Uh-oh... You Know What That Means

It's almost Spring and my attention turns to the garden. So I've always done some gardening each year. Nothing too massive, just a few veggies and lots of flowers. I like to grow my own tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. It's an Italian garden with lots of basil and other herbs. And I have an orchid garden in one of my south windows that I just cleaned up. Most of these orchids I got from Lowes for $1 each on the half dead and dying rack about 2 years ago. I've gotten some more this year for $1, $3 and $4 at different stores and in different conditions. You have to talk to a manager to get them that cheap though because of their crazy markdown pricing structure. They actually want half price for a dead looking plant. It is just way too high. You can talk them down.

my orchid window

Walmart is the worst place to buy an orchid. They leave them to rot in water and they usually just pitch them in their compactor. They don't trash them, they compact them so nobody else can have them. But I did go to one Walmart where they were marking them down from $14.95 to $7 for the ones that are still in bloom! That was lucky so I bought a yellow one. It's gorgeous!

new orchid

Last year I planted hydrangeas in several places in my yard. I even took cuttings off a few of my favorites and grew some new ones. I also made room for a few new hostas. I've bought and planted White Feather hostas before but that's not what came up so I tried again last fall. We'll see if these are labelled right and I actually get some White Feathers to come up.

my growing system for orchids

Friends don't let friends plant annuals... unless you can keep them going every year. But my favorite annuals have always been geraniums. In warmer climates geraniums are perennial. I buy them every year. I even love the scented varieties. I used to be able to buy the seeds at the stores years ago but for some reason they just quit selling them. And now I won't pay the high prices in the stores for seed geranium plants. But that's O.K. cause I found an online seed supply for fancy geraniums so last year I ordered several varieties of seeds from Valley Seed Supply on Etsy. Gonna grow my own. 

LA Lights hydrangea

I planted all the seeds last Fall and they all germinated, every single one of them! I got 100% germination rate. So I put them in a sunny window and they grew all winter. I just potted them up into bigger 4" pots and as soon as the weather warms a little more I will start setting them outside in the day to harden off. So I've got over thirty geranium plants this year! That's all I had room for in my windows. I hate to see the price of them this year. Last year they were going for over five dollars a plant. I figure I saved at least $150 seeding my own.

awnings for last year's geraniums

And now I can collect my own seeds from them if I want. Most likely I will keep them going from cuttings and bring them in when winter comes. I know some people pull them up and brown bag them in a cool dry place all winter but I have not had good luck doing it that way. Only about half of them survive like that for me.

african violets 'Rose Bouquet'

What I do is get a big container and fill it with potting soil and plant them right into it as crowded as can be. My goal is just to keep them alive, not keep them show quality.. A sunny window and barely watering them all winter. They not only thrive for me but they bloom too. Only lost one or two like that all winter. I've had geraniums blooming at Christmas time. And then come nice weather they are all ready to set outside in their own pots and containers. Not too many bugs will bother geraniums but I do spray them off before bringing them in every year. 

second bract of new orchid

I had the worst year last year for growing geraniums and I don't know why so now I go to YouTube and watch Mr. Pelargonium to get some good tips on how to care for them. Did you know that geraniums don't like the full sun in the summer? That might have been part of my problem since I had them in full sun... duh. They can scorch and burn. They also like plant food and don't like to be kept bone dry just because they can take a lot of heat. They really like dappled sun or morning sun best.

the pond

I don't plan on buying any plants this year. I have sown some herbs and tomato plants from seed already. I had volunteer Dill come up last year! So my garden looks pretty raggedy right now waiting for all the seedlings to come up and then picking the weeds from the plants is never easy when they're young. But I'll eventually get it sorted out. Expecting some happy gardening in 2024 and lots of geraniums!

 

The Inventor of Pop Up Books and Cards

I bet you didn't know the father of pop-ups was named Lothar Meggendorfer and he was a German illustrator and cartoonist. 

He was a paper engineer that wrote movable paper books to entertain children. 

Reference: By Nicolet1327 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105757151

He wrote many clever paper action books.

Reference: By Lothar Meggendorfer - Cynthia Burlingham, Picturing childhood: Illustrated Children's Books from University of California Collections, 1550-1990, 1997, p. 34., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16453105

Meggendorfer was also a student of Munich based puppeteer Josef Schmid. It is thought that his teachings greatly affected his movable actions of the figures in his books. He also worked as an illustrator for a weekly comic paper.

