Check out our most recent project for a partnership with Ecofabulous and the ebay Green Team! The Green Team has a super cool blog and we are proud that Kim has been featured as an expert. {for the original post click here}

By Zem Joaquin, Founder and CEO, Ecofabulous

I’m a huge fan of both creative reuse and surrounding yourself with plants and foliage indoors. Not only does it increase the indoor air quality but I believe that bringing a bit of nature indoors is good for our emotional well-being too. At the ecofabulous office we’ve all got little succulents on the desks!

When I asked one of our newest contributors at ecofabulous, Kim Foren of Geranium Lake Flowers & Events in Portland, Oregon, for some tips and tricks on easy plant ideas for the office to share with Green Team readers, I was blown away by what she came up with. These ideas are incredibly easy to recreate and add a bit of charm to any space. And now – here’s Kim…

“Succulents are easy plants that require little upkeep, making for great house plants and gifts! The first step (and I believe the most fun) is choosing the containers. Rather than go with conventional pots, kick it up a notch and upcycle unique vintage bowls, creamers, or vases – the options are really endless.”

Shown here are a collection of sugar bowls and cream pitchers that are vintage Belleek china pieces that were filled with simple succulent plants.

Erica Ann Photography

Try using vintage coffee cans, fruit crates, vintage ball jars or as shown here a 1971 Ritz Cracker container filled with vegetable starts that make a perfect gift for your gardener friends. Instead of using a glass vase for flowers on your dinner table, vintage white milk depression glass cups work even better! Anything old and vintage brings charm to a table setting and looks wonderful on porch steps.

Erica Ann Photography

Once you have your containers, planting and caring for your plants couldn’t be easier – no green thumb required. Here are my tips for success:

- When filling your vintage upcycled containers, find smaller scale plants in 2″ or 4″ pots – you can even use small tray packs.

- Carefully remove the plant from its container (a spoon is useful here) and place them in your great “find.”

- Depending on the size of your container you might be need to add a little potting soil to fill in the gap. For succulents, stick to a desert mix potting soil.

- If your container is large enough, put a thin layer of pebbles at the bottom of the container to help drainage.

- When using succulents (echeveria) cuttings, fill containers with potting soil up to the top then place cut succulent in soil (They root easily – it only takes about 3 weeks).

- Water succulents infrequently, approximately once or twice a month.
Be careful not to over water the plants since the water can’t escape from the container.
Succulents can live in these containers for quite awhile, but do require full access to the bright sun

See more ideas from Kim in her column, “Wild, Styled West” on ecofabulous.com.

Today’s segment on KPTV {with the adorable Kimberly Maus} featured the following DIY crafts:

DIY Shirt Cards - click here for detailed instructions

Upcycled Aprons {double bonus: you get to clean out Dad’s old T shirt drawer!}

This super cute apron is an easy way to create a personalized gift for Dad.

1. Find an old apron {a few stains are ok!} and raid Dad’s closet for favorite T’s that deserve retiring.  T’s with holes and misc stains are perfect since we are only using the printed parts.

2. Grab your scissors and begin to cut out the parts of the shirts that you want to use on the apron. Hint: be sure to cut close to, but not ON, the lettering {we’ll tell you why later}.

3. Place the cut T shirt bits creatively across the apron {this is a great time to cover an old stain if you need to!}.

4. Use a simple sewing machine to stitch the perimeter of each bit.  {Don’t try to run your needle over anything that has been printed on because it seems to bunch up to fabric and caused us some headaches!  This is why you want to leave a little cotton perimeter when you’re cutting out your bits}

5. Pat yourself on the back!  You’re done – and Dad will be thrilled that his T’s will live on for another few decades!

BBQ Worthy Oven Mits

Oven mitts tell Dad that you a) love him and don’t want him to burn himself over the grill and 2) that you’re ready for BBQ!  Here’s a quick how-to:

1. Purchase oven-mitt quality fabric {JoAnns or Fabric Depot are great!} and a complimentary, pattern or color that fits your Dad to a T.

2. For a pattern, you can either use an oven mitt from home or “guestimate” like we did by tracing and exaggerated  version of your own hand.  Then use your pattern to cut 2 sides out of your heat resistant fabric.

3. Use the same pattern but exaggerate a bit more to cut 1 side of the mitt from the patterned fabric {pay attention to which side this fabric will go on because this will determine the hand that fits the mitt}

4.  Sew 1 heat resistant piece and the patterned piece together.

5.  Now we’re ready to sew the remaining pieces together.  {Hint: at this point you should have 1 side that is backed with patterned fabric and one that is bare}.  Sew them inside out.

