I like this little cloud shelf from DesignTorget. I’m not sure how much it costs or if you can get it in the U.S., but I had to put it up.

There is also one shaped like a castle:

(Via Notcot)

One of the great things about growing your own tomatoes is that they can be stored lots of ways. For example, last year I talked about how to sundry tomatoes in your oven. But usually I just freeze the tomatoes in containers. That way, I can pull them out for sauces, soups, or any other dish whenever I want.

Of course, frozen tomatoes aren’t as good as fresh tomatoes–you certainly wouldn’t want them in a salad–but they do have their charm. I know some Italian chefs prefer to work with canned or frozen tomatoes over fresh tomatoes. In any case, you’ve got to do something with the excess harvest from your tomato plants, right?

Here is my method for freezing tomatoes: a. clean the tomatoes, b. remove the skin, and c. put them in a freezer-safe container and freeze. Easy. I don’t bother with pureeing or slicing the tomatoes at this stage because I might want to use whole tomatoes later on. Also, cutting the tomatoes means you are likely to lose some of the juices in the process, which is sad.

How To Freeze Tomatoes

You will need:

The tomatoes you want to freeze
Freezer-safe containers, tubs, plastic bags, vacuum-sealer bags, etc.
1 large pot of boiling water
1 large bowl of ice water
Strainer
A slotted spoon
A knife

Directions:

First, prepare the tomatoes. Wash the tomatoes. With a knife, cut out the stem and any bruisings or bad parts of the fruit.

After you are done, it’s time to remove the skins from the tomatoes. Here is a trick to make this easy: get a large pot of boiling water. Beside that, put a bowl of ice water. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 30 seconds-1 minute, then fish out with a slotted spoon. Drop them into the ice bath. When they are cooled, transfer them to the strainer to get off excess water. The skin will come right off. Much easier than a vegetable peeler!

Finally, put the tomatoes into the freezer-safe container. I usually smash them up a bit so they are sitting in their own juices because I find they freeze better that way. Seal the container and transfer to the freezer. Now you can have tomatoes all winter long.

So that’s how I do freeze tomatoes. What’s your method?

Wow. I am in love with this duikers fabric from skinnylaminx’s Etsy shop. It costs $14 a quarter metre.

I learned about it from a sofa before and after on Design Sponge.

The sofa was upholstered by a furniture and design studio in Austin, Tx called Spruce.

A duiker is a small antelope, in case you didn’t know. (I didn’t.)

So much of clutter in a house are little things like bag clips for open potato chips. I love learning tricks like this that eliminate the need for keeping those things around.

Here’s a great tip from Mother Earth News–if you plant garlic in the fall and harvest it next spring, you’ll have bigger, better bulbs.

According to the site:

Try to plant your garlic about a month before your ground freezes, so the plants have time to get established. During winter, the crop will go dormant; then once spring and warmer temps roll around again, your plants will experience a burst of growth. By summer harvest time, you’ll marvel at the success of your crop!

The above picture, also from the site, illustrates the difference between planting garlic in the fall versus the spring.

Sadly, the bulb on the left looks familiar to me. I guess I have been doing this all wrong. I am adding garlic to my fall planting.

Awhile back, my beloved wallet finally fell apart. I started looking around for a new one, but have found none that I particularly care for. The only one that has come close was $70, which is… yikes. Maybe instead, I should make my own wallet for free.

In looking around, I came upon this tutorial from Refabulous, where you make a wallet out of a paperback book. This is right up my alley.

Refabulous says her wallet has lasted 1 1/2 years so far. The design is pretty good looking too.

There are lots of creative possibilities here. For example, here’s a wallet made out of a romance book:

I just may have to try this.

This is rather sloppily done, but it is a great idea, nevertheless. Inbaliya took old birthday candles and eggshells, put them together, and made floating candles out of them.

From what I can tell (the site isn’t in English), she melted the candles, and then poured them into the eggshells. Then she added a wick, which she held up from the wax with toothpicks, like so:

Turns out eggshells are the perfect shape for floating candles. Who knew? I wish these were a little prettier, but overall, a great idea. I might just have to try this when fall gets here. (Via Recycled Crafts)

I have had a project in mind that requires appliqué, which I have never done before. From this site, “Appliqué comes from the French appliquer which means to “put on.” In appliqué, one layer of fabric is places over another layer of fabric and is sewn in place.” For example, these letters are appliquéd onto this pillow from Beford Designs:

I was going to appliqué with a needle and thread, but in looking around the web I learned that there is an easier method. You can use special paper to fuse the appliqué to the fabric. This video shows how it is done.

Somehow, this seems like cheating. But since this is my first time, maybe I should get myself some Bondaweb, or whatever the American equivalent is, and go with that. Thoughts?

I wasn’t that into this living wall trend until I saw this post on Jetson Green pointing to an edible living wall. From the site:

GreenScaped Buildings installed the green wall with 100% recycled polypropylene plastic modules, a Uni-Strut frame, and Netafim in-line drip irrigation. The result is a lush and massive wall — now about 120 square feet on the east facing wall — that protrudes roughly 15 inches from the surface. It grows lettuce, peppermint, celery, parsley, sage, and other edible plants.

While I assume this particular wall is outside–it looks like it from the picture–a small home-sized version of an edible wall would be handy to have in a kitchen. Whenever you want a salad, just pick it off the wall.

The logistics of that would be pretty complicated, of course. Just getting the proper light to grow all these plants seems difficult. Still, an edible living wall would be a great thing to have on a patio or in a small yard.

It is that time of year again–zucchini season! This is probably my favorite squash, but I admit, it can be a little overwhelming as I pull in zucchini after zucchini from the garden. How will I ever use them all?

But luckily, zucchini is versatile. You can grind it up and freeze it. You can pickle it. You can put it in almost any veggie side dish or spaghetti sauce or soup. You can even bake with it.

So in that spirit, here are five dishes that use a lot of zucchini:

Zucchini Muffins–Of course, the classic zucchini treat, which uses 2-3 zucchinis.

Zucchini on Zucchini Ravioli–I made up this recipe last year. It is a very yummy, plus it uses up 5 zucchinis.

Zucchini Garlic Soup–I recently tried this dish from The Kitchn, and I can attest that it is delicious. It uses 4 zucchinis.

Greek Style Zucchini Fritters–I haven’t made this particular recipe, but this is a classic zucchini dish and this recipe makes sense to me. Probably uses about 3 zucchinis.

Zucchini Rolls–This is a tasty-looking appetizer: grilled slices of zucchini stuffed with cheese. How can you go wrong? Uses 3 small zucchinis.

That should make a dent in your harvest.