Meggendorfer's illustrated movable books were sold in many other countries including the United States, Belgium, England and Russia. He illustrated and published over 200 movable books.

So the next time you see a clever pop-up book or card, you can thank Lothar Meggendorfer, the father of pop-ups. Pretty clever, huh?

Bet you didn't know that!

Another Unfinished Find

I hand sculpted this little folk art fairy out of paper clay a few years ago but I never finished her. So when I ran across her again, I decided to bling her up and finish her out.

I cut her green overdress into little points all around and made her a longer paper skirt.

I dragged out my flowers and shaped them with a large ball tool to give them dimension and I cut her a pair of wings. I used leftover scraps of AG paper and flowers.

I decided to repaint her face and smooth it a little and to put some Swarovski crystal jewels in her hair. I also added a little pearl necklace. 

To finish her up I trimmed her all in gold and hot glued everything on her skirt.

She has a secret though. she is glued over a little bottle and the lid unscrews to revel a hidden compartment. She stands on her own and looks perfect hiding under a colorful plant. So glad I finished her up!

 

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

As I continue to clean up my craft room and reorganize, I'm running across a lot of older projects I've stored away and this is one of them. 

I fell in love with this pattern the first time I saw it over ten years ago. What better time to make a Humpty Dumpty egg head doll than early Spring? This pattern is from Suzette Glastonbury Rugolo. 

I have to say that this was not an easy pattern or a pattern for beginners. The eyes are a little tricky. I also decided to make him something to sit on that he could possibly fall off of. Humpty's brick wall was a box that I covered with little brick fascia and plaster.

Humpty's wearing the finest clothes in the land. All silks and laces. Humpty's jacket is made from a silk brocade fabric and his pants are made of purple silk.

Humpty's monocle is from a little eyeglass repair kit. It's a magnifying glass. His staff is a chopstick with a jewel on the end.

Humpty's egg body is made out of a cotton fabric and stuffed firmly with polyester batting.

Humpty's hair is a piece of faux fur that's been shaped and held with a little hair spray.

Humpty's face is soft sculpted and colored with soft pastels and colored pencils. I made his eyes out of clay and hand painted them.

Humpty's fingers are wired so he can be posed to hold items.

Humpty's little faux leather shoes have felt bottoms and a little bling on them. His socks are gold print tulle. He's such a handsome fellow!

Oh Marie!

Everybody knows Marie Antoinette and loves her over decorated fluff and frilly style. You can't out girly Marie! There's been some debate whether or not she actually said, "Let them eat cake!" but I like cake so let the cake flow.

I used a few die cuts from Anna Griffin and I hand dyed the ribbon tie. That gorgeous little shoe is a paper clip.

Pretty cake and fans are a great look for Marie.

This gorgeous shoe is from a 14 year old pattern made by Terri Heinz when she held a Marie shoe swap on Ning with the Marie Antoinette mail art group. I was there and a member. I also did participate in the swap at that time. That's how I remember it!!! There have been many imitations of her pattern since but I cannot find one to pre-date it so I'm calling Terri Heinz the designer of this pattern.

Those cute little cake die cuts!. 

I had several pictures of Marie courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com . I wanted to fill the pages with them.

I decided to make little frames out of bling for Marie on most of the pictures because I didn't have room for framing them without cutting off the pictures.  Problem solved!

I used a lot of pretty pictures to decorate this journal. I had some fan die cuts already made so I used those. Perfect for Marie.

Pictures of pretty fancy ladies dancing go well with the decorative shoes and fans.

Pretty lace trims make pretty frames for pictures.

Oh Marie, you've done it again! Left us in awe of your over decorated beauty! You scamp you.

 

Another Valentine's Journal

I'm running a little behind but here it is. I made three Valentine's journals and this is the last one. I used a lot of vintage postcard images on this one.

I picked the prettiest postcard for the front. I used a satin ribbon for the tie closure.

I loved the double heart postcard so I put it on a doily over two pages. I trimmed some pages out with pink lace and matching paper washi tape.

I used a folded paper border around the big cupid heart and found some felt love stickers that were precut.

I cut out some origami hearts with pictures underneath them and put little felt heart pull tabs on a string for them.

I had some sequined ribbon that I used on the length of a few pages.

Vintage valentines with pink ricrac and satin bows trimmed with pearls.

More beautiful vintage postcards. I pulled out all the stops on this one. I glued a metal "love" charm to the front of the ribbon and added a cluster of hand made charms to the top corner and it turned out pretty I think.