Still Greenish....

I had  to show you what I discovered after I finished the blog about the desert dish.  There is a strange optical illusion there.  When you look at it from the side, it looks like this little piece of desert is floating...Very strange, but kind of fun.

OK....I just finished putting on a third coat of Folkart  Italian Sage inside and out on the green house....Not a spot of white left anywhere.

I am going to have to sand down a couple of shingles where I smeared green.  It is really hard to get the brush in all of the nooks and crannies, without smearing it.

Anyway, that part s done.

On to plants.  First, the easiest plant in the mini universe.  Foam inside the pot.  Glue on top of that.  Stick in some reindeer moss and glue on a few tiny flowers.  Instant plant.

For those of you that aren't familiar with methods for paper flowers, I used a tiny flower punch for the above flowers.

Then I put them on this mat of leather with the rough side up.  The paper stays in place best on this side.  I use a ball stylus, pressing down in the center of each tiny flower to cup it.

I do the same with the leaves, with a larger ball stylus, in a round and round motion.

This one is done with the above leaves.  I put some of my nandina stems in a pot, let the glue dry and stuck the leaves, two or three to each end of stem.

The flowers on this are seed ;pods from one of the plants in the back yard.  I will have to see if I I  can find the name for it.

I simply snipped them off after they were dry and painted them...Perfect daisies.

Health report.  I am now in the sneezy, runny nose stage.  I am going to have to stop making plants.  there are petals and leaves all over the bedroom.  You know.....Cup a leaf.  Sneeze.  Pick up leaf.  Cup another leaf.  Sneeze.  Pick up two leaves....They are multiplying.  Soon I will be doing way more picking up than cupping.

Back to the tissue box.  See you tomorrow.

It's Not Easy Being Green....

The green house and I are both singing that this morning.  I won't go into details, but I am still not in the pink...Sorry.  I couldn't resist that.

The green house is going to need several coats to look good.

I am trying to decide if I want to paint the inside of the greenhouse green too...

The problem is, the acrylic sheets were glued in with some kind of glue that shows.  They are all the size of the side of the building...Not for each window.  I may have to cut them down and do individual windows....That's a LOT more work.

I also have to scrape the glue off of the insides.  This is turning out to not be a fast project.

I took duplicate fountain out of one of the birdcages and put it in here to see what it was going to look like.  I am definitely thinking darker stone.

Then I have to decide if I want to plant flowers or try for water....I am thinking that flowers would brighten it up a lot more.

In looking for this birdcage, I got into a lot of other "garden rooms".

I discovered that the real greenhouse needs to be replenished once more.  Every once in a while, I sit down and make plants to fill that one.  Then I use the plants in other settings as they are needed.

It works out well until I find that, once again, I am running out of plants.

I am going back to hack and cough again for a while....Maybe I should just sit and make plants for the rest of the day....Or maybe not....Sneezing doesn't go well with hundreds of little leaves that like to fly.

See you tomorrow.

If I Live That Long......

This is it.  It's all I am going to do today. 

Yesterday afternoon I started with a sore throat...This morning about 1:15 AM I awakened and never got back to sleep.  All we had in the house was a few very old cough drops.

I officially have a cold!  Icky!  Hack, cough, hack, cough. Icky again.

I went into town about 4:30AM to find something to help...So far, it isn't doing much...I am here....What more do you want?

I settled in and put a few shingles on the roof of the white greenhouse....somehow that doesn't sound right.  Maybe I should paint it green....

It still looked blockish.  I put some chair rail molding on the front to add interest.  A little better.

Then I pulled out a piece of paper, Spanish tile and cut that to size.   That helped.

At least it got Tessie out of the new cacti bowl.  She keeps trying to rescue the guy in there....I think he is beyond help.

I am not going to weave white wicker for it.  I am going to make some white needlepoint canvas furniture instead. 

The way I feel right now, I would probably throw real wicker across the room about every ten minutes.  And that would make me unhappy.  That would mean that I would have to go get it.

I dug around a bit and found this ceramic fountain.  It fits pretty well.  Maybe with a couple of chairs and a few plants, it would be passable....

If I make it through the cold, we shall see.  Right now I just feel like a nap....I have already been up eight hours.  I deserve a nap....

See you tomorrow....Not quite so early as this morning, I hope......Good Night...

"We Have to Warn Them!!!"

This morning, April, Amare and I went running around.  We hit a thrift shop.  That's where I found this beautiful free form bowl for $3.00.

When I got home, Tessie was waiting, hands on hips, wanting to know where I had been for all of three hours.

Her nose was out of joint, because she didn't get to go.

I appeased her somewhat with the bowl. 

I told her she could help with the decorating of a cactus garden.

First we picked out all of the frosted pebbles that matched the bowl...They won't really be seen, but it kept her busy for a while.

Then I added some activated charcoal that I got in the tropical fish department at Walmart.  There is no need for a hole in the bottom of the dish if you do this.  It is to help with aeration and to keep it smelling good if we do get too much water in it...

Tessie doesn't get to water it.  She drowns plants regularly.

After I went around and wiped off all of the tiny black footprints from the table, I went to work with the planting.

I had the larger euphorbia in the center in a small pot.  I am sure that it is much happier with a bigger place to spread it's roots.

The tiny ones to the left are side shoots from another type of euphorbia.  I really like these plants.  They send of smaller plants from their roots.  

