Petals in Pots

A few weeks ago, I collected some second hand pots. Each were ceramic and beautifully painted. Three of them were bought as a set, and one collected on its own. 

They stayed like this for a while until one day it felt warm enough to plant and I had a few hours. So I went to the garden centre to buy some glorious flowers to fill the pots. I could not believe my eyes there. I wanted all of the flowers. After spotting some begonias that I had to put on my cart, I went to the annuals section of the greenhouses, looking for full or partial sun. There I perused the aisles, thinking about the combinations of colours I wanted together (a pink theme for one, a purple theme for another) and trying to find a variety of shades of green leaves for interest and different heights for intrigue.

One of my daughter's wanted to plant that afternoon so we set to work, after school. We started with a base layer of soil in each, out of four bags, we surprisingly used about a bag and a half to fill all of the containers. Next we organized which plants went in which pot by setting them on top of the soil. Depending on the size of the pot, we decided how many plants each would fit. Then we roughly picked a tall, medium and flowing flower for each, keeping in mind what colours and styles went together well. I asked my daughter which she wanted to start to plant with (and was thinking maybe the biggest). She thought the smallest and I decided that would be a better idea. To ramp up with technique as we learned, so we agreed. We planted two pots that night.

Here are the first two of the night!

Todays goal became finish the planters. Which we got to in the afternoon. Both of my children wanted to help so we all set to work and planted the rest. I didn't get any photos because sometimes you are just enjoying the moments though here is the finished result:

We watered them after planting of course and rewatered the pots from yesterday so everything had a refreshing drink. Mission accomplished. They are now adorning our front entrance. I have left the info in each to refer to later. Here's hoping they all survive alright! 

Painting Pals

My sister and I are taking an art class together. Today was the first lesson. It's an oil painting class and I haven't oil painted since I was taking an art class in grade 7.. maybe once or twice since.

The instructor brought some pictures that we could paint and I chose a blue mountain scene. It took the whole class for me to lay down the colours on the page. I'll add more details next week and probably bring another canvas.

I learned that I can basically start anywhere but the instructor likes to paint the shadows first. She recommended starting with the background too. So I basically started at the top and worked down. The hardest part was starting, honestly. I added terpentine to the paint to thin it out a bit.

Another thing I learned is that French ultramarine and raw umber make black. Which is a trick I ended up using a lot because I had some dark blues to paint.

Here's my painting (bottom) plus the original print (top):

Gardening

 I've been gardening in the backyard lately and having fun. We are planning for a new patio and I have gotten some help from my mom and sister (and nephew), plus my own family. 

There's something about hosting and spending time outdoors that I love. I tried to find an alternative to Home Sense today that is Canadian but alas it is a challenge. So I went to home sense and picked up a tray so that I could bring all of our dishes outside for dinner. Thanks to a dear friend, we have a table back there, as they gave us their old one.

The plan is to move the shed to the back of the yard so that the patio can be a bit larger. I've done the measurements and math and got a quote on some patio stones that my husband and I picked out together. I made a foundation at the back of the yard for the current shed to move to. Next we need to empty the shed out (it mostly has my gardening tools) and attach pieces of wood onto the sides so that we can move it. 

Here are some pictures, in reverse order: