Blog Party Guest Post: The Beetle Shack

DIY: Fabulously Fruity Dangling Succulent Garden
(ie. a terrarium)

It feels like an eternity that these little glass baubles have been ethereally floating above our dining room table, sometimes filled with candles, other times with flowers. Always hanging by fishing line and little white thumbtacks pushed into the ceiling.

In this incarnation, they are suspended by fluro pink string and stuffed full of plants and soil.

I thought you might like to make some too, so here's how it's done.

You will need

* A collection of glass vessels.
(I'm using some candle holders that you can see hanging from my ceiling back here. I've actually seen some in hot dollar and other junk shops quite recently.)

* Very small stones. They can be bought from your local nursery or pet store.

* Some moss. I collected mine from our outdoor pavers that don't catch much sun.

* Potting mix

* Succulent plants 

Steps

1. Add a layer of small pebbles to the bottom of your container. Make sure you rinse them first. I've used black here but i'm dreaming of making more with fluro pebbles, you know, like the ones you put in the fish tank? Imagine the glory!

2. Add a layer of Moss on top. This prevents the soil in your terrarium from escaping through pebbles.  If you don't have any moss handy, a very fine screen will work well here. Personally, I think the moss is really pretty.

3. Add soil. I used a long handles tea spoon to make navigating the small space a little easier. 

4. Add the plants. Take a little time and consideration to make sure it looks pretty.

TA DAAHHHHH

I couldn't resit making a few more (in fact I filled every empty glass vessel within reach)

now all you need to do is add fruity string in the colour of your choice, find a thumb tack, climb atop your table and you're done.

-Emily

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Thanks for sharing, Em! Emily blogs over at The Beetle Shack. It's one of my faves. She is hilarious, honest, and just SO COOL! If we ever hang out in real life, it will be mayhem. Glorious mayhem.

Check out her blog and send her some love! xo Talia

Blog Party Guest Post: Dee Rolston

DIY: Pretty Decorated Bowl

Hello lovely Talia Christine readers, my name is Dee and I blog over at dee*construction.

I am so honoured to be a guest blogger over here this week – I originally found Talia’s blog through a comment she’d made on A Beautiful Mess about living in NZ and was delighted to find out we lived in the same city, and actually knew some of the same people! Since then, we’ve hung out a bit and my 4yo has developed a bit of a crush on Audrey (but, seriously, how could you not??)

Two loves I have are natural materials and vintage needlework and today I want to show you how I combined the two as a simple and sweet wall decoration.



You will need:
Vintage embroidery or applique
Wooden bowl (these are quite common finds in op shops here)
Mod Podge & paint brush
Scissors



If you are using a vintage applique, simply trim it with your scissors as close as possible to the applique.


Then apply the Mod Podge to the reverse side and glue it to the wooden bowl.
Done!


If you are using a vintage embroidery, more care needs to be taken not to ruin the meticulous hand stitching. It’s difficult to see from the photo, but on the reverse side I applied Mod Podge all the way around the edge of the embroidery where I intended to trim it. This way, if I accidentally cut too close and snipped some thread, it wouldn’t come undone.


 Once it had dried, I trimmed the part I wanted as close to the embroidery as I could.



Once I had cut it out, I went around the edges of the embroidery with one of the kids’ brown pencil crayons so that the remaining white fabric wouldn’t be so obvious.

Also, for this bowl I drew some hexagons in the background with a white pen to add interest to the background.



Then I applied the Mod Podge generously over the reverse side of the embroidery and glued it to the bowl as I did with the appliqued one.

(On this bowl I also Mod Podged the entire front of the bowl too because I had sanded the original varnish off)





I hope you liked this little idea and can find some time to give it a try.

Congratulations on 4 years of blogging Talia!
Dee X

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Um, guys, Dee is seriously so brilliant! I LOVE this DIY! I can't wait to try this out for myself.

Dee blogs over at Dee*Construction about her craftiness, pretty dolls, and her beautiful (SERIOUSLY beautiful) family. I'm lucky enough to know Dee personally. She's just amazing. She's a great mom and a good friend. One time, when Audrey had the measles, she dropped a meal off for us because having a sick kid is rough. She just had a baby too. I should have been the one bringing HER a meal. She is always an inspiration.

Pop on over to her blog and give her some love! xo Talia

Guest Blog Post: A Beautiful Mess

Hello, lovelies!!

In case you missed it, I did a guest blog post over on Elsie's blog A Beautiful mess!

I posted a sweet treat recipe for mini-banoffee pies. They are SO tiny and cute! Head on over and take a peek.

♥
Talia Christine