Eclectic Home: Tin Can Planter

Growing up, my grandpa and father both had huge gardens.  Every day during summer we'd go out and water the plants, and come fall our table would groan under bushels and baskets full of green beans, peas, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, and peppers.

Now that I'm living in an apartment, I don't have a yard where I can grow vegetables, but I still want to grow things.  Hence this planter!  It's small enough to fit in my window, incredibly customizable and easy to make cute, and since it's tin, even if my cat knocks it over, it won't break.  You also get to feel like an earth-conscious hippie (even if you aren't), because you can reuse a can instead of throwing it away!  Below are some basic instructions; use your own taste and style to make a cute planter of your own!

Tin Can Planter

Eclectic Food: Dirty Rice

I love dirty rice like nobody's business, but unfortunately it is difficult to come by in the Midwest.  While the Midwest has some delicious foods of its own, I sometimes get a hankering for a taste of home and wind up making myself some dirty rice.  If you've never had dirty rice before, you should definitely try it as soon as you can!  It's spicy, it's flavorful, and it is downright delicious.  Just never try the Zatarain's or pre-packaged versions of Southern food unless you're truly desperate.  They are usually terrible and never as good as actual Southern food.  Here's my favorite recipe for dirty rice.

Warning:  I have included directions for making dirty rice the way I grew up eating it--spicy as sin.  If you are a baby with spicy things have a low spice tolerance, omit the spicy items from your version.  If you accidentally make it too spicy, you can just add more rice to tame the burn, though you might need more seasoning added.  And be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after chopping the jalapeño!

Dirty Rice

Eclectic Home: Dinosaur Toothbrush Holder

I bought some cheap dinosaur toys from Wal-Mart years ago and gradually came to realize that, while I like dinosaurs, I don't play with toys anymore.  I wasn't really sure what I'd do with them, so they just sat in my bedroom for a while.

Cue surprise winter moving!  Suddenly I was sharing a bathroom with two other individuals, and didn't have a place to put my toothbrush.  I thought about looking into buying a toothbrush holder, but I am very poor and lazy, and shopping takes money and effort.  So I tried to think what I could use that I already had, and thought of my dinosaur toys.

This is a really cute and fun way to hold your toothbrushes.  If you get a long-necked dinosaur, you can also use it to hold hair ties (as Rexy* is proudly modelling).

*I named my toothbrush holder Rexy.  He has an inferiority complex because he's not a T-Rex.

How to Make a Dinosaur Toothbrush Holder