Squirrly Markers

I feel like lately every tutorial I come across I am dying to try out. Sure, I sift through hundreds of blog posts and sites a day but I think the internet craft gods must be with me because boy am I ever finding some sweet ideas! These herb plant markers from Say Yes to Hoboken are certainly no exception and unlike lots of other DIYs I find - I even have (almost) all the supplies on hand! Don't you with your plants were labeled so awesomely?

(source)

Ah! Overload of cute! I must say I have been waiting for another excuse to add more squirrels into my decor and I think this is it! I mean it's fate right? I even have the exact same squirrel cookie cutters from Ikea (I made sugar cookies with them at xmas) and everything! Yay! I am lacking the fancy alphabet stamp to make the labels with...but I'm sure I can brainstorm some sort of substitute. Now time to bring on the sculpy! What are your thoughts? Do you ever label your plants?

Look at me not kill things!

Woo hoo! Plant progress on my wee little herbs! I shouldn't be so doubtful of me not being able to grow things because the cilantro I planted is popping up all over:


Do they ever want to reach out to the sun! I think there will be many mexican inspired fresh herb dishes in my future this summer! Yay! I'm trying to be patient with my rosemary, and so far I have the tiniest little baby sprout peeping through:


I think the arrow was necessary to spot that one, but hopefully a few of the other herb seeds I planted with break under peer pressure and start to sprout. Perhaps I need to sing to them more often? That helps right?

Herbs - Round Two.

Apparently my herb gardening skills are lacking because the lovely thriving herbs I had going in February (link) are almost all dead. I think I under and then over watered them and half of them got some spiderweb-y mold on them and they all died off. Parsley is making a slight comeback and I'm trying my best not to kill him off a second time. Take a peek at their sad state:


Shucks! Looks like fresh herbs just aren't my thing. I figure I'd give it one more go and invest in actual potting soil and some larger pots! I figure if I manage to keep this round of herbs alive they can eventually be moved out to the patio in the summer. I bought another mint plant and got some rosemary and cilantro seeds. Check out round two:


The mint seems to be doing quite well and I am trying my very best not to neglect and then over water them. There are even some little sprouts popping up in the cilantro pot but I may need to buy another rosemary seed package since there is no progress there...oh well. I'll wait a few weeks and see what happens. Here's to hoping I can keep these babies alive! Any tips for me? Any pro herb growers out there?

Wall Barnacles

When I come across something fun I want to blog about I often save a picture and a link to the article (or project, or image, or what have you) under my drafts in blogger. It is a great way for me to store extra blog ideas for when I need a little inspiration and has worked pretty well for me over these last few years of blogging. I do however, sometimes forget about saved drafts and when I search back in my archives get to rediscover forgotten ideas! Hooray! I'm not sure how this one got lost in the cracks, but these wall barnacles from the Knowhow Shop are priceless:


Sure barnacles aren't exactly the most loved of the ocean creatures (since you usually don't want them on your things), but their ceramic counterparts are just perfect! I would love to have a few of these up on the wall with perhaps some spider plants popping out? It would be an awesome way to add some greenery, interest, and oxygen production to a room don't you think? I particularly enjoy the white on brick contrast of the image above, but I'm sure they would be just as charming inside. Looks like I've got another decorating idea to add to the list (and am happy I rediscovered this link from many months back)! Hooray! What do you think? Are you craving your own wall barnacles?

RIP Henry

As you may recall, I went on quite the terrarium craze last year. After collecting a few glass jars and moss samples I got around to planting them and adding their own plastic dinos for good measure! My sister was lovely enough to give me the mother of all terrariums for my birthday last year and inside was my new fly eating pal Henry:


Well sad news I'm afraid. Henry has passed and now I've got a barely surviving moss collection that is being over run by weeds:


Oh dear! At least that dinosaur still looks pretty happy! I actually think I might revamp my mossy loves this spring since I am now living in a city that is covered with moss! How exciting! Looks like I need to go one some walks around the city with a butter knife and a ziplock. Fraser even told me about free nature walks run by the city that teach you about all the different kinds of mosses around! Isn't that the coolest? Perhaps next time I do a terrarium plant update I'll be overflowing with moss species knowledge to share! Haha! So long Henry - you were fun while you lasted - time to make room for some new moss! What do you think?

how does your (herb) garden grow?

