February 4, 2013 by Born To Organize

Sweetheart Celebrations in the Fairy Garden

Button flowers on a ribbon-wrapped spool.

St. Valentine’s Day is just ten days away. Is your fairy garden ready?

I’ve been busy with mine all afternoon. First up, the fescue needed a haircut. Once the ends where neatly trimmed, I tied them together with a red bow. I cut the top in the shape of a heart, but you’ll need to squint your eyes and conjure up lots of imagination to see it properly.

Next up, dead-heading the miniature cyclamen. These jobs take seconds when working in a tiny garden.The baby tears are healthy but given the cool weather, they’re holding their growth. No extra work there.

I scraped up the remaining ‘snow’ and glitter from New Year’s Eve, then turned my sights to decorating. I challenge myself to use materials on hand, pulling together a bit of this and that. I’m never sure how things will turn out, but always have a great time with the process.

Painting:

Martha Stewart’s Pomegranate Red Glitter paint makes yet another appearance. I’ve used the same 10 OZ/295 ML jar for four different projects and I’ve barely put a dent in my supply. I freshened up the chairs with a coat of red, then painted the legs of the chair with Craft Smart silver acrylic paint. While I was at it, I painted the patio and dance floor silver, too.

Fruit tree branch fence
Painted chair
Button flowers
A lantern lights the way

Building:

When I pruned the fruit cocktail tree last month, I saved several small branches. They’d make a perfect fence. Today I fashioned open-style posts,dipped in a bit of Martha paint.

Beeswax hearts and bunting, red fence posts

Decorating:

At last, I could hang the bunting fashioned from last year’s garden calendar. I made tiny triangles from one of the pages, glued them back-to-back, then passed them through a piece of baker’s twine. A small ‘floral’ arrangement made from crafting buttons provides a focal point. Heart-shaped ‘plates’ complete the setting.

The ‘oil cloth’ table cover is a piece of beeswax, left over from a candle-making class. Additional hearts, tucked here and there, provide cover for a fairy game of hide and seek.

Heart shaped bench shows the long view

Fescue cut in the shape of a heart

We’re all set. Garden fairies welcome! Please help spread the word.

December 29, 2012 by Born To Organize

Cranberry Hydrangea: A Lovely Bloom to See in the New Year

Cranberry Colored Hydrangea

My ever-changing Hydrangeas are now a brilliant shade of cranberry. I love their ruddy complexion. They’ve set buds for spring, but the pom-pom like blooms linger.

It’s a challenge pulling together a flower arrangement from the garden this time of year. That said, I wanted to come up with a creative way to use what I had, including these lovely flowers.

Here’s what I did:

I removed the bloom above the last set of buds, leaving a short but sturdy stem to work with.

I filled one small jar with leftover florist’s foam. I filled a second, slightly wider jar with a handful of crystal beads. Together they create the illusion of a tall vase, even though the stem itself is less than three inches long.

Hydrangea blossom with short stem, supported with florist foam

Florist foam…or volcanic rock?

Glass jars, stacked and slightly nested

Do they make a crayon this color? I would name it “Spectacular”

Bacopa Cordata

Winter Flower Arrangement

And there you have it. Simple and festive and ready to see in the new year.

How will you celebrate the start of a new year?

December 25, 2012 by Born To Organize

Fairy Mystique: The Young and the Young-Hearted

If you’ve been following Gardening Nirvana for a while, you’ll know that I’ve fallen in love with fairy gardens. You can read a bit about them here. I created several over the past year, and shared them on my blog. They’re whimsical and fun.

Imagine my delight to learn that the two little girls across the street decided to create a fairy garden of their own. They caught the fairy garden bug!

When the holiday season rolled around this year, I thought it would be fun to don my “fairy cap” and create a little magic of my own.

On my first visit to their families outdoor Christmas tree, I left a tiny note and some “decorating material” including sequins, silk thread and a roll of red laundry lint, perfect for making fairy pillows and blankets. I tucked it deep in the branches so they could enjoy the search.

Fairy Garden Package #1

Next up, another note along with some ribbon, a few wooden stars and a family of matchstick-sized dolls tucked inside a baby food jar and wrapped in mesh.

Fairy Garden Package #2

On my last visit to the tree, I left a parcel of miniature bristle trees, a few shiny mirrors (great for lakes and ponds) and a bag of fairy snow.

