paint cut paste

over spring break in april, it was time for me to plant some potted herbs for the season. with all of the fairy house excitement as of late, N wanted to make them into “fairy herb gardens,” naturally.

even without her own pinterest account, this trend seemed to seep into the consciousness of my 5-year-old. go figure. first we potted the herbs into two large pots. N said that she would decorate the basil and rosemary pot, and the other (sage, cilantro, and parsley) was for me to adorn. i felt honored to get to do one, as i assumed she’d do both. yay!

she decided we needed our shrinky dink herb tags here, but the ones we made a couple years ago weren’t the same types of herbs, so we spent an afternoon making new shrinky dink tags. (easy steps: scribble with colored pencil on rough side, cut shape, write herb name with sharpie on smooth side, heat shrink, stick in soil.)

then it was time for the houses. i gave her a choice of using natural materials (like she does in the yard) or painting some wooden birdhouses we have ($1 bin at michael’s.) she chose the painted route, and we got to work on our fairy houses.

next we gathered up some items for landscaping… like colorful marbles, stones, shells, sea glass, and even a few of the lovely painted sticks we made a couple years ago. N excitedly designed her fairy herb pot.

she spent a lot of time getting everything just right for the fairies. what a hostess!

the herb pots are so darn sweet… and we’ve spent some time over the past month (has it been that long!!!??!) clipping sprigs of herbs for our dinners and sprucing up the fairy neighborhoods.

i just found a batch of bloggy photos that i forgot to blog about earlier this summer – bean sprouts! (oops.) this was such a fun, satisfying, educational activity i remember from my own preschool days, so i thought it’d be fun to do it with N at home.

we picked up some baby lima bean seeds while at whole foods one day.

we soaked a paper towel with water, put it into a ziploc bag, and dropped in a buncha beans. we taped the bag to N’s bedroom window, where she gets full afternoon sunshine.

about a week later once they’d sprouted some roots, we tried two different things with them (because i couldn’t remember what to do next. i’m not a green thumb, people.) we planted half of them into some potting soil to see if they’d sprout green shoots from there.

N even made a cute phoenetic “lima bean” sign for the plants.

but nothing happened to this batch at all. (yes, i shoulda googled this, admittedly, but it’s all about the experimental method, right? no newfangled internet shortcuts.) meanwhile, the ones left in the sunshiny wet paper towel bag grew all sorts of greenery.

we planted these into a pot in our backyard and nurtured them to grow throughout the summertime….

and they were great, until our snail friends ate them.

woah, it’s been a while, eh? sorry for the lapse in blogging. last week was busy with tying up loose ends of the summer, cleaning out for autumn, and getting my art therapy practice up and running (woot!) and while i was doing these things, i went through the art cabinet and found something i bought back in the spring, and we never used this summer – oops.

if it says "crayola" on it, does it count as an art project?

well, sure it’s the day after labor day, but it stays good and warm here through the end of october, and the kit said that it’s only for planting in summer 2010, so i figured we’d better get germinating! i mean, it is still technically summer for a couple more weeks after all.

watering the soil pellets to watch them expand

this crayola flower kit is so step-by-step easy that it’s not all that exciting for a 3 year old to do, honestly. i think N would have preferred to get more messy like when we planted seeds in pots in the loose soil. regardless, who can turn away a sunflower garden?

planting seeds

we created a little greenhouse in our kitchen plant window, and in 1-2 weeks we should have some sprouts! just in time for… uh, fall? oh well.

and check out that adorable fairy there on the left by one of my favorite etsy artists, mamakopp! it’s perfect for the flowers N brings in for me from her adventures in the yard. stay tuned or some seriously colorful fun to come this week…

we'll keep you posted on the sunflower harvest!

we are anxiously awaiting WARM WEATHER over here in the sf bay area, and all of the fun things it entails… but i just could not wait any longer to make fresh squeezed lemonade with my little lady. i must forewarn you that this is a photo-heavy entry… lemons just provide so much eye-candy (and other senses, too!)

it was super-easy and fun to do! here’s whatcha need:

• 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (we did this with 12 lemons)
• whatever tools you wanna use to squeeze lemons dry
• 1.5 cups raw sugar  (we used organic raw turbinado sugar, so ours looked more like tea)
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 gallon cold water
• one sliced lemon & fresh springs of mint leaves for garnish

let your little one take sticker off of and wash each lemon.

