Obsessed with Living Walls

Architecture + plants + sunlight = fabulosity.  Here, see for yourself!  Can this be done at our new house??

Show Schedule for Spring

We’re so excited because we’ve been re-accepted into the White Rock Local Market (alternatively known as the Green Spot Market because of the gas station on that corner). 

Date is Saturday, March 10 from 8:00 am till 1:00 (might be till 2:00 if it’s a beautiful day) with a whole heaping helping of NEW hypertufa, wood, glass, jewelry and just cool things for you to use to beautiful your home and office, or to give as gifts to those deserving folks in your life.  (like teachers!)  I have a bunch of sweet little vase-lets with live plants for less than $15 that I hope you’ll squee over.  Also some larger-format table pieces that utilize driftwood from White Rock Lake.  I think that might be about as local as it gets. 

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Later in the Spring, going into summer I daresay, we’ll proudly be representing our neighborhood at the East Dallas Art and Garden Tour on Sunday, May 20!

http://www.facebook.com/lottie.minick#!/pages/White-Rock-East-Garden-Tour-Artisans/168226656563549

This annual event is not to be missed, whether you’re into gardening, art, architecture, snooping into the lives of others… ha ha, just kidding there… but truly this is one of the more interesting and edifying of the many home tours that are offered in Dallas every year.  There are nine gardens on offer, three from each of three East Dallas neighborhoods – Forest Hills, Little Forest Hills, and Casa Linda.  Since there is such a concentration of artsy/craftsy/outdoorsy folks living in those areas, the results of the tour are often very pleasantly surprising.

We’ll update the blog to let you know exactly which house you will be able to find us, with our concrete/hypertufa pots and wood sculptures.

‘Branching out’ with new work

If a tree falls in a lake in the middle of Dallas, does anyone take much notice? I kind of do, but that’s why I’m weird.  Maybe you will too once I make something pretty out of it? 

 How about these, for instance?
 

These pieces of wood came from White Rock Lake, fished out by yours truly and hauled off to my evil lair and workshop, a mere mile away.  This is doing the lake a favor too – it does not need as many rotting branches and roots as end up there (but I leave plenty for the ducks to roost in, no worries!) I think they are just beautiful as a centerpiece, bringing nature indoors.  cau

Bulb planters…

…a bright idea?  All I know is this:  I’m reusing old dead lightbulbs (which are in abundance in the freecycle community because they are hard to dispose of properly) and grass and sedum from the backyard = Cuteness!   Could not believe how well the plants are doing after only 3.5 weeks.  Both have literally doubled and are now poking out the top – the grass is putting on seed.  Awww, it’s happy! 

Why buy local?

This is something you probably are hearing more and more these days – “Buy local!  Be a locavore!  Keep it Local!  Support your Local Shops/markets/vendors/stores/artists!”  And you nod your head, saying, ‘yeah, that sounds good.  I should do that.’  But then you might be secretly thinking, ‘what does it really matter?  What if I really *want* those raspberries from New Zealand in the middle of winter when I know they had to travel halfway around the world and it’s not natural?’  Well, part of the answer to that particular question has more to do with the cost of travel for those raspberries – moreover the environmental cost of the gas and oil that went into the boats and trucks that brought those berries to the market.  By increasing demand for fossil fuels (not to mention exhaust and pollution), we contribute to destabilization of our world economy.  So now maybe we’ll decide instead to buy the strawberries from Mexico (not so far) or grapefruits from south Texas.  Better still! 

So why should one buy their crafts and gifts locally? Same reason, but let me take it a step farther.  If you bought a concrete pot from Lowes of Home Depot (assuming you could even find one there!) you’d be paying for those transportation costs, in addition to extra $$ profit for the store (retail markup).  Add to that the sure assumption that your pot will NOT be the only one of its kind gracing the front porches or window sills of Dallas homes.  You will have a copy-cutter pot.

If you buy from me and my wonderful partner Steve, you get to feel great knowing that your purchase is one of a kind.  You also get to ask all kinds of questions, or email us later if you forget something we might have discussed (like, how often do I need to water that rock plant?) And finally, you get to feel good that we’re not overcharging you for something really cool.  The money we make will go back into our *local* economy, either by helping us buy local real estate (good!), buy local food (support our fellow growers!) and yes, even buy more local art to support others we we admire.  It’s nice to keep it local because… it’s nice.  Sorry if that sounded like a lecture.  We truly appreciate your business and hope you will feel really good about your associations with us.

So this is one of my all-time favorite songs; is it any wonder folks sometimes call me an earth-mama, tree-hugger, hippy weirdo?  I sometime wish I had long hair like Joan Baez or Joni here, so I could let my freak flag fly! 

They took all the trees
Put ’em in a tree museum *
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT * now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

I *heart* tiny terrariums!

Or is it ‘terrareaia’?  They are so cool either way.  I am working on my own line, but must give credit for inspiration where it’s due.  Here are some items from a store on Etsy called Tiny Terrains (terrific name!) – find them here but please also buy from me, ’cause I’m local and won’t charge you for shipping!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/TinyTerrains  Also, there are a number of good reasons for buying local.  Please check them out in my next post… Thanks dears!