Fairy Snow

It has been so much fun sorting through my sewing box, scrap-booking materials, and left over art supplies to pull together little treasures for the fairy aficionados.

On Christmas Eve, just before heading out with my family to look at neighborhood Christmas lights I made one last visit. My son helped me fill the top half of a paper Christmas cracker, with a few gold coins. While my husband backed out the car, I tiptoed to their door, deposited the gifts, rang the bell, and ran like crazy. Getting caught in the act would spoil all the fun.

As I raced across their lawn and out of view, the neighborhood kitty gave chase. My parting thought as I ran around the corner was how funny it must have looked to see a woman in her fifties running across her neighbor’s lawn, with a small white cat in hot pursuit.

There’s Magic in that Tree

Fairy Garden Snow Recipe

one small handful of craft snow
a pinch of sparkles
a dash of blue bakers sugar

December 6, 2012 by Born To Organize

The Christmas Tree Dilemma: Real or Fake?

The Crew: Ready to deliver the neighborhood trees

I struggle with this question every year: Is it better to have a freshly cut tree or an artificial one? I think the answer is neither. Or both.

Aren’t you glad we got that settled?!

As a nature-lover, I’m not fond of the idea of cutting down a tree each year, only to throw it away (or at the very least compost it) after a few weeks. People float the idea of a live tree that you bring indoors each year, but given the size of the average pine or fir, the tree would outgrow your home in a few years. Further, the tree would do poorly in a dry, heated home, preferring the outdoors instead.

Clearly, artificial trees are the way to go.

Or are they?

Fluffy Under the Tree

Artificial trees last a long time. You can use them year after year, they never dry out, they’re less likely to catch fire and they’re sized for the average home. They are, however, made from synthetic materials, that will one day end up in a landfill. Styles change, the frame of the tree might break or you may buy a bigger (or smaller) house that dictates the size of the tree.

In our neighborhood, we have a coordinated effort to display cut trees on our lawn each year. The trees go up the first week of December and come down New Year’s day. I’m block captain for our street, and we make it a family affair. We borrow a neighbor’s truck, load up the trees, and delivery them up and down the block. The neighborhood coordinator purchases over 300 trees. Each block captain collects the order forms, deposits the checks and then delivers the trees. It’s fun and festive.

Indoors we have an artificial tree that we store and use year after year. We made that choice for all the reasons I mentioned above. So…I feel like a fraud at times, supporting different choices on either side of the door.

One choice isn’t really a choice at all: simply giving up the long-held and delightful tradition of a Christmas tree.

If you celebrate Christmas, do you put up a tree each year? Real or fake?

Here is what others have to say:

October 31, 2012 by Born To Organize

Happy Halloween!!!

Our temperatures finally dropped to a cool 60 degrees ( 16 C), and the skies are cloudy and menacing. The changes in weather lend an air of authenticity to All Hallows’ Eve. I’m happy for it.

If you celebrate Halloween, I wish you a happy haunting, sumptuous (zero-calorie) goodies, and spooky Jack o’ lantern to light the way.

I’ve had great fun growing, harvesting and displaying our pumpkins. It’s been interesting peering inside the pumpkins that grew all summer long. I enjoy seeing what’s been growing inside. One set of seeds has an orange/brown tinge with a white stripe around the edges. The others are white, but vary in size. It’s also been interesting to see the undeveloped seeds. They’re pale and thin, instead of plump like the others.

I’ve enjoyed counting down with you throughout the month. In case you missed a few, here is the entire collection. Happy Halloween!!!

October 30, 2012 by Born To Organize

Pumpkins with Personality: Jack O’Lantern’s

Carving pumpkins has been slow-going today. The best laid plans of mice and men. Our resident carver is also the chief technology officer around here, so he’s been trouble shooting internet problems all day. We had a power outage this morning, followed by two internet fails. The horrors!

After much research and a few choice words for Comcast, we are up and running…temporarily. He’s back to carving and I’m keyboarding as fast as I can before the internet connection hiccups again.

First up, Mike’s carving the outline of a Halloween greeting card, one we sent to family down south. He photocopied the die cut card, then enlarged it into a template. I don’t know where he gets the patience.

Here’s an example of my carving skills. I’m afraid of sharp knives and I lack the patience. What I wanted to do was create a tiny fairy garden in the center of this pumpkin, but since it will rot in a few days, I settled for this corny little thing. It’s back-lit with an upended, battery-operated tea light. (Mike’s so clever).

