My sanity…

To start, I have NEVER been a guest blogger before so here’s hoping my freshman effort won’t be a total dud!

As a SAHM and writer I can honestly say staying busy is never an issue, staying sane, however, is. I have three daughters, though one is at university, and my 19 year-old nephew currently lives with us, so merely keeping on top of a tidy house is enough to have me pulling my hair out.

To counteract any and all frustration, I read, or get crafty. I am constantly repurposing furniture, decorations, rooms in my house to suit what I need in that moment. We have one desk that has been three colors and used as everything from a homework station to a potting bench. It worked beautifully in all it’s iterations.

When creating something from a used item isn’t on the agenda and writing has me banging my head on all available surfaces, I read. I love to read. Books are my nirvana! Losing myself in a good book about the supernatural (mostly shifters and various mythos), or a good contemporary romance has a calming effect on my brain that little else does. I couldn’t begin to name my favorite books but my top five favorite authors are:

Nalini Singh (http://nalinisingh.com)
J.R. Ward (http://www.jrward.com)
Gena Showalter (https://genashowalter.com)
Kresley Cole (http://kresleycole.com)
Karen Moning (http://karenmoning.com)
T.S. Joyce (https://tsjoycewrites.wordpress.com)

SHOOT! Sorry, my top six! My full list of favorite authors is much too long for this post!

Currently I’m reading Rock Hard by Nalini Singh. It’s a contemporary romance filled with drama, a demanding boss, and rugby references galore. The characters are perfectly flawed and very human. Ms. Singh’s writing style is brilliant whether she’s spinning one of her AMAZING supernatural tales or writing about every day people. CHECK HER OUT!

Today is not the day I will be waxing poetic about the myriad reasons my favorite authors ROCK! Nope, today is the day I share a silly little craft project born of my obsessive need to reuse things and it started with my daughter asking to repaint her room…again. You see, about two years ago my oldest daughter left home to attend university, thus leaving her large room with ensuite bathroom empty. We have four bedrooms so each girl had their own room but one of them is very small. Deciding it didn’t make sense to leave the larger room unoccupied, my middle daughter moved into it. YAY! No more listening to the two youngest complain about either sharing a room or having the tiny room (which is now where my oldest stays when she visits home). No sooner had we moved the oldest out than paint and brushes were brought out to start the transformation process. Middle daughter picked a color I KNEW she wouldn’t like in a year or so but wouldn’t be swayed to change her mind SO, on it went. Guess what. A year later she hated it. We made a compromise, she had to pay for the new paint and she had to do the majority of prep and painting (under my watchful eye) but she would be allowed to repaint it. GREAT! In deciding this she also decided there were several things she didn’t want to rehang because they wouldn’t fit the “serene” feel of the room. We agreed to spray paint several so that they became less a focal point and more just an extension of the wall color. One thing in particular, a simple white box, she didn’t even want to repaint! We talked about what sorts of things she DID want on her walls and discovered the box would look brilliant with some added greenery, which she was keen to add to her room.

The following project is my simple step by step! Hope you enjoy and always remember…REUSE-REDUCE-RECYCLE!

Succulent box project

Materials:

Box or other container (I used a box I had been using as a small shadowbox/shelf in my daughter’s room)
Faux succulent plants (number depends on size of box and personal preference)
Small faux flowers (to be cut off stem)
Sheet moss (enough to fill box or container)
Glue gun
Glue sticks
Wire cutters

Begin by cutting stems off the succulents (unless you plan to use the florist foam…in that case, leave it attached) and the stems off the small flowers you’ve chosen.
Next glue the sheet moss to the bottom of your container. I chose to do the inside edge because I plan to hang this on the wall. If you’re using a deeper container you might want to consider filling the bottom with florist foam (which would allow you to forgo some of the gluing). I also made sure some of the moss looked as though it was creeping upthe back “wall” of my box.
After the sheet moss has been attached you can begin placing the succulents before gluing them. This step will ensure you like where they’re going to be without gluing them only to realize it doesn’t work.
Glue plants. I chose to use enough plants to allow a little stacking for depth and texture.
Once you’ve finished you can decide where you want to put your small flowers. As this is for my daughter I let her decide how many to use. If I were doing this for a common area or a wall outdoors I might choose fewer flowers. (The pink flowers were NOT glued in, which will allow them to be changed out easily)