Wednesday 15 May 2019

And the winner is......

...to be revealed momentarily. First thing to do is to reveal the answer to the mystery - why was my project titled "Dorothy's corner? There were two small hints in the project itself:

1. on the arm of the chair is a little book titled "God's Garden" by D.F. Gurney
2. on the wall over the bird bath is a garden plaque with a stanza from the poem in this book. The stanza is seen on many a garden sign in many gardens. It is from a larger poem (see number 1 above). These lines say:

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
the song of the birds for mirth
one is nearer God's heart in a garden
than anywhere else on earth.

You can read the full poem by looking it up under the name DOROTHY Frances Gurney. That is why it is called Dorothy's Corner. Sorry I made it too difficult to solve. (insert sad face here!!) Next time I run a contest I will go easier on you, I promise!

Now, since no one guessed the answer to the mystery, the name drawn randomly will actually win 2 hostas, 2 dwarf astilbes, a copy of the little book in Dorothy's Corner, "God's Garden", a garden lantern, and a glass of refreshing water with lemon (or you could say it is gin and tonic instead!) *smile*.

And the winner is......



CARRIE

Congratulations, Carrie. Please use my email address under my profile to mail me your snail mail address so I can get your prizes to you. And thank you to everyone who takes the time to encourage myself and other bloggers each time you leave a comment on our blog posts. Love ya all!!
TTFN!! - Marilyn



Tuesday 14 May 2019

Winner to be announced tomorrow morning

Thank you to all who left comments on my "Dorothy's Corner" project. It was a fun, quick little project that fed my need for something sunny and spring-like after a long, terrible winter.

Unfortunately, I was much too subtle with the hints of why it was called "Dorothy's Corner" so no one correctly guessed the answer. Right after I post this entry, I will be asking my DH to draw from the names of those who did leave wonderful comments. Although having a blog is a great way to keep track of my own projects to refer to in the future, it's always encouraging to know that by sharing my successes and failures, techniques and crazy ideas, I may actually be helping someone else with their own projects as well. I know I learn so much by reading everyone else's blog posts. I only hope I can add to the hints and tips.

So, I'm off to draw a name and will post the winner tomorrow morning, along with revealing the mystery of why it is called "Dorothy's Corner". Have a great evening. TTFN! - Marilyn

Monday 13 May 2019

Dorothy closing in on the finish line

Okay - our little contest ends tomorrow and Dorothy's Corner is not actually finished. *sigh* This is becoming the story of my life! However, it is finished enough for you to imagine what it will look like when it is done, and also to take another stab at guessing why it's called "Dorothy's Corner. I will tell you up front that there are two hints in these pictures now that will point you in the right direction.

I have also decided that the winners of our little contest will each receive a hosta plant, an astilbe plant, a garden lantern, book of poetry, and a glass of water with lemon (or is it a gin and tonic? Hard to say.).

So on to our latest pictures:

In our last post I said I was moving on to make a climbing rose to go over the split-rail fence. For the basic frame of the climbing rose, I found some plastic plant material in my stash that had several "branches" off to the sides. The "leaves" were almost fern-like. I left the centre vein of each leaf, cut off all the feathery "leaves", and painted the whole thing brown.



Then I found a strip of leaves I had taken from a plastic topiary I had, cut off the large and medium size leaves to save for another project, then cut off the two smallest sized leaves to use on my twining rose vine. I glued these smaller leaves onto the framework I had made, in pairs that mimic the way real rose leaves grow.



Then I "planted" the rose at the base of the fence, gently bending it over the fence and pulling one small branch through to the backside before adding flowers. I figured if I glued the flowers on first, many would fall off as I was manipulating the plant itself around the fence. I did end up having to tie off the vines in a couple of places to hold it in place better. I used brown thread so it is virtually invisible.

I wanted an "old rose" variety and I found a picture of one - actually a hand stitched embroidery - hanging on the wall of my friend, Louise's house. The lovely old rose had only two layers of petals, was pink around the outside edges, white toward the centre and had a touch of yellow in the very centre. So, I used white paper and the two smaller sizes from this punch:


I shaped the two different sizes, then glued the smaller inside the slightly larger one before painting.


It was hard to make the yellow dot in the centre to be small enough. Some worked, some didn't, but overall, I think it turned out pretty good.


Then I planted the rest of the garden. Starting of the left side we have a hosta "Great Expectations on either side of the bird bath - which was made by miniature potter Jo-Ann Shaw, then there is a white miniature astilbe followed by a blue hydrangea, white carnations, a tall blue delphinium, a purple agapanthis with a clump of silver grey wormwood in front, and a pink miniature astilbe bringing up the end.


With the garden mostly planted (I'm still not finished the beautiful hydrangea tree I have planned for behind the fence), I turned my attention to the inside of the cross-section of the garage/potting shed.

Moving around the corner from the garden to the shed, we see a garden plaque hanging above the beautiful bird bath, pass by the water bucket standing on a bed of stones under a water faucet, check out the bird in the bird house, who is checking us out at the same time, and enter the working section of the garden.




Moving into the work shed, we see that Dorothy has everything she needs in a very compact corner - from the rake and shovel hanging on the end wall, to the hand tools at her fingertips above the bench. In a hanging crate she keeps some seeds, fertilizers and supplements. For those big jobs, she keeps a regular saw handy as well.


She is getting ready to re-pot one of her African violets (made by Betty Stan), and I see some soil has fallen from the overturned pot onto the floor below. Oh, oh - that's not all that has fallen. I see a broken pot peeking out from under the potting bench. And, her new bag of potting soil obviously has a hole in the bottom corner.




