Tea Storage and chalkboard paint

How do you store your tea?

I found that the tins that you can buy for your loose leaf tea a bit expensive and also realized I would have to go through all the tins to find the one tea i wanted since the labels were all on the front of the tin. (I have a lot of teas for some reason)

So a trip to the $2 store and I was all set to solve my current issue.
I found some nice glass jars (you can use container you want) I also had some old jars at home that I later added to my tea jars.
I also fished out the left over chalkboard paint from a previous project, you can make your own.

Chalkboard paint
1 cup paint
2 tablespoons non-sanded title grout powder

mix, apply, dry, write.

Once you have chosen your containers give them a wash, the best way is to add a little bit of just boiled water (A tablespoons worth or so since some glass may crack from dramatic temperature change) Swirl it around the jar and it should kill any bacteria, smells, etc.
Dry the lids and jars.

Now paint the jar lids with your paint. some may need two coats. you can paint the whole lid like i have or just enough to write the name of the tea down. Feel free to paint the jars themselves too.

Once the lids and jars are completely dry add in your tea, write the name of the tea and what ever else you want on the lid. I wrote down the type of tea it is too (black, green, white, etc). you can also add what the tea helps with for example sleeping or stomach ache.

Have fun with it, use different colored paint for different teas or just different colored chalk.

Extend it further, paint your herb containers, your homemade beauty products containers, homemade tomato sauce, glassware, the list goes on.

Toothpaste

So I had started making DIY beauty products for one main reason and that was because no matter what I tried none of the commercial products helped my oily hair, so I started to look at other ways to help my hair. When I stumbled upon all sorts of home made beauty products and the like I noticed the home made toothpaste and deodorant and remember thinking that I would never make any of  those because BO and dental care was not something I was willing to mess with.

So naturally I made my own toothpaste.
here are my reasons for it:
I had run out of toothpaste and was too lazy to go to the store, just so I could brush my teeth.
While browsing the net I found out that a lot of questionable things were added to most toothpastes.
I actually read the back of the label on my toothpaste.
lastly and most importantly (at least at the time) I already had everything I needed to make it at home.

Now there are all sorts of recipes out there but here is mine.

Ingredients:
2 parts baking soda
3 parts coconut oil (depends of consistency you want)
optional:
mint extract (for flavor)
2 parts calcium powder
1 part or less sea salt (depends on how salty you want it)

I put about equal parts of baking soda and coconut oil (I wasn't too fussed) But adding a bit more coconut oil will make it less grainy.
a few drops of a flavor peppermint is best for that traditional toothpaste feel and helps with the breath. 

Mix it all together and there you have it.

Use only a small amount and brush your teeth as normal.

This toothpaste thanks to the baking soda will help whiten your teeth.
Calcium powder could also be added to help your teeth out even more.
Also sea salt (the finer the better) can also be added and is great for your teeth.

*I should note that you should not substitute baking powder for the baking soda as some baking powder has traces of aluminum that can be bad for your teeth.*

As for this toothpaste I actually really like it. It was not what I was expecting from a homemade toothpaste and my teeth actually feel nicer from it than they did from a commercial toothpaste.

I guess it won't be too long till I start making by own deodorant.

Do you already make your own toothpaste? Tell me about your recipe below.

Use this recipe or similar? Tell me how its working for you.

Update

So I've been using this recipe for about two weeks now and I have to say I am never going back to buying commercial toothpaste again. 

I would also like to state that prior to the switch I had a slight toothache that I had been meaning to go to the dentist about but no longer have to. After two days of using the baking soda toothpaste my toothache vanished.

Lace bracelet

What you will need

Lace Ribbon
Ribbon (wider than the lace)
2 ribbon clamps (that fit the larger ribbon)
a set of clasps
links or a small metal chain

pliers
scissors
fabric hardener / white glue / lighter


Steps
Measure out the lace and the plain ribbon according to you wrist or the person's wrist who you are making it for. make sure to not make it so long that it circles the whole wrist as you will have to add a clasp of some sort to it. leave a little extra on the ribbon that will hide in the clasp. if you are going to use the lighter leave a little bit more.

used the fabric hardener or glue on the ends of the ribbon to stop any potential fraying. A lighter can also be used on most types of ribbons, simply hold up the end to the flame and slowly melt the ends. don't keep it too close or it will burn off more than you want it to.

