Green Garden

      One of my deepest regrets in the flower garden, besides not starting sooner in the season, has been neglecting the backyard garden for the past two summers. Not considering the cost of losing a few beautiful plants, I've seen more green in the backyard than I've seen an abundance of color. What led up to this unfortunate neglect was sheer rebellion against nature. Where I live, for the last couple of years has experienced extreme high temperatures, which averaged from the low to high 90's on consecutive days, without any rain for weeks at a time. My backyard garden fell victim to the circumstances and has not be able to put on a flower show, like in has in years past. Ivy and weeds have run rampant and have appeared to take over the yard. Only the tried and true plants have been able to fight through and display their beauty, such as the orange kissed Daylily, so tall and regal. Then there's the bold and beautiful Canna, not afraid to showoff their yellow blooms and tucked in a small pot are the vibrant hot pink Dianthus that add their own splash of color.

   
    I started out as an eager gardener, wanting to produce a fabulous "show" in just one season, but not knowing which act would work well with what scene, so I ultimately hit a stumbling block. The plants all have their own cues and instinctively know when it's their turn on stage to perform. This year, I slowed down production so that I could focus on one area at a time. I started with the front of the house, where more plants can been seen and instead of planting everything in the ground I've elevated and highlighted a few plants by planting them in nicely decorated pots. I also added natural stones, that I found in the backyard, to bring more definition to the space. The rain this year has still been sporadic, but with time comes wisdom and now I've learned use five gallon painter's buckets to catch the rainwater and have the water on reserve to water the plants when I need it.  Slowly but surely, I'll make my way back to the backyard garden where it's so green; but for now I need to learn more so that I can see a flourishing and colorful garden.
How does your garden grow?

Coffee Filter Wreath

I was looking for an idea to jazz up our front door a little when I came across this great wreath that I saw on the blog the little brown house; I absolutely fell in love with the idea of using coffee filters. There area a few differences between some of the material used  on her blog and the one I put together, but the results are still the same...........beautiful. Although I don't drink coffee, I already had white coffee filters in the kitchen cabinet so the only thing I had to buy for the project was the wreath. 

I twisted the bottom of the filter and then hot glued it to the wreath. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out because at first the filters were laying flat against each other. Once I glued all the filters that I thought I needed, front and back, and fluffed them up it looked much better. I cut a piece of ribbon and hot glued it to the back of the wreath, for support. This is how it first turned out.

I added color by spray painting the wreath a light green color and got the result you see here.

 

Supplies: Coffee filters, glue sticks, glue gun, wreath, ribbon and spray paint

Level of difficulty: Easy

Happy Father's day to all the great Dads!!

Pentas

I love a good deal and in many garden centers you can find some good deals. With so many flowers now in bloom the garden centers are bursting at the seams and there are clearance, yes clearance plants just waiting for a home. If you're able to spend a little time to nurse a plant  back to health then you'll be able to add beauty to your garden for just a few dollars.  I usually check out the plants on Monday - Thursday and find racks of plants on clearance; there are many plants leftover from the weekend when the store expects to have more foot traffic. I have bought a six pack of Begonias for $.50 and a medium sized pot with Hibiscus for only $2.00. My recent find was the beautiful Penta, I love the color. This plant is an annual in some states and survive as a perennial in other parts of the United States; it loves the sun but can tolerate some shade.

I nearly walked past this plant, as I loaded the shopping cart with a flat (18 count) of Marigolds for $2.00. An entire flat (18 count) of the Pentas, every plant looked healthy and thriving on sale in the clearance rack for $5.00. These beautiful pink flowers are gonna be right at home in the front yard to add a little curb appeal. So on your next visit, see what hidden treasures you can find on the clearance racks, their beauty may surprise you.

Huge, Huge Yard Sale

First Baptist Church over in Decatur, GA is having a huge yard sale, Thurs 6/9/11 -  Sat 6/11/11; it's in it's 16th year. The proceeds from the sales will aid the youth ministry of the church so they can participate in mission trips this summer. I was on the hunt for one thing, you know what happens when you set out to buy just one thing... exactly. I walked away with a box full of things as well as two large picture frames under my arm, all for $22. There were so many things laid out and I was told that there was even more things stored inside the church that would go out to fill the empty spots as shoppers continued to find deals. This was my first year attending, but it definitely won't be the last.

