New Additions

Fellow blogger Candy at SweetStuff Sassy Succulents posted about some new plants she recently bought. It got me thinking that I too have a few new plants I'd like to share. Also, like Candy, I am getting plant fever as the weather turns nice and my brain gets in gardening mode. Anyway, one of my all-time favorite plants is the Dracena. My sister was very nice and allowed me to dig this small baby from her large pot (above). I love it!!!!

I've also been on the lookout for a cactus with a long, dense, bushy growth habit, after seeing one in someone's home last winter. I have a few small cacti that will eventually grow this way, but I'm too impatient for that. I found this one at Home Depot, of all places. It's terribly root-bound, the roots and soil are actually coming out of the top of the pot, and was hoping to put it in the red planter I just found today, but it's no taller than the pot it's in now. Oh well.

Another great thrifting find we had this morning is this hand-woven wool tapestry. It's about the size of a placemat, and I plan to fashion it into a small wall hanging. I love the positive/negative bird design--beautiful!!
Last week (yes, Matt and I go thrifting almost every week--very bad habit!) I found this fabulous Scandinavian ceramic fish to hang in the kitchen.

I am a big crafter, and am always on the lookout for new and exciting fabrics. It's this amazing?! I am thinking it's vintage, but am not quite sure. It looks almost too clean to be old. Either way, it's beautiful. Luckily, I have about 3 yards of it, so I can make several things from it. I'm thinking a really great bag for summer.

This wonderful planter I actually passed up a few weeks ago (am I crazy?!) and later realized I should have bought it and went back, and was so happy to see it was still there! Lucky me!

And undoubtedly, the most precious new addition to our home is a little girl cat named Birdie. We adopted her from an animal shelter and she has really settled in nicely. As you can see, she has made a fast friend with Adler :)

Life is so good!

Plant News

Happy Spring! Although we have robins hopping around and the bulbs are showing their green sprouts, it still feels like winter around here. It has been quite cold and grey and we've had lots of sleet and freezing rain. However, plant fever has begun, and I'd like to share some new things that have been going on.

I cannot take credit for these beauties. Last weekend, I went plant shopping with my sister, and we spotted a large cacti display with these gorgeous white-spined plants with tiny pale pink blooms. I snapped one up and have been enjoying the plant and flowers all week. Hopefully I can get it to bloom next year!

During the same shopping trip, I noticed a small purple Prickly Pear cactus had lost one of its paddles, which was lying wedged between two pots. I picked it up and saw it had small roots starting, so I quickly and gently put it in my bag. What?! I couldn't just let it sit there to dry up or get tossed into the garbage! So when I got home, I planted it in some soil with gravel to prop it up. At least now it will have a fighting chance.

It may have been my very first post on this blog--my Euphorbia Trigona cutting I stole from the Catholic chruch last spring. I can't believe it's been a year already, but the cutting is growing nicely and has developed some red coloring on the new growth, which leads me to believe it is a Trigona Red Form. I have really been experimenting with this plant. Being such a young cutting, I have been reluctant to leave it in direct light, where it would be warm for the majority of the day; or in indirect light, where unfortunately it is quite cold due to the drafty windows in our apartment. So I have been moving it around quite frequently. It seems to have developed the red streak after being in our brightest window for a few days, but it also looked a little shriveled even with regular watering. So, I have been keeping it in the kitchen, away from the window but still getting daylight--I am hopeful this is sufficient. Warm weather can't come soon enough!

A few new things

A few days after I photographed my pottery collection, I was browsing around a nearby thrift store on my lunch break. The first aisle I always go at this particular store is the pottery/planter section. I didn't really see anything too exciting, so I moved on to check out the kitchenwares. I'm looking through the coffee mugs and something catches my eye on the top shelf. That's an odd-looking mug I momentarily say to myself. Realizing what I'm looking at is an amazing piece of pottery, I quickly grab it, take a good look at it (and the $1.99 price tag!!), and promptly put it in my basket. This is by far the most exciting find I've had!

On a different note, my cat has been having fun crawling into my large tote bag I use to carry around my gear during my work day. I carried him around in it for awhile then hung the bag on the door knob. He soon jumped out, but not before I could snap a few photos.

I like how the colors in this photo are so simmilar to the ones in my bag!

Show and Tell: My Pottery Collection

One of my passions is collecting pottery. Last weekend, while visiting my wonderful in-laws, we toured the numerous antique shops in the area. I had a fantastic time. One of my best purchaces of the weekend was the tall brown Haeger vase you see above, center. I started thinking how large my collection is growing, and thought, why not gather it all together to see what it looks like.

I love to scour thrift shops, antique stores, junk stores and garage sales. Some days I hit the jack pot and other days I don't find anything. It takes a comitment to go different places, hunt through a bunch of junk and sometimes it pays off and I find something really great. It's an art.

Usually things that catch my eye are vintage, handmade, and have interesting colors, form and textures. I also seek out items that have a Japanese or Scandinavian vibe.

