Best and Worst of the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo



This weekend is the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo at Cal Expo.  If you have an interest in going, the show is still going on tomorrow from 10am-6pm.  I normally don't like going to these types of events because I am allergic to salespeople, but my friend Kat gave me free tickets (and even dropped them off after midnight last night on my doorstep!) so of course I was going to go!  I brought my mom along with me because she's wanting to do some bathroom and kitchen remodeling this year.  I can swoon over the garden decor', and she could swoon over faucets.... it was a win-win for both of us.  Here are some pictures of my favorite and least favorite things, starting with the display pictured above from Verde Creations, Inc.  I'm actually disappointed that I didn't get more pictures of their display because I really loved it.  I was too busy checking out the patio space above and dreaming of ways that I could rip out more lawn in order to implement it.  I checked out their website once I got home and I have to admit, they have some beautiful, colorful creations- and I can't wait to see more from them. 



The garden pictured above I adored.  I couldn't tell you who it was by because the people working this garden didn't really approach me in any way.  As much as I say I hate salespeople, I do like to have someone approach me if I walk into a display.  Ask me about my projects.  Heck, ask me what I think of your display....  anything is better than silence.  One company that was great with communicating was FiveStar Landscaping.   I met landscape architect Karen Blanor at their display today and she was a great communicator- and asked a lot about the projects I wanted to do in my garden.  Another great company I connected with today was G&D Landscape Construction.  Greg Phelps spent a lot of time chatting with me about my garden projects.  At these types of events you often get designers that come in with these grand displays and they are a little overwhelming, and they kind of scream "I'm expensive!" and it scares me away.  I am more interested in the displays that scream "I'm practical!  There's no project too big or too small!".  G&D also gave me the business card of someone who might be better at giving me what I was looking for (Howard Ma of HM Design), and any company that is willing to say "I might not be able to do what you want, but I know someone who can" earns major points in my eyes. 



Taking a break from garden stuff and moving to home decor', Mad Imports had a very popular display, and I can't wait to visit their store.  Think of it as Restoration Hardware type decor, at half the price.  The pieces were fun and unique, and I can't wait to see what they have in their warehouse.  The hook set pictured above was only $27, and one half this size was around $14.  You can't beat those prices!  For directions, hours, etc, you can call them at (916) 599-0600.



Lets visit some things that I didn't like.  The doorway fountain thing pictured above looks cool, right?  I can picture it in a restaurant, but where the heck would you put this in your house?  And if you're the type of person that would put this in your home, that's just spending money where you don't need to.  It's over the top.  It's way too much. 



The same goes for this spout of water.  What a waste!  The best part of a water feature is the sound, which this had none.  I would agree that my 5 year old would probably love to have this in our backyard, but the practical person in me was thinking it's a waste of water, it's probably really expensive, and it's probably a huge pain in the you-know-what to keep it clean. 



The practical person in me would rather have this in my backyard.  This is dreamy....  This I would use.  I would use it every week!  A dual purpose fireplace that could also make yummy pizzas?  Um, YES PLEASE!  This was done by Gloria Landscaping, and if I could pick one item I wanted out of the entire expo, this was it. 



My favorite display award would have to go the Green Acres.  I loved the colors, how they had so many products, and edible plants in one display without making it look over the top.  It was beautiful.  I am already a huge fan of their nurseries (most of my citrus trees are from here too), but I was happy to be greeted by a friendly staff member that works at their Roseville location.  She reminded me that their Folsom location was opening soon and that it was going to be amazing! 



 The grand opening for the Folsom location is February 15th, but they have major sales for it going through mid-March. The best time to go according to their handout would be March 1-4. March 1st has classes on combining edibles and ornamentals. March 2nd is doorbuster specials, March 3rd they have gift bags for the first 300 guests plus free food from 12-2pm, and March 4th they'll have doorbuster sales and lots of free educational workshops. 



What was I saying about non-practical items being a no-no in the garden?  Yeah, that went out the door once I saw these.  The company is called Vin de Flame, and these are their super cool propane fire pits.  Made out of old wine barrels, and each on wheels, these are perfect for your evening parties.  The practical side of me says "but I'd only use them a couple times a year", well, thank goodness you can also just rent them for events (no need to store or maintain them yourself!  Awesome!). 



