Old Light Bulbs Become Christmas Decorations

I'd accumulated some old light bulbs that I didn't want to put in the trash and hadn't found my way over to the recycling center, so I decided to turn them into Christmas ornaments. A quick couple of sprays with the silver spray paint and then I glued on some ribbon as a way to hang them and eh voila, nine light bulbs have a new use. Now I didn't finish them before Christmas so they didn't make it to our Christmas tree this year, but I'll be storing them away for next year with the other glass baubles and will hang them then.  Over the year I may think about adding other decorative elements to these, such as gluing on some shapes in bright colors or putting red or green strips of ribbon on them or some white snowflakey things...... well I've got 11 months to think about this.  Just glad to explore re-use of used light bulbs!

Flower arranging vase using several plastic bottles

I got this idea from a library book about upcycling where the guy took
a bunch of used plastic bottles of varying sizes, glued them together, spray painted it and then stuck flowers in it.  Instead of putting five of those little plastic shampoo, pill and lotion bottles into the recycle bin, I glued them together with that super duper E6000 glue -- that I got in Walmart for less than $5 and can be used to stick anything together -- then spray painted the cluster of little bottles when the glue had dried (overnight). I probably put on two coats of paint before deciding it was green enough, letting each layer dry overnight. I then stuck and glued some salvaged fake yellow flowers onto straws (you will probably recognize this re-use of green Starbucks straws) and placed them into the bottles which arranges them for you. This ended up being another cute item in my basement living room.  P.S. I just recalled the library book where I got this idea among others: it was "Upcycling: create beautiful things with the stuff you already have," by Danny Seo and has great illustrations and artsy crafty tips on how to do stuff that isn't too complicated and doesn't require a lot of tools and know-how.

Clock Made From Chip Tube and Oddments

Inspired by all the artsy crafts projects I see on Pinterest, I made a clock for the basement living room out of a cardboard chip tube, some spare spray paint, some ribbons and a clock face I'd bought to fix another clock but it was the wrong size.  So for this one, after spray painting the inside and outside of the chip tube, I cut out the circular shape for the clock face using an exacto knife after drawing a circle around the clock onto the cardboard tube.  Then I wedged in the clock face and put some weights in the bottom of the tube so it wouldn't tip over easily.  I used those glass beads you put in flower vases but any weight things would do. Then I put the lid back on and then decorated the tube by gluing on some salvaged gold and blue ribbon pieces. I quite liked the overall effect and it's good to have a clock in this room and when the battery fails, I can just open it up and pop in a new one.

Ever Changing Wreath on Front Door

I'm really into re-use, reduce and recycle so for my front door wreath I used an old twisted twig wreath form that I got years ago in a Michaels Arts and Crafts store and that I update seasonally.  This summer I used red and yellow fake flowers that I found thrown out in someone's trash in the alley (thank you very much!). First I cleaned them up a bit, cut off the extra plastic twiggy bits and then stuck them into the wreath.  The plaid green and blue ribbon I also found in the trash, someone had tossed the unfinished roll out, and you can be sure I spied it and commandeered it for re-use. The ivy leafy vine wrapped around the wreath I got years ago also, probably at The Dollar Store,  great source of cheap arty crafty bits and bobs. I'm quite glad how this colorful wreath brightens up my front door for these late summer days.  Soon, of course, I'll be changing out the flowers for the autumn, that is, once I gather some orangey yellow bits and pieces together.....

24 Photos of An October Day in McMillan Park #BloomingdaleDC

View toward Bryant St NW

those lovely tanks

Some work underway

Inside the work area

View to Bryant St NW

View to Childrens Hospital

Ivy covered tower

Chimney vents

Derelict doors

Filtration system

Work area

Blue plastic trash barrels under filter system

Chichenitza type steps

Workman weeding

Dereliction

Ladder up Ivy Tower

View to Bryant St NW

Walking down from some appointments at National Rehabilitation Hospital recently, I saw the gates open at McMillan Park and since I had my camera with me of course I had to start snapping away on that beautiful sunny October day. There were some workmen cutting the weeds back and some others doing something else but I really wasn't sure what was going on. Nobody bothered me except a young man walking through asked me if I had walked through from North Capitol street which was a pretty strange inquiry as I don't think there's any gates over there.  Anyway, as usual I noticed the lovely chichinitza steps, the wonderful weatherbeaten doors, and the orange and green ivy climbing up the sides of the water towers.  I decided to take some long view shots towards the hospital and the Catholic cathedral to show how open is this space.

