1. Garden Therapy Handmade Shop Opens!  

Opening the new Etsy shop to sell a hand crafted line of floral throw pillows was by far the most exciting thing that happened this year.   The Studio Blooms line of throw pillows started from flowers grown in my gardens which were then photographed in macro, blown up to mammoth proportions, and printed on fabric using the giclée technique.  Each pillow represents a piece of artwork for your home,  yet  artwork you can cuddle up to and read a book on.  Every step was carefully (obsessively?) planned out and executed, so the final cushions are truly show-stopping.

A labour of love that took well over a year and a half to launch, it’s been a great success so far and I have very high hopes for 2012.  Look for new designs, new products, and new locations where you can buy Garden Therapy Handmade in the coming year.  And remember, each design is a limited edition so please snap them up before they are all gone.

2. Free Printable Canning Labels  

It seems a shame to put so much love into a a jam, jelly, or pickle to then just label the lid with a sharpie.  These printable canning labels are also meant for the canning jar’s snap lid so it get’s recycled when the lid does with no sticky glue to soak off the glass jar.  Oh, and did I mention they are free?  Yup, just download and print ‘em on label paper.  You’re welcome.

3. The Natural Skincare Series

While making bath and body care products isn’t technically gardening, these projects all honour nature by using only natural essential oils, colourings, and other ingredients.  Tutorials for handmade cold process soap, bath bombs, sugar scrub, bath salts, and lip balm were incredibly popular and made amazing holiday gifts.  Good news, there will be more recipes and tutorials to come in 2012!

4. Candles in Many Shapes and Forms

The first candles to be posted were these Citronella CAN-dles.  And while no bugs bit me while they were alight, I was bitten by the candle-making bug!  Soy and beeswax jar candles followed which were beautiful in their simplicity.  The real star of the show, however, was the beeswax flower jar candles, where a 3-dimensional beeswax surprise hides under the lid of these.  A perfect holiday gift, although so far, those who have them have not wanted to burn them and watch the flower melt away.  To that I say, light away and make more…and here’s how.

5. The Grinch Tree, Whoville Party and & Holiday Decorations

Speaking of the holidays, the Grinch tree was the singing Who’s that warmed up my Grinchy demeanour this holiday season.  Feeling a little blue and growly before the holidays, I didn’t want to put up a Christmas tree this year.  The compromise was to decorate a tree that mirrored the feelings, and the Grinch tree was born.  And just like the movie, my spirits warmed up and the true meaning of Christmas was revealed: to make festive holiday planters and decorate the house and throw a Whoville-themed party!  Thanks, Grinchy.

6. Wreath Making

There is always a wreath on the Garden Therapy front door, and maybe another few scattered around the garden.  Tutorials for Making an Evergreen Wreath, Lavender Wreath, and Halloween Hop Wreath were easy and fun projects that didn’t cost a penny.  Love!

7. Halloween Planters, Jack-o-Planterns, & Rock Spiders

Now that Hop Wreath wasn’t the only Halloween decoration this year.  Scaaary planters with severed hands, witch’s brooms, and kale (OK, not too scary) were unique natural decorations.  But nothing was as fun as the Jack-o-planterns and DIY Rock Spiders (sorry, Elisabeth, I know they freak you out).

8. Concrete Garden Projects

Being lucky enough to receive a review copy of Concrete Garden Projects: Easy & Inexpensive Containers, Furniture, Water Features & More meant a fun afternoon making modern planters and leaf-print stepping stones.  I’m totally addicted now!

9. Jammin’ Recipes

Not as much canning happened as normally does, but there were still some fantastic recipes this year: Winter Marmalade, Black & Blue Berry Jam, and Bourbon Cranberry Sauce topped the list.

10. Tangerine Tango

The final highlight of 2011 was the announcement of Pantone’s 2012 colour of the year, Tangerine Tango which will undoubtedly be a popular colour in fashion and home décor (already seeing it everywhere!) but there are also some pretty cool plants that can spice up your garden.  Also cool, a set of Studio Blooms pillows rocks out in Tangerine Tango.  Hmmm.  That is a really great way to start of 2012.

Thank you to everyone who has visited in 2011 and I so very much hope that you will be back this year.  Happy gardening!

I’ll be linking this post to these wonderful parties.

You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch / You’re the king of sinful sots / Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots / Mr. Gri-inch! / You’re a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce! 

But then and idea hit me.  Like a vision appearing before me it was suddenly clear as day: a Grinch Tree.  A tree design that celebrates not just the joy and wonder of the season, but celebrates the difficulties and challenges as well.

If those little Who’s could sing their hearts out in tough times, then so can I.  I bought a potted cedar and rigged it up by pruning and re-attaching some branches so that the ball on the top would hang over just right.  The perfect green ball and ribbon were easy to find.

The decorations are a combination of simple white lights, wooden ornaments, felted acorns, and kitchy silver disco balls.  And the base is wrapped simply in burlap with a big green bow.