This xmas I got two herb garden kits given to me. It actually turned out to be a perfect match of gifts since the first kit had six seed packets and both had three pots! Hooray! I germinated five of the six seed packages in wet paper towel in hopes to give them an extra good chance at survival and planted them a week or so ago into their pots. I decided to opt on on starting the "sweet marjoram" since I've never used that herb (and actually have never heard of it) so I picked up a mint plant for the sixth pot. Unlike many of my plant adventures, this one seems to be going quite well so far (uh oh, hope I didn't just jinx myself) and I have quite a few sprouts! The most overachieving of the herbs I started seems to be cilantro so far with loads of sprouts popping up:


The mint is growing like crazy, which is to be expected, since I have been paying particular attention to their watering schedule and making sure they get loads of light:


Parsley is also sprouting up a storm and although I will surely have to thin this one a bit I thought I'd let it go for a while yet:


Next we've got the Chia pots, which seem to be a bit slower growing than the lee valley trio. In the first pot I've got dill (with a few cute little green sprouts coming up):


followed by chives and basil:


According to the package the chives and basil take longer to grow so it is to be expected that they haven't shown much growth, so I'm remaining hopeful! I am especially enjoying watching the herbs obvious love of sunlight as they stretch out to soak it all in:


Hehe! It sort of reminds me of a cat laying in the one little sun patch on the floor and since I'm cat-less these herbs are doing a great job of filling the void! Grow little herbs grow! How about you? Have you ever grown your own indoor herb garden? What varieties would you chose to grow?

Bloomin'

Christmas may have been months ago, but *shhh*, please don't tell my xmas cactus since he's finally decided to re-bloom! My never ending battle of attempting to keep plants alive continues and I am so happy to announce progress in the pink blossom department! Just check out those bright pops of fuchsia:


Oh ho ho! What a proud parent I am! The shorter days and less sunlight has done wonders for this little guy and has finally started to blossom. It's been a bit of a rocky road with this one since I seem to constantly completely neglect him (and then he withers and droops) and then once I finally get around to noticing I panic and over water. Yes, I am well aware of my house plant flaws, but maybe one day I will learn!

For now I will enjoy my successes - and hypothesize that this guy's happiness on his post-xmas relocation. He started out on a side table pretty far away from the window and (generally) out of my field of view. Once the decorations came down and the tree was bagged and back in the storage locker, I moved him to the bookshelf were the tree was. Apparently that was a great plan since I paid much more attention to him (and watered him whenever he got mope-y) and gave him a smidge more daylight. Hooray! Sweet happy plant pink reward ensued:


Yay! As you can see there are still a few more blossoms ready to pop before he reaches his full glory like he did last year:


Yippee! Now we just need to fast forward a few decades to when he is (hopefully) still alive and greeting me with winter month blooms! I figure it is yet another step in my gradual transformation into a grandma. I guess I've got a ways to go yet...but at least I have the tea and doilies covered....

The house plant saga continues...

A few days ago, I spilled all the details on my continuing struggle keeping Bob (my ficus) alive. I am certainly not born with a green thumb and although I very much enjoy having house plants, I am miserable at making them thrive. When Fraser and I moved to the coast I was quite worried my sun loving cacti wouldn't survive and that our rainy apartment living just wouldn't give my wee plants enough rays. We decided to maximize their chances of survival by building a simple shelf by the patio window to let all my lovelies soak up any available sunshine:


Perhaps not the most glamorous of shelving units, but it does the job! I even picked up a few full spectrum light bulbs from Lee Valley and put them in the multi-directional floor lamp to give them an extra little boost (well...when the light is on anyways...). I think my plants look extra happy on their shelves and when the sun shines in they just gleam:


As it turns out, the shelf and sun bulb combo seems to be working better than expected and Hamish (the nice tall cacti) has out grown the 3rd shelf:


A little rearranging was in order, but now the spacing of the shelves does seem a little silly. I just can't believe how much Hamish has grown! Here he is when I got him last spring:


He barely grew a centimeter in the many months of Kamloops summer sun and heat and as soon as we came to Victoria...