Line your 2 ribbons up. I placed the plain ribbon under the lace so it would stand out more and because I didn't think the lace ribbon to be all that strong. If you use a stronger lace ribbon you won't have a need for it. You can glue the ribbons together it you really want to but you don't have to.

Use on of the clamps on one end of the paired ribbons. use the pliers to open and then close the clamps Mine was a little smaller than the ribbon but I managed to squish the ends in a bit and it worked fine. Before adding the clam on the other end try the bracelet on the lace ribbon should end up slightly longer than the plain one you can either cut it of and go through the whole glue/flame thing to keep it from fraying or fold it over. It shouldn't be so long that it will poke out. Add the other clamp.

Depending on how long you have made it you can add the clasps straight onto the clamps or add a little chain making the bracelet larger. you will need you pliers to open up the links and close them.

You can always adjust the size of the bracelet by adding or removing some chain links.

Chalk Board

Because why not?
A nice way to leave yourself or others messages. Really simple and easy too.

All you need is some chalk board paint (or white board paint for those of you concerned about the dusty chalk), something to make into a chalk board I used a lovely wooden board with a nice edging I found at spotlight. You can use anything a wall a jar a mug? Just make sure you are allowed to use it.

Also some normal paint (acrylic) to make some lasting decorations on the board.

Before you begin set up a work area so you don't get paint in unwanted places.

Paint your board/wall/jar/whatever. I decided to paint the back of mine with normal black paint before I painted the front in the chalk board paint.

Let the paint dry or get more paint out.

Start adding some details, I wanted to make it pop a bit more and added a silver boarder and because i could added my ID at the top.

Now you really have to let it dry.

Once it is really dry attach some double sided tape or a hook, just something to hang it up unless it doesn't need to be. I used double sided tape and stuck it to my door. This way I can remove it without leaving any holes in the door.

Now grab some chalk out or white board markers if you decided to go that way and go to town. =]

Butterbeer

So I've been wanting to make this for a long time now, finally did.

Before you begin know that this had a lot of sugar and well its a lot so be wise, don't drink so much that it will make you sick.

Ingredients
1 bottle Creamy soda
1 cup brown sugar
2 table spoons water
1/2 tea spoon salt
1/2 tea spoon cider viniger
3/4 cup cream
1/2 tea spoon rum essence

In a medium sized pan throw in the brown sugar and the water, cook till it starts boiling.
Add in the butter, the cider, the salt, a little cream and melt / stir it all together.
Leave it to cool
add in the rum

in another bowl add the cream with a little like a few tablespoons of the brown mixture and mix till it was soft peaks. (mine didn't)

Now in a glass (preferably a beer stein) pour in some of the brown sauce and a little creamy soda, mix it (DON'T fill the glass all the way with the creamy soda as it will bubble up and spill over when you mix it) once mixed top it up with the soda and add the cream on top.

Enjoy.
It makes about two drink depending on how big your glass is.

Coconut shampoo

So some of you may know that my hair gets beyond oily after just one day, not the case anymore thanks to the honey shampoo with you can find here. Now it takes some adjusting to homemade shampoos during which I did a few times use store brought shampoo, found out just how dry then oily my hair gets from them. It was great only for a day.

Anyway, why am I making another shampoo when the other one works fine now, simple my hair seemed not dry or brittle but lacking somewhat so I thought I would give another ago. the coconut shampoo leaves my hair soft and for lack of a better word yummy. Though I wouldn't use it on a regular basis as in all honesty I forget to defrost it, yeah yo heard me, defrost I'll explain later. Also because in the past each time I use one shampoo all the time my hair just goes bad/weird so I figured it would be best to use a different one from time to time.

Okay enough talking lets get down to business, to defeat the Huns.... sorry couldn't help it.

Coconut Shampoo

Things you need:
1 3/4 cups Pure Aloe Vera gel
1 can coconut milk

Can't get a hold of this stuff? Make your own Aloe vera gel here, coconut milk here.

Its really as simple as mixing the two together, only the mix will only stay good for about a week or so. So freeze it, not in one bit chunk but in small portions like with an ice tray. take a cube out as needed to thaw out in the fridge the day before / in a little container in the bathroom the night before in my case.  For me a cube will last 2 washes, I now have medium length hair (I didn't even cut off all the dead yucky bits just most, regret doing so too since the honey shampoo made the left over dead bits healthy again.)

