Monday, April 23, 2012

The Pallet Garden Project

I saw the raddest idea on  http://pinterest.com/ about a month or so ago.  A pallet garden.  They used free pallets from behind your local home improvement/garden store (Lowe's was my choice).  The green on the sides was a total BONUS!


I grabbed as many as I could fit into the car - three.  I also bought organic soil and some plants.



The main thing was figuring out what we were going to eat and really use.  Vegetables, as a whole, are pretty easy to grow if you have space and water the shit.  I have grown tons of stuff in the past and I couldn't eat it fast enough or the kids didn't like it, etc.  In the end I chose green bell pepper, spicy basil, rosemary, cilantro and jumbo jalapenos called MUCHO NACHO!  I couldn't help myself.

I also had three yellow pear tomato plants, that were a result of last years garden, some strawberries and an Anaheim Chile plant that were in the existing "garden" area.  Not that it was really a garden, more like a cat litter box.  Yeah, it's true.

Another reason that the pallet garden appealed to me.  The wood slates would provide more soil coverage and less open, inviting dirt for the cats.  Add some dry red pepper flakes and no more litter box.

I decided to make the first row two pallets high; the second row one pallet high.  I had some shade cloth/screen/mesh that I found in the trailer, under the seats.  I wasn't going to use it for anything so why not reuse it?  I used a staple gun and closed up the ends of each section of the pallets so that the dirt would stay in but it would get good drainage.  Here is the first row using two pallets.


Here it is without the soil.  I kept the two greens that matched together and placed them with the more open spaced slates towards the top.



I bought three cubic yards of soil for two section garden I configured.  Make sure to use your hands and really push the dirt down between the slates of the first pallet into the space of the second/bottom pallet, if you stack them two high.  No matter how you stack them, pay special attention to the space under the pallet sides.  That area holds a lot of dirt but needs to be manually filled and packed.   Here it is with dirt.


I planted all the new and already maturing plants, gave them a good, slow water and now came the hard part.  Waiting.

To be honest, I only really waited a couple days until I went right back to Lowe's and brought home four more pallets, more soil and more plants.  But that's for next time.  

Thanks for reading and have a rad day!

~Brin








Here's the link.  You can do these vertical, horizon and more!
http://pinterest.com/pin/146015212888809127/


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Next up....Aunt Jemima and Uncle Moses RARE Ceramic Salt and Pepper Shakers Black Americana

This is another lovely set from my collection of Black Americana items.

This lovely set of Aunt Jemima and Uncles Moses Salt and Pepper Shakers would be a wonderful addition to any collection of black americana collectibles.



All the others that I see for sale are made out of plastic. These are ceramic and much nicer. Great for daily use or display!



These stand at approximately 4 1/2" tall, are in great condition and have stoppers on both of them. A...

Click Here to Visit My Etsy Shop!

Selling some of my personal Black Americana collection...

Just listed some stuff from my personal collection. When I lived in Ocean Beach I had a couple pieces. When I moved to Oakland I started to collect more and people got me more from all over the US!

One of my personal favorites is this large cookie/biscuit jar! It was purchased for me as a gift in St. Louis. She was found in a vintage shop by my ex-mother-in-law. She\'s a beauty. The jar, not the ex-mother-in-law! :)


Large Aunt Jemima Cookie and Biscuit Jar!

This amazing piece is in excellent shape!



The entire jar stands 10" tall and measures 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" at the base. The base alone is 6 3/4" tall.



This piece would be a wonderful addition to any collection of Black Americana and any retro or vintage kitchen! Great for cookies, biscuits, dog biscuits or any other trea...

Click Here to Visit My Etsy Shop!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

1971 Cardinal Travel Trailer...the newest project

We recently purchased a 1971 Cardinal Travel Trailer.  It's 14' long and is super rad.  We knew going into it it was going to need some work.  Here's a few photos of it before we did anything but tow it home.

Exterior 
Entrance area
Interior.  Previous owner started to remove wall panels and insulation.
Interior.  The green thing is an icebox.
Last interior shot, the dining room table that turns into a bed.

The first thing we did was decide how bad the wall and ceiling panels were.  The kitchen area looked pretty good and we decided to leave it alone.  I kept the overhead cabinets in as well, I figure we can paint and panel around those.  

It took about half a day but I ripped out all the wood paneling and remaining insulation on the walls and ceiling.  

We found rotted wood at both back corners and around the windows. 


