Styling With Dried Hydrangeas: 3 Ways

Hi Friends! If you're living in the Northern Hemisphere and have any Hydrangea plants growing in your garden, now is the time to plan for the autumn harvesting and drying of their flowers.

Dried Hydrangea flowers will last for years and are a lovely way to add some interest, texture and color to your home.

Today I'm sharing three ways that I'm displaying dried Hydrangeas in my home; bedroom, dining room and kitchen areas.

In my bedroom, above, I've placed cut stems into a thrifted Pier One wall pocket.

And in my dining area, below, I've placed them into milk glass pedestal bowls.

Simply cut the stems completely off and place into the bowl. Faff with them until you achieve a pleasing ball shape.

Lastly, I placed a bunch in a colorful blue and white Chinese vase in my kitchen.

If you're interested in learning about drying Hydrangea flowers, I wrote about the basic steps in DIY: Drying Garden Hydrangeas for Wreath Making. And if you would like to know more about making a decorative wreath with dried Hydrangeas, check out DIY: Autumn Hydrangea Wreath.

Thanks for looking and bye for now.

Summer Garden: Flowers, Fruit and a Flying Fish!

Hello friends. It has been a very long time since I shared a peek into what's growing in my small backyard garden.

Have you ever tried to grow roses? They can be very challenging. I did not have very good luck with the bare root variety that I bought at a local discount box store so instead purchased two 'Easy Elegance' rose bushes from Grays Garden Centers. Neither have been a disappointment. Both are bushy, have lots of green leaves and an abundance of flowers. The 'Calypso', above, is one of them. It sprouts lovely dark pink buds that change to light pink blooms and as they age they turn a subtle blush pink.

The dahlia above was a surprise this year. I picked up one of those six packs of annuals last summer at The Kiva Grocery store. And out of the six one decided to come back for another visit this year. How lovely!

We have three mature blueberry bushes and a couple of younger ones also. They were just twigs when we first planted them so it feels very special to be able to gather up a good amount of berries for scones, pancakes and snacking.

Lilies are a must if you love having fragrant flowers in your garden. Their sweet smell is intoxicating and relaxing on a warm summer night.

The lilies shown here are the Van Zyverden brand which I have had a good amount of success with over the years.

This white lily is from a variety pack called 'Lily Oriental Mix'. Its yellow pollen has fallen from the stamens, creating stains on the petals. Watch out! If you dip your nose into the flower to smell it you might get pollen stains on your nose!

And isn't this 'Triumphator' with its white and pink color scheme delightful?

The 'Oriental Summer Wine' lily is quite the bright pink don't you agree? I've seen an orange variety of lily with the same spot pattern and they are called tiger lily.

So do you prefer pink or blue hydrangeas? I prefer blue however there is a bit of effort required to achieve this. Maybe you've heard of it already but the idea is to lower the soil pH by applying a blueing formula. I use the Growmore brand. The link provided is the best price I found at about $10.00 for a two pound container. Here's an example of my results.

I started the blueing process late this season yet the results might be the best I've ever had.

If you have seen dried hydrangeas, either stems or wreaths, in the florist shop or at an upscale grocery store you know how expensive they can be. But did you know you can dry your garden hydrangeas yourself?

If you're interested in this, I wrote two blog posts. In DIY: Drying Garden Hydrangeas for Wreath Making I explain what to look for when preparing to cut your flowers and tips about the preservation process. And in DIY: Autumn Hydrangea Wreath I give step-by-step instructions on how to make a dried hydrangea wreath using a grapevine wreath purchased at the craft store.

And at last here is our new flying fish!

It's silly but everyone in our family loves having a carp windsock in the backyard. The first one we had was green and flew for many summer seasons until it got wind-ripped and could fly no longer. I found this new one at Eugene Toy & Hobby.

May our new blue flying carp merrily dip, spin and twirl for many summers to come!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and see you again soon.
 

Happy Autumn

Hello Friends, long time no publish!

I am still here, and unremarkably, still on leave from my government job due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In looking back, I see that the last time I published a post was on May 23rd, which was 66 days into my leave. Let's just say I'm not counting the days anymore...

