Thursday, March 18, 2010

All hail Ter·rar·i·a!

No frogs or toads were harmed in this process.

n. pl. ter·rar·i·ums or ter·rar·i·a (-ē-ə) A small enclosure or closed container in which selected living plants and sometimes small land animals, such as turtles and lizards, are kept and observed.

I post this definition because today people kept asking me why I had a big bag of moss sitting on my desk. I explained that I was going to use it in a terrarium, to which most of them replied, "What's a terrarium?"

I've always wanted to build one, but having learned some difficult lessons as a child, trapping frogs and toads (and then forgetting that I had trapped them) I thought it maybe didn't suit me. Of course, a plant terrarium - that is something I can probably handle.
So thank goodness for Etsy's latest DIY article featuring 10 or so great little tutorials for fun spring projects. This particular one, posted by tinyterra, caught my eye for being so clever.

Last night was one of the few nights where I found myself slightly bored so I moseyed into the bathroom and finally replaced all the dead lightbulbs over the vanity. Step one of my first terrarium project complete. Dis-assembling the bulb was easier than I thought it would be, but please DO follow the advice to wear safety goggles and gloves. Nobody likes shards in the eye. I used white sand from a beach trip and spanish moss, both red and green. I couldn't find any air plants but it looks just as nice with the moss.

Throwing away lightbulbs is annoying so I'm excited to now have a use for them. With the move to compact fluorescents, better to save our incandescents from the landfill - and make some terrariums!


clockwise from left

1 comment:

lesley [smidgebox] said...

i love it! funny, that's a project i've been gathering things for this past week, to do with the boy. he's pretty stoked. never would have thought to use a lightbulb, great tip!