I had a lot of fun going around the house, gathering all my pieces and arranging them together, then splitting them up by color:

The large yellow and white piece on the left is one of my favorites. I found it recently at St. Vinnies--the best thrift store in Madison.

I made the little vase on the right and the bowl on the left in a pottery class Matt and I took last year. The large bird is Jonathan Adler (a gift from Matt a few years ago) as is the curvy vase in the center.

Usually, I will go awhile without finding anything, and then one day I will really score big. I think this is one reason that keeps collecting so exciting. Yesterday I was poking around at a near-by second hand store and came upon an absolutely fabulous, beautiful, wonderful piece (which I will blog about later this weekend) and I literally got that rush of feeling like I really found something special.

I don't just shop second-hand. The square vase with the hole in it, above, is Jonathan Adler which I bought on sale online a few years ago. The little green owl is from Pier-1. I love him!

I found the planter on the right at a garage sale last summer. It holds one of my favorite plants; a spiny aloe variety.

The little birds you see on the right are a chick and rooster salt and pepper shakers. There are no markings on them, but they look Scandinavian to me. They are one of my favorites. I also found the Mexican folk art bird at a thrift shop--it's in perfect condition.


Thankfully I have an absolutely wonderful husband who never complains about my collecting tendancies. Sometimes I even catch him re-arranging some of them. :)

New Photos

Books! And we have a lot of them.

I love my bedside table. It is usually piled with books and magazines, and holds one of my favorite things I own: a Noguchi-inspired paper lamp from IKEA.

Adler curls up on the warm, fresh-from-the-dryer laundry. He's such a great cat :)

New Plants

Over the weekend, I went to the Garden Expo here in Madison. Seminars and goodies to buy galore. I went to a seminar on succulents, which mainly focused on the more run-of-the-mill plants for beginners and ones that can be planted in the garden in our region (I'm more into the more unusal varities primarily as houseplants). So I didn't learn much, but it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour.

The real highlight for me was coming across a man, Terri selling wonderful plants in the vendor area of the expo. The first time around, I chose a small Elephant Bush bonsai (the two photos above) that is just beautiful, although every plant he had was just stunning, making it a tough decision. But for a mere $12, I just couldn't resist. The man running it was so lively and funny that I could have stayed there all day talking and laughing with him. Later I actually found out he is very good friends with my sister's boyfriend. Small world!

So later, when we met up with my sister and her bf, we went back the the cool plant guy and I bought the other plant I had my eye on, this exquisite Jade tree. I couldn't believe he only wanted $15 for it. Judging by the girth of the trunk, this plant is quite old, and the grower took lots of time making into this woody bonsai form. I'm really excited to have these plants, and looking forward to visiting Terri's greenhouse this summer!

Cool Plant Happenings

While doing a little plant maintainance today, I noticed a few interesting things. First, my epiphytic cacti seems to have some flower buds. I've had this plant less than a year, so I don't really know what it's winter habits are. I've been leaving all my succulents quite dry, as it is winter, and there is no shortage of cold drafty windows in our apartment, so I'm thrilled that my plants are blooming--a sign I'm doing something right!

Several weeks ago, I noticed my Echeveria sprouting this long clump of little pod-like forms. I assumed it was just an off-shoot and was growing a new plant. I went to water it today, and saw this beautiful pink flower emerging! I've only been growing succulents for a few years, so I feel like getting them to bloom is a real victory.

Also, this interesting little form has grown from Matt's mini palm tree. I'm not sure what it is. A seed pod of some kind? Very neat, whatever it is!

New(er) Work

I've been really under the weather lately, but I'm feeling better and back to some of the projects I've started in the new year. Above is a linoleum block print of a robin I did recently.

These are hanging in the guest room above a bookcase. I have had a lot of fun experimenting with linoleum. I love simple, sparse designs with organic shapes and colors. These prints are probably my favorite thing I've done in awhile.

I found this blue cordoury at the thrift shop and was just dying to make a rabbit with it.

Deer with felt antlers. I have so much fun making these soft toys.

You may see some of these in my future ETSY shop! Stay tuned.

Flickr

Check out my Flickr page! Some of the photos are repeats I've already posted here, but there are different ones up too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegans-eat

New Photos

Yesterday we took a trip to the Asian Market near where we live and picked up some lovely fruit. Persimmons:

And some beautiful white pears. They look almost ghostly:

Before that, we scouted out an antique store we've never been to and that yielded some wonderful treasures:

a really neat postcard. I liked the graphic triangular green shapes.

When I saw this lovely little hand-carved bird, I almost dropped the vase I was holding! $5.50--wow!

A walnut box with an enamel lid. And only about $6.

Matt and I are avid treasure hunters. We are at the second-hand shops, garage sales (in summer) and antique stores all the time. I look for pottery, glass, and other vintage brick-a-brack and he goes straight for the high-end name brand clothing. It's not everyday we find something good, but when we do it's a real victory!