Not surprisingly, nothing has changed for me. Like so many of you, I'm still waiting for some kind of normalcy to creep back into everyday life. But the virus keeps my town, county and state from moving beyond it. A glimmer of hope turns into another setback. For example, around the first of September there was a huge wild fire in our area and our town became engulfed in smoke. With the sky and air filled with hazardous soot and ash, it looked and felt like we were living on another planet. Staying home and staying safe took on yet another layer of new meaning. When the smoke finally cleared after about two weeks, it took several days to wash down all the lawn furniture and garden tools, scrub the front porch and the back deck and wash all the windows.

It was around that 66th day mentioned above that I started feeling all my creative energy fall away. Suddenly all my artistic endeavors seemed to evaporate. It felt like none of it was important, yet it also felt liberating to no longer be pushing myself. I let it all fall away. I dove into house cleaning and organizing activities and painted one of our bathrooms. I then turned to my art studio (nothing more than a space in the garage) and started cleaning up and organizing. Old paintings I made were either donated or thrown away. Unfinished scrapbook projects are now done. Years and years of family photos scattered everywhere are now in photo albums in date order!

With the change from summer to autumn I've started feeling a bit inspired by the colors of autumn. And I started a practice of taking a photo of anything that makes me happy - my morning coffee, a flower in my garden, my new slippers! This kind of exercise helps me focus on the good, even if just for a moment. It's the scrapbooker in me. I love making a page of my seasonal favorites.

But also, now that summer is gone and the days of living in the cold and dark are upon us, I'm feeling like I need to sink into coziness and to do activities that will keep me feeling life's energy. The time between autumn and the new year, even with the darkness and covid, are still opportunities to appreciate life, right? So now is a good time to start incorporating elements of hygge into our homes! Let's hear it for home made soup, flannel sheets, wool sweaters and the scent of eucalyptus floating in the air...

And on that note, I have a fun Halloween DIY to share with you, so I'll be back tomorrow!

Flattening the Curve, Day 53

Dear friends. Today is the fifty-third day of my mandatory leave from my government work site due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and it is Mother's Day here in the United States.

I'm guessing like you, my Mother's Day has been filled with mixed emotions due to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic.

On the one hand my son Tayo, who lives here at home with his dad and I, made me a tray of chocolate brownies and a funny card.

On the other hand, because my daughter Audrey lives across town, we are unable to spend the day together. But we did talk on the telephone, and that was good.

My mother Emily lives in a nursing home in my neighborhood and the only way I could see her today was to visit her through her window. Not an ideal situation.

But I did bring a variety of annuals to plant in the flower box right outside her window. Jim helped me haul in a large bag of potting soil with the wheel barrow and we dug the old dirt out of the box and added in the new dirt. As we planted the flowers into the box, I showed them to my mom and announced the names of each flower through the open window. It brought her a little bit of joy. She waved at us and I could see in her eyes that she was happy to see us. She can't speak anymore...

I also gave her a lovely bouquet of pink orchids and pink oriental lilies - the fragrant lilies. And, of course, a greeting card. My sister Joyce and her husband sent our mother a bouquet. I saw it sitting on my mother's dresser but I couldn't see what the flower varieties were, but it was a very pretty arrangement.

It's days like this that the fact of the pandemic hits me the hardest. There is nothing that can be done except wait it out and be grateful that we are not ill and that we have food, shelter and some activities to keep us busy while we flatten the pandemic curve.

Thank you for reading and Happy Mother's Day.

 

Flattening the Curve, Day 50

Hello friends. Today is day number fifty that I have been on mandatory leave from my job due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and with Mother's Day fast approaching I went flower shopping. It was good! Almost everyone was wearing a mask and respecting the social distancing rule.

My elderly mother lives in a nursing home and although I won't be able to go inside the building to see her on Mother's Day because of the pandemic, I plan to visit with her outside her window. There is a flower box there and so today I purchased a variety of annuals to fill it up.

