Rob and I have gotten to where we go to the flea markets an awful lot. We actually went 2 days in a row to 2 different ones a few weeks ago, largely so that we can work on better socializing Ollie with strangers. You see he’s always a bit wary of new people and lots of times will even get very frightened and start to bark. His obedience classes at PetSmart are doing worlds of good for him in this regard but the people at PetSmart generally like being around animals and are pleased to see him.
Knowing that not everybody wants a big ol’ dog all up in their business we took him to the Harlingen Market Days and had such a good time! We were so proud that he didn’t bark once. There was an older gentleman who started to push himself up on Ollie but quickly realized that he was making him uncomfortable and instead stepped back and spoke to him for a while before telling me I had a beautiful boy and continuing on his way.
That day was such a good day! Ollie got to make the rounds and Rob got some good exercise toting him around :) We all shared a smoked turkey leg and Rob and I had some street corn, too. Oh, and I bought up some air plants to go with some glass holders I have had for ages but haven’t used, yet.
I love the idea of plants more than actually having them because I kill them. But I’ve had air plants in the past and they did really well for me because they require so little in care. Spritz them with water every now and again and let them have some sunlight and you’re pretty well set. But when I put my new little plants in their new little homes they looked so boring and I wanted to add some color. Luckily I’ve been marbling everything left and right so it was super easy to pep these guys up a bit!
For this project you will need:
- Glass air plant holders
- Fingernail polish
- Distilled water
- Nail polish remover/razor blade
These guys really are so simple. Plain glass and the look is fab in a more contemporary home but I wanted some color! I snagged these at Hobby Lobby but be warned the glass is really, really thin. I’ve already cracked the loop for the taller one and I’d barely handled them up to that point. It still hangs but I don’t know for how long. There are lots you can get at Amazon for good prices with great reviews. I’d totally get mine there in the future.
You’ll need a bowl of distilled water to marble with. Take your fingernail polish and pour drops onto the water carefully. The paint will spread or you can use a stick like a toothpick or wooden skewer to swirl the paint around and make your marbled pattern.
Use your stick (I’m using a length of jewelry making wire) to clean up the paint from the water by swirling around the top. The paint will glob together making it fairly easy to clean up.
Since I needed a big area of paint I took a lot of paint and dribbled it all over the surface.
Carefully dipping inside I marbled my first piece BUT I didn’t think to protect the inside. Womp. Womp. That meant I had a lot to clean inside and that kind of sucked so tape the insides off!
Now if you aren’t happy with your design you can quickly remove it, once dry, by scraping it with a sharp razor blade (please be very, very careful!)
And fingernail polish remover works, too, but there are the fumes and it takes quite a bit of time this way. For the inside, should you not tape it off, you’ll need to do it this way, anyway.
Since I wanted to test out methods of removing the paint I started over on my circular globe and this time went with blues that will be well suited for my bedroom. It looks beachy and I love it!
Each globe has a little bit of dirt and the plant set down on top. They are spritzed with water every week and they are thriving. Now I was told by the person I bought the plants from that it’s so much better to rest the plants than hot glue them. Would you want to be hot glued to something? She said she feels that the plants do better and that a little bit of dirt underneath seems to help them do very well, indeed! She was sweet enough to give me a little paper bag of dirt so, if you’re purchasing from an individual, ask if they have something similar for your plants.
I wanted for my plants to come out of the globes a little bit and I’m really happy with the look.
The larger of my 2 plants could easily be squeezed inside but I like it peeking out :)
I hung my pink marbled glass air plant holder from a cast iron hand I have here in my office and I’m in love! The little pop of color makes these guys so much more “me” and in your fave colors can make yours more “you”! :)
I can understand in part of Ollie being frightened by strangers, or even just new people. I can relate. As often as I like to “talk” here on your blog and be sociable, I am still quite shy and I’m usually quite reserved when it comes to being around strangers. You could almost say that I’m painfully shy in certain situations and can feel a panic attack about to emerge if I’m in a situation where I’m really uncomfortable. I’ve had some… not too good experiences when I was little involving such situations so I attribute much of this temperament to that. But I digress.
But I’m happy to hear that Ollie’s doing better with being around new people and that his obedience classes are helping him. :)
With you, Rob and Ollie going to flea markets on a regular basis probably helps Ollie get more used to being around different people. So this is good! I hope he continues to get better with this. And I think that Ollie is probably one of few dogs that I wouldn’t be afraid of if I ever met him in person. See, I’m a little… apprehensive around dogs myself and often times will cross the street if I see someone with a dog walking to create as much distance as I can between myself and the dog walker. Not wanting to sound offensive or anything, but most dogs do make me nervous (especially if they bark at me). But I have a feeling that Ollie and I would “get” each other. :)
Oooh, and nice plants! Very cute Allison! I’m a plant lover myself and we have several houseplants in our apartment and I’m sort of their caretaker as I’m the one that waters them and makes sure that they get plenty of sunlight. Recently, two of my friends gave me their plants to care for because they said that they weren’t doing so well in their own homes and have heard that our plants have so much vitality that they wanted to give them me to see if I could “bring them back to life”, if you will. I think they’re doing better! I’m guessing that the conditions in our apartment are just right as it’s well insolated and our patio door (where they all sit) is big enough so that they can all soak up some major rays and not get cold from the outside air. My pride and joy is my spider plant which is notoriously known to sprout “babies” when the conditions are just right. They must be right in the apartment because this sucker has like 15 little spider plants sprouting from it! I don’t know what I’m doing but whatever it is, they must like it because they’re even getting bigger. And while the growth process of plants is still a big mystery, by just providing the three basic elements that a plant needs (air, water and sunlight), most plants I think respond well and will grow. That and loving them as I believe that they can sense that too. And I do love my little guys! :)
Good luck with your plants Allison! I’m sure they’ll be fine. :)
Allison, Ollie is so cute and I’m glad he is learning his social skills. I love the pops of color in your planters. Pat S