Cute = Substitute For Actual Work?

Actually, I'm in the middle of shaking things up in my craft room + closet pretty hardcore; but I don't have anything for you yet.  I mean, unless you really WANT to see pictures of a war zone.

Didn't think so.

But look at this fish! This is Clyde - he's made of notebook paper & highlighters, as are his castle and plant.  I made Clyde (et al) at work last year in a moment of boredom and he's sat on top of my desk for months and months.

is that a crappy photo or what?

Aww.  Clyde's not the real story, though:  Clyde went away last night.  After

1. seeing a bunch of terrarium pics online, and 
2. wanting more plants on my desk at work for months, and
3. missing the little terrarium I had at home a couple of years ago

I took Clyde and his bowl home last night and made this instead: 

crab

It's nothing fancy at the moment, but it'll grow big and fluffy in no time;  and I think this weekend I'll get some moss to put in there to spruce it up, and maybe a teeny tiny garden gnome or something.  Hee!  Or maybe a wee succulent that likes humidity.  I'll see what I can find.

The plants are (left to right, in the picture above): Pothos Ivy (Epipremnum aurem), a variety of small-leaved Tradescantia with purple undersides, a couple of "baby" Ponytail Palms (Beaucarnia recurvata), and a "baby" Majesty Palm (Ravenea rivularis). 

oh, and some rocks.

It looks like there's nothing but black aquarium gravel in this thing, but it's actually mostly potting soil that's kind of "wrapped" in gravel so that the soil doesn't show on the outside, because ew.  Makes the glass all crusty after a while.  I also mixed a handful of charcoal chips into the potting mix (available in aquarium stores and garden centers).  Even in a healthy arrangement, roots and leaves die and rot and are replaced by new ones - and sometimes there's a smell, especially when there's no drainage, like in this glass bowl.  The charcoal chips act as a sort of filter in the soil and for the air in the tank, and help keep things fresh.

And for no other reason than that we're on the subject, this is the other houseplant I have at work:

"Lucky Bamboo", which is NOT bamboo - try Dracaena sanderiana, one of the Dracaenas that loves keeping its feet wet.  This one is two years old;  the jar is a clear jar that I found at the dollar store years ago and painted with blue glass paint.


.

Peek-A-Boo!

I suck!  I know it! I'm sorry! 

In case you were wondering, work has been INSANE for two weeks now, with no end in sight - and I haven't had the time or the energy to get anything done around the house or the yard.  As usual, I have lots planned, but nothing executed at the moment.  I'll let you know when I do.  :)

In the meantime - IT'S RAINING!!!!  I can't even remember the last time that happened.  Thank you, rain gods. <3

More Front Porchness

Plants for me! :D

Hostas & Tradescantia ("Wandering Jew") by the front door

purple Petunias and Asparagus Fern hanging from the porch

 (and some weird little nerly-black purple crinkly thing on the far left...I forget what it's called).

.

A plant! I've got a plant!

Before:

no shit, that wall planter's been empty for six years

After:

can you spot the zip-top baggie in this picture?

That's right:  a zip-top baggie.  The planter's a weird shape, and it's terra cotta, which means it's dry as a bone, even though it's painted most of the way around (all but the back) - and that Schefflera needs moisture.  Moisture that would ruin the fake-ceramic-glaze paint job on the pot.

Solution:  a 1-gallon plastic zip-top baggie, with three rows of small drainage holes poked into the bottom, inserted into the pot's opening and filled with soil - basically lining the pot with plastic.  It drains well, but not too much, and the plastic is practically invisible under the foliage.  I put a few rocks on top of the soil in the pot to keep it from washing away when I water it. 

Microsoft Paint: kickin' it old school

.

Laura Stuff.

Look what my BFF made for me!  :D  Is that not the cutest thing ever?  HEE!

I say to you again: hee!

Also...  You guys need to check out Pinterest, if you haven't already.  I, for one, was getting sick of going over and over and over ALL those damned bookmarks on my internet broswer.  Folders and labels are great and everything, but if you collect design inspiration pics from all over the internet, it's just not enough!  Pinterest allows you to "pin" favorites to a board for easy viewing (no searching for links and then waiting for them to load).   They keep track of sources and stuff for you, you can look through other people's boards and "like" items and collect them yourself  -  and lots of other stuff.  Here's one of my boards...of course the first thing I did was make a blue one. :)





.

Front Porch, Round 1

Before

(the ladder was there so I could work on the porch, it doesn't live there)

Not terrible.
However, I was bored with the following things:

1. empty pots all over the place, that belong in the garage
2. half-round rubber doormat...er..."iron sculpture" over the door - too much
3. actual iron sculpture/baskety thing on the wall - pointless
4. black porch railing - was cute five years ago, but I was tired of it. 

And so...

After

Ta-da! 

Instead, we have:

• a cleaned-up porch, with
• off-white railings to match the window trim - and I painted the door trim, too, once I saw that it stuck out like a sore thumb as the only thing that was now not off-white
• iron/rubber wall "art" gone
• The tiny Tibetan prayer flag string, which is actually there in the "before" picture, is relatively new. A friend brought it to me from India a couple of months ago.  :) 
• I also painted the trim around the front door to match the windows and the porch railing

But Wait, There's More! 
  