For my mother's flower box I chose hot pink geraniums, pink snap dragons, pink impatiens, and a 'confetti garden' in orange blossom which is a 4" pot with a variety of flowers.

For myself, I bought orange zinnias, rosemary, the flower basket on the left, and that cute little blue ceramic bird bath. Also, Tayo and Ellie expressed an interest in growing tomatoes, so I got them two tomato plants.

And of course I couldn't resist a fun photo shoot.

Thank you for looking and I hope you are having a quiet evening.

 

Flattening the Curve, Day 26

Hello friends, today is the twenty-sixth day of my mandatory leave from my work site due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and it's Monday. Monday is a good 'business day' for all of us to be thinking about those economic stimulus checks we are to be receiving from the United States Federal government. So if you don't already know if, when, and how you are getting a payment, MarketWatch has published When are stimulus checks being sent out? Here's how to make sure you get yours.

Jim and I spent some time in the garden today. Jim is rebuilding the 'good neighbor' fence between us and our next door neighbor. When that project is complete I will be able to plant some dahlia bulbs in front of the new fence. Both the fence project and the new garden bed were planned before the pandemic shifted life into this holding pattern. So this is a good time to work on that - it's looking like it will actually get done in a decent amount of time. I'm also weeding, and thinking about what seeds I might still have from last year that I can try growing. Peas are easy-peasy.

I don't have much to say today - still feeling funky from yesterday and the news about my mom. Tonight I think I will take a break from the internet and this blog and enjoy a movie.

Take care of yourselves and each other and see you again soon.

Styling And Photographing For Instagram

Hi friends! If you are an Instagram user, you may already be aware of the fact that there are a few analytics applications that will calculate the top nine images liked by your followers, friends and other Instagram users in 2017. I used the app called instrack.app and the image shown here is the result of the algorithm doing its magic.

It's interesting to take a walk down memory lane - both figuratively as in the act of looking back at images which hold symbolic meaning and literally taking a walk along an old familiar route, retracing steps from another time.

Both of these activities have occupied my mind lately.

Recently I had reason to walk about a mile to catch a bus. The route was familiar as I used to walk it most weekdays, including during the time I got my first iPhone. Back then I was already versed in photography and having a camera phone opened up my curiosity for learning a new way of taking pictures. I would look around as I strolled along the city streets, seeking out interesting subjects to capture with my new camera. As I retraced that route last week, memories of those days came flooding back and I was thinking about my journey through still life photography and Instagram.

I discovered Instagram soon after I started taking photos with my phone. Like so many others, I began sharing my images there. I was inspired not only by the gorgeous and interesting portrayals of everyday life, but also by the snippets of conversation. People were talking to each other from all over the world! Before long I found a great community of women who were sharing their styled photos of flowers, tea, coffee and other bits of everyday life. They call it 'faffing' which is an English term meaning to spend time doing something that is not important instead of the thing one should be doing. It has gained greater significance though as a calming meditative process that helps to cultivate a relaxing mind.

Intrigued by this artistic community, I decided that I was going to learn still life 'flat lay' iPhone photography. There's something about this style of photography that taps into the ancestral memory. To create an image that is both in the present but yet evokes symbolic and emotional memories of the past piques the curiosity of the viewer. You can't help but want to stop and peer into this moment in time and engage with the objects - search out the familiar, see what resonates and find your own memory locked within. No wonder prop stylists are always on the hunt for new and interesting items to add to their collections!

At the same time, it truly is the art of placing objects. Those everyday things that are familiar to us and have meaning and context in our lives suddenly transform into objects of art. You find yourself considering size, shape, and quantity, and thinking critically about color, style, composition, unity, proximity. There are so many elements to consider, ponder and get frustrated over. But this is an invaluable exercise for developing the artistic eye. It's not easy for most of us and does not happen overnight. Similar to any creative endeavor, one must dive in, keep going, resist the urge to compare yourself to others, and take breaks along the way.

Thank you for letting me share my styling and photography journey thus far. If you would like to share yours, leave a comment or visit me on Instagram.   

#collectandstyle - August Monthly Favorite

Hello #collectandstyle community! Thank you for visiting the Under The Plum Blossom Tree blog. I'm so happy you are here!

