DIY Greenhouse Seed Starter from Old Cassette Tape Holder

Gone are the days of cassette tapes, but their holders still live on... buried under old blenders and keyboards in thrift stores, begging for a second chance at life. Here's your chance to give life to your local cassette holder in need.

I met my cassette tape holder not too long ago, and at only $3.00 I took him home immediately. Because of the plastic lid, I thought he would make a perfect seed starter, with a built in greenhouse!

Here he is, down on his luck:

His previous owners were Bee Gee fans.

Tools you will need:

Paint

Paintbrush

Sandpaper

Screwdriver

Drill and bit (nail and hammer can be substituted)

1: Take off the lid by removing any hardware. If the hardware isn't removable, tape it off so the paint doesn't gunk it up.

2: Give old cassettey a good rub down with some light sand paper (100 grit or so) This helps the paint have something to grab on to. 

3: Rub the surface down with a wet cloth to grab any dust that might be lingering. 

4: Wait for your holder to dry, then pop that paint open 

5: Paint away. I chose something rather simple, but here's your chance to slap some color on that bad boy and go crazy.

6: Once paint is dry, grab your drill and turn the holder over. Drill small holes to allow drainage. If you don't have a drill - a hammer and a nail will do the trick. If you don't have a hammer and nail, you can gnaw some holes in it with your teeth. People will be impressed with you commitment to DIY.

7: Now the fun part, fill with your favorite potting soil and sow your seeds!

8. And if you feel like it, a label or two!

VIOLA! New life for good ol' Mr. Cassette Tape holder.

A better way to use protein shakers.

We are living in a hotel right now. OH THE JOYS OF TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENTS! Although it has a kitchenette - there is no mixer. And I didn't bring one. With a sweet tooth like mine, panic set in quickly.

I was making some delicious s'mores bars (recipe here, yum!) and had all this leftover heavy whipping cream. Not being one to waste, I poured some into a bowl and started whipping. Then, it happened. A better way to make whipped cream, a better way to use protein shakers.



Yeah you read that right! Just pour in the heavy whipping cream, add some honey or sugar and shake that baby up! It only took about 1 minute to froth up. The best part is you can use a little and pop it back in the fridge. That way you can avoid the watery, unusable aftermath of homemade whipped cream. You just shake it back up.

I'm sure the creators of the protein shaker are cringing. Or thanking me silently for a new way to market their product to people who aren't so healthy. :)

You're welcome!

Life is weird

Sometimes being in the military is absolutely disorienting. When I moved to Camp Pendleton, San Diego I was completely shock free - just happy to be spending time with my husband. Perhaps I was spared some shock because of the BEAYOOTIFUL location.

Two months later, we find ourselves in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. 

*insert shock here*

Being from California, it is quite a shock to be transferred to a different part of the country. But give me Camp Lejeune, give me Quantico (wait, did I really just say that?)! This is by far the smallest town I have lived in. Although the military community is great, and tight-knit, the local fare does not offer much variety or career opportunities. Says the woman who has lived here for two weeks. 

Before we moved to MO, I told my husband that the most important thing we should remember is to remain positive. But after a few short days here, spent trolling the job market and area, my positivity had positively disappeared. To make matters worse, my husband is absolutely miserable here.

I told him that his negativity was rubbing off on me (desperate to find a reason for my low positivity levels...bad wife, BAD) and he gave me a stern look and said, "I need you to be the positive one, for me."

I snapped straight up because he was, of course, right. Job #1 is to be that rock for him. Because we all know that military men and women are made of steel, courage, and a dash of kick-ass. But what we have to remember is when they come home they need love, support, and cookies. 

Love to make them remember why they do it. 

Support to help them get them through the next day. 

Cookies because... I don't need a reason. 

So yes, life is weird. You will find yourself in strange places. But there is beauty in every situation - so here's to finding the silver lining of every curveball life throws at you.

Sandwiches and tears

Here I am, sitting across the table from my husband in a New York-style deli, blinking back tears. I have just have the sudden realization that my husband is leaving for out-of-state training in one month. I am not supposed to go with him. It isn't that I forgot this calendar date (or impending doom - as it seems more natural to call it), it's that I wanted to forget it entirely. I wanted to return to being the couple that has glorious, unscheduled weekends to binge on Netflix and each other. But the military creates this terrible egg timer in the corner of your mind: 12 weeks, 6 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 days... always counting down the days you have left together, or the days until you can be together.

The military egg timer also means having trouble saying goodbye, for completely irrational reasons. Going to the grocery store alone, when I return I attached to him like lint on Velcro. When he falls asleep early, I dare not fall asleep because our moments are so few. I would rather lay next to him and listen to him snore than give away our time.

The deli-worker comes with the sandwiches and I force myself to realize that saying goodbye is a part of life now. I pout quietly and try to accept the new role life has handed me: MILITARY WIFE.

The horizons of military life are upon me.

As long as I've known Henry, I've known that he was going to join the military. Still, the six years of mental preparation are nothing like the real thing. The hardest part about becoming a military wife is learning to let go and have patience. Small feat.