Those are pianos back there for sale

 

 

This is a mug, should I really call it a mug??
For only $4.o0 and the size of a baby,
I just had to take a picture

Here are a few of the things that I purchased....remember I went for one thing, the lamp was that thing:

I have great plans for this lamp!

 

 

 

This was my greatest find. I've been looking for a
garden globe for years but I wasn't drawn by the
prices, but this one just called my name and I
quickly answered.

Gettin' Rid of the Bugs

This year I bought a Citronella plant(also known as a Mosquito plant) at a local garden center, I heard that it was a good plant to ward off bugs, so I wanted to try it out. After a quick spray paint of lime green paint on the flower pot I planted the Citronella plant and put it on our front porch. The plant smells great and works well in the shade.

While working in the yard one evening, I noticed a few bugs flying around me, so I picked off a leaf of the plant and rubbed in on my legs, arms and neck. I didn't realize it at the time, but after I was done working, I noticed that there weren't any bugs around me and I didn't get bitten...I was pleasantly surprised. And at night there aren't a lot of bugs flying around the light fixtures on the porch, compared to years past.    
Since I bought the plant it has nearly doubled in size, which is great, but I'm not sure if I planted it in a big enough pot, I'll have to wait and see. I read somewhere that this plant is easy to catch roots from a cutting, so I'm testing that now. I hope that this plant can work well in the house during the cooler months of the year so that I don't have to buy new plants every year. I just love it. If I added another plant on the other side of the porch a few plants in the yard, it would not only be fragrant but a great deterrent for those flying critters.

Decorative Ball- Shell

Christmas ornament and Pistachio nuts

I was in a big box store recently and window shopped in the home decorating section and came across some decorative balls. One of them caught my eye and then the idea popped in my head for me to try to make a decorative ball. This was my second attempt, the first ball was made of moss and this one...oh it's just nuts. 

Before

Glued nuts around ornament

After

Spray painted with glossy paint

 

Supplies: Christmas ornament, pistachio nuts, glue sticks and glue gun

Level of Difficulty: Easy

I'm linking this post to

Crown Gift Shoebox

I came across an organization that had a donation drive where the public could donate toiletries in a shoebox for homeless mothers and children . The fun part of the drive was that the participants were encouraged to decorate the boxes. This is the box that I decorated for a child and it got me thinking about how I will give a few gifts in the future. I started with an empty Victoria Secret's gift box.

I used a piece of cardboard to cut out the crown for the top of the box and covered it with gold tissue paper. I hot glued colorful stones on the top to resemble gems and then I covered the inside with a silk red fabric and added polyester fiberfill underneath to raise up the fabric. Then I hot glued red ribbon below the cardboard.

 

On the bottom part of the box I hot glued red sparkly fabric. This is how it turned out in the end.

Supplies: Empty box, cardboard, plastic gemstones, ribbon, silk fabric, embellished fabric, fiber-filling, tissue paper, hot glue with sticks and Scissors

Level of Difficulty: Easy

This project is being shared with the the following

Twisted in Twine

I bought a container to to use as my "in box", a simple container to hold paperwork for my next writing or craft projects. I couldn't find one that hung off the desk though, so I made one. The project turned out in two stages. The first stage was to purchase a clear container and hooks (the kind of hooks that you put over a door to hang say, a bath robe, etc.). I screwed the screws in the container and the hooks and thought that it would hang off the desk....2 seconds later it fell down. I finally figured out that I needed some gripping material to put between the hook and the top surface of the table for the container to rest on the table, and it worked (and it's still holding). Stage two, I couldn't leave the container so plain and simple, I had to spruce it up a little. This is how it turned out.

 

 

Hot glued twine around the entire container

Supplies: Clear Container, Hook, roll of Twine, Hot glue with sticks and Scissors

Level of Difficulty: Easy

 

Pots in the Garden

Spring is in the air and the blooms are in showing off their brilliant colors

 

I thought that changing the colors of existing flower pots would add more color

to the garden. Take a look at the pots....

BEFORE

AFTER

I used Valspar's paint for plastic to paint the pot and inside the pot are
Creeping Jenny, Impatiens and Sedum.

BEFORE

AFTER (IN THE GARDEN)

 This pot was painted gold and the I planted spearmint
in the pot (the spearmint smells wonderful).