shaping Up

Our house officially looks like a house now! Sure, a house with a strange roof and funny siding choices, but a house no less. Still no stairs to the second floor; guess you'll just have to wait until next week for that sneak peak.

This was Boone's first trip since it was anything more than foundation.

Boone must know something is up because every time we bring him here he gets very excited and inquisitive. Here's Booney checking out our family room/his future home base.

Taking in the view of his future back yard.

Here's the view from our dining room; I love that we're right across the street from a park.

And some more outside shots.

Sorry all the pictures are at a bit of an angle. My camera is quite old and now takes pics slightly crooked; I do my best to adapt, but sometimes it's more obvious than others. If anyone has suggestions for a good replacement camera, let me know.

And if anyone is curious about what our neighbor's house looks like:

Yeah, we win.