Dusty Miller

Being upfront and honest - I am no green thumb.  I've even been known to kill those little bamboo plants that just sit in water all day.

We actually wanted a house with as little growth as possible, but instead fell in love with a home with a fully landscaped yard. Just my luck.

So when the little white plants in the front of the house suddenly sprang up several feet and started blooming - I took it as my queue to figure out just what was going on outside the walls of our house.

The white ones were less than 6" when we moved in!

After a bit of browsing online, I'm guessing it's some form of Dusty Miller plant. But most say they are only supposed to be 12 inches high, so I'm at a loss.

In any case, I decided to trim them down before the neighbors start complaining.

Short.

Before.

After.  Should I trim the other white plant as well? I'm not sure what kind it is.

Before.

After.

I left some of the yellow flowers alone, since there was a little friend nearby that was interested in them.

But here's hoping I didn't kill all the Dusty's with my chop-chop action. Time will tell.

What's your method of identifying a plant?

Strawberry Card

Last Easter our church small group came up with a service project to involve their families and friends.

Since the project is coming up soon, I made a small flyer for everyone to email or give to their friends. And since you all are my friends, I can share with you too!

I'm still not so sure about the wording, it's not very clever or fun.  But I am excited about the little berries! I tried a new technique to make them look like they were "cut and pasted" on like a scrapbook.

It's basically a shape, with a pattern on top, and then a small shadow on the side. Simple and cute!

I don't know if you'd ever have the need for some weird strawberries, but feel free to snag these little guys if you want!

DIY Shoji Screen Headboard Part 2

In order to make our own queen-sized shoji screen head board, we cut some wood and gave it a few coats of wood stain.

Next, let's add the 3/8" wood inlay to the frames.

Though notching the small sticks inside would have been the sturdiest and best idea, we chose instead to use a combination of wood glue and super glue hot glue.  Whatever works, right?

Works.

Once the inlay was in place, Sak drilled some holes at the top and bottom of each frame and screwed them together.

And here is the finished frame:

Not too shabby!

Next, add some legs to the frame so that it will stand up behind the bed.  We used an arbitrary measurement to get the height we wanted, and screwed the legs to the frame.  In hindsight, I probably should have stained these too, but for now I'll leave them raw.

Now since real shoji paper is really expensive and much too fancy for any possible screw-ups on our part, I used a $3 alternative.  Any guesses?

It's pattern paper - super cheap and thin, yet still with that glorious fibrous look!

I won't feel so bad if I accidentally pop a hole in this stuff.

If you can't find pattern paper, interfacing would also work well - as long as you buy the non-fusible stuff! (The fusible interfacing might melt to whatever it's attached to on a hot day.)

I cut the paper into three segments, and we hot glued it to the backside of our frame.

However, going sideways was a really bad idea and we had a lot of puckering on the paper.  If you use this method, glue top to bottom, vertically!

All done!

The cost?

10 sticks of 3/8" wood (3 feet in length each) @ $0.98 = $9.80
Minwax wood stain = $7.21
28 feet of 3/4" wood @ $0.96/ft = $26.88
2 sticks of 3/4" wood (3 feet in length each) @ $1.50ish = $3.00
2.5 yards of patter paper @ 2.49/yd with a 50% coupon = $3.11

Total: $50


Note, this cost does not include glue, sand paper, screws, or other tools. It also doesn't include Bay Area sales tax, which is really high and sort of depressing. Is it a better deal than a $70 store-bought screen? It's debatable - but hey, mine is custom.

But now, the moment of truth - does it look better than the "before" picture??

Before.

After!

I'd like to think so!

Obviously, I made a few other changes to the room which I'll talk about later - but I think the headboard makes a huge difference! We'll see how it stands the test of time, but for now I'm just going to sit and stare and my "grown up bed" for a little bit.