'Bamboo Rug' is not an oxymoron

'Bamboo Rug' may sound like an oxymoron, but it isn't.  The proof is that I found a large bamboo mat on the loading dock some months ago and have been using it like a rug - in the living room, under the coffee table.  In the interests of barefoot walkers everywhere, this is not some plush cushy foot-massaging deep pile rug, rather its function is decorative. It sits upon the laminate fake wood floor and brings some 'definition' to the living room area along with a brighter golden color.

When I found the mat/rug it had these end pieces that stuck up about an inch from the floor (see photo below).

Can you imagine how annoying these end pieces were?  I'm not sure you can.  Trip hazards and toe stubbers just waiting to strike.  So one day (probably in a fit of procrastination) I took some scissors and just started cutting the mat/rug, to see if I could get rid of the end piece while still maintaining the functionality of the rug. Luckily for me this free mat/rug didn't fall apart, but there were a few splintery bits so I covered the end with black tape.

The updated version brings the same color and definition to the space, with 0% of the original annoyingness.  

Maybe in future if I'm feeling both creative, literary, AND calligraphic I can paint my bamboo mat/rug to make it look like the photo below from the Miss Mustard Seed blog.   So cool. 

Transformation potential abounds.

Happy freestyling!

New Home for a Dracena marginata

The Dracena genus of plants includes a variety of beautiful and hardy specimens, very popular for indoor houseplants.  Buy one, help clean your air!  My Dracena is an $8 grocery store purchase that has survived for 3 years on a south-facing windowsill and looks just fine, it might be Dracena marginata since the leaves have red edging.  The plant had been in the same pot for over 2 years, and it had grown steadily during that time, so I unpotted it and found that there was almost no soil left around the roots.  Time to repot!  Unfortunately the hardware store near me does not sell low-cost large flexible plastic plant pots.  But they do sell large expensive-y ceramic pots....no thanks.  Good thing I had a freestyle find to help get the job done.

The plastic on these green plant pots is oddly brittle and the top had split in a few places (maybe why someone discarded them during the summer).  I reinforced the top with a loop of duct tape all around the outside so that any handling wouldn't cause the whole thing to break apart.  Functional, but not very pretty.

 

  On the top of the pot in places where it was split I added tape over the top like in the photo below.

As you can see in the photo above and below I added a layer of rocks over the soil, hopefully this will help prevent fungus gnats from taking up residence in the dirt.  I paid for the decorative rocks. It was a $7 moment of weakness.

To make the whole package a little prettier I put the planter into a cachepot - a fancy term for a ceramic planter without holes in the bottom.  This helps to obscure the duct-tape repairs since the planter sits a few inches below the edge of the cachepot.  This cachepot was one I had on hand, originally purchased at Ikea for $20.

The final repotted Dracena looks lovely in its new home.  I'm glad I found a way to repair and reuse the brittle green plastic planters.

Happy gardening and freestyling!

A matched pair of black torchiere lamps (if you ignore the fact that one is a wee bit wonky)

Lamp kits cost approximately $15, and you can make a lamp out of just about anything (says this tutorial).  So why are decent lamps so expensive in stores? 
And yes, I realize how curmudgeonly that sounds.
 ...grumble grumble, store bought lamps? Who are you, Rockefeller?...
 The point is that when I find a pair of lamps, even if one of them is slightly wonky, I'm totally going to take them. 
Such was the case with a pair of 6-foot tall lovely matte black torchiere lamps with frosted glass shades.
See?
With that description you'd take them too, especially since they still had working CLF bulbs.

The lamps had both been partially disassembled because the center post has 3 sections that can be unscrewed from on another.  They looked like this when I found them.



 One lamp was just fine, and needed reassembly but no fixing, it now stands near the entryway and looks rather normal.  Maaaaybe it leans ever so slightly.  Not a problem for me, because free.



The other lamp however, had a problem in its base.  Under the metal base there was a large donut-shaped ballast (probably made of lead and cement dust).  On the normal lamp it looks like this from the side, with the gray heavy ballast extending down past the metal top with a channel for the cord to go through.

Lamp base, side view

From the bottom it should look like this, with an intact ballast.


 Note than on the intact lamp the ballast sticks down far enough so that the nut (at the end of the red arrow in the picture) does NOT touch the floor, because to balance a lamp on the bend of a cord would be silly, and tippy, and useless.

Unfortunately, the wonky lamp had only half its ballast-donut when I found it, and after handling the ballast I realized what was left was beyond saving.  Sadz.  Also, major design flaw, the black metal base top does not extend down past the nut/hole/cord bend.  So without balancing a lamp on the bend of a cord, and scratching the floor to hell, how to get some more light out of this lamp? 
Answer: Make a different kind of ballast, for cheap. 
I thought about trying to cast some cement.... No.  Acrylic? No. All too messy and expensive.  But eventually I hit upon a very economical solution.

Now the wonky lamp stands up all nice like this.Standing tall next to the couch with its freestyle cover, illuminating the very living room where I'm writing this post.




Curious how I did it?  Let's zoom in to the base a little more. 
You can see a blue blanket wrapped around something at the base of the lamp. Oooh, secrets, exciting!

Secret Yoda maybe?

Peel back the blue blanket and we see that that something is a purple bucket with another blanket on it.  Less exciting, but much more snuggly, than bricks.



Under that multi-colored blanket, inside the bucket, are some assorted heavy items to balance the lamp and fill up the bucket so that the lamp stands straight.  This magical ballast is a few large bags of dried beans, assorted textbooks, and one copy of the new edition Joy of Cooking.



The lamp itself is sitting on some strategically placed magazines so that the nut/cord situation doesn't throw everything off.  I don't have pictures of those, because by the time I got around to writing this I didn't feel like disturbing the bean/book balancing act.

The only things I bought as part of this solution were the purple bucket (reusable in many ways) and the dried beans (edible!).  So if I ever part ways with this particular freestyle project I won't be heartbroken about the sunk cost, all $9 of it.  However, given that both lamps have been going strong for over 10 months I'd say this was a big win. 

Happy freestyling and let your creative re-use light shine!

Umbrella Karma

I rarely buy umbrellas, mostly because it is super easy to find one that is slightly broken and fix it.  Don't believe me?  Just wait for a rainy day and walk around a city.  You'll see.  A needle and thread and maybe a scrap of fabric is usually all it takes.

Umbrella repair instructions aside, I had lost, an umbrella last summer by leaving it under a seat at a restaurant. It was one that I had paid for because I was out of town and caught in a downpour, bummer. I hope whoever found it will love it forever.  

The umbrella karma wheel turned when I found this in the loading dock one night.  

Someone was clearly cleaning house, who tosses a perfectly good teal umbrella?  Are you moving to the desert? Then USE IT FOR PROTECTION AGAINST THE SUN!  I do this all the time, it is wonderful.

Anyway, a lucky, and very useful, find.

Happy freestyling, and try to repair an umbrella next time you find one!