grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Vintage Coffee Tin Succulents. My new fav!

July 3, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

There’s a saying in the South that if it isn’t nailed down, we southerners will monogram it. I have my own saying. If it isn’t nailed down, I’m gonna plant something in it. My newest obsession is planting succulents in vintage coffee tins. And if you think about it, the tins are already monogrammed with the company’s label/artwork. Love, love, love.

Here’s one of my favorites—Summer Girl Coffee. How perfect is this? Technically I’m a “summer girl” born almost on the 4th of July. And I’m guzzling coffee while you read this.

Look at the history on this can. “Roasted and Packed by the H. D. Lee Mercantile Company”. H. D. Lee Mercantile was founded in 1889 in Salina, Kansas. This was the first company to manufacture overalls and the zipper fly jean. Today the company makes Lee Rider but no coffee to my knowledge.

Here’s my other favorite.

I chose this one mainly for the colors and the little old Aunt Bea looking lady on the front.

I found these two tins at Long Ago Antiques on Huntsville Road in Fayetteville (one of my favorite places to shop for antiques and vintage items). Similar tins are available on Ebay, often in a group of four or five. Prices vary so look around. Tip: look for ones without lids to save a few dollars.

To preserve the value of vintage tins, I prefer not to drill drainage holes in the bottom, so I added a layer of charcoal in the bottom instead. (Buy the charcoal at your local nursery—it’s not lump charcoal used to grill.) Some of the old tins come with holes rusted in the bottom which solves the drainage issue. Succulents don’t need that much water, so I find they survive quite well with charcoal.

Top with pebbles or moss for aesthetic purposes. I think the rock highlights the plant better.

Voila! Perfect on the porch. I’m taking orders. Not really, but maybe.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]These #vintage coffee tin #succulents will rock your world. #gardenchat #growsomething @WestwoodGardens[/tweetthis]

[tweetthis]If it isn’t nailed down, plant something in it. #Vintage Coffee Tin #Succulents! @allsucculents @iPlantPerfect[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Queen, We Will Rock You

#RandomLoveLetter Bookmarks

July 1, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

My friend Sarah, who blogs at Random Love Letter to Adventure, has been participating in a #RandomLoveLetter Instagram Challenge during the month of June. The idea behind this IG micro-challenge is to leave a note, a “random love letter”, in a public place for someone to find. Something unexpected to brighten someone’s day. As usual, I’m extremely late to the party, but on Sunday I became inspired to create #RandomLoveLetter Bookmarks to leave in each of the books in my Little Free Library.

This was a simple craft project especially since I had this incredible notepad from SugarBoo Designs purchased at Shindig Paperie in Fayetteville. There’s an inspirational saying or quote at the bottom of each page.

Not only is each page already perforated, there’s also a hole on one end begging for a ribbon. (If you don’t want to buy such a notepad, you could type up your own, right?)

This project is justification for saving every scrap of ribbon you happen upon all the live-long year. Not that I do that:) And the packages of vintage rick-rack you weren’t sure how you would use? Bingo.

Those ink stamps? Use them!

For a completely spur of the moment project, this turned out to be really fun. I made enough bookmarks for every book in my Little Free Library plus a few for later.

Speaking of books...I’m doing pretty well working my way through my “not so typical” summer reading list. If you missed my summer reading list click HERE.

So far I’ve finished The Girl on the Train (★★★★), The Deep Green Sea (★★★★), The Pleasure of My Company (★★★★), Hold Still Sally Mann (★★★), The Life and Adventures of an Arkansaw Doctor (★★★). I’ve also read a few that weren’t on my list including The Vacationers (★★★), Biography of Marilyn Monroe (★★★), and Stoning the Devil (★★★★).

What’s everyone reading?

Happy July 1! (Can you believe it’s July?)

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]A great reason to break out the #craft supplies! @Sarahdshotts @LtlFreeLibrary #RandomLoveLetter #summer #read [/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Love Letter, Bangin’ Rackettes

The Patriotic Porch

June 29, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Last week I shared a few easy ways to decorate your house and garden for the 4th of July. If you missed it, click HERE. Today, I’m focusing on the porch. A patriotic porch extends summer’s favorite celebration beyond the inside of your home.

We are lucky to have three porches—a front wraparound porch, a back screened porch, and a sleeping porch upstairs. First up, the front porch.

It sort of goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), plant red flowers. The good news about summer gardening, often when the weather turns blistering, you can find plants on sale. I found red petunias and salvia for fifty cents at Lowes! Yes, you may have to trim/water/coddle/deadhead them, and yes, they are a little leggy, but $0.50!! They make great fillers for the bare spots in my containers along the front.

What’s easier than poking a dime store flag in a flower pot? Not much. Even though our chair cushions aren’t patriotic, the vintage star pillow pulls everything together like the cherry on top of a sundae.

Raid your house and temporarily relocate red, white, and blue decorations from inside to outside for a 4th of July porch party. Red striped and denim pillows on the swing plus a child’s little red wooden bench add patriotic touches.

Throw a vintage tablecloth on your outdoor table. The colander I ate strawberries from last week, now holds a fern.

Now on to the back porch.

By moving things around and rummaging through my garage, I was able to give my back porch a patriotic look. The bowling pins were a long ago yard sale find. Everything else was either already on the porch, in another room, or being unused in the garage. When we moved from Dallas, the red-stained bookcase didn’t fit in our new house, so we put it on the back porch to use as a potting bench / serving buffet. Works great! Since it’s in a protected area, the only problem with having it on the porch is dust and pollen.

Razorbacks are naturally patriotic:)) #WPS!

And last, our sleeping porch. Obviously, this ain’t no P. Allen Smith sleeping porch. His is to die for. Ours is dusty with an inch of pollen on the floor and no place to sleep. But since the sleeping porch is a part of early 20th century American architecture (and since I mentioned it), I thought I should show ours to you. I do love the vintage motel-style chairs which came from 410 Vintage. And my Easy Peasy Breezy Vintage Hanky Bunting is being showcased in the name of summer. What I really want out there is an antique bed of some sort…