Air Plants

     Air plants are all the rage right now. They are strange little plants that don't need soil and very little water. I liken them to the sea monkeys of house plants. They need very little care and look interesting enough to be conversation starters. Although I did somehow kill my sea monkeys in college, I have high hopes for the longevity of these plants.

      During my birthday weekend Matt took me to The Palm Room in the  Ballard neighborhood (http://www.thepalmroom.com/) and picked out these three air plants. I wish I had written down the names of the three different kinds but I didn't think about it. And since they don't have roots and pots and therefore don't have those little plastic tags saying what it is I am never know. Or I guess I could google it.

      At the Palm Room we also give some pretty black and gray stones to go at the bottom of the glass orb. These are not necessary but they make it look nice. The geode is half of what we got when we went to Agate Designs in downtown Seattle (http://www.agatedesigns.com/). For about $10 we got to pick a rock from the bin and they cracked it open for us. Just a fun silly thing to do and it ended up looking nice in my new terrarium. 

    The hanging glass orb came from Camelion Design (http://www.cameliondesign.com/) just down the block from the Palm Room. After hanging the glass orb above the kitchen table all we had to do was put the rocks, geode and plants in. Super easy and very stylish. The biggest cost was the orb at about $15. Plus the plants and gravel for about $20. All total $35 for a custom air plant hanging terrarium. Of course you could do a smaller one or a couple little ones which would look cool. Since the plants don't need soil there are many possibilities for unusual places and containers for them.

     The lady at the Palm Room recommended that I spritz them with water once a week. I use our orchid spritzer, take them out of the orb and wet them, then shake off the excess and pop them back in. Not hard at all.
Please little air plants, live longer than the sea monkeys.

Red Runner Beans

    This year is the first that we have grown red runner beans. I picked them specifically because they are pretty. I'm not completely sure why they are called red when they are actually purple and black. Maybe because the flowers are red? Either way, they take longer to mature than I thought they would. About a month and a half ago we had a lot of big green pods that looked great and Matt begged me to pull them off and make something out of them. I was very disappointed when I opened the pods only to find very tiny pink beans that looked nothing like the ones I planted.

 

     Although the pink beans are cute I knew they were not ready to eat and all the big green pods I harvested only yielded a pitifully small handful of beans. So after that sad harvest I kind of forgot about them for a little while. Besides, the cucumbers and tomatoes were giving us plenty to eat. But today I took a second look at those beans. Some of the pods had started to turn yellow and dry up. 

      Can you see that the one in my hand is more yellow than the green one still on the vine. And that one is not even completely yellow. The beans that came out of that greenish yellow pod look like this: 

     Closer but not quite there yet. I have to wait until the pods are completely yellow and dry before you get beans like this:

    Now those are some gorgeous beans! The plan is now to let all the beans dry in their pods and to then shell and save them for the winter...or a full dinner. And the moral of this story? Don't let your husband talk you into picking something that you don't think is ripe yet! Or at the very least pick one and look inside before you pick them all and find out they are not mature.

Fun at ReUse Stores

     When remodeling a home we tend to just run over to Lowe's or Home Depot and pick from whatever they have for the job. It is all the same, generic, boring stuff as everyone else is putting in their house. But if you want to be unique and environmentally friendly then reuse or building salvage stores are the place to be. We are lucky enough to have three in the Seattle area and Matt and I have been to them all. They all have interesting and useful things but it can take a bit of digging to find them. But who doesn't love digging through junk?
     Today we went to Second Use is the SODO district, http://www.seconduse.com/ which is where all of the pictures below were taken but there is also Earthwise, http://www.earthwise-salvage.com/ again in the SODO district and the RE store http://re-store.org/ in ballard. There is also a Habitat for Humanity store I hear but I have never been there. All of these places have interesting things at decent prices. Here are some of the treasures I found today.

     Building salvage stores don't usually have the newest, top of the line merchandise. Instead, they have an eclectic mix from who-knows-where. If you need something very specific then they probably don't have it. If you could take one of the granite slabs shown in the picture above and have it cut down to the size you need then a world of possibilities opens up.

     Need a top for you toilet? How about one in yellow? Yup, we've got that!

     Got a use for a cool old heater or two? I think getting two of these and putting a piece of wood on top for a table would be super cool.

      I think I counted three full rows of doors. We got one for our bedroom and a cool black door nob to go along with it. We had to cut it down but it looks great. And much cheaper than buying a new one.

     Vintage glass door nob anyone? Like a hoard of giant diamonds.

      I tried talking Matt into putting these tiles of a chubby kid riding a snail in the bathroom but he wasn't interested. You will certainly not find these at Lowe's!

    Or this one either. Not sure I would want more than one but it could be a cool trivet for hot dishes to be set on. Be creative with what you find.

      If these lockers were not $225 I would put them by my front door. One locker for me, one for Matt and one for the dog's stuff.

      A rather rowdy looking bunch of sinks and toilets. It is like a history of plumbing in this place.

     My personal favorite of the trip. I can't describe very well what we mean when we say we want "French Metro" style for our bathroom but this sink is sooooooo french metro. I secretly want go back, buy it and then hide it from Matt until it is time to redo our bathroom because I know it won't be there when I need it. That is the main thing about these places. There is only one of whatever you see because it came out of some old house so if you like it snatch it up quick!
    I encourage you to take a trip to a building salvage place on your next day off and just root around in all their cool stuff. You might just find the perfect corner sink that you have been looking for.

Garden Tour

     Come take a walk with me as I show you our garden.

     So that is the main side garden. Matt later corrected me that what I thought was bee balm is actually hyssop. And that the dill is to attract bugs to it and keep them off the other plants.

     The tomatoes are now ripe and ketchup making with start this weekend as well as the plum jam making. I can't believe August is almost already over. So much to do!