Gone are the days where you can plan your life, holding every detail in your palm like a delicate egg.

This is my story of learning to love scrambled eggs.

The Public Eye

Today we're going to get a little creepy because today we are going to talk about photographing people in public ;)

The easiest way to prepare for this type of photography is to simply OBSERVE! Try going out to the park, or taking a moment when you stop in for a coffee to simply sit & watch. Put away that iPhone, I said WATCH! An important part of being a photographer (which I hardly hear anyone talk about) is being comfortable while alone. Being alone allows your beautiful brain more time to calibrate your surroundings, measure lighting and shadows, and find the best subject for your photograph. 

The best shots are candid and showcase the subject. Although there is value to a posed picture, candid shots showcase the LIFE that people can emulate. For example, this was a picture from Washington Square Park in New York City that I took a couple of summers back. It was a sweltering day, the kind of heat that hangs around your body like a mosquito -- so naturally everybody climbed into the fountain to cool off. This photo reminds me of easy living, and says so much more than if I had asked her to turn around a smile nicely.

Of course, there is value to a posed picture, but you can guarantee you won't produce a more awkward picture than asking a complete stranger to pose for you. 

NOW, onto the legalities: it is legal to take photos of a person in a public arena. But that isn't to say that you should stand in front of your neighbor's house, shooting him washing his car in too-tight sweatpants (although legally... you can). There are a few limits to how you can shoot people in public. A person has a reasonable right to privacy AKA don't get all up in their grill and you should be fine. 

Quick Quiz Time! *Cue game show music*

 Which of these situations is legal?

A) Photographing an old couple in the park

B) Snapping a few shots in the locker room

If you need me to tell you the answer to this question, you should not own a camera. :-) However if you have more questions, you should bone up by reading this. The last thing you want to do is get an amazing shot and not be able to publish it! 

So go ahead, be creepy. And take some amazing pictures. 

A photo I took during a SF State protest. This guy actually screamed at me for taking his photo.
Too bad I took Media Law, CHIKACHICKA YEAH.

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty

They say the beauty of life can be found in the details....

Magnifying those details sheds light on what the world looks like through your eyes. Close-up photos help you share those magnified details, and are a really easy way to produce distinctive images that cannot be replicated.

One of my favorite things is to go to a well-visited place, like the Golden Gate Bridge, and try and get as many Emily-ized photos as possible. Thousands of people will take the same photo of the bridge every year, but you have the opportunity to break that cycle and share your vision with the world.

Tricks o' the trade:

Macro Mode. On most point and shoot cameras, there is a "macro mode" it usually looks like a cartoon tulip flower. Choose this setting, and your camera will auto-focus closer objects. Generally with point and shoot cameras, the settings are such that it will capture portraits easily – since that is the reason most people buy a camera (for family & friend photos). Macro mode is amazing because it actually telepathically tells your camera to use a large aperture (which defines how much light is used in your photo) so that your close-up subject is in focus but the background isn't.

Tangent: See here's the thing. I think people have absolutely no idea just how amazing digi-cameras are. With a manual camera, the user has to think about aperture, shutter speed, focus, changing lenses, and film advancing. AND you won't know what your picture looks like until you get your film developed. A digital is literally "point and shoot" and 99% of your photos will be golden. I heart the future.

Tripods. They are the most versatile tool in photography, and can virtually be used in any project. They reduce blurriness that can be caused by shaky hands and allow you to play with different settings for the same frame. But -- they are also big and bulky, so I have two other options for you.

ONE is a mini-tripod like this one, which is – as with any miniature version of anything – exceedingly adorable than a regular tripod. It is also small enough to fit in your pocket. The Gorilla Pod is also worth checking out, and would be perfect for photographers who like to take photos in rocky situations.

The SECOND option is to use your surroundings to create a makeshift tripod. If you are in the forest, use a chopped tree trunk or a rock. If you are in your room, pile up a bunch of books until you find the right height. Or my favorite, create Tetris-like towers with household objects (like Tetris, this can go horribly wrong. Please use caution to avoid camera smashing.

 Composition. Because you have so little room to catch the perfect shot, it is imperative that you check, double-check, and triple-check that your composition is what you are aiming for. Remember, if you are using digital that you can take as many as you want and find the "perfect shot" after you upload your shots. But as you progress as a photographer, you should be aiming at taking less of the same frame, and more variety.

Simplify your image as much as possible. Be aware of busy backgrounds. A simple background will allow the subject to pop out of the frame, but a busy background could distract the eye away from the subject. Perhaps this is a personal preference, but I think close-ups are much more effective when the main focus is … well.. the subject. As you develop into a more experienced photographer, you will start to notice your own preferences and you should follow those instinctive quirks. Those peculiarities are going to make you a more distinctive, and ultimately better, photographer.

Well, there you have it! You, my dear, are ready to be unleashed out into the world that offers endless close-up opportunities. Don't forget to share some of those images with me. :)

Until then,
Emily