Gardening With (but without) Nana

Yes, more NANA! 

Full disclosure: None of these lovely ladies are my loveliest Nana.

I'd mentioned before about Nana moving closer to the rest of the family and cramming in quality time. Well, having a Nana that is a Master Gardener visit your finnicky yarden = lots of mental notes! 

Turns out we gots the crappy soil and we should pull back all the mulch this fall, work in the good dirt, and stand in delight in the spring. Just that "simple." She's full of good information, this is just the tip of iceberg. 

However, the bit-of-info I'm most recently excited about is rooting hydrangeas. While in Litchfield Beach this year, Aunt Heather's bubblegum pink hydrangeas were blooming and even if I couldn't transplant them via cuttings, I at least wanted to enjoy a few blooms at home for a few more days.

I'm glad I remembered to ask Nana about transplanting them because it turns out it's supposed to be pretty easy!

F Words: Figs & Fun!

Nana is the best nana I've ever had. Grown-up-Jessica especially agrees. Before she (Nana, not G-U-Jess) left recently to move closer to the rest of our family, we crammed in a lot of quality time! And while I think we might argue about who received the better end of the deal, I know I did :) 

Almost a month ago Josh and I went over to alleviate her fig problem and made a couple of delightful dishes with them, and froze the remaining THREE pounds of figs. Yes. 3 pounds - and that was being picky and throwing out the barely-over ripe fruit. So much yum growing on that tree!

Josh's first recipe request was fig newtons. The recipe I found on MyWholeFoodLife.com indicated they would not be as sweet as packaged Fig Newtons but I tried them anyways, knowing Josh would prefer them sweet. 

Wedding Craft: Gold Polka Dotted Vases

Shortly after getting myself engaged I came across these 9" tall cylinder vases at Crate&Barrel. Sooo I bought ten and they sat in the box in our room until this week. 

I considered wrapping them in some leftover lace with floating candles but I wasn't totally sold on the idea; I'm glad I waited until I found the inspiration for my final product via StyleMePretty.

This process was pretty straightforward, as usual. I used the same gold paint I used on the ring box and "&" and a pack of variable sized round sponge ...brushes? sticks? thingies? that I found at Michael's.  I also grabbed an "artist's palette" (that red bowl there) & a paper towel for when I spilled a bit of the obligatory glass of wine (spoiler alert - I didn't spill any!). And the other obligatory-tool-whilst-crafting: Arrested Development. 

Before:

The After, with romantic-lighting:

I started at the bottom of each vase using my largest round sponge and then polka-dotted about 1/3rd of the way up. Then I used the next two smaller sizes in the same manner, overlapping the sizes slightly. A sweet fade, if you will. Go ahead and click that link, you'll be delighted by it. Also, let me know if you were surprised by the result...

Initially I wasn't digging the texture the sponge left but it kind of reminds me of a lacy zinnia flower and I was ready to be done so I left it as you see it. AND it only took seven episodes of AD to get 10 of them done! 

I grabbed and lit just the two 3x3" candles to see how the light reflected off another vase and I just adore the look! It's just what I imagined - a little bit of vintage, whimsy, and mod!