My anniversary PRESENT! How could I forget?

As a follow up to my anniversary post, I want to share what Brian made me for our anniversary. It is a travel bag. I've been talking about wanting one for some time. Something just big enough to carry the necessities...phone, cards, keys.  Being the awesome husband he is Brian made one for me. I LOVE hand made gifts! Especially from him.

Salt and pepper shakers

I use to have this thing for buying "cool" salt and pepper shakers that don't look like your typical shaker. I ended up with a couple of expensive, modern looking sets that are completely impractical. They are a pain in the rear to refill and don't hold very much. We don't use very much salt when cooking so I guess that was my reasoning to myself when I bought them. We've been buying S-n-P in bulk and have just been spooning it out of the bag because these shakers are such a pain. Well, that is a pain as well and today I had all I could stands and decided to make my own shakers.

I really like the shape of these and they are so sleek and see through and the top is cut at an angle. The bottom looks like stainless steel (it's coated plastic)...

...but this is how much it holds. You put the salt/pepper in the bottom and then screw it back onto the top. A cherry tomato doesn't even fit in the bottom!

This set looks even more like stainless and they don't fall over. They wobble, like weeble wobbles. ("Say no more. I want them!") They don't hold much either.

My new salt shaker made using a jelly canning jar and lid.

I poked holes in the lid using a knife

It holds pa-lenty of salt

I even made a matching one for the pepper.

I'm sure this will help me be more efficient in the kitchen.

self watering containers

I built a self watering container tonight for a zucchini seedling. I made it from two 5 gallon buckets from a donut shop, a cottage cheese container and a piece of plastic pipe to fill the reservoir.We have six zucchini seedlings total so I have to build 5 more. This should be a very simple way for us to grow these. Its a closed system so we should only have to fill the bottom reservoir with water every few days and sit back and watch it grow. Thanks to the homegrown evolution for the self watering container idea.

raised bed for cucumbers and chives

We built this raised bed out of old redwood fences boards. Triangle shape because it fit in the space we had available. Monica planted chives around the outside. We will plant cucumbers in the middle, with a bamboo teepee for them to climb.