Succulent Saturday's Gardening Project

Happy Succulent Saturday~

Once in a while I'm asked to help out with a succulent project, and this 2-week project was definitely a fun one! Some folks asked me to pretty up their front driveway, so I got another chance to get creative! Take a look at this beautiful bounty:

I got most of these succulents from Home Depot and Sloat Gardens. I should note that this is the first time I got more than one succulent from Home Depot. I haven't had much luck with large Gardening Centers like Lowes and Home Depot, in fact, prior to this project I actively avoided Home Depot's Gardening Center because I only seemed to find sickly, wilted, gummy, or leggy succulents. This time, maybe out of sheer luck or they found a better way to take care of their plants, I lucked out. These babies actually look very healthy and plump:

As a general rule of thumb, I examine each plant to make sure there is no browning/molding, leggy stems, and gummy leaves. I'm sort of surprised that I found some nice succulents, I'll be sure to provide updates on how they look in a couple of weeks after being potted. 

So here are the finished pots, keep in mind that it isn't going to look 100% quite yet. There is a lot of room between plants, so in a couple of months I hope to see these pots overflowing with succulents!

Happy Holidays!

 Happy Holidays! This is the only tree I had this year, and I decorated them with my terrarium necklaces!

This year I made most of my gifts, and just like last year, I sold a ton of mini terrarium ornaments! Many thanks to my Mom, who actually orchestrated most of the sales while I was busy working and writing (If you're reading this Mumsy, I LOVE YOU).

  These little babies were no bigger than a golf ball, which makes them EXTRA cute, I like these flat-bottomed ornaments because you could also attach photos/business cards to the tops.

Coming soon: Quartz and Crystal Terrarium Necklaces!

Aside from gifts and ornaments, this is the first year I'll be establishing some of my own holiday traditions with friends. I'm pretty excited, at 25, I think it's a good time to establish my own, and it's a lot easier for me since most of my family lives in the Bay Area. I'm off to see my family and friends! Happy Holidays!!

New Ventures: Hayes Valley Open Air Market

Last Sunday I informally participated in the Hayes Valley Urban Air Market. While I was not initially expecting to sign up for local craft/maker fairs and markets, Lauren of Mitsymoto Designs graciously invited me to set up a little shop at her booth/table. I took the offer, seeing that it could offer some exposure and I got some great business feedback from her and a few others. I had a great time, although it was definitely exhausting! The most exciting part of these types of events is meeting other crafters, makers, and artists who love doing what they do. I enjoy meeting amazing folks who are in fashion, jewelry, floral design, and art, and I love hearing about the various ways people make a living, whether it's a side gig or a full-time business. Anyhow, I'm so happy that I got to attend this local event. It was so hard not to shop, but I did end up with these amazing earrings:

From Mitsymoto Designs. Aren't they fabulous?!

Once I got home, I thought a lot about my blog and my side hustle. I thought a lot about what Terrarium Therapy is. Is it a business? Is it just a blog? WHAT EXACTLY IS IT?  I've come to realize that I just like making things. I just love creating. I like sharing what I make or see. Every time I think of myself as a business, I sort of cringe. I worry I won't enjoy the process of creating something, I worry that I'll focus too much on making profit than actually creating for the sake of creating. Plus, I really don't enjoy pricing the stuff I make. I really don't. I definitely don't overcharge my items, and when folks have suggested I up my prices, I struggle with that because I'm not a business. For me, my necklaces and arrangements are a side-job--a hustle--to fund new projects. As most creators and hobbyists know, hobbies and crafting are not cheap endeavors. 

As for my blog, this has been a nonacademic space for me to post about my life outside of grad school. This blog has sort of been an online photo album for me to track all of my adventures and projects. I briefly considered trying to expand my blog, but I remember making blogs in the past and then abandoning them once I felt that my blog posts no longer represented my interests. This was partly because I kept envisioning the kind of blog I thought others would want to see. So while the recent posts have been somewhat about my side hustle, the terrarium necklaces, I'm going back to posting about my adventures, projects, and mushroom hunts.

Coming up this week: I am making Shrinky Dinks! Stay tuned :)

Terrarium Therapy Giveaway 9/6 - 9/20 --CLOSED--

Seeing that I just opened my Etsy shop for terrarium necklaces, I wanted to host a giveaway!

This little ocean world contains green glass, brown pebbles accented with white moss, and a sea fan. It is wire-wrapped around the neck and hangs from a 24" vintage brass chain (valued at $20).

Rules
Visit my Etsy Shop and leave comment in this post telling me about your favorite item. Please make sure leave your contact information (name + e-mail / Instagram / Twitter) so I can contact you if you win.