Then the darnedest thing happened.  As I designed and decorated the Grinch Tree, I felt a little more festive.  I got to work on my Christmas presents, decorated the front entryway, made wreaths with the neighbourhood gals, and whipped up some festive holiday planters.  Heck, we even put up some lights outside for the first time EVER.

Humph.  Who knew that just one little cedar shrub, rigged to mimic the iconic cartoon, would bring such holiday cheer?

Perhaps the dog knew.  He seems to embody Mr. Grinch, at least in appearance.  Maybe I should ask him.

I’m linking to these parties this week.  Thanks for visiting!

But a harvest?  Why, yes!  Flowers were grown in our home garden, photographed in studio, then enlarged to mammoth proportions in order to showcase the magnificent details of each individual flower.  The photographs were digitally designed to be giclee printed on a beautiful linen-cotton canvas and sewn to perfection.  Little details like expensive hidden zipper closures and feather/down inserts were taking into account.  Then each one was hand washed, dried, and ironed, ready to go to it’s new home.

Was it easy?  Um, well, no.  There were months of prints and reprints to get just the right detail to each inch of fabric.  There was wash testing.  There was cuddle testing (that was a particularly tough one).  In the end, it was so worth it.  We think these soft but durable pillows are the perfect art for the home.  We hope that you agree!

Please visit the Garden Therapy Handmade store to check out all the designs, 9 in total.  Favoriting, liking, tweeting, or any other social media sharing would be greatly, greatly appreciated and happily returned in kind.  And thank you for your support.

The projects in the book are great starting points for concrete projects that will suit many different garden styles.  In addition to modern planters we made some leaf print stepping stones: some in moulds with pressed leaves and one where we used a giant hydrangea leaf as the mould.

The authors, Malin Nilsson and Camilla Arvidsson, layed out each project in six simple steps which were easy to follow, especially easy given each step has a beautiful photograph.  The best part was the ease and speed at which you can create concrete projects; we had seven planters and seven stepping stones curing within an hour of arriving home with the materials.

For the planters, we used a variety of different sized plastic tubs that we collected.  I filled my three square tubs with concrete and used round tubs and cups for the holes. I then filled the some of the larger hole-spacers with concrete and a small cup so each would produce yet another planter.

I particularly loved how this one square planter turned out when planted with sedum.

The stepping stones were also formed in plastic tubs, but larger, shallower ones.  We pressed interesting leaves found around the garden (lady’s mantle, Japanese maple, and hosta) and weighted them with small stones.  When un-moulded, they have depressions that will hopefully fill with little pools of water or perhaps moss.

Near the end, we took the left over concrete and piled it in a mound on top of a giant hosta leaf.  When nestled into the shade garden it is right at home with the hosta who donated a leaf for the mould.

It was so surprisingly easy to make stepping stones that I’m happy to say that my days of hunting for rocks in rivers and back alleys might just be over (insert grinning husband here).   I would certainly recommend the book to anyone looking for a fun and creative way to spend a sunny afternoon in the garden.

DIY: This easy project can be simply done in an hour if you have some cans, some wax (old candle nubs will do just fine), and some citronella oil. The most difficult part is finding the right wick for your wax. There is a science to this, so it is best to visit your local candle or craft store and ask for the right combination for proper melting. I like a large pool of wax and a good amount of citronella aroma so in the larger cans I added 2 or 3 wicks.

So far it is working perfectly. Enjoying the garden in the evening without swatting those pests away is a lovely thing.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Proposal #1:  Write about all the stuff I do.  I take classes, learn new art forms, invent recipes, make things from scratch (like soap), learn how to grow stuff, etc, etc, etc.   I need to write this all down somewhere and perhaps I’ll slow down enough to actually think about what I’m working on.

I think that staying still long enough to write down what I’m working on will help me also corral the ideas stampeding in my head.  This brings me to another proposal:

Proposal #2:  Connect Four.  Have you ever played the board game Connect Four?  The idea of the game is to build a line of four tiles on the board before your opponent does.  I have a boatload (Titanic maybe?) of projects that have three tiles all lined up just waiting for that fourth (aka: the finishing touch).  The plan is to start digging out projects once a week and FINISHING THEM.  What I’ll do with them is another story, but I do see an Etsy site in my near future.

That’s it.  Two proposals.  And I started this week.  Progress so far?  Well, it’s been a bit like trying to catch a hyper, slippery fish.  I fight against sitting at the computer (it’s sunny out/I should go to the park, I need to make cupcakes/the shower is on Friday, I feel like ginger ale/I bet I can make some from this gingerroot) and I’m not overly eager to pull out 3-tiled projects (where’s the excitement? The drama of something new?) 

I did start to catch a few fish though.  I’m sitting here writing now and I’ve been getting back in touch with some of my abandoned projects.  Not a bad start and it’s so very interesting to me how difficult it is to channel my focus.  I’m looking forward to more self-discovery as I work through these proposals because after all, I did enjoy writing this when I finally sat down.  Perhaps a little discipline and structure will help this slippery fish.