Bam! Inches of cacti growth! Do you see the lighter green bits at the top? Hamish has skyrocketed a good 10cms since the move and just keeps going! Soon I think he'll have to be moved to yet another new location! Hooray! Apparently my darling little plant babies are surviving on my "completely forget about them for a while and then water sporadically" method of indoor gardening. Huzzah! How about you? What are your tips for rockin' indoor greenery?

Bob Progress

I haven't done an update on my dear house pal Bob (a.k.a my ficus) but I figured it was about time to share how he's doing since the move. About this time last year I decided I was ready to take on the house plant gardening adventure of a ficus and quickly fell in love with Bob. He was bright eyed and bushy and looked so nice sitting by my love seat:


I quickly learned that ficus' hate bursts of cool air and after quite a bit of balding, I relocated Bob to the book shelf across the room. It took him a few months to recover from the cold shock therapy I accidentally exposed him to and finally had a bit of regrowth:


I was a little doubtful he would make it during our move this past fall, and was extra worried at the state of my plants living in a rainy (and not very sunny) coastal city over the winter. Apparently my fretting was unnecessary since Bob seems to be loving his new central location on the little counter shelf between our living room and kitchen. Heck! He's even getting bushier! Take a peek:


Ok, so perhaps he isn't quite as full and lustrous as he was when I bought him from Art Knapps, but it has been a year and he isn't completely dead so I call that a success! Perhaps the humidity here will cause him to break out in leaves this spring and I can boast about my adorable plant Bob! How about you? Ever dabble in ficus growing? How do you help your house plants survive?

Mint Chandelier

So summer may be almost over, but when I saw this project over on Martha's site I just had to share it! Who wouldn't want a mint chandelier?


Yum! The perfect way to have some fresh herbs for your mojitos (or non alcoholic summery beverage) without the awful pain of mint plants taking over your yard! It could also be a great way to get a little greenery on say...a balcony of your new apartment!? Perfect! Looks like I've got another project to add to my list! What do you think? What would you want to plant in there?

Meet Henry

To my delight my wonderful sister gave me an early birthday present while she is in town visiting! Luckily I've even managed to not kill off my first three terrariums I made so I was thrilled to welcome a fourth to the pack! Leslie found a giant glass jar, wrapped it in a big green bow, and brought me my new fly eating pal - Henry! Fraser snagged me some moss from his parents house and after a little transplanting I've got a whole new exciting plant to take care of:


Isn't he sweet? I've even read up on how to care for venus fly traps and am super stoked for my new plant pet! Check out Henry from a side view:


So far he seems to be doing well and has enjoyed the bugs I've fed him too! I'm not totally sure how I will manage to get treats for him come winter/apartment living but I figure I might be able to raise a few fruit flies. What do you think? Have you ever successfully had a venus fly trap?

Oh and to stick with my terrarium trend - I added a nice little dinosaur in there to keep Henry company. I think my little collection is looking pretty awesome too:

What do you think? Any terrarium tips for me?

Terrarium! part II!

