Upside-down Tomato Time

Its that time again! This will be the third year for me planting tomatoes upside-down. I love it! Its due time I got started (its been a late spring here) so I picked up a starter at the nursery...
Here are all the materials and supplies I used... both cats came out to help me :) (not pictured is a bucket) I use a hanging plastic planter that I've drilled a large hole in the bottom and a piece of flat foam that I've cut a slit and a small hole in the center.
I put the foam around the base of the tomato plant, cut so it was bigger than the hole in the planter. This is not necessary, but it prevents any dirt loss and just makes life easier for the tomato plant.

I prefer to use Sungold Orange cherry tomatoes. They are the bestest ever yummiest tomato ever... I swear. :)I stood the tomato plant up on the bucket (the bucket was turned over) and brought the planter down over the starter... slowly started getting the delicate plant thru the hole. This year I only lost one little leaf. In past years I've surrounded the plant in a tube of paper and/or put a bag over the plant to protect it from going thru the hole... but honestly its easiest to just be careful and slowly get the plant thru the hole with no special tricks
Once the whole plant was thru I was able to just rest the pot on the foam circle...
Then I flipped the bucket over and stood the planter up in the bucket with the plant resting unharmed inside the bucket
my starter was not so tall which made this was possible, in past years I've needed a helper to hold the planter while I fill it with dirt before I hang it...
You can see the plant sits happily upside-down on the piece of foam
I filled the pot with some organic potting soil...
And then re-arranged the hanging chains so I could pull the plant out of the bucket and hang her!
Day 1 2009 Upside-Down Tomato

Making Candles Even More Fun!

Have you ever had a candle that had presents inside?!

You know, as it melted little treasures inside would become exposed and you can pluck them out... I remember getting some as a gift back in the 80's... the packaging included a little set of chopsticks to help procure the little gifts hidden inside the wax.

You can make these! (if you have candle making supplies and some borosilicate glass goodies on hand)

The borosilicate glass does not mind the temperatures of hot melted wax. So you can drop any kind of fun boro glass into the candle. These make for really fun gifts!


Here I've taken pictures of some small jars that I filled with wax...

I am also making some big candles in molds, but I thought these glass containers would show what is going on.


After pouring the wax, before it cools,


drop the little glass treasures into the candle.

If its a larger mold(not shown here in pictures), be sure to drop the objects close to the wick so that the recipient can get them out when the candle is burning. Also pour the candle in layers (1/3 at a time) to distribute goodies throughout the candle vertically.

Ideas of what to put in a candle:
Marbles, Pendants, Rings, LadyBugs, etc

if you are a lampworker that works in boro, just about any small creation will do!