Upcycled Garden Tags

Summer is almost here! I have been anxious to get my plants growing. Last year, I attempted my first garden. I was very excited to try one this year but we decided to sell our house so I didn't want try it again. Instead, I have about 20 pots of varying sizes on our back patio. Most I grew from seeds and some others I haven't. And since I am growing most of my plants from seeds, I wanted little plant markers so I could remember what they are. Basically so I'm not eating a big salad of basil because I thought it was spinach.

I found a cool idea online to make garden tags out of broken mini blinds. We have a window above our bed and our cat, Homie, loves to sit there and we tried to train him to stay off of it but we gave up. Since we gave up, he has broken many of blinds. But it's a good thing I don't like to waste so I put the broken blinds to work!

All I did was take the broken blind and cut it to the length I wanted it. Then I used a sharpie to write what plant it was and stuck it in the plant.

They look simple and unified.

Grow watermelon, grow!

I'm hoping to use this lavender to make some homemade laundry detergent some day. 

I hope this little trick helps in your organization of plants!

Upcycled Wicker Chairs

Upcycle: to reuse an object or materials to create a product of higher value or quality than the original object or materials (from macmillandictionary.com)

I'm not going to lie, upcycle is my new favorite word. Basically you take something that could be thrown away and add to it to make it better or more functional. We got the great idea to take these ugly white wicker chairs and spray paint them black. I bought about 7 cans of spray paint for $1.25 each at Family Dollar so we didn't spend much and it looks fantastic! Here is the before picture:

Before:

 

After: 

And now I use the old cushion as a knee pad for my when I'm thinning or weeding my plants. Win, win!

 

It was a little time consuming and your fingers will definitely hate you after it's over but it's pretty simple. I would recommend spraying the chairs over grass that needs cutting and not over cement like the previous owners of our house did! They turned out pretty spectacular if I do say so myself and we might actually use them now!

Have you upcycled anything recently? Or ever?

It's addicting... as is spray paint... I first spray painted our ugly mail box black and had some paint left over so I thought, what else? Hence our newly painted wicker chairs. I can't wait to have another project where I'm using some spray paint!