If you're a regular scientific culture blog reader I'm sure you've heard me talk about how much I love terrariums. After over a year of collecting jars and dreaming wildly about my future mossy creations, I finally got around to make a few terrariums of my own (you can read about them here)! Since all things are better in groups of three than two, I picked up a larger jar (inspired by Sarra's amazing jar filled pantry I saw last week at her Harry Potter party) to join my terrarium pair! Let's take a peek at the finished trio:


OoOo! I haven't managed to kill them yet! And what are those colourful delights in there? Hmm...let's take a closer look:


Ho! Looks like some dino friends came to live in their very own prehistoric mossy wonderlands! Boy do they ever look at home too - check out this close up in my thrifted terrarium jar:


Yay! I am so happy with how they turned out and although I can't see a ton of root growth from the moss species I planted they are still green so let's hope that means they are going to survive in their new homes! I also didn't get around to painting the dinosaurs gold (which I still hope to do one of these days) but they looked so lonely in their dish that I thought they'd prefer a mossy spot to relax. Don't they look happy in there?:


Boy! I am super pleased with the trio of terrariums I managed to whip up and here's hoping I continue to enjoy them (without killing them) for many years to come! What do you think of them? Anyone else out there dinosaur'd up their own house plants? It could be the hot new thing! Hooray for trend setting!

Lavender's new home

As I spend my week frantically (why is it that I am always so frantic?) crafting in preparation for another craft show this Saturday, I thought I'd take a moment and show you the amazing view I have while doing the dishes:


Ah I love the summer sun! I'm sure my row of cacti enjoy it as well and it seems that my lavender plant (who's name is Lavender since the only other suggestion I got from my plant post was Persephone and that just won't do) is still doing well! I originally planned to keep her out of the window because I didn't want her roasting in the Kamloops heat, but so far the weather has been terrible this summer (all rain and wind and mildness - ick!). I guess that is one good thing about a cool summer? I'm not totally sure how my plants will survive this fall when we move to the coast, but I will have a few outdoor flower pots on our deck I am already excited to get working on! Any suggestions for a good climbing vine that can live in 10 degree rainy weather and has roots that won't be sad living in a confined space? Let me know - I need all the gardening tips I can get!

Time to plant!

For some reason the inspiration to finish projects I've been sitting on hits me in the evening. Sure it is great to cross things off my crafty to do list, but it also means that there isn't much natural light available and picture taking (for blog purposes) is out of the question. *Sigh* Looks like you can see my "day after I did the project" pictures instead! So what have I actually managed to do lately you ask? Plant things! More specifically - steal plants from my parents and then plant them! Haha! Let's take a look:

Plant project #1 - Lavender!


I've been talking about harvesting my mom's lavender for some time now (well, maybe not on the blog, but I've been talking to her about it) and I figured since I am moving this fall I might as well start my own lavender garden. No better way to get that on the go than to go up to my parents house and dig a bit of a plant out! It turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected (I think I wanted a plant that was on a bed of rocks) so I had to get my mom and dad to help (yay for awesome parents)! Then it was just a matter of gathering some drainage rocks and a little potting soil and voila! Lavender plant in cute yellow pot! So far she seems to be doing quite well in her pot (lavender plants should be girls right?) and I just need to come up with a name! Any suggestions?

Plant project #2 - Terrarium! Finally!


The moss I collected from by the dumpster at work and the back alley at our house didn't really make it so last Saturday when Fraser and I were visiting my parents at the cabin I took a detour into the brush and got all sorts of moss varieties! Just check out that image above! There are a good five types of moss in there (can you see them all?)! Next I just had to take my shopping bag of greenery home and then whip out my rocks, activated carbon, and potting soil to layer into my sweet glass jars. Tada! Two (yes two!) terrariums:


I bought the little glass jar at a fancy boutique in Kelowna back at about xmas time for $17. Yes it was a bit expensive, but I had been looking for terrarium glass containers for so long I figured I better snap it up while I could find one. The larger one was a thrift store find and much more affordable with its $2 price tag. Lesson to be learned here: buy more stuff at thrift stores! Let's check out a nice side view of my mossy wonders:


Lovely! You may have noticed the lack of gold dinosaurs in there, but in time. I still need to paint those up and then nestle them into their new mossy homes once their roots have taken. I am pretty excited and proud of my plant accomplishments! What do you think? Any terrarium builders out there?

