Thanks for the sweet birthday notes to Mr. Sugarplum yesterday! Our son set his alarm extra early and surprised him with decorations and breakfast….could you die?! Just when you’re ready to trade them in, they pull a wildcard!
Today’s project is super duper cheap and easy.
Several months ago, the sweet and talented Shay Geyer sent me a gorgeous orchid. I watered it with ice cubes every week, but eventually the blooms died off. It’s still green and full, but I got tired of waiting for it to bloom again.
I decided to fudge Mother Nature until she kicked in. Two faux orchid stems (mine were $2 at Ikea), and some wire cutters are all you need.
Cut to desired height, and insert them directly in the dirt.
Then just gently bend the stems to follow the arch of the leaves.
Voila! An ever-blooming orchid! I’ll still water it like usual, and just remove the faux stems if when real blooms come back.
And as long as we’re faking it…remember my Elephant Air Planter? Yeah, that died. And since I’d drilled a hole in the top, I couldn’t leave it bare. Enter a faux succulent from the craft store!
Five minutes and a couple of bucks later, my coffee table is in perpetual bloom! Do you mix the faux with the real? (You can read about the blue armoire makeover here, and the real houseplants I can keep alive here.)
Now it’s your turn! We all love big room makeovers, and huge Before
& Afters, but most of us are lucky to squeeze an hour of free time
out of the weekend. So this party is all about projects we can tackle ‘In About an Hour’…crafts, organizing, recipes….you name it! Link up below, and feel free to grab my little button for your post. I’ll feature some of them next week.
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I would never think to mix faux and real. I like it! I also love that mirror tray, that look gorgeous on your table.
No shame in faux flowers! I kill everything, so while I enjoy fresh flowers and plants, I often have fake ones around the condo. I think they look great (as long as you dont get too close) haha
Your painted animals kill me they are so cute!
Since I am fixin to kill another orchid…the blooms keep dropping in spite of watering once a week and checking for dryness in between and plopping an ice cube in my Tom Thumb beauty, I think I will run up to Ikea today and get some $2 orchid petals just in case!
With love and thanks from one of your 7 no crafty no diy lurkers!
Leave it to you to put the G in Genius! I'm so doing this!
I'm still loving that little elephant! 🙂
My Mom always did this growing up. I never knew it until one day I thought I'd be helpful and water her "plants" for her. That was until she started giggling at me and asked me why I was waterng the plants because they were fake! Now I know her trip to keepin' those babies alive all year long! After my potted planted die (which should be any day!) I think I will borrow this trick!
-Sarah
I'm totally doing this! I love orchids but can never keep them alive for long!
Brilliant as ever Cassie! Are you sure we are not sisters…because this is totally something I would do:). Thanks so much for hosting this great party. xo
Cassie-I'm embarrassed to say that I read you daily, and have never commented. I love your design/decorating style! I can't tell you how many ideas you've spawned. I didn't know about the ice cube and orchid theory until you wrote about it and like you mine have kicked off blooms….NOW I'm making a trip to put faux blooms in the beautiful green leaves I still have! Traci
I love that! I have a tough time growing plants. My husband is getting really into the gardening thing, but inside the house is a different story. Our fiddle leaf fig in the breakfast room is still alive, but it did lose a few leaves at one point. And, it's not growing. Our succulents are barely hanging in there. What's crazy is that we cut a very long branch off the fiddle leaf fig and for grins stuck it in soil outside – it's growing more than the one inside! Figures. So, yeah, this is a good idea.
You're so creative! If you hadn't told us, I never would have guessed the orchid was a fake haha
Um I LOVE the ever-blooming orchid idea! It is beautiful and it looks much better than sad leaves wishing for more pretty flowers. Consider this diy copied!!!
I'm pretty sure I'd go with the fake ones all the time! They look great!
And I'm decorating for Halloween this weekend, so checking out these in about an hour crafts are going to be very, very helpful!
Totally one of those why didn't I think of that moments! I have zero patience for waiting for orchids to come back… This just saved mine and just in time! Love the artificial succulent as well, I need to snag a few of those. I thought they were supposed to live forever, but I manage to kill those too…
xo!
Jen
I have a faux/real mix in my entry hall and have for years. Most people never notice and the few that do usually have to ask if it's real or not. That said I never thought of do that with my orchid. Great idea 🙂
Sneaky, sneaky! I could have done this with my orchid that croaked last year. I got so sick of looking at it that I finally made my Mom take it to her house. Your faux succulent reminded me to make sure I hadn't killed the hens and chicks that I planted in tea tins this summer and have not watered since. Still alive. Phew!
Thanks for running this link party. I'm always looking for more great ideas to help me procrastinate!
Please remove the DIY Video that automatically starts… It's SOOOOOOOOO annoying! Or at least make it so it doesn't auto-start. I rarely click over to your page from google reader because of that stupid video and all of the ads on your site.
cassie, those orchids really look real!
You are so smart!! So far every.single.plant in my house is a fake. I absolutely suck at keeping things alive! Well, except for my kids and my dogs…somehow they've all survived.