Tag Archives: flowers

Hydrangea Wreath

Crafts, Flowers and Garden, For the Home, Tutorials, , , , , , , , , , ,

I planted a hydrangea bush last spring because I love the big balls of blossoms that they produce.  I found a beautiful pink one and I have loved it all summer long.  But little did I know that when the blossoms die they fade into a beautiful green and yellow color!  I saw a hydrangea wreath somewhere out there in blogland and decided that I would try my hand at making one and I have to say that I am so excited about the results! Continue reading →

Garage Sale Chair Find!

Crafts, Flowers and Garden, For the Home, , , , , , ,

I have been looking for an old chair without a seat in it for a couple of months now.  It is one of the reasons that I started going to garage sales!  And a few weeks ago I was able to find this chair at a garage sale in Wanship, UT!  It was at this really cool antique place, but I did not take a picture of it.  I know shame on me, but if you are ever in Wanship, it is right on the main road across from the old Spring Chicken Inn.  Anyway I could have looked around for hours, but my husband was waiting, so I just grabbed this chair and he shook his head as I loaded it up!  :)  It is perfect for what I wanted! Continue reading →

SNAP Conference Recap

Blogging, Flowers and Garden, , , ,

I know that I am a day late and dollar short on this post, but I wanted to show a few fun shots of when I was at the SNAP Conference a couple of weeks ago.  I learned a lot of what to do and what I do NOT want to do, so that was good.  It was great that it was at Thanksgiving Point and so close that I did not have to travel much.

This was the table setting at the dinner and welcome the first night.  How festive is that?

Continue reading →

May 2012 Visiting Teaching Handout

Church, Flowers and Garden, Printables, VT Handouts, , , , , , , ,

Here is the May Visiting Teaching Handout.

 The message should come from one of the conference talks of your own choosing.  So I decided that since it was the month of May that  I would put “May” we let ourselves be Blessed with the talks from Conference. (Get it?!)

I just stuck this card in a cute little potted plant that you can find anywhere right now.  But if you want to do something else with flowers, you could do sugar cookie flowers, Oreo Cookie Flowers, fresh cut flowers or paper flowers!

Here is the printable, just right click and go to copy.  Open your favorite program like Word or Presentations and right click again and go to paste.  Print and cut out.

Happy Visiting this month!

Winter Blossoms

Crafts, Flowers and Garden, For the Home, Valentines, , , ,

We have had a very mild winter here in Utah with hardly any snow.  We have had unseasonably warm weather and it seems like it should be spring, not the dead of winter!  But all good things must come to an end and the forecast for the next week is snow and rain almost every day, with winter storm warnings.  Ugh!  I got way too spoiled with the good weather and do not look forward to the cold so I decided to bring some of that spring time feeling into my kitchen.

This arrangement sits right behind my kitchen sink and I love how much it brightens up that corner!  Every time I walk into my kitchen this is the focal point.

My next door neighbor and great friend, Susan, works at a greenhouse and she lets me know what is blooming and when to plant different plants and how to fertilize etc, etc, etc. I really do not have the best green thumb but with her help I am learning a lot about different plants and how to take care of a lot of different flowers.

She told me about this pink plant and that it was in bloom right now, so I went down to see her at work and I got this “cyclamen” flower.  Isn’t it beautiful?  The blooms do not last for very long so I will have to enjoy it while they do.  There are several new buds coming so I should be able to enjoy it for a little while.

I also saw this fun heart topiary and thought how cute they would look together for Valentines Day! 

I tied a couple of ribbons into bows and made a vinyl with “Hugs & Kisses” to put on a tile to finish off this little winter arrangement.

I love the sunlight of the morning coming through my south window in this picture, it really does make me happy!  Now I just need to look at this picture during the coming week when all the snow storms are here (Ugh) and remember that spring can be here in my kitchen!

What do  you do to chase away the winter blues?

Coffee Filter Wreath

Christmas, Crafts, , , , ,

I have a fun project, if you need one for this weekend!  It is fairly inexpensive, depending on what flowers and ribbon you use and you don’t have to think very hard to make it, so put on a good movie or in our household a good ballgame!  We watched the Utah football game…go Utes!  My daughter and I got together this weekend to make these.  It was so  much fun and we have not really done very many craft nights since she started working, so we were way overdue for another one!

You start with an 18″ straw wreath, and LOTS of coffee filters.  I used about 400 coffee filters.  Mine is probably a little too full, you could space your filters out a little bit more and only use about 350 coffee filters.  My daughter got really carried away and used over 600 filters on hers, but once she started putting them so close together, she had to finish it that way. It still looked great, but you really don’t need that many.  The cost of the straw wreath was $5 at Hobby Lobby and all florals were half off  that day, so we scored with the wreath only costing $2.50!  The coffee filters were $1.25 per package of 200 ( I used two packages),so another $2.50 and my wreath only cost $5.00 plus whatever flowers and embellishments that you use!