I knew this was out of our range of experience so I called in an expert.  Our friends came down for a couple days and we pulled out the windows, replaced the wood and reattached the metal skin with new stainless steel screws with built-in rubber gaskets.  Radness.

The crazy thing was figuring out that they build these things from the inside out.  All of the nails were facing in.  They were nailed from the outside.  First comes the framing, next the flooring, the walls and cabinets, insulation and finally they cover the interior and its guts with metal skin.  So removing and replacing the wood frame wasn't super hard, just different than usual stuff like this.  Made ya use yer brain!


We caulked around all the windows before re-installing.  Then a good couple tubes of foam to seal the cracks and nooks and crannies.

The electrical was mostly working.  Our friend came over and rewired it so that everything works now.  Tail lights and brake lights were a high priority for me.

Next stop, Discount Fabric on Morena Blvd.  The lady there was AMAZING!!!  I ended up buying four pieces of 76" x 27" foam pieces, 2" thick and 3" thick (realized now that I need two more!), fabric, notions, etc.

My girlfriend, who is a master at upholstery, taught me how to do the bottom cushions and we rocked those out!  Here's the finished product in the trailer.  


I thought it would go well with the avocado green appliances....work with it, not against it!  So that's the progress so far.  

Our next step is making sure she's water tight so we can do the new insulation and put wood on the walls!  We are hoping to at least get it road-ready for a lil' camping trip!

Until next time, happy trails!

~Brin

Thanks to the Vintage Cardinal Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vintagecardinal/
and Vintage Camper Trailers on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vintagecampertrailers

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Love / Hate Bang Relationship Ends...Part Two of ???

Washed the hair pieces out and laid them to dry.  They are real hair.  They should keep the shape they dry in.  So I combed one straight to make into the straight bang and combed one to the side for the swoop bang.


As I combed them I noticed something.  Not all of the hair was dyed.  The underhairs are still reddish.  


Ok, so I should have combed them out with the dye in them...lesson learned.  One more box of dye coming up later.  For now, they dry.  

I will report back later to let you all know how they turned out once they were dry.  Thanks for reading! ~Brin 

The Love / Hate Bang Relationship Ends...

I have forever gone back and forth between bangs and no bangs.  Something about my brain doesn't let me remember what a pain in the ass it is to have bangs with curly hair.  It's a pain in the ass.

Each morning I would take a shower, load up on product, plug in the flat iron, blow dry the bangs and then flat iron the bangs.  Betty Page bangs, sweep bangs, whatever - time consuming!

Then each day, all day, my "Bangs OCD" is on full alert.  Are they even?  Are they straight?  Are they frizzy?  UGH!

I grow them out.  Thinking that I have left the bang desire behind me, once and for all.

Then I see some hot chick with black hair and bangs.  Suddenly I want them back.  I browse old pics of myself with cute bangs; adding fuel to the fire.

I give in.  I cut them again.  Immediately; regret.

Well, no MORE!  "NO MORE!", I say.  Thanks to Micheline Pitt, stylist, make-up artist, designer, artist, awesomeness.  She made a video for YouTube about fake bangs.  WHAT DID SHE SAY?!?!  Fake Bangs?!?!  Oh, yeah she did.

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7KJFc6FjXk Part 1 of 2 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyBjMPnhfQI&feature=relmfu Part 2 of 2.

She also goes into making fake bangs out of your own hair using a shaper and all too.  I don't have the patience or skill for that one.

She walks you through the process of procuring, dying and styling your fake hair to have any kind of bang you want.  I AM IN AWE.  Why didn't I know about this?

I immediately run to the nearest Sally Beauty Supply during lunch.  I buy two fake bang hair pieces, both in red because they only offer two colors; blonde and red.  Not only are they in stock, they are on CLEARANCE!!!!  I plan on cutting one into a Betty Page bang and leaving the other in a nice swoop bang.



Next stop, Vons, for hair dye.  I choose L'Oreal Excellence Cream Color in Natural Black.  That's what I use normally and I wanted the closet match possible to hide any distinction between the real hair and the real hair piece.  I bought two boxes since I have a shit ton of thick hair.


I put the two pieces into a Pyrex glass baking dish so that it didn't stain anything.  I put the dye into my hair first and dyed the pieces next.  I spread the dye on like frosting on cinnamon rolls.  


Make sure you turn the pieces over to get the back and clip area.  When I finished they looked like crappy pieces of bloody meat or bloody pelts, neither very ascetically pleasing. 



And wait thirty minutes. 

Stay tuned for Part 2~Brin