Make: Living Wreath with Succulents

What you need: Wire Wreath Form / Succulents (indoor or outdoor) / greening pins / fishing line / Sorghum moss / Dirt (I re-used the dirt from my succulents 

First get a pail or bowl of warm water and place moss in it. I bought my moss in a small bag for about $4 in a craft store; floral section (I got my greening pins there too; $2). I actually bought 2 bags but because I used a small wreath frame (12in) I think I only used about one bag worth as I had a ton left over.

Then take your succulents out of the container and remove all excess dirt just exposing the roots.

You will want to make a work station for assembling your wreath. I did mine outside and laid down paper bags because it was quite messy. 

In the part of your wreath that has the dip in it start laying a layer of your moss down. Make sure you squeeze the excess water out of your moss before you lay the layers down. 

On your next layer add a layer of dirt. Place one more layer of moss on top of the dirt.

Wrap it all together with the fishing line to keep it in place. I suggest cutting a very long piece of fishing line for this so you can just wrap it in one go and tie the ends together. 

Flip the wreath over to back (the side that is raised a bit) and place a layer of moss on that side as well. Repeat the fishing line step.

Lay out your succulents around your wreath to give you an idea of how you want them place. Then poke holes to place the roots in. To secure the plants in place use the greenery pins around the base of the plants. 

Once you have completed assembling your living wreath you can let it dry overnight to get rid of any excess water. To care for it just spritz it with water once a week. 

I was asked to participate in a "craft war" over at BuzzFeed, Shift to make a "modern and hip" wreath. I don't think I have ever seen a wreath and had the words modern or hip come to mind, so it was not an easy task coming up with such a wreath! But I thought it was a little different take on the normal holiday wreath and would work for the holiday season as well as the summer months. It wasn't as difficult to make as it was messy and truth be told I think I might take it apart and plant the succulents in little pots for the winter, as one of my new house plants have already died (the tropical one, the one i thought was the healthier of the two!).

House Tour | Je T'aime Pixie |

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Every time I run across an apartment such as this I feel a little pang of envy. Of course it may be because it's filled with wonderful furnishings, it has a clean and modern pallet with just enough wood in it to give me that cozy flavor I need to survive. Yes, those things are enough to strike a jealous cord in me; however, it's the sublime storage solutions that really make me swoon. And while I might need to let out the seems on this teeny tiny place, I adore the creativity of guest room/den with the little bed inconspicuously atop storage cabinets, the bookshelves and credenza, the family sofa with storage underneath. I really need to incorporate some of these ideas in my always-short-on-storage home.

Pins Of The Week | Halloween |

There's just a few days till Halloween left! I spent some time on pinterest looking through halloween pins to get inspired to make my kids costumes and found these little links:

1. Paper Peepers I have a weird thing about my eyes so I am not sure I could do this, in fact recently when I went to the eye doctor he gave up on my eye appointment and told me "I'm probably just fine," because I woud involuntarily "freak out" every time they tried to put something in my eye. However I think this idea is so cool.

2. Painted Pumpkins If you haven't seen painted pumpkins this year you probably aren't reading this because you don't have a computer, or maybe you don't even have eyes - they are everywhere. I really love these ones with a modern twist on traditional halloween motifs with the black and white paint.

3. Bird Cookies I happen to love Alfred Hitchcock, a lot. These remind me of The Birds, so I love them too.

4. Bat Bow Tie This would make a super simple last minute "I'm dressed up for halloween yet I'm not not" costume.

5. Decadently Dark Candy Apples These just look amazing and my face feels all gooey and sticky looking at them. Yum.

This weekend I, er, we, finally did decided on costumes for my tots. My oldest is going to be The Dude, from The Big Lebowski, because he's totally cool like that. And M+L are going to be Plants vs Zombies, which I am super excited about now that we hit the thrift stores and got all of materials. I never dress up so I live vicariously through my children and always get all halloween-couture for their costumes and make up. Fun Times.

What are you going to be for halloween (or what were you over the weekend)?

Make: Tea Time | With Printable Tea Tags |

What you need: Loose leaf tea or died mint leaves / coffee filters & sewing machine or sealable tea bags  / card stock or printer paper to print your tea tags / scissors or 1.5 inch hole punch / string / glue stick.

I used coffee filters and cut them to about 2x2.5 inches. Cut out two pieces and then sew them up leaving one end open.

If you are using your own dried leaves use a mortar and pestle to mulch. You can also just use a knife and your fingers to break them up too.

Place about 1 tablespoon inside the opening of your tea bag. 

Fold one end of a string into the top of your tea bag, fold it over and sew it up (see above photo). If you are using resealable tea bags just use a staple to attach your string after you seal it. To make your tea tags cut them out; there are two sides for each design, a back and a front. To attach the tea tags use a glue stick and place the other end of the string on the back side of one of the tea tags. Stick the two sides together, press firmly so they stick together. 

