DIY

Woodworking, Sand Art, Homemade Ghosts, and More Carnivorous Plants

All in another week at The DIY Diaries

It’s been a rainy and somewhat chilly spring here in the Seattle area, but I think we’ll be grateful for the rainwater in our lakes and rivers during the summer. I don’t mind relaxing indoors to do some writing and collaging, but I think I’d feel greater motivation to go on walks (which I need to do!) if the sun were shining a little more. How’s it going for you?

We received a fun variety of stories at The DIY Diaries this week, and if you haven’t read them yet, I hope this little roundup will encourage you to click through. By the way, we passed the 50-follower mark, which I think is pretty cool! We’re actually at 54 followers as I type this. Thanks to everyone for the reads, follows, stories, and comments!

One of my favorite things about Medium is when authors write about unique, interesting subjects that pretty much nobody else on the platform is writing about. As a result, I love Mandy Zeller’s ongoing series about how she’s been teaching herself to grow carnivorous plants.

The latest installment in Mandy’s series is a welcome one because we get some before and after photos that show how much progress her plants have made in the ten weeks since she started keeping them at home. You might remember from her earlier stories that one plant in particular had arrived in bad shape, but even this plant is starting to thrive.

I was happy to look in the DIY inbox and find a story from E. Katherine Kottaras about her longtime interest in woodworking. How many of us remember paging through a catalog as a kid and picking out something that represented a dream that, as it turned out, we had to wait and work quite a bit to actualize in adulthood?

Katherine’s story is about teaching herself woodworking, and it’s also about a story many readers will relate to about finding an identity within a family that might not readily accept the full extent of who we are. The story takes us through a series of photos of DIY woodworking projects like a structure to prevent garden pests, a bench, and a couple of Little Free Libraries — and we also understand the personal process behind embracing more of what you want to do in your life.

The next story takes us to Hong Kong where Helen Miao Yu visits a friend’s art exhibit which gives her time to reflect on how we can create art with all sorts of local and sometimes unlikely-seeming materials. I also appreciate how this story focuses on a DIY project that the author witnessed and was able to participate in as a friend and gallery visitor — there are different ways to engage in DIY projects!

Have you ever thought of creating art by filling a room with a huge amount of sand? Have you ever thought about the ways that natural materials like sand can give us the opportunity to reflect on our many interactions with the world and our various paths and experiences? Helen’s photos and reflections let you visit the gallery with her and ponder such ideas.

I’ve sung the praises of Daniella Montage here previously for sharing project ideas that are fun, creative, and super affordable. Well, she’s back with another project for those who love to celebrate Halloween whenever they feel like it — or for those who just need to put some cool ghosts around their house.

You could also adapt this project by using different colors of tissue paper to make a smiley face, an animal, or just a cool looking lantern. My foster daughter did a project in preschool where the class used different colored strips of paper to create an almost stained-glass window kind of effect.

I posted a story this week to spread the word about another DIY-themed Medium publication, this one with a specific emphasis on visual creativity. Share Your Creativity is edited by a visual artist, and I suggest that you check it out.

This week I also wrote a couple of DIY-related posts for other publications. I wrote about writing acrostic poems for Paper Poetry and keeping a reading journal for The Writing Cooperative. I received an email from Medium that my story for The Writing Cooperative is being “recommended to readers across Medium’s homepage, app, and emails,” so that was a nice piece of news to hear about!

Thanks again for reading my work and the work of the writers here at The DIY Diaries. I invite you to leave a comment on this post if you’d like to be added as a writer. You can write about all sorts of topics related to projects you or the people in your life have taken on within all sorts of artistic and practical contexts.

In the words of the ever-busy do-it-yourselfer Martha Stewart: “Once you realize that you have identified a passion, invest in yourself. Figure out what you need to know, what kind of experience and expertise you need to develop to do the things that you feel in your heart you will enjoy and that will sustain you both mentally and economically.”

Remember that your investment can be in the form of time, through a process of self-education and exploration. And as you invest your time into projects you enjoy, why not write about your DIY process and tell us about it?

Yours, Amanda