The other advantage is this type of euphorbia has no thorns.  They look like cacti, but no ouchies!

All I have to do is dig them out and plant them in another pot.  Instant newbies.

The two on the other side are the only new ones in the dish.  They were from Lowe's.

I planted them all in cactus potting soil.  Then over that, I used the same sand that I used on the cottage landscaping and added a few rocks from the back yard.

Tessie insisted upon inviting a friend.  She wanted to let everyone know what happens if you stay out in the heat too long.  It is finally warming up.  Ninety five degrees right now.  It's supposed to hit 100 soon.

When she isn't looking, I will remove her friend.  For now, let this be a warning!

I am off to wipe up more footprints.  

These dish gardens and terrariums are too much fun....Very quick minis. 

See you tomorrow....With real minis.

The First One Found a Home...

The large terrarium is now at home by the kitchen sink.  It was the only area that I could think of where it would get enough light.

Even there, I had to put it on a cake stand to get it high enough.  I am pretty sure that it will be happy there.

Terrariums need about 6 hours of indirect sunlight, each day, to grow. 

Tessie found out what I was doing and is not at all happy.  She keeps banging on the glass, trying to get inside.  No..I am not going to open it. Let her pound her little fists. If  I let her in, I may be tempted to keep her there...

These are like another "betcha can't do just one" kind of project.  I still have plants left over....I have to do something with them, don't I?

Yesterday afternoon, I found this empty apothecary jar in the closet....I can't stand an empty anything...It has to be filled.

And besides.  The baby giraffe needed a place to be.

Not bad for a Walmart cheapo piece of glass.

Today is the Wednesday Witches' meeting.  So instead of working, I will be playing...But....I did go in the workroom and find a couple of other candidates for gardens...

The wire one is a terrarium that I found at Walmart years ago...It goes in and out of the closet when need be.

The white one is one that the people in the Tucson Miniature Society bought at least 20 years ago....It has been sitting on the plant shelf, in the workroom, as long as we have lived here...

I don't think that I am ever going to use it for a mini room box, but it will sure make a nice terrarium.

The way I see it, I am cleaning the workroom still more.  These are four less containers that will be stored there.

I am going to have to figure out something for the bottom of the wire one.  I think that it had a terrarium type bottom....Not too smart...I discarded it shortly after I bought it.  I didn't think that it would ever be used.  Darn!  Sometimes I should stick to that rule about never throwing anything away...Oh well.  I will think of something.

See you tomorrow.

Dishing the Dirt...And Getting Even...

I have been seeing a lot of dish gardens and terrariums lately.  It seems that they have been revived because of some clever people that are doing fairy gardens.

I did some terrarium gardens back in the 80s.  Loved them.  They didn't have to be watered every day and were easy to take care of in general.

I had a large glass "cookie jar" type container in the workroom that just held a bunch of copper wire...

One thing led to another and this morning, I got even with Tessie.

She won't let me in my own craft cottage, so....I made an even smaller, but a lot bigger and nicer, cottage in a jar...She can't live there.  Ha!  I win!

Terrariums are very simple to make.  There are all kinds of instructions on the net, so I will just give you the general idea of what I did.

First I put a layer of dried moss in the bottom.  Then a layer of rocks and charcoal went in next.

Mine is a bit thick.  An inch or so is all you need.  That part is for drainage and to keep it smelling good.

On top of that, you get to work and put in plants and dirt.

I got the roots as flat as I could, by dividing them and laying them to the sides, instead of going straight down.

I have some Scottish moss and various succulents in the mix.

It will have to be opened about once a week after it is established and sprayed with water.

The catch is the part where the roots take hold.  That will take a few weeks.

The house is one that I got at Pic'and Save years ago....It's a made in China, David Winter type of cottage.  Much more interesting than the craft cottage in layout....

Now all I have to do is come up with that shrinking potion that Tessie hid, before she does. 

I do believe that I will leave the lid open if I ever get in there....Tessie might decide that I should stay...

But then, maybe not.  Who would build all of the things that she still wants if she did that?

Anyway, that's the mini for today.

See you tomorrow.

What's Missing From These Photos?

The answer is....ME!.  Tessie claims that she misplaced the formula for shrinkage.  Sure she did....

In case you hadn't guessed, the cottage warming party started, unbeknownst to me, in the middle of the night. 

I awakened just in time to grab the camera and photograph the last guests to arrive.  The two Spikes came together.  Technically, Spike #2 is not a guest.  He just always tags around with Spike # 1 at parties...Part of it is the name and the other part is, they both like their meat very rare...

By the time I started snapping, Eskiaga and Cordelia had expanded the party to the roof and the dogs were living it up in the attic.

The witches, Buffy and Zofi were taking up most of the main room...Eskiaga was getting claustrophobia....

I am not sure where the toddler in pink came from.  She just wandered in and kept asking, "Where's the cake?"

I am, slowly but surely getting the rug done.  It is the last thing that I have to finish.  Yes.  I am working on it every day.

Maybe by the time I finish the rug, Tessie will have found the shrinking potion recipe...Strangely enough, she keeps repeating, "I know that it works....I just can't find it.  Casey, did you take it?"

If in doubt, always put the blame on someone else...

Anyway, it's Monday again.  I am going back to work on the rug some more. That's when I am not doing laundry and cleaning the real house.  Only two more loads to go...

See you tomorrow.