Crafting Group Tackles Terrariums!

Have I ever mentioned how I was not a girly-girl growing up? I hated the color pink, couldn't understand the point of crafting, and mostly just wanted to play war with the other kids. Sewing and knitting seemed like terribly ancient things, and after all, if I wanted something, why wouldn't I just buy it? (Or, you know, have my mother buy it?)

Don't be fooled by the dress.

Now I prefer staying home and figuring out how to make things myself. And crafting can be directly traced back a few years ago to Rachel, who always dragged me out to Brooklyn to create. She was an art student and does artistic things at work so my attempts were quite pitiful in comparison but it was tons of fun. She's also the one who got me into sewing! But then she had a baby and moved far, far away. (sob)

So my crafting has been slacking, but then both Ashley and Naomi separately told me they wanted to start groups in the NYC area for crafting and I knew I had found my crafting fix! This past weekend, Ashley hosted a terrarium making party at her apartment. Naomi was there and brought 2 non-blogging friends (who seem lovely despite the lack of blog), Amanda also came, as did Hillary, Ashley's non-blogging roommate.

Did anyone take any pictures? Of course not. And for those unaware, my boyfriend has been out of town for the past 6 weeks on assignment so my pictures are not well lit, well framed, nor will you be able to make out details. But at least you can see what I did kind of?!

Anyway, Ashley purchased all the supplies. She has a lovely backyard with a table, chairs, and a trellis with grapes growing on it that shielded us lovelies from the sun where we hung out and ate cake and made terrariums.

Side note: She also purchased organic soil and warned us there were bugs in it, and then mentioned that her mother got ringworm once from organic soil. Everyone else just seemed to accept this and move on, but I was horrified. I also had an awful nightmare that night where I was laying a bed of organic soil and bugs were slowing eating my legs off. Turns out I just had 3 mosquito bites.

So.

Last year's terrariums.

I made 2 terrariums last year, with mixed success as one died. But the other is still alive! After I made those two and posted about it, I bought a 3rd container and decided to document everything so I could put up a photo tutorial... but then the plant died so there was no photo tutorial.

The bf kept wondering when I was going to toss my dead plant, and I kept assuring him that I would re-do it very, very soon, but yeah, that didn't happen. So he arranged all my dinosaurs to "worship" the fallen plant. They fell over too. It's a very sad terrarium.

The arrow points to the dead plant... that I still have. Sigh.

But now I have happy terrariums!

From Purl Soho

When I was at Purl Soho with Naomi recently, I saw this needlepoint canvas (above) that screamed death and destruction. It appeared that the cardinal was taking over the world, that the world was burning, and that someone was fleeing while burning and screaming in pain. I asked Naomi what she saw and she said something to the effect that it look like a nice spring or summer day.

Clearly my mind works differently. (And we were both wrong, me way more so, as it's entitled Cardinal on the Corn - I thought the corn was burning embers.)

Anyway, I decided to go with my original death and destruction idea and put the overturned pot in my terrarium, along with fat, happy cardinals.  I'm not sure what happened to the humans, but the cardinals have taken over. Also I thought it would be fun to hide the cardinals, as they're sneaky and evil, but that means you barely see them. Look closely!

In my second terrarium, I went with a much happier scene. I have a lovely pink cactus, some kind of succulent (that my cat LOVES to uproot) and some adorable ladybugs.

Yes, that's a coffee pot.

I'm very pleased with my terrariums, and mostly I'm so happy group crafting is back in my life. Somehow I'm supposed to wait a month for the next one. Hopefully it involves Halloween things!!