Plant Clippings

We used to have a lot of plans in the house. That was before kids, but once Bug came along, it turned out that it was all I could do to keep her alive and the plants in the house were quickly sacrificed. (Don't worry, most were given away to friends and neighbors and very few plants were harmed in the building of our family.)

But during a recent visit to my mom's I fell in love with this little guy:

My mom was sweet enough to let me test out my plant keeping abilities and the sweet little ivy came home with me. That was a month ago and it is still alive... more than alive, thriving!

But you'll notice, there are 2 pots and only 1 plant. So, I'm going to really put the green thumb to the test and along with keeping the ivy alive, and the plants for Bug's teachers - I've gone ahead and clipped off a few of the leaves from the ivy, as well as the pothos and put them in water to see if I can get them to take root:

I'll keep you posted on how they are doing... though you might want to pray for them, just a bit anyway.

Chalk Pots

As soon as I saw this project over at Lanie J. and Co, I knew I was going to be doing it.

Here are the materials I used:

• Terra cotta pots and saucers
• Chalkboard spray paint
• Painters tape
• Craft paint
• Foam brushes
• Spray sealer
• Plants of your choice
• Small rocks
• Chalk

And here is how we did it...

Step 1 - Tape off the top of the top, or whatever other section you are going to want to keep free of the chalkboard paint and then spray away. The instructions on the paint I had said to do 2 coats and waiting 24 hours before applying chalk so make sure you leave yourself enough time.

Step 2 - remove the tape from the pots and paint the top rim of the pot and the saucer with craft paint.

Step 3 - After you've painted the saucers, seal them with spray sealer.

(My mom would be so proud of me if she saw this step... she always get so mad when she sees unsealed terra cotta saucers)

You'll notice in the bottom of the pots, there is a whole... another thing my mom insists on when it comes to potting plants, in additional to the sealed saucers... is proper drainage. Something that cannot be achieved she claims, with dirt filling the drainage whole at the bottom of the pot.

Step 4 - So what you do is drop a handful of rocks into the bottom of the pots, prior to potting the plants.

Step 5 - Pot the plants!

Step 6 - Write your message on the pots.

Now - I've got to figure out how to keep these suckers alive 'till the end of the year when they will go to Bug's teachers. Seems crazy to have them ready now, but April, May and June are crazy months and if we didn't do this now - we'd be running out for gift cards the day before the last day of school. (As we've done on more than one occasion.)

(And as for all those other pots you saw in the pictures. I've got plans for those.)

Linking this old post to the Chalkboard Paint Party at The Stories of A to Z