Gardening in High Heels

Today, Amy and I are DIYing decor. I’ve been seeing those cute geometric terrariums all over. You know the ones I’m talking about. They’re usually diamond-shaped, either have glass on their sides or they’re completely open, and typically in a brass/gold finish. Oh, and they’re like $25. For a table trinket.

No, thank you. I can make that instead (Famous Last Words of a Pinterest Project).

(Speaking of “I can make that instead,” you have to see this coat rack that Amy made for $10. She has an awesome tip for finding “free” wood!)

This DIY is truly a shoestring project. If you can break a penny, you can make this geometric air plant holder.

All you really need are toothpicks and a glue gun; I added some paint as well. Side note: I can’t wait for sunnier/less windy weather so I can spray paint again. The ventilation in my garage is less than ideal.

Bonus points if your Martha Stewart paint also came from Pat Catan’s clearance section.

I started by laying out the toothpicks in the design I wanted. For the base, I placed the tiny ends against the fat ends to form a triangle. Next, I built up the pyramid with the fat ends on the bottom and the tiny ends coming to a point.

For a hanging planter, I added a second point to the other side. You can keep building it out to make it more gem-like – there’s no wrong or right way to do this.

Then, I painted and styled with my air plant. You don’t even need to paint it, but I added a some color to one or two of the sides to carry out the geometric look.

Here’s a warning about the glue: a little dab of glue is all you need – you’re just attaching toothpicks together, after all. They aren’t really that heavy-duty. My gluing got away from me just a bit. Painting the whole thing would cover that up. Since my glue gun tends to leak/drip, I just stuck the end of the toothpick in the drip and tried to wipe off the excess. Even if you failed at Glue Gunning 101, you and Lady Gaga can do this.

I feel like I cheated, it was that easy.

Caring for an air plant is super easy, too.

It really doesn’t need much attention. Because it gets its moisture from the air, though, it does need a little more TLC when the weather is dry.

When that happens, I soak my air plant in a cup of water for about an hour once a week. Place it in the water upside down and make sure the plant is submerged. When you remove it, dry it upside down. Water that sits in the plant can cause it to rot.

If it’s relatively humid, you can get away with spritzing it with a fine mist when it looks thirsty (mine right now needs to be watered – it’s looking a little ashy), but keep an eye out for warning signs.

How can you read the warning signs? Garden Therapy has a great how-to guide for reviving sad air plants. (I also have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to gardening and plants. I kill (almost) every succulent I bring into my house; I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get.

Do you have air plants? Where do they live?

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