A Fairy Tree House

One thing leads to another...

I bought a drill bit thing-a-ma-jig to cut circle shaped holes out of wood.  

Probably has more comprehensible (shorter!) name?

I wanted to cut pieces of birch different lengths and then drill plant-pot holes in the top. (I saw a centerpiece holding candles somewhere for inspiration.) Unusual Container ideas were floating around in my head for the coming Virtual AV Show! :)

So I played with polymer clay, baked, drilled, chiseled, whittled, cussed, applied band-aid, wood-glued.   
And produced this crafty piece of art. shush now!

Not exactly how I first envisioned it, but working fairy doors are going to take a little more planning.  Plus, round logs are harder to glue flat things to than I thought <grins>.
 

Plant is my sporty version of  

Ness' Fantasy Gold. 

Not much fantasy, but I finally got some "gold" - except every bloomstalk puts out a different colored flower on all 4 or 5 plants I've grown so far. And then very quickly the yellow turns into a ghastly orange/dead brown blossom?

This imitation palm-tree had it's rootball severely trimmed in order to play doll house fit.    May not be long for this world.   

BUT there's a couple more just like it on the plant shelf.  I'm hoping the next round of blooms on one of them will improve: pick a nice version and stick to it!

I Hunted; I Gathered.

Shake off the April snow...

I've been watching for the ingredients to use in a dish garden on my daily nature walks with the dog since last fall. Dropped acorns and moss that fell from the trees during all the high winds we've had this winter were gathered into mittened fingers, as I tried to juggle my collectibles with Jax's leash plus treats needed to convince her leashes are part of the routine at the end of our walk. (NO, you may NOT top off your 20 minutes of freedom in the field and woods by running across the road to the neighbors!)

I've had this piece of driftwood for a very long time, intended for my attempt at a natural dish garden someday. (It has a few teeth marks at the top as I've removed it from Jax's mouth at least twice.)
Yesterday I finally felt up to the project - with both spare time and the extra energy - so went off to gather moss, fungi and rocks I had "bookmarked" along our path.

EXCEPT it snowed a little the night before.
Gathering took more hunting than I thought it would!

This week Violet Voice members are putting together a mini-virtual African Violet show practice run ahead of the show planned for later. 
I've been DISBUDDING most of my plants for later.
Not many of them are in full bloom right now!

The plant used in this dish was supposed to be Optimara Little Moonstone.
I grew out 6 or 8 babies from the 2 leaves that survived the Round Robin exchange last fall. ONLY 1 from all I grew out bloomed true.
(A now proven argument for keeping more than one or two baby plants! The one blooming correctly was the only one with lighter colored leaves. I might have mistaken it for the "runt" and discarded it had I tried to decide which to cull sooner.) 

Most of them bloomed double solid purple.
A few have just a hint of the Cruella DeVille streak of white. ;)