Week 11

Putting my just do it to work is harder and easier than I thought.  While I am feeling better overall, my health is still not perfect.  I have found that if I sit down, it is SO hard to get back up and keep pushing.  However I did do a couple of things this week that I am proud of because I did push through and the blessing of seeing the finished product is wonderful.

I recently received a couple new plants from a friend and while they came in cute painted pots, the pots did not match my preferred color scheme.  Terra cotta, blue or white is my container rule, more so to help me control my pot collecting habit than the fact that I only like those colors.  I had popped them out of their original pots, which I sent back to my friend, and set them in their new pots to be transplanted.  And they sat on my potting bench for far longer than I would like to admit.  Yes, I watered them but they still needed to be finished.

Part of my procrastination was due to the fact this was a disaster.

Pull up the big girl panties and let’s go.  First I had to clean up the mess, THEN I got to play with plants.  I actually had several plant projects sitting on the bench and I tackled all of them.  First up was the beautiful variegated spider plant.  It was very pot bound which isn’t a horrible thing as they won’t throw babies until they are a tad crowded.

Healthy, happy roots are ready to go into a pot the next size up.

Detangling the roots is a gentle / mean process in that I try to not break them up but sometimes you can’t help it.  I kept looking for the pot shard that most people put in the bottom of a pot over the hole to help keep the soil from draining out but I couldn’t find one.  I almost thought that perhaps my friend didn’t do this when I saw this.

The plant shard was almost an inch up in the roots.

After happily potting, propagating and pruning, I had a nice collection of plants in new pots and a tidy potting bench.  This makes me smile.

It is amazing to me how a plant seems to grow when you put it into a bigger pot.

Baby shower present for one of my sisters for her nursery. 
I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog so it will still be a surprise.

 

My Schlumbergera bridgesii cuttings.  Otherwise known as a Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus.

While the above was needed indoor gardening upkeep, my 52 week project this week was scrapbooking with my neighbor.  She is a young lady who had had to make some hard decisions in her life and is now living with her mom next door and working on herself and her relationship with the Heavenly Father.  I am really proud of her. 

I packed up my supplies and took my Grateful memories book over to put together the January and February pages.  We talked while I put together my pages and she worked on organizing her scrapbook supplies.  When we were planning our get together, she described a big pile of supplies that she was going to work on.  Sweetheart that is NOT a big pile…  It made me laugh to myself when I saw her small tidy pile.

Starting a new year in the Grateful Book.

My page is pretty simple with ribbon and brads on solid cardstock.  I did fill out a couple more snowflakes to finish it off as there are so many things to be grateful for. 

January and February are done!

And now to finish off this week with a couple of orchid pictures as two of my collection of six plants are blooming.  They have a lot more buds to open yet but they are still gorgeous!

Rooper’s Orchid, a gift from my sister-in-law after the death of my dog Rooper who lived with us for 15 years.

This orchid was given to me by my mother-in-law after it stopped blooming last year.  NEVER throw away orchids!
They’ll bloom again!  If you don’t want to mess with it, just give it to me, I’ll take care of it.