Start around the outside first, and go all the way around.  We just started putting them on and soon learned that it was better to go all the way around the outside first.Take a coffee filter and center it around a marker like this.  This keeps you from burning your fingers with the hot glue.  (I however, was struggling even with the marker and managed to burn myself 3 times!  It takes talent…I know!)Then add a dab of hot glue to the end.  (You gotta love the glue gun..it is well loved!)Then hold it onto the wreath for a few seconds to make sure it is secure.  We left the plastic wrap on the straw wreath and it worked just fine and we did not have the mess of the straw all over!Go all the way around the outside.  Make sure that you do not go too far down on the side, so that the wreath will lay flat against  your door or wall.  After you do the outside, then go around the inside center and then just start filling in all of the middle.  Like a already said, we probably put our filters a little closer together than we should of.  If you space them out a little more I think that it would be a little more rufflely!  (Is that a word?)This is what it looks like from the back!  I hot glued and stapled a ribbon to the top to hang it with.  I have seen this wreath with just the coffee filters and no embellishments and it is beautiful that way too!I added some silver sprigs, a silver poinsettia, a red flower backed with a burlap ruffle, some red sparkly curls, a sprig with red and white balls, and a burlap bow and white beads.

Here is a close up of the embellishments.

 I am thinking that these would be cute for Valentines day and spray paint the wreath red after you get the filters on!  Or how about green for St. Paddy’s Day?  They really are fun to put together because you can just sit and make them without to much thought and some days no thinking is a good thing!

I linked this to  I heart nap time, and My Crazy Beautiful Life

Pumpkin planter aka “Mumkin”

Crafts, Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I saw this darling idea on Pinterest and just had to make it. I think they called it a “Mumkin!”All you do is hollow out a pumpkin.  Make the hole in the top big enough to put your pot of flowers in.  After I cleaned out all the guts, (which, by the way, you will want to clean and save all of those seeds, because I have a yummy recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds coming tomorrow!) I filled up my pumpkin with water and added a litle bit of bleach to it.  I let the water run over the edges and down the outside of the pumpkin.  This helps the pumpkin not rot as fast.  Empty the bleach water and let the pumpkin dry out for awhile.  Add your potted plant and a cute bow and waala, you’ve got a darling “Mumkin!”Make sure that you take the pot out of the pumpkin to water it and let it drain good before putting it back in.  I am also going to spray bleach/water to the inside of the pumpkin when I take the pot out to water.  I have heard that your pumpin should last about 2 weeks by doing this.  Then when my pumpkin has finally wilted too much, I will just hollow out a new pumpkin to put my pot in!Add some pretty gourds around it and you have a fun fall arrangement!

Pinterest is a virtual board where you can pin any of your favorite finds on the internet.  If any of you would like to view my boards, you can do it by clicking on the link on the right side of this blog.  If you would like an invite to Pinterest, let me know, but be warned, it is very addictive! :)

Happy fall y’all!

Fall Flowers

Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I worked all morning in my yard, I was weeding and pruning some of the perennials. The flowers this fall have been absolutely beautiful!  I do not have the heart to pull some of them out!

These marigolds were planted from seeds that I gathered last summer, I could not believe how well they grew.  I just kind of threw the seed into the soil and started watering them and I think that they are some of my prettiest ones yet.

This is one of my planters on the front porch.  I need to pull them out so that I can put all my Halloween decor out.  I told myself that I had to wait until Oct, so next week my  planters will be history!These are some of the perennials in my yard.  I love the fall blooms.Beautiful!While I was out weeding and pruning, I came across this one lone Shasta Daisy.  I could not cut it down so I took a picture instead!My pink bush by the waterfall.Trumpet plantThese are actually in my neighbor’s yard, but they are on the fence line.  These morning glory are so big and beautiful.  I took this picture in the middle of the day and I was going to go back this evening to retake the picture and the blooms had closed up.  I did not know that the blooms only last for one day.  They are like the moon roses that my daughter in law has at her house.  They are very beautiful but only for  one day.  Thank goodness there are lots of new buds!These are Concord grapes that I have in my garden and even though they are not flowers, I think that they look beautiful.  However, I feel like the birds are going to win the battle with these beauties because I have to wait for the first frost before I can pick them and it has been so warm here with no frost in sight in the near future that I fear the birds are going to have a feast!  Oh well I guess it will have to be my contribution to nature!

I have been working on several printables for Oct including the new VT message and a couple of games.  So check back soon for these!