Birthday Gifts for Green-Thumbed People

Today is my mom's birthday.  According to Sarah, DD turns 23 today.  So, did I have my act together enough to send her a gift, a card, a bouquet of flowers, or anything?  Nope.  There was a very brief time in my life (pre-kids) when I would send handwritten notes, cards, gifts, and such, and they would arrive before the holiday or birthday.  These days I'm doing ok if I remember Mike's birthday.

 Anyway, this year I really wanted the kids to make something for my mom that she could actually use and keep from year to year.  We tried making handprint cement garden path stones last year, but she won't put them outside, and those things tend to pile up inside from year to year. 

A trip to Home Depot last weekend sparked an idea: hand painted flower pots!  See, my mom is one of those people who can grow ANYTHING. 

 Except grass in her yard because she has 4 very large, very active dogs.  

I'm always directing Sarah and Will to my mom, their DD, for their plant questions, since she's our resident expert on growing things.  

I think these would be great for Mother's Day gifts, too, especially if the mom, grandma, stepmother, aunt, or great-aunt in question isn't a perfectionist.  

All we did was gather 4 pots and some outdoor paint (in the pots and fake plants section at Michael's), and got to work.

Will likes the inside of the pot to be as beautiful as the outside.

Will's finished product

Sarah's contribution

Sarah and I share a love of rainbows, so, of course that was the inspiration for her flower pot.  I thought she was just going to paint a little picture of a rainbow.  Then I saw what she had in mind.  It was kind of a big job to ROYGBIV that sucker, so she petered out after ROY, and I finished the rest. 

While the kids were painting, I decided to try applying silver leaf to a few of the pots (pinned here).  This was sooooo easy and the results were so pretty, I will definitely be trying this on a lot more pots.  Next time, I'd like to make some of them more rustic like the ones shown in the pin, but I think I might also make some look more mod. 

Fancy!

We stuck some pretty flowers in once the paint dried, and, voila! Unfortunately, the kids liked the end result so much that they've decided not to give DD her potted plants.  We're working on a shared custody agreement right now, but we're having a little trouble with the part of the contract that stipulates remembering to water the plants and not kill them. 

In other news, this weather is making us feel like hanging our heads out the car window.

Have a great Wednesday!