have fun squeezing all of the lemons to get the juice out any way you can!

enjoy all of the sensory experiences that come along with lemons!

scent

taste

in a 1 gallon container or pitcher, place the sugar and hot water and stir until sugar dissolves. add the fresh lemon juice and cold water to fill the remainder of the container or pitcher.

we cut some peppermint sprigs for garnish. (note the cute plant tag!)

chill the lemonade and serve over ice (uh, but we don’t make ice in our house, so we just had to chill it longer.)

nope, it's not tea. that's the color of the raw sugar.

i had a hard time parting with the lemon rinds, so i put them in some water with cinnamon sticks and cloves and simmered it on the stove to make the house smell awesome for the day.

then N was inspired to make lemonade art…

i think we’re all set for a lemonade stand… if the weather would ever get outta the 60s and the sun would come out around here… come on memorial day weekend, bring it!

this is just the simplest spring thing you can do. paint a flower pot. plant some seeds. watch it grow. (couple this painted pot with a handmade bloom paper mother’s day card, and you’ve got a great gift to give those sweet mommas in your life!)

we went to a birthday party at a local art studio last weekend called celebrate art. one of the activities was to paint a small flower pot. N got busy painting (with acrylics, i believe?) her pre-gessoed pot with a stylish color-block pattern.

once we were home and the pot was dry, we decided to plant some cosmo seeds in it.

we used my mom’s handy tip to put a flat stone in the bottom of the pot (to help the soil not run out of the hole when watered.)

then N filled the pot with soil.

we sprinkled on the cosmo seeds.

watered…

and now we just apply more water, sunlight, (music – N likes to sing to it,) and love and watch the flowers grow!

once upon a time, i made terrariums for my friends as birthday gifts, but it’s been ages since i made one for our own house. with a sick little lady at home this week, we decided to beat the cabin fever by bringing the outdoors inside, and getting our hands dirty!

i already had a bunch of great jars from world market with tightly sealing lids. (we use them to store snacks, grains, etc.) we found a stray one, and some organic potting soil. while N (and daddy) were tasked with finding stones and toys who might want to live in our terrarium, i made a little trip to the nursery down the street for the rest of the supplies.

the types of plants who enjoy living in an enclosed, moist environment are: members of the peperomia family, pileas, miniature fern, coleus, cuban oregano, penta, tradea scentia, miniature mums. even collector plants like african violets, orchids or small begonias are great. miniature and dwarf plants work the best. i chose baby tears, a pink polka dot plant, and a small african violet. i though N would enjoy each of these.

the other things you will need are charcoal chips and pebbles (for drainage) and you can get some moss for ground cover, if you’d like. (i skipped this step, as our jar is very small and i knew the non-plant space would be covered with rocks and marbles.)

now you’re ready to create a tiny ecosystem – first start with a 1 inch layer of crushed gravel or pebbles. next sprinkle a layer of charcoal chips, enough to cover the gravel layer. top this off with 2 inches of potting soil.

then uses your fingers to gently plant your plants and place your landscaping items. we put smooth river stones, rose quartz, glass marbles, and N’s little ladybug into ours.

give it a bit of water, and close the lid. put it in a bright area of your home (but not direct sun.)

there wasn’t enough room for the baby tears plant to live in the terrarium, so i found another home for it.

i’m not the world’s best green thumb at all, but here’s some info i’ve gathered for keeping your terrarium happy:

ailments:

• yellow leaves or leaf tips turning brown – too much moisture, try taking the top off your case for a few hours a day until plants look greener.
• leaves falling off the plants – foliage is touching the glass, adjust your plants or prune when necessary
• leggy growth – not enough light (remember don’t put in direct sunlight)
• brown or black blotches – too much sun, move to lower light area
• remember also to remove dead blooms and twigs

other tips:

• you won’t need to water much, encased plants can go months without water, watch the condensation, when it becomes extremely minimal it is time to water.
• no need to fertilize – it will create toxic salts that kill plants.
• put your terrarium in a bright area, but don’t put in direct sunlight it will bake (kill) your plants. putting plants atop a television or other electronic equipment will also bake their roots.

N enjoys checking on her terrarium a few times per day, and waves hello to the ladybug in there. and bonus: this is one way to have houseplants and cats at the same time! whoo hoo!