Filter system

Water towers

View toward Shrine

Underground sand filter tank

Path with view to Bryant St NW

View to North Capitol Streeet

View to Veterans Hospital

Perfectly Cracked Steps and Tilting Brick

There's just something about this very imperfect front yard with its tilting brick column, mismatched wood fence, cracked concrete steps, and useless leaning wrought iron gate that appeals to me. I even like the uneven mortaring of  the bricks and the slightly off-center cap on the brick column.  This "mess" is located on First Street NW and whenever I pass by I find myself enjoying this not-so-neat juxtaposition of materials.  While it's probably a hazard for pedestrians to enter this house yard as the steps are so damaged, you  have to admit there is evidence here of someone trying to make their front yard look better than just dirt and concrete.  But it looks like snow and ice and rain have done their inevitable work and heaved everything out of line. Other front yard entrances on First Street are very neat and tidy, even architectural, and that's what everyone likes and presumably wants.  However, this home-made attempt surely tells us that weather and water are more powerful than our sometimes good intentions. And, wouldn't  you agree, the palette of colors here -- reds, beige, grey, greens, white, black --  is enjoyable just on that basis alone?

Carter Woodson Corner, RI Ave NW and 9th

On the SE corner of Rhode Island Avenue NW and 9th Street stands this decaying building that you just know is going to get bull-dozed out of history one day. I think they are trying to sell it as it's been painted over sort of to make it look more like one building.  It used to be a lot more interesting looking as it had writings and Egyptianesque paintings in bright blue and green painted on its walls.  At one point a lot of people lived in the building and it was clearly a religious sect of some sort, with women in full habibs going in and out. But these days you just look at it and say to yourself "that's going to get bull dozed over" one day and a nice new block of brick front condos is going to get thrown up there that won't look a bit like this old building.  I wish I had taken a photo of the mural that used to be on the side of the building that had a quote in French that said "bienvenue a Shaw, slum historique" alongside some renderings of Carter Woodson, an African American historic figure.He's the guy known as the Father of Black History, if you didn't already know that!  One of his most famous quotes used to be painted on the side of the building too: "We should emphasize not Negro history but the Negro in history..."   (see other view of this quote here). But this month is when I finally got to photographing this building and it's the best I could do to capture some local history.Nearby, at 1538 Ninth St NW, is the Carter Woodson home, where there will be the 135th Birthday Anniversary Celebration on December 18, 2011. There is little doubt that history is all around us all the time. And thanks to others for preserving the colorful quotes and images that were on the building previously!

Related articles 

• How many honors did Carter G Woodson earn (wiki.answers.com)

Smart Cars and Pedicabs

Today I noticed some of the new vehicles you can see about in DC these days. There's these little Smart cars which look almost like toy cars and come in snazzy little designs and look very very easy to park. Turns out they are made by Daimler and originate from Europe!  Then, if you have some extra time and want to take a leisurely taxi or ride there's some pedicabs you can hire. In fact one day I took one home when I was on P Street. It was a green one, in the photo here, and the guy had breath enough to pedal away and chat with me about his new business and how it was very competitive with a couple of other pedicab companies in the area now.  I think DC is changing right before our very eyes if we only just notice the transformation.

Image by Dvorscak via Flickr

Those Mighty Megabuses

As the light turned green, two of these big blue and yellow behemoth megabuses went whizzing through the 7th and H street intersection in Chinatown when I was there tonight. Where were they off to at 11 pm at night I wondered or had they done their runs for the day and were going to whatever warehouse they are kept in at night? I've never ridden on one but the more I see of them, the more I get the urge just to hop on a bus, Gus, see New York city again, Jane, or maybe never come back, Jack. Something about how easy these buses seem to make it appeals to me. They stop right in the middle of Chinatown, you see the long line of YOUNG PEOPLE with backpacks waiting on the sidewalk climbing in and off they go, hardly stopping anywhere along the way, so I hear. Not like Greyhound or Trailways where you have to go to their station and put up with whatever route they go. But that's a bit like how life is, isn't it? Some buses just pass you by since the big conductor in the sky just didn't want you on that one today for some mysterious reason.