Thanks - To Moms and Teachers!

It's that time of year when we recognize  people that are so important in the lives of children... As I sat down to write this blog, I was struck by the fact that Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother's Day are both in early May.  In fact, this year Mother's Day falls just after National Teacher Appreciation Week concludes.  So.... we are sharing with you an easy project that you can share with a teacher, your mom, or anyone else that needs a little brightening in their day! 

One of the best things about having a partner in a creative business is having twice the brainstorming power! Last winter we were talking about how many teachers our children have (as they switch classes even in elementary school) and what would be good end of year gifts that the teachers would (hopefully) enjoy, would be unique and in keeping with our goals of being vintage inspired, earth friendly and supporting local economies, and would be cost effective since we had so many to make! 

As we often do, we turned to Ebay for inspiration.  We discovered a vintage tea set being sold at a great price as it was missing a few pieces, and took off from there. Once we realized that there were enough
remaining pieces for all of our teachers, we put in the bid and began to flesh out the rest of the project.  

The tea cups, creamer and sugar bowl became the perfect planters!  Our children had some input on which plants they wanted to use, so their personalities are reflected as well, and they had a ball helping us assemble the mini planters.  Feel free to borrow from our ideas, and make changes to make it your own! 

We'd love to hear how you have used vintage pieces in your gardening or about fun gifts that you have created - please share your ideas in the comments below! 

Happy Spring! 

Stacy and Christine

Bring the Magic of Faeries to your Garden

One of my aunts has been very interested in family genealogy for a while, tracing the family back for multiple generations in America and abroad.  She recently used a DNA testing service that measures ancestral history based on certain blood markers and received the results that she had a strong Scotch-Irish heritage. While this mirrored what I had always heard about my maternal grandmother, I had never given it much thought.  For some reason, talking to her this time, motivated me to look more deeply at who the "Scotch Irish" were - which is a fascinating story for another day. As usual, my Google searching led me on a tangent - this time into reading about the faerie history of Scotland and Ireland.  

Fairy Garden - Out 2 Lunch LLC

Although there have been faerie type legends across cultures, from Greek to Norse, to Roman, the Celtic and Gaelic stories seem to be the most predominant in our modern society.  Leprechauns, elves, goblins, among others, are a part of these faerie traditions.  For large parts of human history these stories were accepted as fact and were incorporated into many aspects of life.  Faerie legends often had their roots in ancient religions with a nature or animist base, but they did not die out when Christianity came to the British Isles.  In fact, often, the minor deities in these traditions were recast as faerie folk with the coming of Christianity.  During the 20th century, the faeries fell out of favor as science and reason rose to the forefront. 

In recent years however, faeries have seen a resurgence in popular American culture.  My daughters' preschool years were dominated by the fictional fairy Tinkerbell and her friends.  Although she was a sidekick character in the original works by Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie and the 1953 Disney Film, Tinkerbell became the lead in a series of animated films in over the last decade.  These films focused almost entirely on life in the faerie realm, and introduced countless children to this world.  My daughters had more fairy themed costumes and parties than I care to count! 

Fairy Door - Out 2 Lunch LLC

In addition, fairy festivals and fairy house contests have become popular across the country. Children and adults of all ages participate in these events each year; dressing up and creating tiny fairy homes.  Last summer, Christine and her children created a fairy garden in their yard - it was a great way to use some left over building materials, creating a visually interesting area and allowing the children to have their own garden space.  Pictures of their garden are throughout this article.  We also featured a fairy door tutorial in a prior blog post, found here, that can be attached to a tree as a hidden treasure. We hope you use our ideas as a springboard to follow your imagination, enjoy the spring weather and create some whimsy in your garden! 

Enjoy! 

Stacy 

Hydrangeas...Pass it on!

Today we're talking about plants, specifically hydrangeas; and the idea of "heirloom" plants, passing pieces of gardens on from one place to another and one person to another, or through generations of a family.  We've all heard of heirloom roses, but in my family, the tradition developing appears to be
heirloom hydrangeas.

If you've ever seen the old mop-head hydrangeas, huge bushes bursting with enormous round clusters of blue, pink, purple, or white blooms, you know what I'm talking about!  These plants are Gorgeous!  And here in the south, they are an absolute classic.

Hydrangea bush starting to bloom

Growing up in North Carolina, our house had a whole side of it lined with big blue mop-head hydrangeas.  They were stunning!  Hydrangeas are rather large bushes and they do spread and fill in an area over time.  When our family moved to Maryland in my teens, my parents dug up some of the hydrangea shoots/clusters and took them along.  They were planted at our new home where they continued to grow, thrive, and spread.  Many years later, the process was again repeated as my parents retired back to North Carolina, and brought some of those original hydrangeas with them.  Their yard is currently full of numerous varieties of hydrangea, including those original mop-heads from my growing up home.

The newly planted Hydrangea Row (as we're calling it)

This past summer, my husband and I started doing a lot of overdue renovation to our yard.  We decided we needed some large bushes (that could tolerate some shade) to line our back porch, and naturally my thoughts turned to hydrangeas.  Upon mentioning this to my family, they offered to thin some of theirs.  Free Plants?  Yes Please!!

We thinned mop-head hydrangeas from various parts of their yard, but I must admit I was most excited to get some "sticks" my father cut off those old original hydrangeas.  Now, when I say "sticks", that is exactly what they were!  Some of the hydrangeas we received were small clusters with roots, but these were literally sticks, cut off the plants.  I had heard that you can propagate hydrangeas that way, but never having tried it, was a little skeptical about their future growth and development.  I am certainly not a garden wizard.

Planted hydrangea shoots (sticks)

Never-the-less, I brought the plants, (and sticks) home, and set about getting them into their new location.  The plants with roots were immediately planted in the ground.  As for the "heirloom sticks" (as we now referred to them), I first trimmed or freshly cut the bottom parts.  Then they were wet with water, and dipped into rooting powder (or had powder (rather liberally) sprinkled on them depending how big the stem was).  After that, all the "sticks" were planted in the ground in a large cluster and watered - a lot.  Hydrangeas need lots of water, especially when new. 

For the next couple weeks I diligently checked my sticks - somewhat unconvinced of their survival, as I saw their sad, wilted leaves curl up and turn brown.

Then suddenly a few weeks (and some hurricane rains) later - buds!  

And a few weeks after that?
Leaves!! They grew Leaves!!

The heirloom hydran- geas might just make it to carry on; and maybe someday once they've grown and spread, I can continue the tradition and pass them on again! 

In the mean time, I can't wait to see them grow and fill in.  And maybe one day, my children will remember those large mop-head hydrangeas all along their back porch growing up.  Pass it on!


Cheers!
Christine