Moving back around the corner to the garden again, we see Dorothy's special reading corner - with her favourite book of poetry (made by me), a cool drink to quench her thirst, and her sun hat waiting to shield her from the brightest rays while she relaxes and enjoys the results of all her hard work. The chair was made in raw wood by Wayne Dieleman. Marijke suggested I hand paint a design on the chair back. Instead, I painted it cream then found a watercolour print that I really liked online, cut it into strips to fit the slats of the chair back, and used ModPodge to seal it onto the chair. Personally, I love how it looks!


Here is the garden from Dorothy's viewpoint, without the planned hydrangea tree in place.


The tree is "under construction" but it is taking me about 35 to 45 minutes to apply the tiny flowers to each flower head. Then I have to apply the leaves. When done, it will be placed behind the fence and hang over into the garden. I think it will be a real focal point. It doesn't look like much now, but I know you all can use your imagination!



Here you also get a better view of Dorothy's chair with her poetry book waiting for her return.


So, we are saying goodbye for a while to Dorothy's Corner. There will be a few final pictures when that darn hydrangea tree is finished. Don't forget, you can always click on the picture to get a larger view. Also - this is your last chance to enter the draw for the prizes I mentioned earlier. There will be one random winner chosen from anyone who has left comments on the blog since the contest was announced. Hopefully, there will be a second winner who will be the first one to correctly guess why this project is called "Dorothy's Corner". Again - there are actually a couple of hints in the project itself. Good luck! TTFN. - Marilyn






Wednesday 1 May 2019

Dorothy's Corner - still a work in progress.

For a small project, it's surprising how many details there are that need to be completed to bring Dorothy;s Corner to life! As you know, I am aiming to have it ready to display on Saturday at the Moncton show. Yes, I mean THIS Saturday!

With so much to be done and so little knowledge of how to do any of it, I decided to revert to my absolute favourite work method. It goes by a few different names: the "wing it" method, the "just go for it" method or, my personal favourite, the "fly by the seat of your pants" method.

This method is guided by a collection of pithy sayings that are meant to inspire you to leave the worry behind and just carry on with it - sayings like:

Think of it like driving at night - you can only see as far as your headlights show you, but if you keep following them, you eventually arrive where you want to be.

Or -put very simply, you have three choices: Give in, give up, or give it everything you've got. So - I choose the last one! Here I go, one step at a time, hoping I arrive where I planned to go without too many detours and absolutely no fatal accidents!

When I left you last, the flower bed was built and the lawn was laid. It was time to move on to the actual planting. This is the step I was (and still am, truth be told) a little afraid of since I am only learning how to make a variety of plants. This is where my "fly by the seat of my pants method" will come in very handy!

The first thing I did was to cover the brown-painted floral foam flower beds with a mixture of dried coffee grounds and tea grounds. I like to use the two together for a more realistic "soil" look. I make sure they are completely dry before I use them in a project.

Then I started making leaves. The hosta leaves are from a file I downloaded from Anna Christensen's old site. This plant is "Hosta Great Expectations".


I also put stems of astilbe leaves together - they are not exactly what astilbe leaves look like in real life but I was going for the illusion, not necessarily an exact copy. A while ago my friend Marijke, from Pulchinella's Cellar, had given me a strip of leaves that could be used for a variety of purposes. I removed several from the strip and glued them to floral wire with the wire tips bent over at the end to support the leaves. You can see there are two different colours. I will use the lighter green leaves for a white astilbe and the darker green for a deep pink astilbe.


I see I had two hosta leaves left over and still stuck in the floral foam for safe keeping. *smile*

Once I had these leaves done, I glued in the bird bath, "planted" a hosta plant on either side of the bird bath, and glued in a rusty bucket sitting on some rocks around the corner, underneath an old faucet coming out from the wall. I think I will paint the handle of the faucet either red, or a bright green - just so it is a little more noticeable.


Next, I wanted to plant a white astilbe in the corner on this side (the shady side) of the garden. How was I going to make the astilbe blossoms??? I didn't have any of that "flower soft" stuff I've heard about, but never owned. Also, I felt that the flower stems should be a little thicker than the 26 gauge green floral wire I used for the leaves. I had some white paper covered floral wire so I paint a couple of lengths green, cut it into stems and, using my tried and true method (FBTSOMP method), I grabbed some dark green shredded material used by model railroaders and pulled it apart into even smaller pieces. I used Tacky Glue on the end of the stems and, using tweezers to add a little at a time, I built up the flower heads. Then I left them to dry overnight before painting them.




After the paint was dry it was time to plant the white one. This is when I discovered that the Tacky glue worked for a while but each leaf I picked up immediately came off the wire with only a gentle touch. So, going back to the FBTSOMP method, I reglued all of the leaves using Quick Grip instead then had to wait for those to set up *sigh*. Finally, I was ready to go and I planted the white astilbe in the corner where the fence meets the wall. Eventually, the hydrangea tree will hang over the fence in this area as well.


Once this was done, I used some air dry clay to make cone shapes to glue on to the end of each branch of the hydrangea tree. This will be a "Pink Diamond Pee Gee Hydrangea" which is known for its very large flower heads. Next step for this tree is to add the tiny florets all over the cones and paint them accordingly. Then I will fill all the branches with leaves.


There is still a lot to do before Saturday so tomorrow and Friday I will be working non-stop. I do not plan on having everything done by Saturday but at least enough to allow it to be displayed. After that, I will keep adding details until I am completely satisfied with it.

Coming up tomorrow - making a climbing rose for over the fence and adding more flowers to the garden. Friday will be for working on the inside of the shed. I'll be sure to update you after the Moncton show is over. Have a great night! TTFN!! - Marilyn