Week 12: Fun with Succulents

 

I have recently developed an obsession with succulents. I mostly blame Pinterest. I have been saving pictures of all kinds of succulent-based projects for a while now, and when I showed my mom a picture of a succulent wreath a couple of weeks ago, she was all, "Let's make one!" Boom, just like that. If I had more Mom-based motivation in my life, my house would be full of fully realized Pinteresting projects... Animal bookends!

{Hi Sugarplum via Pinterest}

In any event, a couple of weekends ago, I went to Coronado to hang out with the fam while Tom was at South by Southwest. My mom had heard about a free class on orchid care at a local nursery, so we decided to combine that with a succulent-buying spree. The orchid class was led by Phil, a real orchid aficionado and epic storyteller.

{Phil}

Phil taught us that the state with the most species of native orchids is... wait for it... Alaska! Anyway, after Phil told us everything there is to know about growing orchids, we picked out some succulents and some moss before heading to Michael's for a metal wreath form. Once we got all of our supplies back home, we realized we would have been better off taking clippings from the plethora of succulents in my parents' yard and neighborhood because we ended up pulling the plants we bought apart since it was too hard to get the roots into the wreath after we packed it with moss.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished wreath, but it has to lay flat for a week or two until all the clippings have a chance to take root so I'll wait to post a picture of the final reveal when I can get a shot of it hanging on my parents' door.

Anyway, the success with the wreath and the realization that I didn't need to spend a bunch of money on buying succulents set me off on a stealth mission to sneakily take clippings of every succulent I passed for the next week.

{My stash}

When I had pilfered gathered a sufficient stock, I dropped $2.50 on some revolting "art" from $2.50 at Goodwill and started on my Pinteresting succulent project number two.
The inspiration was this project from Better Homes and Gardens:

{BHG via Pinterest}

First I ripped the hideous painting off of the frame, spray painted the frame blue, and stapled chicken wire leftover from my jewelry display project to the inside of the frame.

 Next, I flipped the frame over, stuffed moss leftover from the wreath project up against the chicken wire, poured cactus soil over the moss, and then stapled and nailed the "art" where it belongs, on the backside of the frame.

I can already tell that I should have had a piece of plywood cut to fit the back of the frame because I am pretty sure that the painting is on particleboard that will probably fall apart after a few waterings... I was too lazy eager to get started to make the trip to the hardware store for plywood, but I figure I can always replace the back later if it falls apart.

The next step, arranging all of the cuttings in the frame, was the most fun. Since I had to make do with whatever succulents were accessible and unguarded, and because my crafty efforts are never as perfect in reality as they are in my mind, I knew my final product would not be as cohesive and color-coordinated as the masterpiece that the professionals at Better Homes and Gardens created. And it's certainly a mishmash, but it's coming along...