My Home Made Garden Fountain

The sound of running water is both soothing and relaxing. Having a garden fountain or water pond is something I've always wanted but never got around to actually having.  Years ago I even visited a "lily pond" with hopes of building one in my massive backyard. My husband and son never took to the idea of digging a hole, and manually performing all the strenuous tasks of creating a water feature, no matter how many hints I made. We've moved to a place with a much smaller backyard.  Recently, I came across a display of a garden fountain at a local nursery. It was basically a large ceramic bowl with a bamboo spout inserted in water. The sound was simply serene and I found it very relaxing.  The kit was relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of most water fountains. I thought, "I could do this"!  I bought the kit, which stated:

 "Turn Any Container Into A Fountain!"

• Easy to Set Up
• 100% Natural Bamboo
• Split Resistant Bamboo
• Long Lasting Craftsmanship
• Relaxing Sound & Motion

I had a very large plastic container (25" diameter) I got at Costco for $19.99. The color matched everything on my patio so I was thrilled about that!       

 The Bamboo Water Spout & Pump Fountain Kit was an easy 3-Step Setup.  Since the diameter of the barrel was 25 inches, I bought an 18" adjustable height spout kit which would fit on any 15"-30" diameter bowl.
Step One  Loosen the black string on the bamboo by sliding it sideways.  Adjust the support arms to the desired position on the rim of the barrel, then tighten.

Step Two  Attach the pump to the end of the plastic tube.  Submerge pump into water. The pump cord goes over the rim of the water container.

  For decorative purposes, I placed rocks resting on top of the bamboo support arms and in the bottom of the barrel. You can also see a "North Carolina Jasmine" plant behind the barrel. I also added submersible led lights to the bottom of the container.

 Step Three  Plug in the pump and adjust the flow on the front of the pump.  I had fun decorating with plants, and rocks.  I think I might add a "frog" I saw floating in the water at the nursery.

                                                                              




  Bamboo fountains add a beautiful mix of sound and motion to any environment.  Bamboo is said to bring good luck and provide Feng Shui to a space.

We are definitely enjoying the simplicity and serenity of this natural bamboo water feature!

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Container Flower Arrangement

 I made the flower arrangement yesterday for my front door area and now I'm not so sure if I want to put it there. After I took the time to plant each flower I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of the process.  Dummy me - I just wasn't thinking. I just wanted to hurry up and plant the flowers.  I can tell you what kind I planted, where I got them and how much they cost.

 These are IMPATIENS in white, deep pink and       salmon colors. I found them at Walmart for 

98 cents.

Plum with white edges PETUNIAS also came from Walmart. 98 cents, too.

 SALVIA (Purple) was found at the same place, same price   .  .  .  .

I added trailing VINCA VINES ($2.29 at Home Depot) in the corners and a CORDYLINE (Red Star) plant ($9.99 at Home Depot) in the center to give the arrangement some height.

I previously got the planter late winter, at Marshals for $19.99.

And, this is how it turned out!

Still don't know where to put it  .  .   .


                              but, in the meantime  .  .   .



                                             I can't wait to see the plants grow!

                                                            

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Sewing With Duralee Fabric

 I love the color Plum. I'm always googling the word to see what comes up on the internet.  While we were waiting for our new home to be built  (after we sold our old one and living in a townhouse)

I came across some fabric by Duralee, a Thomas Paul creation called, "Plum" (20966 95) .  .  .   .




 And a chair at Target, also called "Plum"


I quickly order two chairs and was very pleased when they finally arrived.   I kept thinking if the fabric I saw  really matched the fabric in the Target chairs. I was able to order a sample online and sure enough it turned out to be the same material.  WHAT A FIND!!!  But to me, quite EXPENSIVE at $38.00 a yard.



I wasn't willing to pay that much, especially since
I didn't know what I would do with the fabric, except make pillows.  I eventually found a store called Heritage Fabrics that had a "sale" offering the Duralee Plum for $28.00 a yard. This was a great price and I ordered four yards - just in case I thought of something else to make out of the fabric.


I'm not going to give a tutorial on how to make pillows. You can easily find many, like I did.  I made the quickest pillows I could - just sewing three sides. No zippers, no welting,etc. - just plain pillows.

                             You can see the TARGET CHAIRS in the center of the bay window.

And, I think the pillows turned out really GREAT!!!                

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More Sunburst Mirrors - "A Grouping of Sunburst Mirrors"

More SUNBURST MIRRORS to blog about.  I was inspired by this drawing I saw in the newspaper recently.  I liked the way the sunbursts looked on the wall.  I quickly visualized doing something like that on my foyer wall.  So I . . . . 

 gathered my supplies and began working on the first of many. For the backing I found a wooden plate at Hobby Lobby. Next, I decided to use wooden dowels (pkg. of 20) I found at Michaels, instead of skewers.