wine barrels

While knitting has not been happening around here, a lot of other things have. This weekend we gutted two closets to paint and then assemble new closet organizers in. It was exhausting, but with great results! I'll post pictures of this project soon.

Another project we worked on recently was making a wine barrel into some flower pots. We got the wine barrel from the winery that we are members of - they were giving them away for free to members. I took a lot of pictures of what we did.

First we cut the barrel in half and then attached a base to it with wheels for better mobility.

Then Tim drilled some drainage holes into the bottom.

Just to make sure the metal braces didn't slip at some point, we also put some nails in the barrel to hold the braces in place.

Next we flipped the wine barrel upright and added some landscaping cloth to the bottom of the barrel. This was probably unnecessary, but we did it anyway.

Then we had a layer of gravel to help with drainage and to take up some space.

After filling it up the rest of the way with soil, I planted some flowers in one of the barrel halves. This barrel went by our front door.

The other barrel became my herb garden. There's chocolate mint, lemon verbena, oregano, lavendar, two types of basil, and savory in it.

The herbs have grown a lot and I've also added mulch to the tops of each barrel for better watering and because it's pretty. ;)

I also planted some vegetables recently: cherry tomatoes, crookneck squash, and red bell peppers. These will probably be moved into a garden bed in our backyard after we re-landscape.

We're going to plan our landscaping project this weekend, which we'll hopefully be able to finish within the next four months. We're going to totally re-landscape our front courtyard, our side courtyard, and our backyard. The front yard will wait until another time. We have a lot of yards.

pictures!

I finally took some pictures of the things I'm working on, plus some extra ones of our yard.

First is Bad Penny. I'll probably get an orangey color similar to the one in the pattern for the trim. It's knitting up pretty quickly, though I've gotten to the monotonous part of it and haven't been working on it as much as I should. I also need to learn to start putting stitches on string instead of holders when I set them aside, because I got an awful stretched out area on the underside of each sleeve when I did this. I'm sure I can just stitch it up with some extra yarn, but it would be better if I just didn't have it in the first place!

The full shot

Up close and personal

I also have some of Orangina knitted up, but I haven't worked on this since I started Bad Penny. I usually like to knit when I'm watching a movie or listening to music. This lace pattern doesn't really allow me to do that yet though. I've lost my place a few times, and I'm just now getting the swing of how to find it again. I'm just so worried that I'm going to make a mistake and then have to rip all the way back to the start because I won't know how to fix it in lace.

It sure is pretty though.

Wolfie isn't too interested.

Ah, I feel better now. I need to buy some new yarn and start on the socks for my Sockapal-2-za sock pal. I think I will try to make a pair of socks for myself first though, since I don't want to give someone else my crappy first try pair.

Anyway, I am loving parts of our yard (while other parts still need some work). Here are pictures of some of my favorites.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!