Phila. Flower Show 2012

Every year I look forward to the spring flower show in Philadelphia. It lifts me right out of my winter funk and inspires me to be creative in my garden.

This year the theme was "Hawaii The Islands of Aloha". While everything looked amazing and the designers were very creative, I was a little disappointed. I guess there weren't enough flowers for my taste. There were a lot of colorful displays but not very many actual flowers.

Normally, I take hundreds of photos but this year I just wasn't inspired. We had to go later in the week than we usually do and it was sooo much more crowded. Makes it much more difficult to get any really good shots. Overall it was a good day. I love spending the day with my hubby no matter where we are.

Here are a few of the photos I did manage to take.

 Might try this idea on a smaller scale. Hmm....the gears are turning.

 Awesome surfboard.

 Love how they turned the tires into a colorful toucan planter.

 Another wellies idea! Oh my.

Next years show will be a British Invasion called "Brilliant". I am really looking forward to this one. I am so in love with the English style gardens. I can't wait. 

Boot-ylicious

I'm sorry for the long delay in posting this. Unfortunately I have a chronic autoimmune disease that can flare up at anytime and really knocks me off my feet. I'm on the up swing again and am excited to share with you the ideas I managed to implement during my flare.

My Easter/Spring outdoor decorations have been up since just before Easter. I wanted to do a spring showers theme and I think it turned out great. Here's the 411 on what I did.

I found these adorable children's boots at the thrift store for only .50 cents and immediately knew what I wanted to do with them.

I remembered this display I had seen at the Philadelphia Flower Show a couple years ago. I absolutely loved the idea, I just never got around to actually making it.

So this was the year I was going to get it done. I started with my thrift store find and spray painted them pink. A few coats of paint and some sealer and this is how they turned out.

I used a zip tie thru the loops of the boots to keep them together. Then using some floral foam and Dollar Store flowers, I had a cute spring decoration for my garden bench. I also found this adorable little girls dress at the same thrift store for .85 cents. I knew I wanted to display them together, but how?

As you can see below I ended up using an old wrought iron flag pole. I used clothes pins on the inside of the dress to attach it to the bench so it wouldn't blow away or twist in the wind. I've had it out there for a while now and it has held up pretty good.

I was also inspired by this idea on http://www.bhg.com

 

So, to round out my pink and white spring showers theme, I spray painted on old umbrella, (yep, you guessed it, from the thrift store) and tied a ribbon around the center. I filled it with floral foam and more Dollar Store flowers and hung it on my front door. Added a flower swag above the door and I was done.

Hope this inspires you, maybe for next year since the posting is late, to think outside the box when it comes to decorating your house. The total cost of these projects was less than 10 dollars including the paint.

Working on a couple projects I came up with while stuck in bed. Check back to see the results shortly.