DIY - Recycled bottle vases

My lovely in-laws are in town from Hawaii and my children are on spring break!
They took the kids to the The Flower Fields in Carlsbad yesterday and they had a lot of fun!

Jaxon and Maya bought me a mini succulent plant and my in-laws gave me a bouquet of vibrant Ranunculus that are in full bloom at The Flower Fields. How sweet!

Instead of putting the whole bouquet in a  large vase, I decided to divide them up into different vessels so that I can enjoy the flowers in more than one room of my home. 

I recycled used bottles I had laying around. I like to keep bottles with cute shapes.
I have here a large cold brew coffee bottle, a natural soda bottle, and a spice jar.

This one I have on our dining table since it is a larger presentation. 

This dainty guy will look cute in our restroom against our white walls.

This cluster will look great on our kitchen counter. To jazz up the spice jar, I simply glued a piece of paper from a catalog to it. 

So don't throw away your glass bottles and jars...they make great flower vessels.

I hope you enjoy creating your own display of flowers in your home this spring! 

Maya's Athena Costume

Dress: $1.00 plastic tablecloth with gold ribbon trimming.

Helmet: Cardboard structure, newspaper papier mache. Puffy paint for dimension and feathers.
               Original post on the helmet is here if you are interested.

Arm cuffs: Maya added strips of newspaper to felt. Puffy paint for dimension and gold paint.
                  Velcro closure.

     Spear: End of a broom stick, foam tip, puffy paint for details, and gold paint.

Shield: $1.00 plastic serving tray. Puffy paint detail and gold paint.

Cape: My old sleeveless knit dress cut in half, buttons removed, arm holes sewed closed. 

           Ribbon trim details. 

    Belt: Rope painted gold.

Slippers: Maya's yard slippers painted gold.

DIY Outdoor Seating

We finally finished our outdoor seating! Here's the before and after photo.

When I first learned about this awesome cinderblock and wood outdoor seating on Curbly,
I was so amazed at how simple and ingenious this design was.
I instantly had to give it a try! The step by step tutorial can be found here at Kaylas Basement.

during...

What you will need:

12 cinderblocks (6 for each side)
4 pieces of  4" x 4" x 10 ft. lumber
concrete adhesive
cushions

How to:

*Tip: Make sure the ground is level before setting everything in place.

1. Start with one side.
    Set 4 cinderblocks vertically, and 2 that go on top horizontally.
    Allow approximately 8 - 9 ft. of distance before setting the next side of cinderblocks.

2. Feed the wood through one side to the other. Make sure you have at least 6 inches sticking
    out on both sides. If you want smaller seating, you may always trim the excess wood.

3. Once you are happy with the placement and size of the seating, temporarily remove the wood beams.
    Use the concrete adhesive to set the cinderblocks in place.

4. After the concrete adhesive has dried, feed the wood beams through the top holes of the cinderblocks.
 
We decided to paint the blocks to give it a bit of color.

We used Behr Paint in Island Oasis HDC-MD-09 for the cinderblocks.
We used about 2 small containers of the sample sizes in this color, available at Home Depot.
This amount will cover the outer sides of the cinderblocks only.

You can easily buy a cushion and be done with it at this point.
I recommend the "deep seating" cushion for this width, approx. 32".
They are available for purchase at such places like World Market, however, a cushion this size will easily cost you $200 or more, for the insert cushion plus the cover. I recycled a mattress pad (used for camping) that I found, cut the cushions to size, then covered it in leftover fabric from curtains I trimmed for the kids room.The curtain fabric was from Ikea, and it is just as durable as fabric sold for outdoor use.
I also covered four pillows in the same material.

I hope you have fun creating your own outdoor seating!