Pallet Wall Garden

Do you recall that blog post I did about all the fun projects you could do with old shipping pallets? Well turns out there is one more they talked about on Craftzine that I really (really) want to try. Behold - a pallet wall garden:


Mmm! Isn't that a great idea? It would be perfect at adding a little greenery to a small space and limits your watering to a very small area! Ok, so this totally wouldn't work in Kamloops (our semi-arid desert = too dry and hot for this one) but perhaps Fraser and I will find a lovely little apartment on Victoria this fall that would have a balcony perfect for this project! What do you think?

I've pretty much given up on my green thumb skills this summer since our front garden of our rental is a mess! My sweet peas and nasturtiums have barely grown/haven't sprouted and the nasty weeds are out of control! Add in my inconsistent watering, super poor soil (thanks to the dirt being the neighbourhood litter box despite my coffee ground scattering), and cruddy weather so far and we've got one sad little garden. My attempts at weeding were unsuccessful since after about five minutes I swell up into a painful lupus mess. Looks like the garden will be au naturel for the rest of our stay here! Looks like I will have to rethink some outdoor plants once we move to an area where I'm more likely to have some success! Bring on the rain! Which reminds me - anyone know a good place to get rain jackets?

cactus update time!

I'm so happy to say that spring has finally (seriously...it seemed to take forever) arrived and I'm really enjoying the sunshine beaming in my kitchen window! I'm sure my cactus collection is also enjoying those warm rays and it is looking particularly cheery these days:


I took a while slew of pictures of my brightly coloured pots and tea cups of plants when I saw them gleaming in the sun and I am really quite fond of this close up/green pot angle pose:


Ah! Don't they just look ready to take on the day (er...in the best possible way stationary spiky plants can take on things...)? I think so! And I've got some wonderful progress with my adventures in plant growing! Remember that little stolen snip of cactus I got from a restaurant and put in my upcycled pesto container? No? Well my Grandma had a huge one by her front door when I was growing up and since she passed last year I decided I would need to get my own as a fond memorial:


Well the root hormone must have worked because the little buddy is actually growing! Woo hoo! Check him out:


How nice to see I'm not killing him off! Since spring is in full swing now I've also been spending a bit of time trying to revamp our weed ridden front flower bed and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a trug to help with the weeding/planting! Apparently no one even knows what a trug is when I ask them about it (seriously - you should have seen/heard the responses from everyone..) meaning I've been checking out all the gardening shops in town. I'm sure you could imagine my excitement when I came across a wonderful full sized healthy Euphorbia cactus! I snapped him up, named him Hamish, re-potted him into a less hideous simple green pot, and sprinkled his dirt/coffee grounds with aquarium pebbles:


Hooray! Isn't Hamish a dear? I was pleased to see that his little plant fact card said he is "very resilient" and I'm just trying to figure out the best place for him to get the most sunlight. The woman at the garden shop even said that she keeps her Euphorbia outside on her deck during the summer months so Hamish might get a few outings in before the year is out! Oh what fun!

And to keep on with the lovely cactus/plant glee I'm feeling my Mom was kind enough to bring me a pair of wee cacti gems as a present during a dinner party I held for my parents a few weeks ago! I just love the new take on the sugar and cream containers:


Yay! Things are looking up as far as my green thumb is concerned! Now I just need to keep watering those seeds I germinated and planted in the front bed and in no time I might even have a nice flower bed to show you all! Anyone else out there into plants? Are you the indoor or outdoor garden type? Any tips or tricks for me?

thrifty herbs

Back in march, poppytalk had a great post about using thrifted vessels as an indoor herb garden. Take a peek:


What a great idea! I think this would be a great spring into summer project perfect for inspiring some fresh herb filled recipes! OoO! And it totally gives you an excuse to go thrift shopping for neat old containers! I think I'll have to add this one to the to do list, but I can't think of a spot large enough in our little rental to put these. Perhaps I'll have to wait for the snow to stop (you may think I'm joking - but no. It's snowed a few times in the last week even though it's april), and plant them for the front stoop! Yes! I think that sounds lovely! Any suggestions for fresh herbs to grow in pots? I'm not much of a gardener but I am certainly willing to learn! Anyone else out there have any tips for me?