My last favorite thing at the show was the display from Executive Care Landscape Mgmt.  Arthur Navarette, President, was absolutely adorable running around with his camera and snapping pictures.  You could tell he was having fun, and you could tell he was passionate about what he does.  The above photo is a picture of his drought tolerant display.  He even admitted it was over planted, but he wanted to show homeowners how you can have lush color and use less water, and this was a great example.  You can see by his website that he likes to remove lawn and make the space more usable, and more beautiful. 



And last on my list was another one of those ridiculous designs, where you wonder where the heck would this be useful.  They tried by showing that it was a perfect family backyard, and even included a little sand pit off to the side for the younger kids.  The practical mom side of me immediately thought to myself that this was an accident waiting to happen for someone with small children (ladders to fall off of, lots of sharp edges, etc).  Fast forward 15 years for me and I'm thinking I'd be too old to climb that ladder, and storing all of those cushions through the winter is just a hassle. To summarize, this design is for people in their early 20's.  The ones that can't afford it.

It's great to go to these types of events and dream big about what I could do if I had tons of money, but I'd much rather see how I can improve the appearance of my garden at a reasonable price.  Why can't they just cater to the average home owner?   

The $29.99 IKEA Seed Starting Rack

Continuing on in my quest to organize the HECK out of my office, today I'm turning my attention to my seed starting station.  Well, prior to today I didn't actually have a seed starting station because the desk that I normally start my seeds on every year has been re-purposed as a .........wait for it..........desk.  My husband built me a fabulous garden shed in our backyard for me to move my seed starting mess outside of our family home, but one valuable piece was left out of his plan.....electricity.  So, the seeds continue to be started indoors until that project is complete. 

Since I have big hopes that electricity will be added to the shed soon, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy seed starting rack.  So, I went to my trusty IKEA store, where I can always count on finding exactly what I need at a reasonable price.  I ended up buying their basic GORM shelving unit for $29.99.  This rack comes with 4 shelves, but I bought a couple of extra shelves just in case for $5 a piece. While I was at it, I went ahead and bought a couple of the GORM clip-on baskets for $4 a piece.  I figured once I no longer needed this shelf for seeds I needed to be able to use it for something else, so buying the accessories now made sense.  Lucky for me I ended up using them.

After assembling the shelf (fairly simply, took about 30 minutes), I dug into my photo hanging supplies and grabbed a few hooks for the lights. They easily screwed into the top of the shelves for hanging the chains for the lights. As for the lights?  I have one expensive Home Depot grow light ($50), and a couple of cheap Wal-Mart grow lights that cost me about $10 a piece.  Look around, your lights don't have to have to be expensive. 

The extra shelves and baskets came in handy for all of the odd and end plant stuff that I had.  The bottom shelf is now dedicated to mason jars which I use for giving flowers to people, or starting cuttings.  By the way, these were all spaghetti sauce jars originally, but they are too cute to just toss in the recycle bin.  The GORM baskets that I bought are used for holding plant stakes (for once the tomato plants get too tall), twine, plant labels, and Moo Poo Tea. 

I used the SAMLA containers from IKEA for organizing my seeds and and got an extra container to hold my seed starting mix (much prettier than looking at a bag). 

So, technically this entire set up didn't cost me just $29.99, but you can see how using some of the items you already have and improvising can save you money when starting your seeds this year.  By the way, it's time to start seeds..........wait for it..............  now.

Winter? Ha! We Laugh in the Face of Winter!

Tomorrow we meet with my daughter's kindergarten teacher to discuss how disruptive she is in class. We'll go over how she acts bored, likes to talk a lot, and is somewhat defiant in a classroom setting.  Today, I feel guilt.  She is me. She is who I was as a child and she is who I am as an adult. And I like her, just the way she is. 

And then I look at my dog, who is only 8 years old but looks so much older....until you throw the ball.  Then she acts like she is two, and she looks happy.  She is me.

