NEO: Succulents and Orange Art

Such ironing woes from all of you!!  Leaky, cheap-o, and non-steaming irons are the pits.  I wish every one of you a new iron in your life!

This is the art cupboard in the Never Enough Orange Studio that holds all the papers and supplies we use around here--no fabric or sewing notions.  At first I thought I'd have the kids just do artwork, but it's rather a large space, so I filled it in using a few different sources.

Kids artwork: I gathered the kids and gave them predominantly orange paint to use and told them I wanted the whole space filled on their paper.  They loved having a purpose and knowledge that this would go up in the Studio.

Photos:  I went through my photo archives and found a few that had a lot of orange in them and had them enlarged and just put them up with double stick tape.  They don't need to be anything spectacular, like my close-up of an orange cosmo, or the kids wearing orange.  Just take a stroll around your house to find objects of a similar color and snap a shot really close up.

Free Art:  One of my favorite places for free art is Feed Your Soul: the Free Art Project.  It is a site where artists are invited to submit artwork that will be available as a free download for personal use.  I went through and printed off some that had orange and taped them up among the rest of my art.

Canvas:  Olive painted the giant goldfish about a year ago and I just put it up using those "Command Adhesive Strips" normally used for temporary hooks and it's held up really well for a week or so now.  The other little canvas came from my mother-in-law that she was getting rid of, but you can always check out second hand stores or even cover embroidery hoops with fabric to hang up.

The key: the possibilities are endless of what you can use to decorate a space with artwork, but using a single color will help unify a diverse group of art pieces.

What's on top?  

These are money banks that my brother-in-law made for the kids.  

The hollow glass blocks can be purchased at home improvement stores and the names are just vinyl letters, although you could etch the names on for a more subtle look.  He cut a slit in the top [with a tile saw and a water cooled blade] to slip in those little earned [and found] coins.  

 If you don't want to invest in the tools and time to make these, you can also find blank banks online at places like this.

I am a sucker for succulents!  Succulents are a great, low-maintenance plant that come in such a huge variety, I had a hard time choosing just a few.

Originally I planned on planting them in the drinking glasses, but it wouldn't have a drainage hole, and I wasn't willing to drill into my glass set.  I ended up just setting the pots on top, wrapping the top with electricians tape, which is easy to find and inexpensive, however they don't have orange!  The nerve.  I settled for red.

The easiest way to water them is just tuck an ice cub in the pot=no water spillage!

Things are coming along, but I still have so many projects I want to do.  The space already gets well utilized.  I love how Clover will come in while I'm sewing and make me some "soup" on the freshly made-over play kitchen.