So have fun mixing, and let me know how this shampoo works for you, oh and one last thing the less you use in one wash the better.

~pkarpicz

Coconut milk

Can find coconut milk? Need it because you want to make some shampoo? Or use it in hot chocolate? Or for whatever reason? Here is how to make some.

What you need;
4 cups hot (not boiling) water
1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded coconut

What to do:
Mix the two ingredients in a blender until thick and creamy
Shift it or filter it through a paper towel(s) to get the bits of coconut out
not satisfied? repeat the above steps.
Best stored in fridge, and used 3-4 days after making.

That's it. Simple and easy.

aloe vera gel

Hi sorry for not posting in  a while, been busy, sick, lazy. Anyway here is another DIY.

So I wanted to make a new shampoo but it required aloe vera gel and not one for sunburn or with added chemicals. went perusing through a few stores, I didn't have the patience to wait for it to ship from the internet but after a few dead ends including an internet search on where I could buy them nearby all failed attempts to get my hands on some. So I remembered I have a decent aloe vera plant at home so I cut some stems and got to work.

It is really simple all you need is some leaves from the plant,
some vitimin c
and some vitamin e
I had some really bad luck shopping and couldn't find any of these but the vitamin tablets.

First things first wash your hands, you don't want that in you mix. now use a spoon to scoop out all that lovely gel straight into a blender.

Now crush some of those vitamin c tablets if you couldn't get it in liquid form about 2 will do

Add in about the same amount of vitamin e, I had to resort to pierceing the tablets  and squeezing the oil out.

Blend all together.

Store in the fridge it will last about a week.

~pkarpicz

lip balm/ gloss

So my 10 year old cousin wanted to make lip gloss while i was staying at her place last week and we were going to but we failed to find a recipe that only involved things from her house. This week we thought we would give it another shot, still couldn't find a recipe with stuff from her house, wishing i had thought ahead and got some supplies I raided her old make up stuff that she no longer used or reacted to (she has really sensitive skin) and we came up with a few ideas of our own.

We had coconut oil which I figured we could use instead of beeswax but it doesn't take much heat to melt so we tried to find and alternative to beeswax. Vaseline would have been good if we had any but alas we did not. We did find that we had paw paw ointment and that it was something she didn't react to. So we got to work.

The squeeze lip gloss containers I had planed to use went in the bin as i started to empty them. The gloss in it was sticky and stained and i couldn't get it of with out using a scrub brush and that didn't work on my hands. Oddly enough oil did. I'm really falling in love with oil. Any way it made us hunt for and new container, we found a wand applicator one but that too we couldn't clean out. Then the brilliant little girl remembered she had a lovely tin from her happy meal we could use. Not the mixture is a bit runny but we placed it in the frezzer to harden up and it seemed to so the trick.

Lip balm/gloss

Paw paw ointment (amount depends on container)
1 tea spoon coconut oil
1 tea spoon flavoring (we used strawberry)
few drops of food coloring (optional)
1 container, preferably  a squeeze type or wand applicator

Mix it all together, trying it as you go to see if it needs more of one flavor. Add the food coloring last and a bit at a time to get the right color. Try placing it in the freezer to get it to set a bit if you didn't use a tube or wand applicator type container.

Have any other recipes for lip balm / gloss tell me about them or try coming up with your own with things from around the house and tell me how it went. would love to try out some more recipes.

Hair problems

Problem

Okay so may hair after only one day gets really oily, itchy and feels yuck. It feels like it has a layer of grim on each strand of hair. So I wash my hair daily, that’s not good, it’s just making it worse.

Past attempts to solve it.

I have tried all sorts of shampoos, conditioners and treatments for it, all of them had something in common. The first time I tried the product I loved it, my hair felt silky and smooth, this goes for the hair repair ones too. Come the second or sometimes third wash it felt like my normal shampoo. Hey I still kept using them all the way till the end of the bottle and you know what they didn’t help.

I tried the more obvious way and tried to go without washing my hair for a day or more but I felt terrible that whole day and my hair was constantly itchy or heavy and I just couldn’t take it.

                I’ve also tried not using conditioner but that didn’t work either as it left my hair really dry and it got oily anyway. Oh and there was the problem of not being able to brush my hair without the help of conditioner.