A circle, a toothpick and a paper cat.

Enough said.

My younger son carved one of the leftover mini pumpkins from our weekend party. Isn’t it cute?

It’s 10:30 at night, so the rest of the carving will have to wait till tomorrow. How about you? Are you ready for Halloween?

Flight 1031

Halloween Countdown

Snail Hotel Pumpkin

I will be sad to say goodbye to the Snail Hotel. Those snails did an impressive job “carving” both the front and VIP entrance. They left town at the first sign of rain. Although the stem fell off when I brought it indoors, I was impressed with the way this pumpkin held together. These seeds are definitely going into the Seed Keeper for next year.

October 29, 2012 by Born To Organize

Pumpkins to Jack O’Lanterns

Tomorrow’s the big day. My husband, Mike, our resident pumpkin carver is taking the afternoon off to create magic. By noon he’ll be up to his elbows in pumpkin flesh, meticulously carving Jack O’Lanterns for Halloween. He has his work cut out for him. We had an impressive harvest this year, ten pumpkins in all. I love the way the house smells once he guts the pumpkins. It takes me back to the excitement of my childhood Halloween.

Our 4 Great Pumpkins

Each year Mike carves a few of his past favorites, in addition to trying something new. Last year he carved a few small pumpkins to look like computer emoticons. They were so unexpected. When my son was small, he asked his dad to carve Max, the bunny from Rosemary Wells Max and Ruby series. He pulled it off beautifully.

Max and Ruby Pumpkin

One of his personal favorites is Deadly Diva. She gets plenty of comments from passersby, so he’s carved her more than once.

Deadly Diva, a favorite since 2006

Halloween is a big deal on our suburban block. We average 150 children at our door. I’m on my feet for nearly three hours non-stop handing out candy. My youngest son heads out with his dad and some friends for his own candy haul. It’s a night of mystery and fun, followed by the realities of a regular school and work day. Just like Cinderella, we all turned back into mortals by November 1^st.

Cat Pumpkin

The After Pumpkin

While Mike is carving, I gather and rinse the seeds, then spread them out on wax paper to dry. I store them in a labeled lunch bag for planting the following year. We roasted pumpkin seeds in the oven as kids, but for some reason that tradition didn’t survive. We have more fun planting the seeds the following year.

Now that my compost bins are under way, I’ll be able to turn the discarded rinds into rich compost for next year. You’ve gotta love the cycle of life.

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.

~The Quote Garden, Author Unknown

Halloween Countdown

Costume Accessories Pumpkin

October 14, 2012 by Born To Organize

Transforming the Garden: Mad for Inflatables

We’re used to seeing cars slow down in front of our house this time of year. Either the driver is smiling, because they love Halloween as much as we do, or they’re shaking their heads thinking “those people are over the top!”

My youngest son has been a fan of inflatables for as long as I can remember. He used to spend hours at the computer during the winter months, bookmarking page after page of inflatable decorations. He printed his favorites, and pasted them in a book. Every year we visit a local “parking lot patch” where he gleefully enjoys the enormous inflatable slides, bounce houses and the occasional obstacle course. One year he received fifty dollars for Christmas from one of his uncles, enough to buy a holiday inflatable at 50% off. And so it began.

Inflatable spider with moving head and his trusty kitty side-kick

My son saves his allowance and the occasional cash gift and “invests” in his inflatable treasures. Each inflatable has a story to go with it. The monstrous cat purchased at a discontinued price, hidden in the back yard until Halloween night so he could surprise everyone. The creepy spider, bought online with an annoying whistle whenever it turns its head. Finally, the pièce de résistance, the inflatable archway, complete with ghosts and tombstones. By the time we saw it in a party store they were sold out. The store agreed to sell us the floor model for, you guessed it, half off. I paid for half, he paid the rest.

Through wind and sleet and Halloween decor, the mail carrier still delivers

My way of decorating before having children was more subtle. I would put out a pumpkin or two, a few fall plants and call it a day. Not any more. As my son ages, he wants everything a little scarier. By Halloween night we’ll have a spider with a moveable head, the enormous cat and the lighted entryway. He’ll stretch spider webbing from shrub to tree and my husband will add lights to the awning. The webbing catches falling Magnolia leaves, that twist and turn in the wind. We toss plastic spiders at the web for a naturalized effect and by October 31st we’re looking downright spooky.