December 9, 2014 by Born To Organize

How to Revive Cut Flowers

I originally published this tip in October 2012. It continues to garner multiple views each week. I’m sharing it again in case you missed it.

Hat-Pin Trick

Hat-Pin Trick

Cut flowers, especially those with hollowed stems, often droop after a short time in water. Why? Because the stem is no longer siphoning water.

Simply insert a pin or needle all the way through the stem of a drooping flower, about one-inch below the bloom. Carefully remove the pin and return your flowers to a vase of water. Within an hour or two, your flowers should be standing tall. I’ve used this trick successfully over the years with Gerbera daisies, roses and tulips.

Gerbera Daisies Revived: The yellow flowers perked up; but the orange ones did not.

Rubber-band Recovery

If for some reason the hat-pin trick fails, here is plan B. Gather the flowers into a loose bunch and slide a rubber-band over the stems and up to the neck of the flowers. Wrap a second band around the bottom of the stems. Return to the vase, and enjoy your perky arrangement.

Rubber-band Recovery in Action

Edit your Collection

I don’t know about you, but I like to get as much “life” from my cut flowers as possible. Most mixed bouquet flowers have varying shelf-lives. Some blooms fade within a few days while others can last up to a week, maybe longer. Instead of dumping the entire bouquet, I change the water and return the flowers that still have life. As those fade, I’ll cut the healthy flowers down by a few inches and display them in a smaller vase. If I have nice greens, I’ll see what’s blooming in the garden and I’ll mix the two together. I make a game out of it to see how long the flowers will last.

Do you have any tips or tricks you’ve used to preserve the life of your cut flowers? Please share in the comments, below.

May 13, 2014 by Born To Organize

Fairy Garden Renovations

Are you familiar with the old adage, “one thing leads to another?” The classic children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie uses this concept with great humour.

The book is known for its playful, circular pattern. A boy gives a cookie to a mouse. The mouse asks for a glass of milk. He then requests a straw (to drink the milk), a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache), nail scissors (to trim his hair), and a broom (to sweep up). Next he wants to take a nap, to have a story read to him, to draw a picture, and to hang the drawing on the refrigerator. Looking at the refrigerator makes him thirsty, so the mouse asks for a glass of milk. The circle is complete when he wants a cookie to go with it. – Wikipedia

So, if you give a friend a craft store gift card (thank you Stephanie), she’s going to want to use it. When she goes to the crafting store, she’ll discover cute little stencils. She buys those stencils along with a few acrylic paints.

Martha Stewart Craft stencils

Since the garden nursery is *right next door* to the crafting store, she’ll pop in for a look. While there she’ll find the perfect, over-sized plant trays and the wheels begin to turn. Fairy garden renovations, here I come!

Large plant trays

She’ll rush home with the loot, but days will pass before she has time to play. She moves the project from the garage workbench to the kitchen counter, thinking she’s more likely to work on it there. She’s right! Racing the clock, she stencils one of the trays before heading off for another appointment. Family memories say lovely things, spurring her on.

Stenciled plant trays

The stenciled trays must wait to dry. Once dry, they need a sealer. Once sealed, they need some soil. Mother’s Day rolls around and she wants nothing more than an afternoon renovating the garden.

Fairy Garden on Deck

Two planter trays are the perfect size and shape for my garden bench.

Patio Fairy Garden

The perfect spot for the newly renovated fairy house.

Newly renovated fairy house flying the rainbow flag

Fairies can cozy up in a Magnolia petal hammock.

Magnolia petal hammock

A log bridge connects the house and the garden.

Log bridge to the reading garden

My son painted the ceramic plate, the focal point of the reading garden. The chair, lantern and glazing ball are gifts from Alyster the Gnome.

Reading Garden

There are already signs of visitors: a tiny deer behind the house, an open copy of Fairy News and the faintest movement from the wishing pond. Ahhhh….

Fairy Garden Activity

So if you give a friend a gift card…well, you know the rest.

December 16, 2013 by Born To Organize

Snow-in-a-Can, Winter Wonderland

Early last week, I received a package in the mail. Not just any old package, but a package from a garden gnome named Alyster. He’s a clever little fellow, small enough to fit in your hand, but full of big ideas.

Alyster says he’s “up to his eyeballs in snow” and wishes he could come back to stay in sunny California. I wish he would come and stay, too. I need to check in with his traveling companion, Boomdee.

Since Alyster is missing the sun, he thought I might be missing the snow. (You are so right, Alyster). That clever garden gnome sent me snow-in-a-can. Just add water and watch the snow grow. Along with the snow came a tiny glass igloo, and the smallest scarf you’ve ever seen.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So what does one do with snow-in-a-can, a tiny igloo and a pint-sized red scarf? You make a snow globe!

Several years ago, my friend Marcia sent us this super-cool acrylic globe. We’ve used it in many ways over the years. It was a terrarium for a while till the plants outgrew it. One year we filled it with colored silk Christmas ornaments. It’s also beautiful unadorned.

Acrylic globe

This season it’s a tiny winter wonderland. Here’s what I did:

I filled the bottom with airfill packing, then topped with a paper plate, cut to fit the opening.

AIRplus Packing material

I foraged a couple of Christmas ornaments from our tree to help set the scene. We bought the tiny wooden snowman for our first tree 18 years ago. We were starting from scratch so we bought a small tree and even smaller ornaments at a local import store. The little door decoration came from our local Hallmark store the year we remodeled our house.

Snow globe details

I added sprigs of Christmas greens, a small pathway and then it was time to let it snow. I haven’t had this much fun in ages.

It’s ‘snowing’ on WordPress throughout December. I can’t wait to hit the publish key so I can watch the snow falling on my winter wonderland.

PS…Alyster, I found your flip-flops. You left them on the bottom of the box. Please pop over to pick them up whenever you like. 🙂 I’ll keep the light on for you.