Terrific Terrariums - Tiny (and not so tiny!) Tropical Gardens for your Home.

 It's certainly been a chilly start to the year but I'm turning the heat up (literally, lol!) and creating some tropical green goodies to brighten my home by making some Terrariums. For those not in the know a terrarium is a glass container filled with tiny plants that do well in a humid, moist environment, although you can adapt your terrarium by using different types of soil to suit different plants, say by using more sandy composite you could create a cacti terrarium. Easy peasy :)

This idea has been trending high on Pinterest with gorgeous geometric shaped glass houses made with copper and brass frames adorning many a discerning designer coffee table or kitchen. 

I can't afford that kind of stuff but what I have got is a collection of vases and jars that I had used for lots of different purposes at one time or another displaying fairy lights and junky/cool ideas like that. After I had cleared out the fairy lights and raided my loft I ended up with three containers, and a Douwe Egberts coffee jar without the lid.

Other bits you need are compost obviously, and pebbles or stones, even glass or ceramic beads for drainage placed at the bottom of your container.

These are also useful for surrounding you plants at soil level to help keep moisture in the soil and therefore creating a humid environment for those tropical plants. You can also add a layer of sand on top of the drainage pebbles, this means if you over water, the soil will not wash down into the bottom of your container (I skipped this as I'm watering with a mist/spray and it shouldn't be an issue) it also looks good as you get that lovely layered effect, so by all means fire ahead if that's the look you prefer!. I'll list the plant names at the bottom for you, so read on folks ;)

So its basically layering - pebbles, sand (optional), compost, then the plants go in, then add more pebbles.

The other thing I bought, purely for decorative reasons was some gorgeous aubergine coloured artificial Reindeer moss.

Why artificial?

Why coloured?

Why Reindeer Moss?

Artificial, because I'm not after a spreading plant like moss after all my hard work! Too fiddly to try to control!

Coloured, because it adds another dimension to the terrarium, creating contrast!

Reindeer moss, because it has a wonderful foamy structure and almost looks like coral except that it is soft and sponge-like to the touch.

 I did a little research online about how much plants would cost and what sorts of plants are classed as 'terrarium' plants and quickly found that yet again eBay was much cheaper than pretty much anywhere else and with a wide variety of plants. I'm not put off ordering from eBay for plants, I did this last year and found a seller where I bought both a young quince and a jasmine plant for a really good price, after having been unable to buy them at any of my local suppliers. Both of which arrived in good time and  were well packaged. They now seem happy and at home in my small garden. I'll be sure to update you in spring, but certainly they had established themselves well by autumn last year and I'm waiting for them to really take off this year (gardening - not instant gratification by any means!).

I'm waiting for a delivery of a Tigers Tooth Aloe plant, which is so pretty, it has white stripes on its green leaves and little white, pointy ends like teeth. Perfectly named!

It will be living in our teeny coffee jar terrarium on the far right!

And the tall thin elegant vase in the middle is hopefully going to be the home of a miniature orchid, I love orchids :). As soon as they arrive I'll plant them up and update this post so that all Terrarium content stays in the one post.

So that's how I spent my pocket money this month folks, I'll try not to kill them and I'll post some progress pics in a few months time. 

Before I forget water/mist weekly and feed every 6-8 weeks. 

lots of love,

Samantha x

January Junky Gems Transform to Fashionable Furniture!

Ok, so January is swiftly departing, can you believe how quickly it went? If you are like me then it flashed by and boy was it a cash strapped month. So it was even more important to make every penny count.

So I got my thinking hat on and my gloves and braved the icy depths of the garden shed to see what paint and other bits I had stashed that I could get to grips with. I struck it lucky! I had 15 year old emulsion paint all stacked in the back behind the lawnmower and the BBQ. What joy! Only one of the cans contained a colour that I had used myself the others had been donated as leftovers over the years by my family after house moves and decor changes. So with  hope and trepidation I hauled the cans up to the kitchen and pried the rusty cans open. And joy again! Yes they had certainly thickened over the decade or so they when out there in the shed with the spiders and bugs but with some water added and a good mix they returned to a fluid, usable state pretty quickly. So a small fortune saved right there! I also raked out my collection of wicker baskets I had built up over the years (and a couple from Mum too), I had always found them a little hard to place in the flat before but inspiration was firing on all cylinders so they made their way upstairs too.

The baskets after a bit of a dust.

 I decided quite early on that I what I wanted was a clean fresh look for my redecoration plans, no matter which room I went into I needed to lighten and whiten and with that thought in mind I mixed up some white chalk paint with a half a can of white emulsion that had come up from the shed. Whoop! I was back in action with a brush :)!

So much cleaner and a uniform colour makes then look like a set, rather than a raggedy collection, I'm very happy with these so far!

So what else could I get up too with my freshly mixed chalk paint? Well I turned my attention to a little wooden trolley table that I had stashed in the kitchen to use for breakfast. It's really a handy wee item but had really seen better days and it travelled up from Mums to mine to be used much as it had been at her home, everything from a potting table, painting surface and somewhere to stack tools amongst others. I'm sorry but I forgot to take a before pic I just got stuck in!

It came up a complete treat! Pleased as punch but really needed to give it a bit of a colour boost so I made up some little tester pot sized coloured chalk paints and after struggling with the 'should it be stripes/should it plaid' thing in my head, I decided it should be stripes as it would make the table top look bigger and longer. I masked it off with frog tape and away I went....

The first stripe! A lovely coral/peachy tone.....but wait that wasn't all! More taping and more chalk paint followed. I have to say its a satisfying thing peeling off the tape to reveal nice sharp lines, I think that was my favourite decorating moment because basically painting is a messy job.

 

And so I reached the zenith of stripes for my small table,for not another stripe could be placed on its little top.

Optimum Stripe Level A

This is where it will live for a short while until I get started on the kitchen when it will return home to be used at breakfast and lunch times once more :)

So no pennies spent at all on these little up-do's and there's my Mums' rabbit from her garden which found its ears repaired and chalk painted white and now it lives indoors and spooks the cat out.

There's more to come, the baskets aren't finished yet, I want to make some fabric liners and some ceramic content  plaques for them and I'll certainly share my efforts with that little project too

Other than that I no longer have a sofa, well to cut a long story short after Mum came home from hospital it was decided by the occupational therapist that a riser/recliner would be more useful so I broke the sofa into two parts and ditched the larger three-seater part to make room but the new chair didn't arrive in time :(. So now I have masses of space and the corner where the sofa was has been completely freed up so I did this (see below). The storage boxes were £2.99 each from B&M and they hold so much of fabric stash and crafty bits, they were the cheapest on the market and I think they look great, it certainly makes a big difference to the room. The unit was a cheap pine thing bought from B&Q years back just to fill the alcove and create some shelves behind the sofa.

Other things that I completed but didn't get a chance to post because of everything that was happening with Mum, were the large MCM (Mid Century Modern) cupboards and shelves that I already had but that needed some tlc to get them back to good nick. So after a light sand with a very fine grain sandpaper, this removed all the old dirt and any oils previously used, I then gave it two coats of Danish Oil and chalk painted selected areas to give them just the lightest of 're-style's :) They came up so beautifully and they really glow.

I'm such a nerdy, I colour coordinated my cd's!

I also used the very last scraps of MDF from my shelving project to create a little U shaped TV stand that runs the same length as the cabinet, which gave me somewhere to stash the DVD player and the Sky box and freed up counter space.

 This little success gave me the confidence to get stuck into the vintage dining table and chairs using the same techniques and style. 

The Danish Oil was around £5 from B&Q and made such a difference to the teak wood. Its a pleasure to polish!

WOW, this is the longest post I've put out in a while!

So I have been embroidering quietly in the evenings too. It just seems to relax me :) so that can be no bad thing. Seeing as I no longer have a sofa I can't really go any further with my living room, it will have to wait until I am able to afford it, unless I strike it mega lucky and find the perfect vintage sofa and armchairs! Who knows? In the meantime I'm moving on to the kitchen because I have all that old paint and I know that I can pull it off on a shoe string budget, I'll show you how I'm  doing on that really soon.

Have a look at my embroidery in the meantime, this pretty little piece is to be made into a lavender pillow,lavender is used therapeutically to aid restful sleep it also happens to be a gorgeous, clean, floral scent and my favourite besides jasmine! I'll be sure to blog the finished piece for you :)

I hope you enjoyed this one, lol! That's everything up to date now, but as always there's so much more to come,

lots of love,
Samantha x

Happy 2015, and the saddest news.

Yes it's 2015 and here we are ready to get to it once again!

The sad news is, and I'm just going to be very quick here, is that my much, much loved mum Joyce passed away on the 3rd of January. She had rallied before Christmas and came home to me from a prolonged hospital stay but there was such a dramatic decline and although everyone tried so hard to make things right for us both, there was nothing that could be done. I'll miss her in far too many ways to say here but all my love and my heart go with her. I love you Joyce Evans, my mum.

So to get myself back on track I'm going to move on pronto and get busy with my diy! I have some pretty embroidery I've been working on and a few indoor plant ideas because I'm feeling an urge to get all green fingered! Spring is definitely on its way folks. There are daffodils and crocuses already taking at peek at us!
But while there is still a mighty chance of frost and snow I'm going to share my indoor garden ideas by creating some Terrariums! So stay tuned.

Unsurprisingly not posting any pics of WIP's today, it was tough just getting the words out about mum. So I'll leave you with a happy picture of my gorgeous mum taken last summer in her garden. It shows her feeling happy and that is how she was nearly always. A truly wonderful,creative, nuturing, fun, woman and mother.

Joyce Evans, my lovely mum. 1935 - 2015

Home Made Christmas Bunting

I got some white felt off ebay and had a blast using split stitch to draw and rice stitch to trim :) Fun and cute!

I know everyone will be so busy at this time of year getting ready for the big day so I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we'll be seeing you all in 2015!

Best Wishes,

love Samantha and Joyce,

(and Nyah the cat!)

xox

a Teeny Christmas Tour at H for Home

Hi again, I have been busy with Mum, home earlier than expected from hospital and very tired but I have a lovely team of care workers who have been roped into helping me and I've pretty much got a fab support network for Mum and for me. They are a great bunch and really cheerful as well as being excellent at their jobs. My front door has never been so busy!
Just like you all we have had to get our Christmas food in the cupboards, and the pressies and decorations and the Christmas card list, and then adjust to the new routine of a care package, assorted medical equipment and all the new faces.
Phew!
So here are some hopefully half decent pictures of the lounge at present, I'll reveal furniture in full in the New Year as and when it all happens, but so far it looks a lot like this............ :)