Do you remember when I posted that list of all of the projects I wanted to accomplish in the month of June? Well I finally got the ball rolling and knocked one of those projects out. This is only phase one of my painted flower pots though, I’d like to add either some succulents or some herbs to the pots, but I have yet to get to Lowe’s and purchase some. I didn’t follow a tutorial for this, it’s just something I found on Pinterest awhile back and thought they were cute. I’m not a “follow the directions” kind of girl, I just like to figure out how to do it on my own. Makes it more fun, except for my sunburst mirror, I probably should of followed the directions for that one. Oops.

Okay, anyways the original source of my inspiration image was from here.
Here are how mine turned out, followed by my own tutorial on how I painted them. :)

I went to Michael’s Craft store and picked out three of the smallest pots they had. (I believe these were 3 inches.) I also picked up a bunch of paint, keeping in mind what colors I wanted on the inside of the pots vs. the outside (base & border). One of the pots refused to let the paint stick to it properly, that’s why the end result only includes two pots, instead of three. I’m probably going to sand the paint off of that third pot and start again. (& In case you’re wondering, it was suppose to be purple on the inside, and then white & pink on the outside.)

Meanwhile, Coco was being her weird self.

Fun Fact: She is always showing us her belly and I learned the other day that when your cat does that it means that she trusts you and doesn’t feel like she’s in harms way.

Here is all of the paint I picked out while at Michael’s. Some brights and some neutrals. Martha Stewart kind of rubs me the wrong way, (probably because my Paw-Paw use to yell at the TV when she was on, ha!) but her paint line is amazing. Hands down the best craft paint I’ve worked with to date.

I started this project by painting the inside of the pots with the brightest colors I had. It gives the pots a nice pop once they are filled to almost the brim with soil. I also painted the top lip with the bright colors.

As I waited for them to dry, I had some cuddle time with Coco, which she hates.

Once the pots were dry I painted the outside of the pots with my neutral colors and waited for them to dry again. The last step I did then, was paint the bottom inch or so of the pots with a different color than the base coat. (I somehow forgot to take pictures of these steps. I blame Family Guy)

I let the pots dry overnight and then this morning at 7AM I filled them with soil and took their pictures. Yes, I was multi-tasking this morning.

My favorite pot is the dark grey + light grey pot with the bright blue in the middle. Probably because greys and blues are my favorite colors.

I can’t wait to actually plant something in these though. They are just so happy looking. :)

Have you painted any pots? Did you have trouble with the paint sticking to one of them, like I did? Or have you planted anything lately? It’s gardening season! I need a garden of my own though, so I don’t weed my dad‘s for “fun”, ha!

Posted on May 20, 2013 - 21 comments
 Filed Under: Gardening, Projects

Any ideas?
Maybe this will help… let’s look at a picture from Friday’s post.

Did you notice anything different between the two pictures?
Still need a moment to figure it out, or do you give up?
Well maybe this next picture will help.

Yup… Coco decided to send a plant to its falling death just as Earth day began. I made the mistake of letting the blinds up over night, which means that Coco could go on the windowsill as she pleased. Last night she decided to get into a brawl with a cat outside, which meant she’d be literally attacking the window because in her mind, that would scare the cat outside, but usually what happens is the cat outside just sits there and stares and wonders what is wrong with my cat.

So, at exactly 1:18 am this morning, I hear a strange noise coming from outside of the bedroom, and after a few seconds, it clicks that Coco is attacking the window (which she usually does in the bedroom window around 8pm, or 5am… it’s an ongoing struggle). So I jump out of bed and run into the bathroom to pull Coco out of the window and scare the outside cat away. As I round the corner to the bathroom, Coco jumps out of the window and takes off to the bedroom, meanwhile I see something big and dark on the floor, I rub my eyes and get closer… it’s my purple pot full of aster flowers all over the floor and the ceramic pot is in huge chunks.

So, what was I doing at 1:18 this morning? Cleaning up a broken flower-pot, and scooping up moist soil without contacts in, or glasses on, while being half asleep. What was Coco doing during this time? She was already asleep on my pillow… Will all of that being said, I could really use a nap today.

Posted on May 20, 2013 - 6 comments
 Filed Under: Gardening, My Life, Second Apartment

Earth Day is on Sunday and I’ve been trying to figure out what to plant. I really wanted to plant a tree, but since I don’t have a house yet, that really wouldn’t work out too well. My problem was solved though when a hotel came by my work, to promote themselves, and gave us a bookmark that was embedded with seeds. How cool is that?

It even told you what kind of flower it was, how to plant it, and how long until it starts to sprout.

Just in case you can’t read it, it says:

So the flower should come out looking like this:

Pretty right? And here is a close up of the bookmark with the embedded seeds.

I just followed the directors and soaked the bookmark for awhile. And then folded it up and put it in a mason jar (the same mason jar from before, which Coco knocked on the bedroom floor, and so we had to replant something in it.)

I then covered the bookmark in soil.

It’s been sitting in the bathroom window now for exactly one week. Nothing has happened yet though, so we’ll see if it sprouts any. Both of my other flowers are really growing, but so far, no flowers.

Can you tell I’ve been super busy? I can’t even get a day-light picture of my plants. The one above was taken at 6AM on my way to work, yuck.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Are you doing anything special for Earth Day (the 22nd) or for Arbor Day (the 27th)?

Posted on May 20, 2013 - 9 comments
 Filed Under: Gardening, Holidays