Welcome back to another edition of #collectandstyle Monthly Favorite, where at the end of each month, one image from the Instagram hashtag #collectandstyle is featured here on the blog.

Have you had the pleasure of viewing Mayumi Ichiryu's Instagram gallery @atelier_cocon_m? Mayumi is a craft designer who possesses boundless energetic ideas for composition, using a wide variety of antique and vintage items.

Mayumi's use of well-worn backgrounds, coupled with an amazing collection of interesting objects and dried flowers that she crafts into pretty wreaths, contribute to a very unique take on the shabby chic style. As well, her strong pastel color palette provides beautiful harmony and stability to her Instagram feed.

I love the art form of collage, and really enjoy how Mayumi utilized it in the image above, with her creative use of dried hydrangea petals as a 'dress' for her 1950s inspired piece.

Besides creating beautiful images for her own Instagram gallery, Mayumi is also a moderator on Instagram for @tv_retro and @antique_r_us, as well as being a member of #9vaga_members99. You can also find her on her own website, ameblo.jp/haidosora.

Thank you for stopping in! If you would like to participate in #collectandstyle, click here for the details. I hope to see you there soon!

#collectandstyle - July Monthly Favorite

Hello #collectandstyle community, thank you for visiting the Under The Plum Blossom Tree blog! It is a joy and a pleasure to share with you my favorite image from this month's Instagram #collectandstyle hashtag. Please welcome the multi-talented artist Madeline Norris, who is known on Instagram as bymeeni. 

In her own words, Madeline is a "mama, artist, maker, lover, dancer, sister, dreamer, friend, singer, and daughter". If you were to view her blog or any of her various social media links, Madeline's talents and interests reach far and wide. Well versed in both art and craft, you'll find her skillfully drawing original animal and people characters, wielding a craft knife and creating magnificent paper cuttings featuring birds, hearts and flowers, hand sewing beautifully dressed cat, bunny and fox dolls, and teaching children how to paper craft windsocks and carnival headdresses.

Madeline is also a baker, who often uses seasonal ingredients. Some of the delicious looking recipes she has recently made and shared are her lavender biscuits with lemon glaze, rose petal chocolates, meringues with cream and fresh berries, and a raspberry and red currant cordial.

Nature plays a large role in Madeline's life; she enjoys gardening, walking, and photographing the outdoors. You'll find yourself appreciating the many flowers, trees and beautiful skies that she lovingly captures with her camera. She runs a seasonal hashtag on Instagram, the current one being #summercolourloving, so be sure to share your summertime nature-inspired images with her there.

Social activism is important to Madeline. She recently contributed her quilting, fiddle playing and singing talents to a local effort to assist refugees, and is involved in building relationships of trust in her neighborhood through #nearneighbours on Instagram.

As you can see, Madeline possesses an abundance of talent and that may have you wondering, of all these gifts, what draws me most to Madeline's work? 

That is very easy for me to answer! The above still life image is a small sampling of her vintage crockery collection, styled beautifully with pretty doilies and seasonal flowers. Madeline is a regular contributor to #collectandstyle, and I enjoy seeing how she styles beautiful old ceramics, whether it's with freshly picked flowers, or her favorite recipes.

Want to find out more? You can find Madeline on Instagram, or at her blog, meeni.co.uk. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube, so be sure to follow her!

Thank you for stopping in; I hope you've enjoyed getting to know the creative personalities behind each of the monthly #collectandstyle images I've featured so far, and I look forward to seeing all of your delightful postings there over the next month. 

If you would like to participate in #collectandstyle, you can get all the details here. I'll see you there soon!

Styling The Seasons - May

Rhododendrons, or 'rhodies' are a very common ornamental plant here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The first flower buds begin to appear in late April and throughout the month of May this diverse species of shrubs, bushes and trees is bursting with colorful floral displays in what seems like every nook and cranny of town. It seems appropriate then, to bring some of this glorious color indoors. 

