Mom's day

I love mother's day. I've had some great ones in my five (this will be my sixth) years of being a mama! I love hanging with my little family and getting to relax a bit, but my favorite way to spend mother's day is with my own mom. It seems we've been lucky enough the last few years to get some great weather so we often enjoy some time on my parents' amazing patio, playing games and lounging. Sadly, that won't be the case this year due to the Season Of Endless Rain. But we will make our own (indoor) fun. My mom makes everything fun. She is smart and beautiful and loves to laugh. She adores my boys. She is an amazing cook. There's never a dull moment when she's around. She is my best friend. Love her. 

Here's my gift to her this year:

A living succulent wreath, handmade by me! My mom and I both adore succulents and have eyed these wreaths in magazines and at the home and garden shows lately. I've been wanting to attempt to make one since I don't have $100 to spend on one, gorgeous though they may be. I'm hoping she will love this gift.

I found an easy tutorial at prudent baby and followed it pretty closely. Here's what I bought:

wreath form, craft store 

bag of moss, fred meyer's 

4 succulent plants to supplement my clippings

floral wire, fred meyer's 

2 packages of bobby pins 

First I wandered around outside (in the pouring rain) with a bag and some scissors and took little clippings of all my existing succulents. You can plant these little sections and they will each grow into a new plant! This is how my little collection has grown over the last year or so. I don't have a ton of variety yet, which is why I bought some from the store (which I separated and also clipped) to add to the wreath. 

Let these clippings air dry for a day or two to form a sort of scab over the cut part.

Next I soaked the moss in a big bowl of water for ten minutes or so, then started stuffing it into the back side of the wreath form. I made sure it was stuffed really full and tight, then wrapped the floral wire all around the moss to hold it in place. Then I did the same for the front side and added more wire. 

To add the plants I used a pencil to "drill" a hole into the moss, then placed the little stem into the hole and used a slightly bent open bobby pin to secure the stem. Don't poke the bobby pin through the stem, just around it. Repeat a zillion times with all your little succulents! They look pretty arranged in sections of similar plants. The wreath on Prudent Baby is so gorgeous... she has such an amazing variety of colorful succulents. 

Mine are a bit more basic, but it still turned out so pretty! I started with the bigger plants...

...then filled in with smaller ones.

Ta-da!! All finished. This took a couple hours to make, but I had a lot of fun with it. Got pretty dirty though. It would be a much better outside project, but when its 45 and raining sideways the kitchen counter and lots of newspaper will just have to do.

Happy mother's day to my mom and all the other amazing mamas out there!