Okay. Thanks! Now I will share a sneak peak of what we made for them.
I had Peanut make my old shoe into a planter for my mom and TBO made MIL a planter from Cheesehead's old shoe. I had thought about doing something with the shoes for us to keep, but mom likes to buy shoes for us. I thought that it would be a wonderful way to thank her for the new shoes she bought for me. These are the shoes she just replaced. They were in such rough shape that the soles were falling off!
Sorry, I didn't get a close up of them, but they are on the steps behing her. We picked out yellow marigolds for them because they both like the color yellow.
Peanut stayed and helped me with more planting than TBO did. She thought these marigolds would look great in the matching terra cotta pots that we painted. Do you like them? They are gold with a black rim, see? They're right at the bottom of the picture. We have many more to do more projects with over the summer, but I'm not sure what to do with all of them. These are the biggest size we have. There are some that are even smaller.
Once we were finished with the planting, the kids helped me water the plants. The one they are watering is the one TBO planted.
Peanut is planting one too, but we didn't have enough plants to get it filled. Hers is the moss lined hanging basket that you see her filling in one of the above pictures. In the center of her basket is a pink geranium and there is one marigold in there. It may end up looking better later in the season if I leave it as is. I'm not sure what to do with it....
This is his basket. I'm sure it will look better later in the season. He designed and planted it himself. Didn't he do a good job?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
17 comments:
Great idea!!
cinj, great idea. I love when my boys help with the planting.
Gift/projects look great...kids did a wonderful job! Gardening together is a good thing! :-)
That's a fun gift. Hope MIL/mom don't read the blog before Mother's Day :-)
I like pink and yellow/orange together. It's all the rage right now. The shoe thing you've been doing is a very clever way to recycle. I'd display them just like they look on the porch--like someone is walking.
The two baskets the kids did are priceless. I bet you get tears and hugs from it. I know I would cry and takes lots of pictures. It would be cute to give them home made cards with these pics along with the basket. If you laminate the pictures, you can put them on plant pokes and stick the pictures in the pots.
A little suggestion for the marigold pots...they are going to outgrow those pots quickly. Does your cheeshead have a saw to cut off the bottoms of those pots? If so....Do pots in pots. Take a big pot and put those little ones in it--that way the roots of the marigolds can grow in to the bottom pot and they won't dry out or outgrow the pot. You can remove the marigolds from the pots long enough to cut the bottoms off.
About the only plant that will survive in a pot that small is a portulaca or a little sedum. I do like the colors you did. Looks like the kids had a lot of fun.
It's good to get them started early!
cinj,
Your children are darlings...what does the TBO stand for?
The moms will love the gifts.
Gail
Awwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, this sure has been a busy place today! I worked this morning and I'm getting ready for another trip to MN. Hopefully there will be lots of blooming flowers there for me to take pictures of!
LP, Debbi, Lin- Thanks. The kids love to help and make projects so I thought it would be a good way to get them out of the house and away from the tv!
Chris- Neither mom or MIL has computers or knows about this website, so I think I'll be safe. They're going to be given this weekend anyway since we won't see them next weekend. One will get hers tonight and the other will get hers tomorrow. I can't wait to see what they have to say about their gifts!
Anna- I plan on taking lots of pictures this summer as they tend their plots so we can chart their progress. I'll pick a few pictures to make a scrapbook page out of too.
I like your laminated picture idea, how fun would that be? I'm also going to have them help me paint those big popsicle sticks and label all of the plants in our garden with them. I figure it would be something to mix this summer up a bit. I found my stash of tags, so now we'll just have to match the names to the plants. Some will be easy, but I'm not sure about a few of them....
I told Peanut that those pots would be too small, but she really wanted to use them. I think they're really too small already! I think we'll be transplanting them when we get home. I'm sure we'll find another use for those tiny pots. It was fun just painting them. I like doing these artsy projects. I plan to do a bunch of them this summer.
I've got a huge sedum plant, maybe I'll try to do a little bit of science with the kids this summer and see if they can propogate their own sedum plant? Should be a good learning experience for all of us!
Tina, Ben- We've had them pick out their own plants to care for every year. They love to help me water. I even got them each their own trowel and watering cans. It's fun to have this kind of interaction with kids. You never know when a teachable moment is going to pop up!
Gail- I was trying to be creative in naming my family without using their names and I didn't want to be insulting to them either. I couldn't come up with a good name that TBO liked so it's simply short for "The Big One". (I got tired of writing it out. He's the oldest of the two.) I know there's got to be a better nickname for him, but so far I haven't found one that meets my criteria AND he likes. Well, except Cheesehead which I already named hubby.... Any ideas?
"Ben"- It's so nice when they're being helpful and not fighting. We had a great day!
You are such a smart bunch! Cute as pie. Enjoyed looking in.
Great idea Cinj!!! The Moms are going to love them. I think gardening together is a great activity also. Have a good trip to MN.
Cinj--I was just over at Cindee's Garden, you can get there from my page cause she's just above your name....and she has a whole shoe garden. She planted them up just like you did. It looks great. I thought you might like to see how they look when someone else does it too. See...even the pros do it like you.
Hope you are enjoying your day. I guess you are at the mom's house giving the gifts. Hope it was all smiles and hugs.
The Mom's are going to be so surprised! My Mother uses old work boots :). What a great way to recycle and it's a wonderful conversation piece. It will be a great Mother's Day in WI. Your children are so precious and did a beautiful job planting, I can't wait to see everything grow!
Cinj, this is so sweet. I bet the mom's are going to be tickled pink with their gifts.
Your kids are so cute and I'm so happy to see them out in the garden.
I think this is so sweet...and what a nice surprise!
Hi all! I'm back from a grueling weekend of work. MIL had such a huge smile on her face when we gave her the shoe, it was her favorite gift out of all of them. Right after she got it she was marching around trying to find a perfect spot for it so the dogs wouldn't knock it over. I think it was a toss up for Mom though. You see, she really likes slippers and we gave her a pair of hodag slippers (and other gifts) along with the shoe. I'm not sure which she liked more, the slippers or the planter???
I was sure glad she was there to help me retrive some of my plants. I got 3 peonies, yarrow, pansies, phlox, and snow in summer. I would have liked to get more (3 clematis, 2 mini roses, delphiniums, roses, tulips, coral bells, bleeding hearts, and some lilac bushes), but Cheesehead and BIL were anxious to get going. Cheesehead also dug up one of our pine trees. Like we don't have enough pines here already. Um, I guess we're looking for some diversity in our pines??? That's okay, diversity is a good thing!
Dang! I forgot to take a picture of Peanut holding her shoe planter. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to figure something out from the shots I've already taken.
Peanut and I did our planting today, but my camera is misplaced presently so I guess I'll have to blog about it tomorrow.
I'm going to go fall into bed so I can wake before the sun again tomorrow....
What a nice project for the kids! I always enjoyed "helping" mom in the garden, even though I usually made more work for her. :) Hand-made gifts are always the best!
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