                I’ve read about the vinegar wash/rinse thing in various places and even from my mum who is a hairdresser. Yeah no I’m not putting vinegar in my hair I don’t like the thought of it and I fear my hair will be overpowered with the smell of it. I also think vinegar is also a harsh liquid and I believe it will clean out my hair but what else will it do to it?

A Solution?

                So while roaming the web I came across some shampoo recipes ones said to help with oily hair and what not. Most however seemed complicated or required a shopping trip. I really wanted to make a coconut one but after visiting a few stores and not finding the coconut oil in any of them I gave up. It turned out I didn’t even have to go shopping to make one, everything I needed was at home.

                Now before I go on to tell you about the recipe here is what I found out about why my hair gets this way. The hair products we use to wash our hair can have a high ph level and destroy the natural oils our head makes to protect our hair. So cleaning out these oils on a daily basis or whatever makes out body try and over compensate for the loss of those oils. It’s why it get so oily so quickly.

Honey shampoo

 1 part honey *

3 parts filtered water

Few drops essence oils of your choice.

*Note: that the honey has to be natural for this to work as the lovely runny bottled stuff you normally find in the store is cut with corn starch and other things we don’t want in this mix.

I mixed mine over a low heat so that the honey would dissolve (mine was somewhat crystallised) the heat is not needed though. That’s it.

You place it on wet hair just at the roots and massages it around so it gets to all your roots. Then rinse. You don’t need to worry about getting it on the ends and you don’t want to use conditioner after it. But if you have trouble with brushing your hair I suggest using your fingers to brush through it while in the shower.

Now it’s not a quick fix it will take some time for it to work, like a month. Yeah I know that’s ages and considering how oily it looks in the first week or washing it daily. You will have to probably wash it daily in the first week. Just remember that after a while you won’t need to wash it so often and you will have healthy and happy hair. Well that’s what I’ve read.

Here’s how I went:

My hair before I washed it with honey shampoo (a day after washing with normal shampoo).

After my fists wash it felt a little oily but as it dried up it felt good, it just got oily faster than it normally did, but it didn’t feel gross like normally gets it and it still felt nice. Not heavy and yuck.

So that convince me to continue with it.

Oh I should add that I also decided to start using a beach hair spray I made the same day. It’s simply easy and applied to wet hair. Here is the recipe if you want to give it ago:

Sea salt spray

1 table spoon salt (EPSOM)

! tea spoon oil (your choice)

¾ cup water

Potinal extras

Few drops essence oil (your choice)

Leave in conditioner (not much)

Hair gel (not much)

Put it in a spray bottle and there you go a way to get beach hair without going to the beach.

So as the day wore on I found that my face was starting to get oily because of the oils my hair was producing, yeah it’s still going to do that in needs to to get back to normal.  I solved this by using my herbal scrub the next morning, which you can find in the recipes page.

 

The next day before just before the second wash.

 

Just after washing the second time.

                I figured the sea salt spray was counter acting the honey shampoo as it was drying out parts of my hair so I stopped using it after day 3.

So as the days continued I found that my hair is clean and not heavy and itchy but almost constantly oily. Now one the 3^rd day I really wanted to use normally shampoo because of it but my hair felt nice and silky too. The oils my scalp is producing still have not made it all the way too my ends after 5 days but the oil production in lessening as I can feel it drying up closer to the scalp. 

Day 4 hair actually dry, but I didn't brush it and I was just rolling around which is why its messy.

It’s been five days and my hair feels happy? And it’s getting wavier like it once was. I’m really starting to like it and so I’m going to keep using it. I’ll let you know how it goes.  

If you have tried it before tell me how it went for you. Tried something else and it work let me know too. I’m always looking for ways to make my bleached hair healthier. Oh and if you have a way for my hair to return to the natural blonde it was before I decided to dye it, please tell me. I don’t want bleach anywhere near my hair any more.

Results

So its been a few months since I started  using this shampoo while I was using it I found out a few interesting things, one the few times I used normal shampoos ( I had too, because of reasons) it initially left my hair nice but a little dry but come the next day it was hell, it was more oily than before and the constant itching, this included the really expensive salon shampoo for oily hair.
Two it took some time after using other shampoos for the honey one started to work properly again, this unfortunately included the coconut shampoo that made my hair a little too oily.

The best thing about this shampoo was that it repaired my dead ends, not all of them as I got a major hair cut in the first two weeks of the shampoo, it made me see just how bad my ends were. didn't cut all of them as I really left it for a long time.

