The Spring is slowly approaching in London so for me it is time to get to gardening after a along cold boring season...
Yes, despite the latest rainy, windy days which I did not predict when all of us felt the warm breeze only a week ago and when I bought few vegetable plants and some pot flowers... damn :/

I have been gardening for only two years and  I can say this is the place I can totally relax and forget about the whole world, when the sun shines :)
This season we are trying to make more space for planting some vegetables, more herbs and flowers which I so adore.
We would love to maintain the garden in sustainable way again, as much as we can.
The plan is to keep the cost low or without spending any money at all.
Of course we will have to buy the seeds, new plants and extra soil , the rest is in our hands ;)

Today I am passing a simple little idea for up cycling old plastic bottles and turn them into hanging plant pots.
I am having enough of our boring fence so I spontaneously thought about using bottles .
They're easy to cut and handle.
I have found only two bottles at home :)
We don't really buy much of a drinks in plastic so I decided to check our lovely neighbours rubbish :P
Yes,
three more bottles!
I hope they wouldn't mind :)

Lets have a look how I did it.


This are little flowers I use for my pots.

And this is how it was done by firstly cutting the bottle.
Then I use some cotton thread to make it prettier.
I make two holes, wrapped the bottle with a different thread again and use the holes to put the tread through and hang the bottle-pot.
This can be simplified and done in many ways I guess.
It's all up to you :)    

For the drainage make some hole in a screw top using a large nail or something sharp!

                     

I use S-hooks to hang pots by pushing hooks in between the fence boards, screw hooks can be use too.

Here with the plants :)

Little mess on the right under the worktable is awaiting a next project.
Nothing is waisted here ;)

Within next few days I added few more bottle-pots and  I may keep adding, it's so addictive!

We now have to wait for better dry weather condition to keep up with our new ideas ;)

 

Mamaisdreaming

Today is Earth Day and we are celebrating!
Read some very interesting facts about it here to find out more ;).
We are trying to be good for our planet Earth through the whole year but today we are shouting loud "Love your Earth!", it's your home.
As a family we're trying not only recycle our rubbish but upcycle and reuse as much as we can, we also riding our bicycles every day with a big joy.
You can have a look again at some of our past projects/ideas, big and small :

- Wind chime
- Play kitchen
- Branch chandelier
- Dolls house
- Kids tent
- Worry dolls
- Reusing packaging
- Made up animals
- Paper scraps cards

And more to come, we have some new ideas for the garden upcycling ;)

Today I am sharing easy, fun and very pretty idea for kids to make with you.
You possibly have seen it or heard of  melting old crayons into shapes.
We are showing this to you today so you can pass the good message to you kids about reusing old instead of throwing it away ;)

Lets start!

Materials :

- old/unwanted wax crayons
- silicone baking mould 

Step 1.
Choose your crayons, we do Earth's colours but remember you can use this project for any other occasions so the colour palette can be different too ;)
Now the time consuming part - peel them :/
Yes. I know...
Have a cup of coffee and do it :)

I found not many broken crayons so I choose the ones which are not great to draw with or... had a lovely shade and I couldn't resist to sacrifice them for this project.
I know, its not the purpose :P
Just that ones.

Step 2.
Chop, cut and brake the crayons.
I did it with the small kitchen knife, save the tiny bits for later too ;)
Now get your silicon mould and fill it with the crayon pieces.I got my heart shape mould from here - cheap and cheerful.
The first heart was a trial for me while Ela was at school so I filled just one part of the mould to save some fun for my dear child :)

 I filled a half of the actual depth as I planned to make some brooches out of it so we need a light slim version.

Step 3.
Is now time to melt the crayons in the oven.For amount I had 10 minutes in 200 degrees was enough, but ovens might vary so have a look at your melting process.

Ok, so my first reaction to this wasn't happy :/
Where all the colours gone?
It seems to take ages for wax to set so I put the mould to the fridge for another 10 minutes...

I then took it out....

And turn it over...

Wow, how pretty is this!
It does look like a mini Earth, only in shape of the heart :)
I was happy like a child, it actually work out great!I could now wait for Ela to make some more together :)

So lets have a look how she did it!

We added some more shades of green, blue and yellow.

She was so into placing each piece of crayon in the right places, here and there...
Then I said they will all melt and mix anyway :)

Ela loved the moment when we were taking them out to reveal the result :)

I then smooth the edges at the back by cutting them off.

I made a few brooches by sticking the brooch pins with a hot glue.

Wax melted and get mixed with the glue so the pin seems to be now strongly attached to the heart.

Why not to hang them somewhere too?Just remember to choose a shady spot ;)

Or just keep them as they are and let your child give it to a friend as a new heart shaped crayon.
Spread the love!

End that's us this morning, we are proudly going to wear our Earth brooches today.

Ela drew a picture too :)

  Make some changes,
love your Earth!

Mamaisdreaming

The weather this week is truly not easy to predict, the rain and sun swapping their appearance every half an hour...
School holiday is nearly finished and Ela requested a every year classic day out to London's Natural History Museum.
And she loved it once again.
After four hours of exploring it was time to head busy underground, but we decided to have a look at one more exhibition on the way - Sensational butterflies.
Museum's tropical butterfly house returns for an eighth year on the east lawn.
It was time to explore the real living creatures for a change this year :)
I had always a thing for butterflies so this was a treat for both of us.
We came face to face with many spectacular tropical butterflies, flying around us and showing off to camera.
I took some photos I would like to share with you today.








Here my ever favourite the Blue Morpho

Seeing cocoons was a hit too!

 This one is size of a human head!

They're happy to land on people...



 So Ela tried her best to attract  them, without result...yep, even with that dress :)

 I spotted some flowers I never seen before.

Nature is amazing :)

 Owl butterflies :)

 Here sucking on some tropical fruits :)

So many different patterns...




This one it's just mind blowing, spotted by Ela :)
Or is it a dry leaf?





The butterfly house is not big but exciting enough for nature, colours and photography lovers or simply parents with children ;)

Finishing with a little video.

Mamaisdreaming