ARTFULLY AVOIDING THE LANDFILL (& driving my husband crazy) ONE PIECE OF JUNK AT A TIME

4/28/10

Terra Cotta Brick Address

After spending hours and hours and weekends and weekends picking up the sticks and branches that blanketed our little acreage all winter, I stole a little time this past Saturday to start planting flowers.  One of the ideas I've come across over and over again in blogland, is numbered flower pots that display your address.  I loved the idea and knew I could do it, what I didn't know was how difficult it would be to find four flower pots to work with!  So, I improvised.



I found some old terra cotta bricks laying around with nothing better to do and decided they would work just fine. The old cart I planned to display them on was not level, so I knew I needed to mark them where they would sit to make sure the numbers would be straight.  The next obstacle was finding a piece of chalk to mark the bricks.  You'd think with all these kids running around here I'd be able to find one little piece of chalk.  No such luck!  But, guess what?  Pepto Bismol tablets work just as well : )



I made the numbers by cutting them out of card stock with my Silhouette Craft Cutter and simply traced around them with a pencil - being very careful to line them up on my Pepto Bismol lines, of course!  Then I painted the numbers with Plaid Outdoor Acrylic paint.  One coat is all it took and it was amazingly easy to accomplish.


The bricks are a foot tall, a bit much for filling with potting soil, so I gathered a few misplaced rocks from the lawn and filled each one about half full before adding the soil and finally the plants.


When all was said and done, I was pleased with the way it all worked out!


Don't you just love the old cart?  Absolutely everything in this picture was found out here... and there's plenty more to be found and put to good use!  I'm just lovin' how the flowers are working with all the old junk!


A large old bottomless pail, some chicken wire to form a basket, rusty old cable wire to secure it all and some leftover coconut fiber liner made a perfect home for these beauties.  I'm lovin' it... so much I'm sharing it on Donna's Funky Junk Saturday Night Special!  

Be sure to hop over there and see the magnificent display of talent!   


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8 comments:

  1. Love your address marker! Everything looks great! Lezlee

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  2. Ah!
    that looks so cute! the terra cotta address blocks WITH the flowers...lovely. Great work.
    The Pepto Bismol tablets...had me laughing!
    Your mind thinks a lot like mine.
    "use it up,wear it out, make it do, or do without!"...that's how my mind thinks.

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  3. Love it. Looks great. I was just waiting for a pic of the kids using the pepto to make hopskotch.

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  4. Coleen! I love everything about this! Love the repurposing (of course) of the pepto! lol
    The flowers look great in the junk. The cart is fabulous! You are SO lucky to have an endless supply right at your fingertips!
    gail

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  5. Coleen... I love this. I've never seen terra cotta blocks like these! Great idea!

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  6. Love the cart and house numbered pots...I just made some myself and will be featuring yours in my post today :) Hope that's okay! Have a great day!

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  7. Colleen, they are fabulous. The entire vignette looks perfect....and YOU are the master of ingenuity -- pepto bismal as marking chalk (HAHAHA). That is a keeper!

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