I had so much mint this year in my garden and I had no clue what to do with it all. I mean you can't use that much using a sprig here or there. In fact I ended up just cutting it back and not doing anything with a lot of it. Grr, why doesn't my basil ever grow like that?! But as fall approached I decided to dry some so I could use it for tea because honestly I had no idea what else to do with it (I am open to suggestions for future reference!). I thought about emptying some tea from bags that I had but that seemed really silly to disgard one thing in an effort to not waste another - so I decided to put my old coffee filters to use (I now have a kurig for my coffee, yes, I do love it! I say this because I was really judgmental of them at first.) And now I have successfully not let all of my mint or my coffee filters go to waste! I also think this would make a really cute little handmade christmas gift. Enjoy your weekend! xo

To down load the tea tags click here.

Photo Diary: A Farm Is The Life For Me

Last week on our last fabulous day of sunshine we went to the pumpkin patch farm, it's just a lazy old farm with a barn and its resident animals, lots of dirt and rows of veggies. Every time we go on such an outing I begin fiercely daydreaming about having a little farm of my own. I grew up, for the first few years of my life, in Idaho where I had a pony. Twinkletoes was his name and we won a couple ribbons and a first-place trophy, he and I. I had a sheep and a St. Bernard (who was a lot like nanny in Peter Pan. I actually thought St. Bernards were nannies for the longest time.) I had lots of room to wander around and explore. It was a charmed life.

I have more memories under 5 years old than I do of the rest of my childhood, or at least I like to think that. But living that sort of life certainly made memories stick from when I was as little as 2 years old and not just one memory but several. I mean how can you not remember your pony?! Or when you decided that when you couldn't ride your pony you would ride your sheep and it ran with you down the road until you finally fell off and you cried; not because of your bloody knees and hands filled with gravel, but because the sheep kept running? (which i was sure meant it didn't love me - and i was probably right about that). Or when you decided that you didn't want to ride a "pony" anymore and stole a horse from a girl with long blond hair that seemed to sway in slow motion under the bright sun taunting you and your short curly red hair. And when you somehow got on it, it ran off full-speed ahead and you looked back barely hanging on to see everyone running and riding after you and then finally after a mile or so, the horse finally stopped for a drink of water of all things? Or when you came face to face alone at four years old within a couple feet of a mountain lion? Or when you had to run across a beaver dam to evade a grizzly bear? Not things you forget. But where I grew up for a short time in my life was a super toxic mining district so it was a very good thing we left. But when I get on a farm I just have this urge to lay down in the grass or on the dirt road for that matter and just look at the sky and listen to the wind. Or go find a sheep to befriend or better yet a St. Bernard to look after my kids.

Well I couldn't post all this without a photo of me and twinkletoes in the event where we took home the first place trophy. All We had to do was walk in a circle, and as you can see we were guided on this journey. That's my aunt holding onto us, she was really nice to me but really, really mean to everyone else. Even at that age I kind of figured she rigged the awards in my favor because I just can't figure out how you can even be judged on literally being pulled on a leash in a circle.

Swatch Tarts

 

Dont' you just love these pantone swatch tarts?! If you haven't seen this before you can see the whole collection at Griottes. 

Today I am working like a busy bee on embroidery orders and playing catch up. Last night I stayed up way too late (hence the very late post!) working on a blog design for a good friend of mine. Sometimes I think that would be a really fun career as I can get lost in it but I realize that it also really brings out the crack smoker in me (not literally of course - just another silly american saying). If you want to check it out and tell me what you think that would be so great! It's difficult to see things objectively after staring at a screen for about 9 hours straight - though of course I can see all the imperfections! You can find the site here! xoxo

Design Trend | White |

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One design trend that I have been noticing a lot lately is white on white. I think it's lovely, it's extraordinarily editorial, clean and modern  . . .  and completely impractical for my life. I would be hudled in a fetal position on the floor muttering things about crumbs and fingerprints. I think in reality it might also feel a little sterile for me to live in as well (?). But I do love to admire it online. I also like to incorporate white elements in my house to brighten it up however, (like those fantastic little vases) because what I didn't think about when I moved in was which way my one giant wall of windows was facing - it's facing the side that gets no sun and it amazes me on a daily basis how 25 feet of windowed-walls can get so little light in them!  I don't know if I could paint over wooden floors but I absolutely adore white painted wood floors. . .

Vintage Wallpapers

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I really, really love vintage wallpaper. I hit a few estate sales this weekend and I came to the conclusion that the houses that have vintage wallpaper always have the best items. I feel that rooms covered in old wallpaper seem to tell a story. I think there is both a boldness and a delicacy to vintage wallpaper that makes me think the person who put it up must have had the same qualities to them and I can get lost in imagining their life and world. (This could also be due to the recent rifflings of persons collections of items acquired over their lifetime in my estate sale adventures). Though, I am sure a writer could make up an entire novel inspired by one room and the wallpaper pasted to its walls.

What do you think about vintage wallpaper?