Creating Garden Art from Family Treasures

Tweet

Do you have a stash of glassware floating around that you don't have a use for but hate to get rid of?  One of my clients created beautiful art for her garden using a variety of glass items she had inherited from her family. 

As you wander the paths through her lovely garden, you just happen upon the glass sculptures. Hesitant, at first to alter these items her Mother had given her, she decided to take the plunge when she considered they had been boxed up in her basement for years.  Now, she gets joy from seeing them in her garden daily.  (I think she has a magical basement, it is a never ending source of treasures!)  

To assemble the heirloom garden sculptures she used a tube of E-6000 -- available at craft and home improvement stores or on Amazon.  Using an upside down vase or bottle as the base makes it easy to simply slide the sculpture over the top of a stake anywhere in your garden and to empty any rain water that may accumulate 

Follow directions carefully as the glue needs to cure for ten minutes and is hard to re-position when dry.

I missed this beauty on my first trip through! 

The bird and flower shapes are such a natural complement to the plants.

Sunlight playing on the glass adds a bit of sparkle to the garden.

If you don't have a magical basement full of treasures, check out your local thrift stores

 and neighborhood yard sales.

Bonus Feature:  The galvanized bucket she bought on my opening day at Factory Antiques

 holds a Mum in her deck herb garden.  

The child's rake, pumpkins, and Pottery Barn owls complete the Fall vignette.  

Watch for a more detailed post on her garden next Spring.

Happy gardening!

Wendy

PINTEREST PROJECTS: Mason Jar Shower

Tweet

I am the first to admit I am a Pinterest addict!  With 162 boards and over 13,000 pins, there is no denying it.  My boards include recipes, party ideas, yard and garden, blogging tips, inspiration for clients, and articles I want to share with HHM.  My memory has never been great and it continues to spiral downward with each passing year.  Pinterest keeps all the great ideas I see on the web in one place for me. 

 

So, when I started planning a wedding shower for a dear friend and his fiancée, Pinterest is where I began.  My Mason Jar Board had many ideas that I have been wanting to try so that was my jumping off  point.  I did a quick search of Mason jar invitations and fell in love with this one.

 

 

A quick change of wording, a click of a button and my invitation digital file arrived in less than 24 hours.  Thanks Sprinkles of Sugar Etsy shop!  Not only did I have an inspiration for my decorations, I now had the color scheme:  coral, gray and white.  Be warned if you choose this color scheme - coral paper goods and fabrics are few and far between in local retail stores.

 

After browsing through my Mason Jar Board, I decided to bake apple crisp in mason jars.  Although I used my Mom's recipe, I checked several different pins for converting the cooking time for the small jars.  (Approximately 30 minutes, then broil for 2 or 3 minutes to brown topping).

 

 

Using  four ounce jelly jars, I found it took about one chopped apple per jar.  The apples need to be mounded high as the they will cook down.  Growing up in Michigan, my Mom always used locally grown McIntosh Apples and they are still my favorite.

 

 

After a little experimentation, I found packing the crumb topping on over a bowl  prevented it from spilling everywhere!

 

 

Six pounds of apples made about 24 individual jars of apple crisp.  That's a lot of peeling.

 

 

The finished product was worth it!  Notice the great tablecloth my trusty intern found on sale at Williams Sonoma.  The colors were perfect! 





 

This pin from Décor 8 was the inspiration for the floral arrangements.  (I repined this from my future daughter in law's board.  Thanks, Ashley!  Yes, we will have both a daughter and daughter-in-law named Ashley)
 

 

I substituted canning jars for the bottles.  The scrapbook paper on sale at Michael's and the striped string came from Hobby Lobby.  And of course, Trader Joe's is always great for fresh flowers.

 

 The extra paper made cute decorations for the mason jar drink glasses.  The striped straws are from Michaels.  HHM made a great apple cider drink with vodka and sour apple schnapps!





We feasted on mini chicken waffles in the chafing dish (inspired by this pin), almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, homemade caramel apple dip, mini corn muffins, home made cookies and goat cheese & fig preserve bruschetta!  Thanks to all my PB friends for their yummy food.  The groom to be added some caramel sauce to his apple crisp, delicious!

 

The one disappointment of the night was the home made pimento cheese served on crackers.  My plan was to serve all easy to pick up finger food.  However, the crackers quickly became soggy! Live and learn.

 

Can't go wrong with goat cheese and figs!

 

 

Bacon wrapped, almond stuffed dates:  not pretty, but oh so delicious.

 



Self serve beverage service 

 



 

This cute ribbon banner, again found on pinterest, was the inspiration for my fireplace fabric banner.

 

 

Entertaining is such a motivator.  The day before the party I exchanged my summer mantle artwork and display.  I was quite pleased with this arrangement composed of items I already owned - - pays to be a pack rat antique dealer.  

 

The white eyelet was a remnant from sweet Emily's nursery.  I purchased five fat quarters - - two gray and three coral.  Again, the selection of coral fabrics was limited but I was very happy with the end product.

 

Well, that's 5 pins out of over 13,000 I used for the shower!  Look for a post next week on another pinterest inspired project.

 

Wendy



 



Styling a Round Coffee Table

Tweet

Although I love my round sea grass coffee table purchased at Z Gallerie many years ago, it can be a challenge to style a round coffee table.   I finally found the perfect tray to ground my vignettes on sale at Pottery Barn.  The dark color and smooth wood finish contrast perfectly with the sea grass and tie together with the dark legs.

Last evening, my daughter-in-law gave me a beautiful bouquet of hydrangeas from her yard.  This inspired me to clear off the magazines, mail, and remnants of an earlier tablescape so I could enjoy their beauty.

Taking pictures of vignettes can help you really focus in on the details.  Although this arrangement looked okay, when I looked at this picture, the magnifying glass gets lost.  Adding the books prevented it from disappearing against the dark tray. They also added a linear shape to contrast with all the round and organic elements.

Although my kids think I am at pack rat (I think hoarder is the term they use), I was able to pull together this vignette with things I pulled from my stash.  The Pottery Barn vase was purchased for my daughter's engagement party five years ago.  I found the driftwood at a lighting store in Naples, Florida while helping a client choose a new fixture.  The magnifying glass came from my all time favorite home decor store, Nell Hill's in Atchison, Kansas.  (And I am not going to lie, it has come in very handy when HHM and I do not have a pair of reading glasses close by).   And of course, there is no shortage of design books in every room of my house!

 

Quick tip:  Dip the stems of your hydrangeas in hot water to prolong their life.  I boil water in my teapot, pour into a measuring cup and submerge the fresh cut stem for a few seconds.  Occasionally, I still have a bloom that wilts quickly but for the most part I have found this to be successful









Wendy