My "Accidental" Green Thumb.

I've always had a few houseplants...but my spider plants have gotten out of control!

And I honestly can't seem to resist the temptation to propagate them continuously.

HOW to PROPAGATE SPIDER PLANTS 

To Propagate, just trim the babies off once they've started to spout little nubs 

like shown in the picture below. 

I like put my babies into old shot glasses to root in a sunny window. But you can also put them directly into a small pot of soil. I just like to watch the roots grow until they fill up the glass. 

Once the little glasses are filled with roots, I then combine them into a small starter pot. 

However, I don't need another large plant and my mom lives too far away to share,

 so I'm thinking of experimenting with this new set of babies above. One, I'd like to have three  smaller plants to put in a hanging container and I want to teach myself how to make a macrame plant hanger. (Stay tuned!)

 

THEY LIKE to BE a "LITTLE" ROOT-BOUND

Spider plants prefer to be in a tight pot. THIS plant to the left below was obviously in desperate need of a transplanting.  My mom and I have noticed they seem to sprout the most babies (spiderettes) when they are like this. My mom and I enjoy texting each other our plant's progress especially when they sprout their first "baby". 

This plant below my mom and I refer to as the "mother" plant as most of the plants above have been rooted from her. My mom started this plant years ago from my original spider plant whom we at the time called the "grandmother" plant....but after many, many years of propagating, she got old and her root ball unhealthy. 

PLANT CARE TIPS:

They grow best in the natural sunlight of a morning window...

...and only require a weekly deep watering (Depending where you live this could be more or less.) During our cold winter months here in Eastern Oregon, the shower will do as a place for this deep watering, but in the summer months they love to drain in a sunny spot on the patio.  

Spider plants have a dense, fleshy cluster of tubers as their root system.  So I water when the soil is dry to touch. When transplanting, I will give the plant a deep watering as shown below, then increase the pot size so your plant sits in the center of the new pot with about a two inch perimeter of new soil.
Not too big, but enough room to grown and expand. We apply fertilizer spikes every two months.

 I myself, having never been a gardener, am surprised at my own "green thumb" as these little guys have grown into becoming a part of my own household routines over the years.  So if you've never tried a houseplant, yet would like to try, I highly recommend these hardy Spider plants.

With SMILES! Val

 

Such a mild Winter....

...that when I few inches of snow arrive, it just makes my day!

What are one of your Winter pleasures?

With SMILES! Val

A Garland of Spools!

Wondering what to do with your old spools of thread??

Most of mine are saved from my mother's sewing box and are over fifty years old. They are made of wood, plastic and even gold foiled. Tired of the old bucketful sitting around, I thread them onto a sturdy piece of wire.

I added old beads made of wood and glass...

 ...accenting between each, with large buttons, colorful ribbon and scraps of fabric.

Altogether they make for a very cute and colorful garland don't ya think!

 Curious if you've done something crafty with an old bucket of spools??

With SMILES! Val

New Year=New Calendars!!

What's your calendar habit?

One of my favorite New Year's project is to update all my new calendars with birthday's, anniversaries and special events. I pour myself a warm cup of tea, put on a sappy, easy to watch movie, pull out my huge notebook of Mrs. Grossman's stickers leftover from my scrapbooking days and get decorating!  

We have one kitchen calendar:

And I have a personal calendar/planner. 

This always seems to take on a different form each year, having yet to find a system that works for me. I want all my "stuff" together in one place. Thus, after spending a couple of week's reading and researching on Pinterest and U-Tube, I'm going to give a Traveler's Notebook a try this year:

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Since this is something I'm going to use everyday, I splurged and treated myself to a beautiful leather notebook from Chic Sparrow. I ordered the Deluxe Tea House Earl Grey in a WIDE size.  I found a little Etsy shoppe called the: yellowpaperhouse.com that had exactly the inserts I was looking for. 

I ordered all of mine in the Cahier size. 

 Here's the notebooks I decorated and titles I set up:

The top three are my Monthly Calendar, Weekly Reflection and
Week at a Glance notebooks.

The list lover in me is already enjoying this layout and  

and I'm planning to include a picture of the week:

My three other notebooks include: 

My Food Tracker

Project Sketch Book

and finally this one I labeled "PLAY":

It's called a Junque Journal and inside is a fun mixture of assorted papers to experiment with...mixed media, watercolor, black paper, craft and colored cardstock also lots of paper in an assortment of grid, lined and dot!! 

It's my intention to grow in my creative self expression this year. I think I'm all set. Because:

“Life’s not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it’s about doing, being and becoming.”

 – Mike Dooley, author, speaker, and entrepreneur

With SMILES! Val

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#1 of 20 in 2020: An Exquisite Back-County Gig!

Happy New Year!

Our New Year found me already checking item number one off my 20 in 2020 list:

An Exquisite Back-Country Gig!

Hubby and I packed our Winter gear and headed to the mountains.

We stayed in a cozy AIR B&B next to the Payette River:

We went for Winter walks during the day and enjoyed brunch at a cozy restaurant.

Once evening came, we strapped on our snow shoes and began a mile and half hike along a Tiki torch lite path to a Yurt in the mountains of Jug Mountain Ranch, McCall. I can't even explain how refreshing this was. The snow was soft and fluffy and continued to fall in big flakes the entire night.

We enjoyed an evening of meeting new friends....

 ...over a festive, candle lit, six course meal of the most delicious food.

 Our party hats were so fun and though a challenge to actually keep balanced upon our heads, 

we had many laughs as we tried! We were all quite a site as we snow-shoed out at 12:30am.

The New Year, like many of you I'm sure, always finds us reflective and filled with  curiosity about what the New Year has in store...as it is always full of surprises isn't it! I know for us, we'll continue to be intentional about celebrating our relationship and this wonderful life we have together. 

How about you? What is something you are planning to intentionally celebrate in 2020?
With SMILES! Val