I enjoy a brisk walk around the neighborhood, and if it involves looking for wild and stray flowers, then I'm out the door in a flash, seeing what I can find. The town I live in, due to its temperate climate, yields an abundance of seasonally cultivated trees and flowers year round, and you can pretty much rely on something always being in blossom here.

During a recent outing, I was able to gather an interesting selection of colorful blooms, shown above displayed in the dining area of our kitchen. While I'm no expert on the kinds and types of rhododendrons, I do enjoy putting a display such as this together, and the fun part is looking through my collection of vintage and new vases and planters and choosing just the right containers for the flowers.

I placed a single stem of bright pink bell-shaped rhodies into a Pearl Gray Fiestaware bud vase, above. And below is a vintage rectangular planter that was well suited for several short stemmed rhododendrons.

Vintage ceramic birds made in Japan usually always accompany my seasonal flower displays. Displaying decorative birds indoors reminds me how much we enjoy welcoming real birds into our backyard, and providing food, shelter and water for them.

The tall stylized bird statuette on the left is a Norcrest brand, crafted in Japan. It's painted a pearlescent antique white, which provides a lustrous shine, and the overall patinated surface lends a bit of a shabby chic sensibility. The delicate ceramic cherry blossom flowers at the base of the bird are still perfectly intact. I've never seen an all yellow crested bird in real life, such as the ceramic on the right, but perhaps there is one living somewhere in the world. I don't know much about this bird; its only marking is the word 'Japan' impressed into the backside of the base. It's interesting how the paint has worn over time, and I'm very fond of its current 'Wabi-Sabi' appearance.

A couple more seasonal blooms, this time in a Stahl California planter which features an unusual looking scratched surface. I had to use a 'frog' on the bottom of this planter to secure the pink stems. A frog is a piece of metal with sharp spikes, onto which flower stems are forced, to hold them securely in place. It is a common tool used in flower arranging, perhaps most popularly used in Ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging.

I created the paper map banner last summer from a piece of 12x12 Webster's Pages scrapbook paper. It's part of the Nest collection designed by Brandi O'Neill. I've used it in a few of my Styling The Seasons posts and still enjoying using it.

With the arrival of the month of May came longer, sunny, and blustery days, along with allergies, Mother's Day and a reminder that the school year is nearly over. What better way then, to celebrate life's moments both big and small, than with colorful blooms, characteristic of the spring season?

Styling The Seasons is a monthly online styling challenge: Katy Orme at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and lots co-host a gathering place for anyone who wishes to style a surface in their home, and share it on their blog and/or social media. Just use the hashtag #stylingtheseasons on Instagram and tag Katy and Charlotte.

Thanks for reading!

Introducing: Under The Plum Blossom Tree and Numi Organic Tea - A #collectandstyle Collaboration

Hi friends! There's exciting news 'brewing' over on my new Instagram hashtag #collectandstyle. Numi Organic Tea is sponsoring #collectandstyle for the month of May, and they have graciously offered a stupendous prize package giveaway! Here's a bit of background on how I'm running the hashtag, in case you want to get involved: each Saturday four favorite images will be selected and posted to the #collectandstyle tag, and at the end of each month, one favorite image will be selected to be featured here on the Plum Blossom blog. 

Numi Organic Tea will be giving away a total of 17 prizes during the month of May! Each of the weekly four winners (16 total) will receive a box of Numi's Collection tea assortment, as seen in the photo above. Then there will be one grand prize of a Flowering Tea Set in Bamboo for the monthly winner featured here. 

If you would like to enter, head over to Instagram and follow Numi Organic Tea and Under The Plum Blossom Tree. Then share your collecting passion by posting your colorfully styled vintage, antique, or new collections to the #collectandstyle hashtag. See you there!

Mind Your Mind Project

Lane County, Oregon, where I reside, has declared the month of May as "Mind Your Mind Month." The Mind Your Mind Project aims to raise awareness about the connection between mental health and the quality of life, and suggests a number of ways in which we can participate during the month, including spreading their message on social media. The activity that got my attention was a call to artists for the Mind Your Mind Art Contest and Exhibit to be held at The New Zone Artist's Collective. In addition to submitting a piece of art that expresses "What Mental Wellness Means To Me", artists were also asked to write a short statement, which will be displayed with the exhibited works.

Here's what I wrote for my submission:

"For me, the act of creating art lies somewhere in the gap between an ideal of perfection I think I should achieve and the imperfection of taking action and getting the work out into the world. Expressing ideas in visual form, even when imperfectly perfect, relieves me of the mental anguish I may have about my own abilities, and in fact helps me to see the depths of my capacities."

The framed photograph is an iPhone image I took for my Instagram feed, where I enjoy creating and sharing floral flat lay compositions. I've titled it Rite Of Spring, With Tea. In this particular arrangement, I attempt to symbolize the transient nature of life, or sakura as it is referred to in Japan: an homage to one's state of mind when struggling with coming to terms with our collective impermanence.     

Shortly after the submission deadline, I received an email letting me know that my photograph was selected for the show. This is the first juried show that I've submitted artwork to, and considering the level of artistic talent in my town, I feel honored to have been chosen.

The Mind Your Mind art exhibit will open this Friday, May 6th at 5:30 p.m. at The New Zone Artist's Collective, and is part of the city of Eugene's First Friday Art Walk. Besides viewing the works on display in the gallery, there will be music and refreshments to enjoy.

Styling The Seasons - April

Here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, we are no strangers to rain. Most of our days from autumn until spring are set against the backdrop of rain-filled, cloudy, 'atmospheric' gray skies, as we go about the daily business of work, school, and our travels from here to there.

But when the month of April arrives, there is a slight shift in the weather as fluffy white cumulus clouds begin to roll in and slowly replace the cloud canopy that has ruled this landscape for months. As the sun begins to shine in irregular patterns while it darts in and out of rain clouds, the parade of ornamental blossom trees that began blooming under the darker skies of March continues, and I enjoy taking walks around the neighborhood looking for stray and forgotten blossoms. One would think that I would have taken an umbrella, but sometimes I'm a bear of very little brain!  

On one of my walks I found some beautiful white pear blossoms spilling into an alleyway. So, for this months Styling The Seasons, I'm featuring them in this somewhat wild and natural looking arrangement, displayed in a Fiestaware vase, along with some red and orange ranunculus flowers I purchased at the grocery store.

This is a somewhat precarious spot to place such a display because this is my kitchen counter and it is of course a very busy corner, but I love the approach to styling that Katy Orme of Apartment Apothecary suggests, which is that we style any surface in our homes. So, although this was a very short-term styling session (over a weekend), still it reminds me of my neighborhood walks on unsettled spring days, and represents springtime in all its various moments - wind, sun, rain, and even some thunder and lightning!

A poem found in a book from my childhood, entitled A Child's Book of Poems, reminds me of these fluctuating spring days:

The Rain (author unknown)

The rain came down in torrents

And Mary said, "Oh, dear,

I'll have to wear my waterproof,

And rubbers, too, I fear!"

So, carefully protected, she started off for school, 

When the big round sun,

Came out and chuckled "April Fool!"

*            *            * 

Here's a few more peeks to show you some of my favorite thrifted treasures. This 'jazz kitty' as I call it, is actually some sort of planter or vase, as it has an opening in the back of its head. Like most of my vintage finds, it's made in Japan, as is the little wood shelf the cat sits on:

If you found just one vintage red cardinal salt or pepper shaker, would you buy it? That's me, too. I love it when I find a perfect set of salt and pepper shakers - nothing missing, no chips, no broken pieces glued back on. But when I see just one perfect shaker, I can forgive the fact that the other one is long gone, and enjoy the remaining one as it is, especially when it's a bird!

The wabi-sabi, Oriental shaped lantern is from a downtown charity shop that I love to frequent. One week this past February the shop's theme was "Asian Celebration", which coincided with the Asian Celebration festival happening in our town at the time. I purchased the red lantern knowing I would place it on this wall mounted hanger.

What does the month of April mean to you? Style any surface in your home and share it on your blog and/or on Instagram, tagging Katy Orme at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots.