Living Wreath Tutorial

When Red Shoes was finishing up pre-school last year, I wanted to make his teachers a special gift.  They were incredible teachers, and I felt tremendously blessed that they were Red Shoes' first teachers.  I made them both a living wreath. Here's what you need to make one:

• Hens and Chicks
• Sphagnum Moss wreath base (I bought mine HERE)
• Wreath Pins (I bought mine HERE)

I had a planter of hens and chicks.  I always put my mother in law on this for me.  She can always find me some cheap Hens & Chicks at garage sales.  

The first step in making your wreath is to soak your wreath base in water. 

You need to be able to push the pins in easily

Find a little helper if you need. 

Here's what the wreath pins look like

Next, pull your Hens & Chicks apart.  You're not going to hurt them.  Go for it.  Then soak them.  You just need to be able to see their root system. 

 

Then you just start pinning their roots to the base of the wreath. 

Just keep pinning until it looks good.  You'll know when you're done. Here's what mine looked like.

 Before I boxed up the wreaths and wrapped them I printed out a care card for the wreath.  It really is very simple to care for. The best part? It just keeps coming back year after year. 

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Parterre Gardening

   Do you know what a parterre garden is? I didn't either, not until my mom and dad designed one. According to Wikipedia, "a parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all."

  As we've started having some warmer days my thoughts lead to gardening.  I was looking at pictures on my computer and came across my mom and dad's garden. Their beautiful, beautiful garden.  Thought I would share it with you today. 

Aren't they lovely?  Hope you have a happy, cheerful day today!

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Spring Treasures...

We visited my mom and dad's farm over the weekend.  The beauty of spring surrounded us.  From birds to broccoli it all looked gorgeous.  I'm amazed every single year when it all comes back to life. Surreal...

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Flowers from Vo Tech...

Yesterday I loaded up the kids and we went shopping for flowers.  There's a local vocational technology school that has a Green House Management class. This flower sale was all of their doing.  They plant the flowers and tend to them they do all of the sales...this is a big fund raiser for the class.  In my life before kids, I worked as a school counselor, and I would help students sign up for classes like these.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Vo Tech kids, and this is one event I look forward to all year long.  The students are always so helpful and so proud of their work.  I love that!

I let Red Shoes and Happy Feet pick out some flowers that they wanted.  Here's a glimpse of our morning...

It didn't feel like flower planting weather...it was a chilly morning. 

Don't you love the Cheerio that's riding on Red Shoes?

The kids made a friend at the sale.  This girl was so sweet.  She let them water some flowers and

taught them a few things about gardening.  I hope she told them to keep their tractors, shovels, and various other forms of "diggers" out of the garden...if we're able to grow anything this year it's going to be a miracle! 

It was a great morning with the kids. Happy Feet and I did some planting in the afternoon.  I haven't met a kid yet that doesn't like gardening.  It's such a good thing to do together.  Pin It

Nature is Weird...

I've been waiting for this all summer long...

Now, on October 15th, my Gerbera Daisy decides to bloom.  Why now?  I guess it doesn't know that in about 3 weeks Daylight Savings time will end.  Or, that fall began about a month ago. Better now than never I guess.  It sure surprised me! 

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Autumn in Mom's House and Yard

It's a beautiful fall morning here.  It's raining and oh so cozy.  One of those mornings where your coffee tastes extraordinarily good.  And for the first time in a long time I have just a little free time to blog. 

We spent this weekend in Nebraska visiting my parents.  It was nice.  Red Shoes and Happy Feet got to help with the pigs and Red Shoes got to ride in the combine. They also got to play with their cousins. They didn't want to leave.

While we were there Red Shoes and I made this cake for his pre-school class.  They have been learning about rainbows and colors, so I thought they might enjoy it.  It had been a while since Red Shoes and I had cooked together so that was a nice treat.  It was also wonderful to have the help of my mom with the other two so we could actually cook.  The cake looked beautiful when we left, but by the time we made it home it had done some MAJOR sliding and some cracking.  That made for one more can of frosting...upping the number to 4 cans!  Red Shoes' teachers and the other parents might not be too happy with me today. 

Here's some pictures of my mom's house and yard.  She's got such a gift for celebrating seasons and holidays.

I think I've mentioned before that mom's a very good gardener.  The proof is in the pumpkins.



We call this the "batkin"

Mom made this jack-o-lantern banner last year.

This was made last year too.

This is a vellum Halloween lantern that mom made.  You can find the directions here. 

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