And there's me.  This weekend I officially entered my mid-thirties, and I caught a cold. I spent two days napping on the couch catching up on episodes of True Blood (don't judge). And all of the fun I had planned for myself kind of disappeared. But, I was still able to throw a ball for the happy dog, and I was still able to drag a couple of straw bales from our fall decor out to the front yard with the intention of using them to keep some of my plants warm for the hard freeze coming tonight.  I got as far as dragging the bales to front yard garden, then I stopped. 

My daughter may not be able to sit still in class, but put her in a garden and she GROWS.  Here she's cracking open dried pods from our purple hyacinth vines and collecting their seeds.  These have become her favorite to collect. 

And she told me to sit down.  She said, "I've got this! I'll take care of the hay!" and she ran around with chunks at a time, throwing it in the air, in my hair....everywhere.  And for once, I didn't care.

And, the mess she made is everywhere.  But I love her for her passion, her love of the outdoors, and how connected she is with nature.  Tomorrow as we meet with her teacher, I will be defiant.  I won't listen.  I won't sit still, and I will be bored.  Regardless of what anyone says, I've done something right. She is me. And WE are perfectly fine.

DIY Behind-the-Door Wrapping Paper/Ribbon Storage

Today I won the battle with my large collection of wrapping paper and ribbon.  My New Year's resolution for 2012 was to organize our office, specifically all of the wrapping paper and craft items I have. I turned to Pinterest for ideas, and came across this idea that uses behind the door for storage.  As easy as her design was, it didn't hold enough wrapping paper for me, so I drew my own design.  It just took a few hours to make, and can easily be made if you have a hand saw or circular saw. First I took inventory of all of my wrapping paper and ribbons to figure out how many dowels I would need to store all of my stuff.  I had 21 rolls of paper (yeah, you can call me a wrapping paper hoarder), and enough ribbon to fill a couple of dowels.  I had decided to make two of these since I had the space in our office, but these instructions are just for one, using 14 dowels.

Next step is figuring out your shape.  Standard wrapping paper rolls are 24 inches, but I had a few that were 30 inches, so I wanted mine to be wider than 30 inches.  If I had chose to stick with the 24 inch size, it would not peek from behind the door like you see above.  My door is 6 1/2 feet tall, but I opted to keep it at 6 feet tall just so that everything was easily within arms reach.  I went to Home Depot and bought two 2x2x8 boards, and had them cut them to be 6 feet tall.  Home Depot will cut them for free, so it saves me the work!  I picked up 14 dowels that were their 7/16 x 48" size (labeled green or "jade").  I chose this size because any smaller and the dowels would sag with heavy rolls of paper on them.  Any larger and some of the rolls of ribbon I have wouldn't fit on them.  Plus, this size fits perfectly with the standard 1" hook size, thus keeping the costs way down.  Attach your newly cut 2x2 boards behind the door.  I used #10 x 3-1/2" wood screws (3 on each side: 6 total). I pre-drilled holes in the wood and the wall to make it easier. 

Here are the hooks you want.  You'll need to figure out how many dowels you're going to use to determine how many to get.  Since I was making two of these it made more sense to buy a box of 50 to start with.  These are nice because when you screw them in, you don't need to pre-drill. I measured mine to be 5 inches apart, but you can probably put them a little closer in order to get more dowels in. Screw all of the hooks in to both boards.

Next up is cutting the dowels. I admit I didn't measure here.  I just placed one of the dowels in the hooks on the wall and marked where I wanted to cut it, where it was overlapping the hooks by about a half an inch.  I then marked the rest of my dowels at the same location, took them outside, and cut them all with a circular saw.  This can be done with a hand saw as well, but go with a circular saw for a cleaner, faster cut.

Last step is to load up the rack with your rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon.  I paper clip one side of each roll to keep them neat on the rack.

Ta-da!  All done! This was done for a little over $30.  Here's the cost breakdown with items being purchased at Home Depot:

7/16 x 48" dowels: $1.47 each (I used 14 here)
2x2 8 foot boards: $1.48 each (used 2)
#10 x 3-1/2" wood screws $0.98 for pkg of 2 (need 3 pkgs)
Box of 50 hooks: $4.21