It’s the dead of winter, so it’s seed catalog season! I’ve already received a few catalogs in the mail, and I’m sure more will be on their way shortly. In my book, Project Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Planting, Growing, and Enjoying ALL Your Backyard Has to Offer, I offer several suggestions for ways to use seed catalogs to create art!

One of those ways is to use them to make your own book marks. You can cut out your favorite flowers and make a collage-like  bookmark by covering a piece of cardboard. (Use an old cereal box; just cut a rectangle.)

It’s an easy way to make a colorful bookmark, and it makes a nice little gift for a mom, teacher or friend. Have fun using those seed catalogs this season, and look for more ideas on how to re-use them in my book. (Don’t forget to make sure you’re actually DONE with those catalogs before cutting them up!)

With only four days to go until party day, I wanted to post about one of my more unique project in the book…the kitchen faucet birdbath.

When you write a book, you sometimes have to make some compromises. And while I don’t think I had to compromise on any of the material itself, I didn’t get to use as many photos as I wanted. There just wasn’t enough room! The one photo I really wish we could have squeezed in is this one. Frankly, I think “kitchen faucet birdbath” sounds a little hard and a lot crazy. But when you see the photo, it all comes together, right? (Don’t worry if this isn’t your thing. There are lots of other projects and ideas in the book, organized by month.)

So from page 29 of the book, here’s the picture to go along with the project…