So this shampoo is more amazing than I thought. Try it, give it time to work, have some dry shampoo around for a while and wait.

Invitations and place cards

So the Friday just past I had my cousins confirmation. Congrats little man. Anyway for his sisters communion last year my aunt decided to have a go at making the invitations an as the last time I actually had the store bought invitations was in primary school I got roped into helping. This time was no exception.

Now before you take on the task of making invitations keep in mind how many you will meed and how detailed you want every thing to be. As my cousin was sharing the reception after the event with his best friend my aunt volunteered to make theirs too so that they would all be the same. Actually I lie they were not the same, his were gold while my cousins were silver. In fact the whole reception had an on going theme of gold and silver, even the cakes were identical just the colors swapped. So with this in mind and the design my aunt had chosen we had a lot to do. Over 50 invitations using three types of paper and ribbon. It took us a few nights and we recruited two little helpers too. Oh and imagine is you make a major mistake, yeah its a lot.

So when planing out your invite, make sure to keep it as simple as you can if you have 100s to do. Leave your self plenty of time to get it done too. Also be flexible with your design, my aunt wanted it done a particular way but the craft store we went to didn't have some of the things we need to make that design or not enough of it. They had other things there though that suited better or that were close enough to what she wanted. So the design change a lot while browsing through the store. We also made mistakes or didn't get enough supplies like envelopes and I was going up and down to the store and going to other stores to try and find more. So plan ahead, make sure you have enough or you will me stuck with two different invitations.

Before you start cutting all that paper and putting it together make a mock invite. much like a first pancake, see if it works and the best way to go about it. This pancake invite also got us to alters some things on the final design. It just didn't look right so we played around with it a bit till it looked good.

Now that you know what your final design is going to be jump on the computer or get your pen if your hand writing your invites. I had to do this for my aunt but its really simple once you know how.
Once you have all the info you need as well as your wording down make a table in word. adjust is to the size you want the paper to be. I managed to fit about 3 invites to a page once i turned the paper to landscape. Make sure to change the lines of the table to a very light color preferably grey, so it is just visible enough to cut along. big black lines framing your info is not what you want, unless you decided on that. Choose a font, muck around with the words layout and color until your satisfied. Now just copy and paste it into the next box until you have the amount to need. or just one page  and keep reprinting that if you don't want to have the guests names typed.

Now its time to make your production line. Cut up everything, use a slicer if you have one, they are quicker and you get a much straighter line that by cutting with hand. Once everything is cut or while its being cut if you have someone cutting for you start gluing, craft glue, glue stick  or double sided tape are some of your options for this part. if you have textured paper craft glue will work best and the tape works well too. The quickest way is to to one step at a time for all the invitations don't make one than move onto the next one, it destroys the rhythm you build up.

Eventually you will be done. congratulations. Oh you want to place them in envelopes now? I hope you didn't make them too big to fit in the envelope? You did? now you have to make your own. oh it sucks to be you right now. Choose some paper and start folding and gluing. Good luck to you.
Thankfully we planed ahead and knew is had to fit into an envelope. YAY, too bad we couldn't get the right amount of envelopes and some people had different shades or texture than others. Of well.
Now what I did on the enveloped was to jump on the computer and make a new file as an envelope size, it should be on the packet from the envelopes. Use the same font from your invites and type up the names/addresses/return address. just use a mock envelope to make sure you print goes on the right side and right way up. Trust me I forgot one time and half of them were up side down. Also you don't want to use one of those big printers where the paper had to travel through several rolls it creases the envelope. If you only have that kind of printer at your disposal it may be best to hand write it all.

You could of course make a little slip to put around the envelope instead like we did. We used the red textured paper from the invite to make it as well as the church hole puncher we found to make it. It fit nicely onto the envelope which vanished. any way it added a little something and make it a bit more special.

With some of the extra paper we had left over we made place settings too. that took a while as I did most of it myself. My cousin helped me with the gold ones and threw her hands in the air when I told her we also had the silver one to do.  Oh and I decided to make some special place settings for the guest of honor.

So fair warning it takes a lot of time and effort and can be so much more costly but sometimes it is well worth it.

Have fun and good luck.

~pkarpicz

Some other invites I've made (helped made): 

 

Make your own candles.