Additional Entries

• Follow Terrarium Therapy and re-tweet giveaway on Twitter

• Like Terrarium Therapy and share giveaway on Facebook

• Follow Terrarium Therapy and re-blog giveaway post on Tumblr

• Follow Terrarium Therapy on Instagram and tag/share with your friends

**For all shares, re-blogs, and retweets, please use hashtag #terrariumtherapygiveaway so I can count your entries! Please note that if your blog/Instagram is private, I won't be able to see the hashtags

You have until Friday, September 20 11:59 PM PST to enter. Sorry, only folks in the US can participate in this contest. 

Good Luck!

Update September 21, 2013: 
Thank you to those who participated! I received several e-mails about mobile users not being able to comment on my blog, I apologize for that and thank you to all who still entered.  The winner will be announced Wednesday, September 25!
 

September 25, 2013

And the winner is @goldilakshmi! Please send me an e-mail to terrarium.therapy@gmail.com!

Big News!

I wish I had a drum roll here...but whatever, I'm just going to say it: I'm opening up an Etsy shop for some of my terrariums, prints, and terrarium necklaces! 

It's been a long time coming...I've been making terrariums for about 3 years now, mostly selling locally through word of mouth, but I think I'm ready to get a little more official. I'm hoping that through this shop, I can unload some of my inventory and make a little money to invest in more projects. Won't you please support my hustle? To make it even more official and fun for you, I'm going to be hosting some giveaways later in August! Right now my plan is to have my Etsy shop launched by mid-August, so stay tuned for updates! 

Plant Lady Life and Projects

I'm a little late in posting these, but here are the remaining succulent plantings that I made a few weeks ago: 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, June has been a wonderful month for projects, and here are some of the projects I've been working on...

 Crystal/mineral terrarium necklaces! I've been trying out new creative ideas with terrarium necklaces, so I wired some amethyst and sodalite minerals to the corks so they stay in place while worn. Also, check out my basic terrarium necklace tutorial here!

I got this cool "crystal" cactus growing kit at Green Apple Bookstore and here are the results:

I love the way this crystal cactus looks, but unfortunately it isn't so solid. The crystals break off so easily that half of it fell apart when I moved it to my desk. BLEH. Well, it was beautiful while it lasted--I think I'm going to stick to real cacti from now on.

DIY Terrarium Necklace Tutorial

The time has come: you can make your own little terrarium necklace, and it's pretty easy! This is my first tutorial, so if you still have questions, please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible. For those with visual impairments, I'm currently working on creating a PDF version of this, so once that's available I'll post it to my blog as well. 

Cacti/Terrarium Postcards

Now that I'm done with school, I thought I'd pull out some paintbrushes again and mess around with watercolors again. Earlier in the year I signed up for a watercolor course, but I ended up withdrawing from the class due to my hectic schedule (*sob*). I'm thinking of signing up for a class in August, so in the meantime I'll practice using YouTube videos and books.

 Cactus postcards

 Feathers and a deer antler

 Succulent terrariums! Right now my space doesn't get enough daylight to sustain succulent terrariums indoors, so I have to find another way to tend to my terrarium obsession.

All of these are being sent out this week, I hope my family likes them :)

Post-Grad Life: Napa and Santa Cruz

My first week post-grad has been an amazing one--I spent a day in Napa with my grad school cohort, painted some 'thank you' post cards for family members, slept in till 10am, and took a day trip to Santa Cruz. I've also been working out on a regular basis again! Hooray for self-care!

Some of our cohort (as well as respective partners) having fun in Napa, CA

My painted postcards (You can see more photos in this post).

I can't believe a year has passed since I spent a summer in Santa Cruz. As much as I love San Francisco, I can't help but return to a warm(er) place surrounded by forests and coastline. It's much quieter and slower than San Francisco, but hey, I'm okay with that for a couple of months. I started a garden last year and that was one of the most successful gardens I maintained. I like when the weather is on my side! I missed going to the tide pools, redwood forests, and riding my bike without fear of dying.

Gorgeous coastline off of HWY 1

Tide Pools

 Tide pools along the coast resemble underwater 'terrariums'! I love how the algae and seaweed resemble moss and lichen.

Nothing happened. My lungs are weak :(

Cool find of the day: I was trudging through a field and found this giant dandelion. I was immediately reminded of the humongous dandelions in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991):

Comic Alliance

Well, that sums up my first week of post-grad life. Next week is dedicated to thesis revisions and job applications, but lots of fun in-between. I have plans for some tutorials that I'll post on this blog, and I have several garden projects that I'll share in the very near future.

Art Therapy: Nature Text

I'm feeling quite creative and crafty lately, so Sunday afternoon I went outside and made myself a new banner for my blog!  I'm not too savvy with Photoshop and graphic design software (I wish I was), so I made one using plants I found outside. I spent zero dollars. Well, actually I spent $1 on the Afterglow iPhone app (which is how I got the polaroid frame), but that's definitely less expensive than buying Adobe Photoshop. Hooray! I feel so crafty right now! I'm currently trying to figure out how to position my banner in the center of my blog, but I'll save that for another day.