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