A boat to a garden

Some of the girls and I were off and decided to take a jaunt to Kew Gardens. We decided to do it in style by getting a boat from Westminster Pier. It was lovely.

Because of time constraints we probably only saw a quarter of the garden, I plan to go again at some point and aim to get there earlier. Here is a selection of my few photies I took.

Things spotted online

Lately I have got a little addicted to Pinterest. I like it for finding ideas and inspiration. It is particularly useful when the pretty pictures leads to links of blogs with tutorials, but frustrating when it leads to nothing. Here are some of my favourites:

These would make beautiful centrepieces at a wedding or something similar but the website didn't lead to anything useful. The picture itself though is pretty.

These little teacups with their succulents are gorgeous but something so breakable would be a mistake in my flat with the three monsters.

link

I love the use of light and plants here and the website it's linked to provides the tutorial on how to do it yourself. Perhaps after the move I might give it a go:

link

The paper designs used for this paper chandelier is so fresh and works well together. Would perk up any dull room! Reminds me of an old flatmate as it is so her style. Wow! Just checked out the original website and this baby would set you back over £300, think I would rather give it a bash myself!:

link

I wish I had found this cake sooner as I would love to have attempted something like this for James' birthday! Although I have no idea how they managed the texture! Cake decorating is so not my thing but I would love to produce something like this for someone I loved! How impressed would you be if you got this monster!

link

I love this embroiderd elephant from Skunkboy Creatures whose blog I love and I am also a little jealous of! 

link

And of course I need to finish off this little post with some of my fave crochet gems I have found.

link

link

link

link

(This one was linked to a website that must not exist any more, it was just an advert for a domain name).

So these are a few of the little gems I have come across in my boredom and obsession with Pinterest. I just hope I use inspiration from these guys to actually make something rather than waste hours away just looking at the amazing things others do! Anyway, best be off, got a long line of nightshifts coming my way and I guess I better get into nightshift mode to survive them. Have a good weekend! I sincerely hope the weather is dull so that I am not sleeping through the nicest weather we have had so far - I bet that's what will happen too!

Kirst xx

Green Fingers

I have always had the feeling that I should be good at growing things, that plants and flowers should thrive under my care and attention. Sadly this is all but a day dream. I constantly kill plants; forget about them; neglect to water them and generally have no clue when it comes to garden magic. No, I cannot claim the title of nature goddess!

But I keep trying...

There is always the chance that by a twist of fate I will keep things alive (despite my cats trying to sabotage my plan) and perhaps even help buds flourish.

Here is some photo's of my balcony before we went out and got loads of plants and put some effort into it. At this point James was using it as a Bike station, where he could do whatever it is he does to them, making loads of mess in the process and failing to tidy it up.

Look at this poor dead thing - I think it used to be some sort of plant!

More garden zombies:

With a little help from the messy one we managed to actually grow some things and turn it into this:

Looking much better! Still a bit to go though, the window sills need a wee touch up because James has spray painted them in error whilst doing his model cars. A little screen at the back would be good too, to hide the compost, watering can etc! Or perhaps following the tutorial on lifeonthebalcony to make a pallet garden will be a great way to hide the bits and bobs. Here's a picture of this fab idea:

I wish that some day my balcony or garden looks as sweet as this and I can say that it was all me :)

I have actually grown food! Well almost :)

A wee cheaky marigold trying to say hi

Sunflowers are doing well too.

I had this basket from a gift James' mum gave me. It originally contained other plants which I killed. The silver thyme looks pretty cute in here. I hope it doesn't fall off the windowsill :-s

This thyme tried to die on me already. Most of it went very twig like. I assaulted it with miracle grow and some green has re-appeared. Success in my book!

I have also tried to grow things in the flat. It is a constant fight to keep the cats from munching on them. I spotted this little bucket in Hobbycraft and thought it would look cute with some basil growing from it. No drainage though so have to be uber careful not to over-water.

Took some cuttings from the bush on the balcony when I trimmed it up, lets see if the tiny buds will open sitting in my Australia shot glass :)

In the plastic pig mug I'm trying to grow chives, I reckon it will look like mad hair if it works. Not that pigs have green hair.

I recently purchased this book from Amazon. The projects are so cute and hopefully having plants in jars will prevent the cats from munching on them. As soon as I have some spare funds I can't wait to get started.

Perhaps I'm finally getting a green pinkie at least!

Kirst

x