Sprucing Up with New Plants, And a Topiary How to...

~ Hi everyone! ~

Hopefully you have all recovered from your 4th of July festivities. 

I have been fighting some kind of summer cold/cough thing, but I think I'm starting to feel a bit better today. 

Yesterday I went out to the home improvement store and bought a few new plants for outside. 

While I was there, I decided to get a couple new ones for inside as well. 

My green thumb is not what it used to be, so I often feel the need to start over with a new houseplant every now and then. I just can't look at them if they get to sad and droopy. 

I bought an ivy and a ?? I actually have no idea what the name of this other one is...

 Some type of palm?

 I bought the cute pot it's in too.

Feel free to let me know what the name of this plant is, if you happen to know.

I also made the ivy into a topiary using wire hangers. 

I took my cue from Karianne at Thistlewood Farms. She has a great tutorial, and a soap and water solution for mites. She's the best!

Because I am really bad at reading directions or following instruction, I looked at her pretty pictures, and made my own without the benefit of instruction. I used almost the length of 2 coat hangers, clipping off the hanger end and the twisty end. (Yes, that's a word, ok?)

 They are kinda hard to bend into a perfect circle, and I am not overly patient when it comes to those things, so I wound up with something that looked a bit rough, but looks great with the ivy wound around it.

 I used my wire cutters to snip off the ends of the hanger that I wanted gone.

 I only had a few leaf casualties. 

 I wound each stem of ivy individually, alternating one from the left, then one from the right. I think I did about three on each side of varying lengths.

Here it is in it's new home on a side table in my living room.

 I wrapped some extra burlap around it for fun.

(I know how to get crazy, right?) 

So that's it for today! 

I am off to run errands, and shuttle the little guy to karate.

See you tomorrow with another project. 

(That's assuming all goes well with it! Cross your fingers!)

:-)

xo

-Lisa
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