Wanna see what a seven-year-old, crusty, yellowed, plastic doorbell looks like? 

oh. my. god.

...better

This is not a new doorbell, but it's at least less ugly than the yellowed, crusty mess that it was yesterday.  It's a band-aid on a broken arm, but it's a start.


I DO still need to do something about THIS:

empty planters?! noooo!

Plants are next.


.

I Want Plants!

With any luck, I'll get lots done around the house this evening, and have good stuff (and after pics!) to post tomorrow - assuming I don't fall off a ladder or trip and step in front of a bus or something.  *knocks on wood*

Until then, though, allow me to share with you some gardening stuff - this actually relates, as my plans for the evening have to do with re-vamping the front porch a bit, and there's a garden very near the porch.  With me? Great. Bottom line here is, I was bored yesterday and stopped at Lowe's on the way home and went phone-camera-shopping...

First stop:  I need new plants for the silver planters at the front door, and the hanging baskets above the porch.  And I need them to coordinate with the front garden, which is green and frothy punctuated by purple/rust-colored foliage and white/purple/pink/black flowers.   So I'm thinking...

"Black Magic" and bright green dwarf Elephant Ears! Six bucks a can!

 Alternanthera - aka Joseph's Coat - this variety was labeled "Royal Tapestry", but when I google that I get a completely different plant.  But these are gorgeous, and I wants them, Precious.  My front garden needs more dark purple foliage (the Loropetalums I put in two years ago turned out to be...brown...gross).   And since these 4" pots are like three bucks each, I'm thinking 2 for the front bed itself, 1 in each of the tall silver planters, and 3-4 to make up an entire hanging basket of this frothy, dark stuff.  YUM.

 At least one of the other baskets will be full of Hostas like these, probably with a bit of purple Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea) trailing down around the sides (of which I don't have a picture).

And I absolutely MUST have THIS.  This is another one that comes up wonky on a google search - this Coleus is labeled "Stained Glassworks", but I can't find info about that variety online at all, which means it's probably (a) very new and/or (b) proprietary to the breeder and not "out there" in the world yet.  Anyhoo, it's freaking gorgeous, and I adore Coleus, and I want it.

I've never been a Pentas person, but these were just show-stopping.  Dark, textural leaves and almost aggressively vibrant red flowers (making up for thier small stature, no doubt).  

I've also never been a red person, and I hesitate to bring another color layer into the garden...but maybe in a pot on the porch? Or in the backyard? And now we're getting way off-topic...






And since we're on the subject of me lusting after plants...

I never paid attention to Azaleas until I saw white ones.  I need it. In a pot on my back porch.  Off-topic again.

 

This is a Southern Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera), aka Southern Bayberry or Candleberry.   It's native to the South and southeast coast down through east Texas and NE Mexico.  It's interesting and light, pretty darned water-wise, and seems perfect for a spot by (not in) the front garden that I think needs a BUSH.

And there at he front corner of this pallet-o-plants (drooool) is a Long-Leaf or Saber Fig (Ficus alii) with braided trunks.  LUST! PLANT LUST!  

I had a red-flowering Mandevilla vine last year ("Brazilian Jasmine" - native to Brazil and northern parts of South America, and throughout Mexico).

It disappeared.  It didn't die, it was just gone one day.  I'm pretty sure That Puppy dug it up and destroyed it.  But she's over that now, so I think I'll try again.  I may not be much for red flowers in the front yard - but I want tons of them in the back!  Off-topic again!






Hee.

Rock Like An Egyptian

Hey, guess what I've done this week?  That's right - NOTHING!  Yaaaay.  :D   But here's something I did for a friend about four years ago - Debi was good enough to send me pics so I could post them here. 

When Deb moved into her current apartment, she wanted the living area done in an ancient-Egyptian sort of theme, and asked me to help out.   I painted giant stone blocks on her walls...

sponging the living room walls, after priming them

,

"grout lines" that form the "blocks"                                                 beer ^

shading

Finished!  This job took about 16 hours - two 8-hour days, over a weekend.

a "plaster" "crack" to end the block wall at the dining room, hee

biggest.  television. ever.

Deb painted this red wall herself, and framed and hung all the artwork.  The Isis next to the door was actually painted for Debi by another friend of ours, as a gift; the papyrus over the television is one another friend of hers brought to her from a vacation in Egypt. 

Why post this today?  Debi's moving...which means we have to prime over ALL of that and paint it boring old apartment-white again.  She's stressing it more than I am - I repaint everything in my house at least once a year, so I'm not worried about losing the work (I've painted over more work than this, believe me).  We're planning a Xena/castle theme for her next place.  Hee.  :)

.

1st Cheater Post of April

WHERE IS MY NEW GRASS??  


*waits*



Other Things:

• I suddenly find myself having agreed to sew some clothes for a friend AND re-uphoster a couch for another friend.  Yikes!  There will be sewing! 
• I swear to gosh I will have done at least one small project by the end of this week.  

.