Spring has sprung!

I feel like spring is taking its sweet time arriving this year. After being rudely interrupted by the "spring forward" daylight savings time change (which tragically cut an entire hour of crafting away from me) the other day I was convinced that it was prematurely getting me excited for warmer weather! After all, there is still snow on the mountains and we keep getting cold snaps. Ick! But apparently my front flower bed is getting ready for spring since the bulbs I planted in the fall are peeking up:


Oh lovely! I actually had a pretty hard time getting a picture that didn't show the plethora of awful weeds that garden has. I redid the entire bed when we moved in and thought I had the dreaded grass and morning glory under control. No such luck. Tons of the plants I put in don't seem to have made it through the winter and instead the garden is covered with weeds! Ack! I'll have to put a few more hours into trying to get it back to par after my craft show. I'm also sort of thinking I will just buy a ton of sweet pea and nasturtium seeds to take over the bed and (hopefully) drown out/conceal all the blasted weeds. Eugh. And if it wasn't obvious that my green thumb isn't fully developed check out my balding ficus bob:


Hahaha. I think that plants looks so pathetic (especially compared to how lush he was when I got him - link). He was originally over by the door until I found out ficus's don't tolerate cold bursts or change that well. As soon as our xmas tree came down I put him in the corner with the blinds cracked for ample filtered sunlight. He lost leaves like crazy for quite and while and now that fraser and I mist him twice a day and I feed him my leftover tea he seems to be on the mend. I only found two leaves that had fallen off this week and there are even wee ones sprouting up:


Hooray! Hopefully the mystery bulbs mom gave me survive long enough to bloom and I can officially declare my plant woes behind me! Any other gardeners out there? How about indoor plant enthusiasts? Any tips for me and balding bob?

Upcycled Pesto

Amidst my daily internet addiction surfing I came across the most amazing paper doily jar project from pilli pilli:


As many of you know I am a sucker for mason jars, doilies, and instant gratification projects so I figured I was destined to attempt this! After all - pilli pilli promised it as a 5 minute DIY and it seemed easy enough to squeeze in my busy schedule right? Yup she was spot on - check out my upcycled before and after:



Hooray! I successfully turned that ugly pesto jar into a lovely new cactus pot! Just in time too - I don't think the noddy cup was going to last much longer:


I'm sure you're wondering, "why would you plant that little stub of a cactus in a paper cup in the first place?" Well I assure you I didn't do it just so I could write this blog post (although sometimes I think about posts based on lamer excuses). I've been wanting to get my hands on one of those cacti for quite a while. My grandma used to have a huge one by her front door and I remember visiting her as a kid and thinking how cool it was that you could pull the little leaves off the ridges of the plant and it would ooze milky stuff out of it (aren't all kids into that sort of thing?). I'm not entirely sure where that giant cactus of hers ended up but I've been wanting to get my own for years ever since. I've tried to find one in a store or online but it turns out that's a pretty hard task when you don't actually know what the plant is called. I had pretty much given up hope until I spotted one of those tall milking cacti at one of my favourite mexican restaurants! I decided to try my hand at growing my own from a clipping of their plant and headed up to my mom's house to steal her plant potting supplies. Perfect! She had little pebbles, soil, and the all important root hormone powder to help my little cactus stub establish itself. The only thing she didn't have was a pot to plant it in so we improvised with the paper noddy cup. I was planning on transplanting him into an actual pot once I could find a suitable one and pilli pilli doily jars seemed like the perfect match! Doesn't the little cactus look at home in his new jar?:


I think so! Plus I saved that old pesto jar from a livelong existence on a shelf in fraser's studio as a paintbrush water container. Perfect! Now I just need to try to not kill that plant! What do you think?