6.  Finish your exposed pieces {where your hand enters the glove} and…  you’re done!  Now, get BBQ’ing!

PS. If our instructions are too difficult, click here for another version of the same project.

Beer Coozies

Super cute, and waaaaay easy…

1. Grab some felt and extra accessories {buttons, letters, ribbon, etc} at your favorite craft/fabric store.

2. Cut the felt into aprox 3 inch strips, enough to wrap around a beer or soda bottle.

3. Now decorate!  Use your imagination… Dad’s favorite sports team, hobby, colors, etc. provide a ton of inspiration to make these coozies personal.  We used our hot glue gun to attach each element and then also to seam the backside.

4. Done!

Easy Snack Bags

Snacks are always appreciated by Dad and this craft doesn’t even require instructions!  We filled an antique Ritz Cracker tin with goodies like Tillamook cheese, CornNuts, summer sausage, etc.  We created cute little tags like “Daddy O Snacks” to personalize it even more.

So, you’re contemplating the best time to drop by for our open house?  Well, we’ve gone a little wild with the schedule of festivities so here’s a little rundown of what’s happening & when… All you have to do is see what looks the most interesting to you, call 10 of your closest friends, and come on in!

Geranium Lake Flowers from Galaxy Sailor on Vimeo.

Join us to celebrate and “warm” our new, 5000 sqft flower shop/event space! We can’t wait to share some bubbly with you and toast to bigger and better things to come.

June 17, 2011
12p-8p

One of the coolest new things that we’re doing here in our fabulous new space is… hosting DIY classes! We are so excited to host our first one at the end of this month {How to create a living succulent wreath} and we look forward to all of the cool things we’ll be making this summer. Join us!

Our first one is…

Tuesday, May 31st

Join us for a fun evening learning how to make your own “Living Succulent Wreath”! These gorgeous wreaths are the “IT” decor of the season. Refreshments provided.

When: 7-9pm
Instruction & Refreshments: complimentary
Instructors; Owner Kim Foren
Supplies: available for purchase at class {$45-75 depending on scale and plant selection}
Limit 24 wreath makers

Call 503.228.1920 to sign up – space is limited…

In case you missed it yesterday, here’s Kim on KPTV!

Untitled from Natalie Thorn on Vimeo.

Happy “New Store Monday”! We are having so much fun in our new store and we’d love to show it off a bit… Take a peek at some photos that Altura Studio shot this weekend – or better yet, come by and check it out for yourself! We know you’ll love it…

A big thanks to Altura Studio for the lovely pics!

And don’t be shy… if you’ve ever dreamed of having an event in a flower shop, call us! We are booking now!

Stay tuned for details on upcoming events, parties, and classes here in the shop. We’ll be having a Grand Opening event in June and we’ve already begun filling our calendar with classes taught by both Kim and local experts on everything from making a living wreath to plant care. More details to come…

It’s coming together! Any guesses as to what we’re these things are and what we’re doing with them?

It seems like this week our construction team is buzzing through work! All of a sudden the floors are done, the paint is up and we got a preview of what some of our fabulous curtain walls will look like once they’re all hung. All in all, it’s coming together and we are proud to share a peek of what’s inside…

We were so looking forward to this unique wedding and the end result  makes us swoon! The bride is an ordained priestess by the Fellowship of Isis so that’s part of the back story on the Egypt theme and they threw in a little steampunk for good measure. The event was full of gothic touches and the details are spot on.   This wedding is not our usual, traditional wedding work, but it is Portland-style at it’s best and we were so happy to get out of our “box” to participate.

Here’s what the bride had to say:

“I’m finishing my PhD in nineteenth century literature at UCLA, hence the Victorian theme.  I think the term Steampunk encompasses all our many themes, since there is a lot of crossover between the goth scene and Steampunk.  Lots of Egyptian elements in the goth scene too so it all kind of flowed.  We were trying to break out of our goth style and go with something a little different – Steampunk was a new arena for us. We loved the rustic feel of the Octagonal Barn and, at a hundred years old, it fit in with the Steampunk era.  The flower ceremony which Fritz photographed, in which every guest selected a flower to bless and then place on our altar, was a modified form of an Egyptian ceremony. ”

Thank you, Lana, for allowing us to be part of your unique, creative and fabulous day!

The ceremony took place at the Octagon Barn at the Cornelius Pass Road House, which was the perfect setting!

Obviously, the bride’s wedding gown was very special.  The dress came from a designer named Romantic Threads.

Traditional scarabs were used throughout the ceremony and reception.

The bride and groom hand-painted each of the paper-clay scarab favors and dated the back of each with their wedding date.