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Thursday, July 5, 2012

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
Linking to the following...

French Country Cottage
Saturday Nite Special link party via Funky Junk Interiors

12 comments:

  1. I had a palm like that, easy to care for. Love the topiary. Great idea as they are usually pricey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, well, I am glad it's easy to care for since I can't seem to keep them alive like I used to. (I blame California! When I lived in Ohio, I never had this issue with houseplants!)

      xo-Lisa

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  2. Plant name is red edged dracena marginata.
    Enjoy,
    Aunt Joan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course my Aunt Joan knows the answer! Love that you knew this!

      xoxo
      -Lisa

      Delete
  3. I am so doing the ivy plant idea. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks girl! I'm actually surprised that you did not not beat me to it already!

      Can't wait to see you in a few days!

      xoxo
      -L.

      Delete
  4. Excellent website, you've done a good work here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those look great! I've been wanting to add some more indoor plants to the house, but keep forgetting to pick some up. I even bought a pretty plant stand at a yard sale a few weeks ago and it's sitting completely empty in my entryway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, it took me a while to get around to buying them too! And the only reason I finally did was because I was there already to buy some new outdoor plants!

      Can't wait to see your plant stand all dressed with her new plant!!

      xo-Lisa

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  6. Gorgeous! I don't know how i missed karianne's tutorial, but this is SO cool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kelly! Well, as you will see if you click over to hers, she was much more careful to make a nice perfectly round circle, but I wanted mine a bit larger, so I had to use two hangers.

      That's my excuse for sloppiness and I'm sticking to it! ;-) Thankfully, it looks perfectly neat with the ivy around it!

      xo-Lisa

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I love reading all of your thoughtful comments!