Test tube vase garland...

I bought some glass test tubes a little while ago now as I had been meaning to make a little garland with them. Yesterday I finally put it together and it was so quick and easy to do. I love how it looks with a few different flowers picked from the garden. I thought I'd share some steps on how I made it too!

You will need:

Glass rimmed test tubes
Thin-ish wire
Wire cutters

First cut a piece of wire long enough for the length of the finished garland. Wrap the wire around the top of the test tube overlapping (as shown above) Then pull the wire tightly around the top and twist over in opposite directions to secure the tube in place.

Continue to secure all the test tubes in place leaving an even gap between each. I started in the centre of the wire with mine to make sure the leftover wire was the same length on each end!

Pin the wire ends to the wall, fill each tube with a little water, pop in some flowers and your done!

Whilst I was looking for test tubes on eBay, I also found these little tiny ones and couldn't resist getting them to make this mini vase garland - perfect for daisy's picked from the kids!

Hope your all having a good week. You can still enter my giveaway here. xx

Nature in the home

The task for this weeks nature in the home was wreath. Since I already had a wreath for the front door I thought it would be nice to make something for inside the house. I put together this little decoration for the wall in my living room using some branches I trimmed from our Christmas tree. It was so quick and easy to do and looks quite pretty brightening up a blank wall space over the festive season.

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Nature in the home...

This week for nature in the home Lou had set the task of garlands or something for the wall. I had bought some Ilex for a Christmassy display this week and couldn't resist threading a few of the berries on some cotton like little beads. I mixed them with a few other berries and a few little sprigs of holly from the garden too. I have no idea how long they will last like this, but I did love making it!

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

There's still time to enter my giveaway to win a Lucie Kaas lotus print bowl and some chalkboard stickers! x

Nature in the home...

This is the last little rose from our garden. I thought I would pick it to enjoy indoors as it cant really be seen outside. I made a little hanging vase by wrapping some thin wire around the neck of this bottle I saved and then pinned it on to the wall next to some triangle stickers. It makes a nice change from just putting it on the mantle like I normally would and it smells gorgeous too!

Joining in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series. xx

Nature in the home

We collected some little acorn tops when we went to the park last week. There weren't so many acorns to be found - I think they had already been snaffled away, but there were lots of tops!

As pretty as they are already, I kind of wanted to do something with them so I made them into some little mini bowls. I sanded the bottom of each one a little so they sat upright and then I painted the insides with Acrylic paint. I quite like how they turned out - I'm not exactly sure what to do with them, but they do look quite cute sat on the fireplace with the pumpkins and gourds we bought at the farm shop this week.

Nature in the home

Yay nature in the home with Lou of little green shed is back! I'm looking forward to joining in again with the new Autumn series

We came across all these conkers by accident the other day when walking back to the car after a Dr's appointment. We saw a few laying on all the leaves and when we looked a little closer we realised there were loads of them and filled all our pockets, carrying as many as we could back with us. It still brings back the excitement of finding conkers as a kid - like finding a little shiny gem amongst the leaves! I guess no one else had thought to look for them there. We weren't nearly as successful on our conker search at the park last week!

I quite like them simply sitting in this heart shaped bowl at home - plus they are keeping the spiders at bay. Or is that just an old wives tale?!

Nature in the home - round

I just love these big sunflowers I bought this week, they're so sunny and cheerful. I definitely think they fit in with Lou's theme of round this week, with their huge circular centres. I've put them by my little shelf space and had to include a picture of them there, to show just how big they are. The stems look giant when magnified in the vase like that!

We have grown our own sunflowers from seed this year too, though they're still looking pretty small at the moment. Hopefully we will at some point, get some big sunny flowers in our garden too.

Linking in with lovely Lou of little green shed and the last of her Spring/Summer nature in the home series. I'm looking forward to joining in again after the summer break with the Autumn series. x

Nature in the home - simple

I don't seem to have so many flowers in the garden this month, most of my lovely blooms seem to have faded for now! So I collected some of the many fallen eucalyptus leaves, which I of course had to put in rainbow order. I then threaded them with some cotton to make it into a little garland. A simple and pretty decoration now hanging in our home.

Joining in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Nature in the home - white

These pretty white flowers (sorry I don't know what they're called!) were separated from a larger bunch I bought for myself this week. I'm slightly obsessed with saving all my jars and bottles lately, they make such perfect little vases and look quite sweet when decorated with pieces of lace, twine or washi tape too!

Linking in with lovely Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡

You can still enter my giveaway here. xx

Nature in the home - a gift

Some little gifts of daisy's and chives from the garden, picked for me by Elizabeth.

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Nature in the home - hedgerow

Linking in again with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series - this week Lou set us the theme of hedgerow.

These were picked on our visit to the local park yesterday, walking the long way round by the hedges, instead of our usual short cut through the field. We found mostly cow parsley, but then at the end of our walk found a little hidden pathway off the field and it was there that I found all the pretty buttercups.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿ 

Nature in the home - green

Some greenery picked from the garden this week, in the first pics - plus just a little purple as I love these pretty chives nearly ready to open! Also some sea kale snaffled from the beach yesterday. I'm thinking it actually makes quite a nice flower arrangement - smells a little cabbagey though!

Linking in with lovely Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Pics from my Instagram @caroline_south

Nature in the home...

Linking in again with lovely Lou of little green shed and her Nature in the home series. Lou had encouraged us to go forage some more this week, so we have been exploring for some bits and pieces beyond our garden! These feathers were all found this weekend at a country park we went to. Elizabeth loved doing this with me, getting excited when we found a pretty coloured one.

The beach treasures were also found this week - the handless and slightly chewed diver man not so natural, but definitely had to be included! I also had to show some pics of the E planter I did a few weeks ago. I have left it on the bathroom windowsill since I planted it and remembered to give it a little water occasionally and its grown loads. I really thought all those little succulent pieces would just die after I had separated them!

I was a bit surprised to discover my 'hello May' picture from last weeks post had been used by so many other people on Instagram as their own. I do find it a bit strange when people on there just take others pictures and say they had taken it themselves. I'm always more than happy for people to share my pics, but it would have been nice if they had just put a credit! I have seen others I follow on there have problems with people using their pics - though I guess didn't think people would take mine. I realised from one that it had been posted on Tumblr and had a crazy (but lovely) 35'000 notes so I think people had maybe seen it from there. Anyhow enough rambling but it does make you wonder if other images have been used like that too - I only realised as I happen to come across one of them!

Also a big thank you for all your wonderful comments and messages lately, they really mean a lot. xx

Nature in the home

Some more bits and pieces found in the garden again this week. The bluebells are all coming out now, and a few pretty white ones too - I didn't realise you could even get white ones! I just love these huge white tulips and the little bunch of dandelions were picked for me by Elizabeth.

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Nature in the home

Encouraged by Lou this week to forage, these were all found in our garden. We have a little patch of wild and self seeded flowers at the top of our garden amongst the grass, like these forget-me-not's and pretty yellow celandine. I managed to go around them when I did our first mow this week and so some of these come from there. I also found our first bluebell and a couple of periwinkles tucked behind some bushes too - hidden away from any little perfume making hands!

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.

Nature in the home

I have been putting a few bits and bobs up next to my little workspace this week, brightening the place up and hopefully giving me some inspiration. As well as taping these dried flowers and seed pods to the wall I thought I would also make somewhere I could keep a fresh flower or two. I just simply wrapped some wool around a test tube and pinned it to the wall. I quite like the idea of being able to change it as new things appear in the garden.

Linking in with Lou of little green shed and her nature in the home series.