a dc scavenger hunt

I love when a new game pops into my head.  Especially one as easy as this.  

If you have the ease of a computer and digital camera this indoor scavenger 

hunt can be made in minutes.  

I began by walking around the day care and taking pictures of this and that.

I wound up with about twenty or so pictures.  

Then I went in to Microsoft Publisher, because it's my favorite, to create the cards.

You could probably do it in Word or another program I'm sure.

I chose to make a circle and fill it with a picture that I took.

I did this for all of the pictures.

Then I printed the pages of circles onto white card stock.

I also chose to use a laminating sheet over the pictures.

Next I cut them out and now I have a neat little stack of picture circles.

Now today... let's see how well these kids know their surroundings.

I'm guessing the game won't last real long.  

My older ones are pretty observant.

That's why I threw in some harder ones to find.

I hope it will really make them think.

I feel round two coming!

Go Karts

SO, we were told by some pals that there was a new go kart facility that had opened in Nashville.  We used to have a couple of outdoor tracks but to my knowledge they are history.  We decided, on Valentine's Day evening, to go a check them out.  We piled in with eight or nine friends and headed South on a very cold night.  I was glad they are indoors!  Y'all, this place is pretty cool.  We got our tickets and our head socks and helmets and went to wait in line for our eight minute ride.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  The karts run about forty miles an hour and the concrete track has twists and turns.  I actually got turned around going around corners a couple of times and wound up being the slowest of our group but hey... slow and steady wins the race.  Not really.  I didn't win.  We had a couple of ex-race car drivers in our group.
Y'all we had a blast.
So here's my review...

Location:  8  You would think this part of town would make you nervous 

but once we got there it wasn't bad at all.

Price:  6  A little high for my style but I do understand why.

Safety:  9  I wasn't uncomfortable a bit and the karts are controlled 

so if there is a wreck they slow everyone down.

Overall Fun:  10  Cause I like to go fast and live on the edge a little.

Look them up:  

Music City Indoor Karting

400 Davidson Street Suite #403

Nashville, TN 37213

Phone: 615-242-3275

Top Coat for Plants

A great way to help plants, indoor and out, look a little nicer for low cost is to add a top coat of mulch.  At WalMart, you can buy a fairly large bag of Pine Bark Mini Nuggets for around $2.50 just about any time of the year.  It simply puts a finishing touch on top instead of seeing dry dirt. 

Plus it helps the soil to retain moisture.  So it's really a win, win!

 

 

Ahhh mulch better!

 

Leave the Bugs Outside

When bringing indoor plants back inside that have spent the summer in the tropics of the outdoor world, it's a good idea to give them a light spray with a mild insecticide.  You really don't want to bring in a plant that has teeny tiny bugs on it that could spread to other plants inside and eventually could injure the life of your plants. 

 

You can choose a spray, something like this one, that is organic and approved for all plant types.  They are easy to find at WalMart in the plant section.  Give a light, over all spraying both on top and under the leaves.  I also give the soil surface a light spray for anything hibernating in the dirt.  It's important to keep your indoor plants healthy so they can help keep the air inside your home healthy!

 

 

 

 

P.S. Happy Birthday Jenn!!

 

 

 

 



Baby Tears

I am a plant girl with a pretty green thumb.  I like having plants indoors and out of doors.  I like bringing outdoor plants indoors for the winter and to see how happy they are when placed back outside.  Recently I found a plant that I had never seen while looking through a home decorating book and the more I saw it used throughout the book the more I wanted it.  I looked and looked online and at local nurseries and finally bought a plant from a dealer on Amazon. 

 

I have also, this Spring, been scouring yard sales in search of the perfect pot to house my new friend.  I first thought that I could place it in something that would fit in a crystal cake stand with lid that I have but have decided, after reading reviews, that it needs oxygen.  I wound up with four different vessels for my plant and couldn't decide which one to use.  This past Saturday it occurred to me that maybe I could divide the plant.  So I looked up videos on youtube and found one that made it look very simple.  Simple enough for me to roust up the courage to do it. 

 

I gathered my four dishes on a tray along with my plant, dirt, rocks, gloves and water bottle and headed out to the picnic table to give it a whirl.  After all, if it didn't work I might cry a little but all I could do was order another one.  I gave it my best shot and it actually was pretty easy.  I placed rocks for drainage in the bottom of my pots then potting soil on top of that.  I then pulled my Baby Tears plant apart with utmost ease and care and placed each piece in it's new home.  They are all doing great so far.  I am keeping them semi-moist and out of full window sun until they settle in good. 

 

I absolutely cannot wait to see the little plants with tiny leaves spilling over the sides and up the glass of my chosen homes. 

 

 The first four pics shown are the images from the decor book that inspired my new found desire for this precious little plant.

And this is my repotting station.  At this point my stomach was in knots.  I get a tinch nervous when repotting plants I've never dealt with before.  But it gives me a good feeling when I've done it.

My old style sprinkler and bottle.

Hard to believe it was all in that one pot! 
 

 

I bought my plant HERE.

 

 

The helpful video I found is here.
 

 

The fabulous home decor book I found this plant displayed in is HERE.

