Tillandsia Terrarium

Tillandsia have been sprouting up everywhere: in magazines, websites, and now stores! I've been secretly harboring a need-to-buy-crush since I first spied them way back when, so when Justin and I were out enjoying a beautifully-weathered evening a few fortnights ago (I'm reading Jane Eyre right now so pardon the ye olde English) and came across an abundance of them at The Mossy Twig, I had to snag some surprisingly affordable sprouts (six for $30!). Fortunately, for more than just us, this venture coincided with the recent engagement of our friends so I nabbed an extra to use in a quick'n'easy engagement present.

Tillandsia, better known as air plants, is "a genus of around 540 species in the Bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae), found in the forests, mountains, and deserts, of Central and South America, and Mexico and the southern United States in North America. The thinner-leafed varieties grow in rainy areas and the thick-leafed varieties in areas more subject to drought. Moisture and nutrients are gathered from the air (dust, decaying leaves and insect matter) through structures on the leaves called trichomes. Tillandsia species are epiphytes (also called aerophytes or air plants)—they normally grow without soil while attached to other plants. Epiphytes are not parasitic, depending on the host only for support." (Thank you Wikipedia.)

According to the associate at The Mossy Twig and proven over the past few weeks, to care for my air plants all I have to do is soak them in water once a week for about 10 minutes. Then before putting them back in their soil-less and water-less containers, shake them free of excess water. They do not do well with direct light but enjoy filtered light. If the ends begin to dry out, they aren't receiving enough water and if they appear soggy, they are getting too much water. Pretty simple, no?

Upon returning home from our weeknight out, I learned that not only was I drawn to these unique plants, our cats and their crunch-desiring appetites are too. Through a quick google search I found that "Tillandsias are NOT toxic to animals—although this does not mean your pet won't eat them, but they will survive the experience, your plant might not." Therefore I knew I was going to have to find containers that would completely enclose each plant, which wasn't a bad thing since my plan was to create little terrariums with them anyways.

I wasn't sure how many containers I would need but I did want them to be clear glass and clean-lined shapes so the next day's lunch hour was devoted to perusing my favorite closest thrift store where I found several containers that would do but only three that I left with—all for a whopping $6. After work I sidled up to our kitchen table with nothing more than the air plants, freshly washed glass containers, and some river rock that I have on hand for filling flower vases when needed.

(Look at Harley trying to sneak up and attack.)

In just a few minutes, I had arranged several terrariums. I even had to dig in my decor cabinet to pull out two more vases because when I was shopping for containers my memory underestimated the size of the plants and I clearly needed more.

First I laid down a layer of river rock, then I placed the air plant inside and called it a day! Nothing could have been easier and look at how simply beautiful they are.

To add another layer of texture, I tossed in some twigs I picked up outside my office. I think they especially work well with this leggy number.

So for a grand total of $36, I created five tillandsia terrariums, making each arrangement $6. This definitely is a winning project.

Budget Bouquets 2

For my second pass on deliberate bouquet arranging I picked up another bundle of $4 blooms from our local Aldi store.

Because of the current season, I chose a bundle with autumn colors.

I decided this time to first take stock of the options in my inventory and divide and conquer.

In addition to practicing and improving my floral arranging skills, I also want to expand my foliage knowledge so I made a point to learn the buds this time. From left to right we have: daisies, solidago, one type of chrysanthemums, ruscus, another type of chrysanthemums, and alstroemeria.

Following my natural tendencies to group like-colored flowers, I filled two cylindrical vases with river stones. In one vase I clustered the fuchsia daisies and the other one got the yellow chrysanthemums.

In my opinion alstroemeria is a very frilly, romantic flower which can also look great in a small bunch, but looking at what else remained from my selection I decided to include one of the large chrysanthemums and the stem of solidago filler.

The final vase received the second large chrysanthemum flower and the tall ruscus stem.

From the $4 bunch, I worked out 4 fabulous arrangements. I placed the mixed bouquet in the green vase on the desk in our main foyer. The two monochromatic arrangements stayed on our island but I put our hand-carved, gnarled-wood fruit bowl in between them. The remaining white vase with the modern arrangement went upstairs and set on my vanity. Stretching the budget bouquet to four arrangements is great, but being able to place the arrangements around the house makes me smile even bigger.

Budget Bouquets 1

One of my must-read-every-single-day blogs posts regularly about a cute gift her hubby gave her for Christmas a year or two ago, which they titled Budget Blooms. I've been reading their blog (Young House Love) for sometime now and always think how I would love to experiment more with flowers and arranging flowers. I am by no means a flower artist, but I do own many vases and vessels that I like to dust off every now and again when I receive some blooms from my sweet hubby (or pick them up for myself). So, recently I have decided that I would like to either teach myself or learn-by-practicing how to arrange flowers. Additionally, to piggy back on YHL's Budget Blooms, I'm going to try to stick with bouquest that cost less than $10 a bunch and see how far I can stretch them. Here's my first go at it.

During a typical grocery stop, I picked up a flower bouquet from my local Aldi's store for $3.99. Once home, I took out many vases and jars and strategized. I enjoy arrangements that are either extremely simple, with 2-3 types of flowers, or extremely complex and large. Since I had a small inventory to work with, I determined I could create 5 pieces with my $4 bouquet.

I love having fresh flowers scattered around the house so once I had these babies in vases, I placed one arrangement on a desk around the front entry of our home.

This one on my vanity in our bedroom.

And I lined these three up on our kitchen island

So, for my first attempt at arranging budget bouquets, I think I did a pretty fair job. However, if there are any florists out there who see where I could improve or want to offer me some free advice or tips, please let me know. I'm dying to learn how you work your magic!

Rethink Tulips

The Friday before Valentine's Day, I got home and found two bouquets of tulips from my loving husband. He beamed at me from the kitchen island and wished me an early Happy Valentine's Day and bragged about how he got a deal because the roses were way overpriced because of the holiday. He even bragged about being able to fill two vases with one bunch, which made me beam right back at him.

Arrangement 1

Arrangement 2

A few days later, when I saw two vibrant red flowers blooming, I flexed my creative muscle and created this stunner (my third arrangement).

I love the bloom's tropical and exotic look and think they look simply modern paired in this asymmetrical vase filled with black river rocks. It only took me a couple minutes and, best of all, was completely gratis thanks to my dashing hubby.

If you want to copy this trick, it's super simple. To invert a tulip bloom, all you do is hold both sides of one petal and gently push the middle out until it "pops".

The petals on a tulip naturally have two layers that barely overlap on the edges, so flip the petals that are on the outside layer first and then flip the inside layer.

Special note: Make sure you pop the petals gently otherwise the petal could rip or you could pull the petal off the bloom altogether.

Once you've flipped each petal, you'll have a completely reinvented tulip.

For those of you who have stealth eyes and noticed the freshly painted chocolate brown wall by our stairs, yes, that means the paint fairies struck again! So make sure you stay tuned! And anyone else who has a cool trick they do to their flowers to give them a inventive look please share, I'm always looking for new ways to spruce up my blooms.