Tabletop nature

When I was a kid the last thing I wanted to do was gardening. Scratch that. The *very* last thing I wanted to do was yard work. I hated picking up sticks (making this ironic), weeding the garden, picking vegetables, planting plants, pruning, etc. So it's pretty funny, at least to my parents, that I have a more-than-slight interest in gardening now. I still don't like the work but I like the results.

I guess that's why this flickr set appealed to me. No maintenance, no ongoing mess, but a mellow, rewarding green. To make it work I raided my collection of old canning jars. I recruited my husband to locate some moss for me. A pretty mean feat considering the drought my area has seen in recent years. He brought home a box load that I've used in many other projects. At first I was upset that the moss still had red clay attached but as I created the appropriate layers in the jar I enjoyed that bit of striation more than I would have thought.

I added pebbles, potting mix, and moss. A bit of water and the tops went on. I haven't watered them since. They sit on our table and we've watched the individual mosslings grow over an inch tall in all their fuzzy glory. The glass has taken on a certain haze that makes the whole thing seem enchanted or dreamy. I guess they've been in place for 4 months now.

The kids helped me create a semi tererrium from an old cookie/cracker jar based on this how to. We put in a pebble stream bed, and a few indoor plants. The spider plant is really too big for the area but it was on hand and I like the prehistoric look it gives the tableau. This one has no lid and I water it as I remember to. The moss didn't fare as well in this open air setting. My 6yo, in particular, enjoys that the deer are looking out at us each evening.

Sticky

I was inspired by this blog post and this post which were participating in this party.

I've got urns. I've got sticks. I can drive to Dollar Tree. So I made this. Well, my first grader and I did. The urns were distressed tan when we began (no before pics, sorry). I spray painted them flat black but I wasn't too thorough as a few lighter spots gave the urns a more aged look that I liked a lot.

We gathered twigs from the river birch in the back yard. It seems to shed twigs continuously but I love this tree and it's slightly shiny brown and speckled twigs are beautiful even if I have to pick them up after every single GTE 5mph wind gust. A bit of floral foam, careful twig placement, and a topping of spanish moss and we were ready to crow.

Without the crow the whole thing has a Martha vibe. With the crow, it's a creepier look. I might remove the bird until nearer to Halloween. Anyway, it's something I've been wanting to try and I think it turned out better than I expected. It will get plenty of looks I'm sure. Now I need to get a wreath on the door and move the oh-so-summery caladiums to the back porch.

Hope you have a ball

I subscribe to a lot of craft and homemaking blogs at the moment. When I see a new craft or cool idea I always think "I'd like to do that someday." I think I'll start making someday today and report the results. If I can remember the source, I'll post that too.

The kindergarten teacher wrote "Please provide a treat or toy to fill the summer fun buckets. 20 of anything will be great." 20 inexpensive treats that exiting kindergarten kids will likely break or lose before they get the bus? No problem.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money, encourage tooth decay or arm the kids with sharp projectiles. A trip to the Dollar Tree was in order. I found skeins of 4 or 5 multicolored wiffle balls (how do you really spell that?) for $1 each, created a small printed strip with "Hope you have a ball this summer. Your friend, my girl", tied said strips to the balls with curling ribbon and, hey! I'm done. Lightweight for kiddo to carry, cheap and easy for me, and not a bad looking picture either. All in all I think it worked out well.

Bloggable

So I made a comment via email today that the reason I don't blog is that nothing in my life is worth blogging or reading about. Self awareness kicked in and I'm going to work on making that statement irrelevant by doing things that are blog worthy or seeing the people, events, and things already in my life as blog worthy.

So here I start.

I'm sherri, wife to 1, mommy to 2. I've been checking the 35-44 year old box on surveys lately. I work both in and outside my home as a web app programmer and I have no idea how that happened. I go to bed when my kids do, don't watch TV during the week, and enjoy the mind candy of a decent chic lit read every now and then. Local people ask me where I'm from; friends from afar comment on my soft southern accent. I'm frugal with my money but I squander my time. I like red meat, believe in the social contract of immunization for my kids, think homeschooling is a nice idea (for someone else) and will vote for change in November. My spiritual journey is something I'm working on even as it's a bit stalled at the moment. I guess all the rest will come out later, no?