Indoor Garden Terrariums

When I told people what I made for my sisters and mom for Christmas, most of them said "wow, those are from the seventies!"  But really terrariums have made a humongo come back.  I love the idea of a self sufficient world under glass.  Once the plants are established you don't even have to water them much at all.  Maybe every few weeks and not much then.  They don't need outside oxygen and don't need a terrific amount of sun light.  It's the perfect little world.

I bought my glass containers at Wal-Mart because they were the cheapest and believe me when I say I shopped around looking for low priced ones because I was making four.  One for me and three for them.  They were in the kitchen department and ran seven and nine dollars. 

The plants I bought at Lowe's.  The moss I dug up from around Shaun's shop in the gravel.  I used a layer of gravel from the driveway on the bottom, activated charcoal, potting soil and then plants.  I stuck pretty rocks that I have found and placed them in there for character.  They all seem to be doing very well.

I will tell you that I got my courage from Martha Stewart and her very instructional videos.  Once you find one and watch it, it will bring up more and more.  I bet I watched ten of them and I was ready to roll. 

 

 

 

The charcoal can be messy!  But it keeps the stink out.

The big one was for me :) It's is 2 gallon and the others are 1 gallon.

One bought plant can be seperated into several.

 

Give it a pretty good spray down so the plants will settle in.  But not so much water on the plants themselves as trying to get it to the soil and moss.

 

 

I will say the the ferns haven't done very well, the ones that I bought.  A different kind may respond better.  And you do have to trim the plants down some so they aren't too tall.  And also they aren't supposed to touch the glass. 

 

If the inside of the jar has moisture building up it is either in a spot that's too sunny and it definately doesn't need water.  You can tilt the lid a touch and let it get a small amount of air to absorb the extra moisture. 

 

The moss that I got from the driveway has done well and little plants have popped up out of it. 

 

It really didn't take long at all once I had on the ingredients and I love the results!

Gone Fishing

Sometimes there's nothing better than a make-shift fishing pole.  I got it in me this morning to come up with some sort of fishing poles for the kids to play with today.  It's way too muddy to actually fish in the ponds.  So after I found up a coat hanger rod and wooden dowel for poles, yarn for fishing line and a jingle bell for bait, we headed outside to fish off the back porch.

After we caught all those fish we found a puddle at the end of the house.  When we caught all those fish and it was time to come inside, we got two indoor ponds (boxes) and made cut out fish with magnets on them.  You really have to have a steady hand when fishing for the indoor fish.  The magnets stick to the metal ball inside the jingle bell so it's a little tougher to do. 

These kids have had a blast and didn't want to put their poles away for nap time

 

 

 

 

Indoor Hopscotch

I am all about playing outside!  But, as we all know, weather just does not permit at times.  So to keeps kids entertained and physically active I have to get creative. 

Last week I had the thought to make a hopscotch board out of masking tape on the floor.  We have industrial carpet here at the DC so it is pretty flat.  You could also do this on tile or non-carpeted areas.  I bought a new roll of masking tape for seventy seven cents at WalMart and used a square library book as my template.  For the numbers I had to improvise and get creative with the tape.  They don't have to be perfect, they just have to resemble the numbers. 

We are using a bean bag that I made for another game and we toss it to a number.  Whatever number it lands on I ask the player to say what number it is.  The three year olds are beginning to recognize the numbers and will call them out if they know.  The younger ones get to listen to counting and will begin to mimic what they hear.  This is really fun.  Sometimes I think I have more fun at this than they do!

 

 

Indoor Plant Love

Good afternoon all! I would like to talk about indoor plant care for a minute and pass on a tip or two.

Please let me introduce Lola. Lola is my 16 year old Peace Lily or a more proper name is Spathiphyllum 'Lynise'. I don't usually name my house plants but she is pretty special. She has been repotted into bigger pots about 6 times. I have transplanted her sproutlings and watched her bloom and have enjoyed having her around.

I have several other indoor plants and some that I keep outside during the summer and inside during the winter. Every couple of months I will bring each one to the kitchen sink for grooming. I remove and clean the water catcher from underneath the pot, trim dead leaves and give them a really soaking bath. By bath I just mean that I will saturate the dirt until it pours out of the bottom. I sit the plant in the dish drainer to let all of the excess water drain out while I do all the necessary grooming. All in all the process for each plant only takes a few minutes.

Each time I groom my plants it includes a light dusting of their leaves. Dust, dust mites and allergens land and form on the leaves and stems of your plants just like on furniture but is often overlooked. When I soak my plants I simply take a moist paper towel and gently wipe each leaf off and down them stems.

Outside of my grooming ritual that I believe makes my plants very happy I water them about once a week. Now for the "tip or two" I mentioned.

1. I have found that my indoor plants tend to dry out quicker during the winter months when the air is dryer from indoor heating systems. Check your plants more often to made sure the soil isn't too dry.

2. Place mulch on top of the soil in the pot to help hold moisture in the soil.

3. Trim brown or discolored leaves from the plants. I mean they're dead anyway... get them out of there! Also don't be afraid to trim plants that tend to vine wildly. It won't hurt the rest of the plant to keep it well groomed.

4. If you own this particular type of plant then you know that after the white bloom opens and you can see the inside cone soon after it will polenate and a white dust will sprinkle the other leaves or whatever else the bloom is above. You can keep this sprinkling from occurring by cutting out the cone of the flower. I know this is part of the beauty of the plant but I dislike the dust.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!