So I have always wanted to make my own candles but didn't know how and couldn't really find much on how to do it or the stuff I needed. (I didn't look too hard.)

So when I cam across a little candle making kit in spotlight i had to grab it despite that it was the only one left and not in good condition.

In it was soy wax, a silicon mold (tea lights), 2 glass candles holders (Votive). tea light holders, some Wick and holders, one ling cotton wick, a scent and some coloring powder, oh and a nail (spike) that i didn't use.

So I took some of the soy wax melted it in a saucepan on a low heat, they said to add about 20% more than you actually need for the candle, some burns away.

Once melted add in a few like 2 drops of any scented essence you want, I didn't want the lavender that came with the kit so I got out my poison essence, really want to know whats in it, if you know tell me in a comment please.

Now I rummaged through the house till I found some rubber gloves, it you are anything like me you need them, an apron and some grease proof (baking paper) laid out where your working. Now that your all stain proof add in some color, I was going to see if you can use food color or those eater egg coloring tables (smashed of course) but I couldn't find them but am sure they will work.

Now came the hard part I like the smart person I am decided to try the glass candle first, you have to place the wick in this one first, they say to soak the wick in the melted wax first but it really didn't do much, neither did using the melted wax to glue the wick in the middle of the glass because as soon as you poor in the warm wax that wax melts away too. I ended up filling it up and holding the wick in the middle of the glass with 3 well placed tooth picks. it worked.

With the tea light they way to fill out the molds and wait the 4 hours for it to set before using the spike to poke a hole through the middle for the wick and holder. I cheated and placed the wick holder down first and then poured in the wax. Came out fine to me.

I have not yet had the chance to test them out and I'm sure they will be waiting a while but they smell and look nice after I cleaned them out a bit.

If you have some candle making tips please leave a comment, if you liked my little try comment or if you think it was not so good comment.

~pkarpicz

Indoor Herb Garden

So herb gardens who wants one? Now which of you that do will actually remember to water it every day? the solution is to get a self watering garden. Great that's sorted. Well actually I haven't been able to find one, okay not true I just haven't found one that is appealing to me, its too big, its hard to tell when you need to top up the water or it just doesn't look that attractive. I want one indoors so i can grow my herbs all year round, I want it to suit my kitchen and I want it small enough to fit somewhere out of the way.

So I've made my own, there are plenty of ways to make one, the principle is simple the plant just needs a nearby water source that it can drink up when it needs it. There are some amazing DIY ones floating around the internet using old glass bottles. I wanted to make those but ran into some difficulty cutting the glass, I tried to use plastic bottles instead but there were none around the house and i couldn't be bothered driving to the store. What I did have lying around the house though was different sized plastic cups. they worked really well and I recently made some more.

Here is what you are going to need: 

plastic cups in two different sizes, string, scissors, seeds, dirt and water. 

You can also add paint, markers and any thing you wish to label what is in each cup.

So the first thing you want to do is sit a big cup into a little one, that space between the two bottoms of the cups is where your water supply is going to sit. If you want a bigger water supply change the size of the cups. 

So use your scissors to poke a hole into the bottom of the bigger cup, a small hole. Now thread a decent size string through the hole, the string will make the water travel up into the dirt, thus watering your plant

. 

Fill your cup, the big one with dirt. I used dirt from my out door garden and some pot mix only because I didn't have enough pot mix to fill all three cups. 

Plant your seeds or if you've kicked up some herbs from your out door garden plant them.  Read the back of the seed packed to know how deep to plant your seeds. give them a little bit of a water, best to do this at least for the next few days until the seeds take off. You could also add plant growth if you want right about now.

You can now fill up your small cup with water but only enough to reach where the bottom of the other cup sits. I drew a line at that level so I knew where to stop. Once filled you can place the large cup in, make sure the string goes into the small cup and into the actual water or this whole thing will not work.

Place your new garden pot somewhere where with light, like the window sill.

Enjoy your fresh herbs. Just remember to top up the water ever week or so. This is one of the ones i made about a month or so ago.

Things you can do to make it your own:

Paint the cups before turning them into a garden, its going to be hard to do that after they are filled with dirt.

Add a label, a stick like I did, a small black board, write it on the cup or what ever you want.

Any other ideas to improve or customizations the little herb garden further please tell me. I'm interested to hear all your ideas.

-Pkarpicz