Old teacups are farily easy to find at sales. Especially if they don’t have a matching cup or saucer. I buy them up ahead of time and put away for gardening purposes, parties and gifts.  I pick them up for 10 cents to 25 cents. I don’t care if the cup and saucer don’t match, it just takes on the shabby sheak look if they don’t.

With the holidays coming up you could fill a cup with a piece of oasis and stick fresh cut pine or ground pine in. If you have dried flowers add a few. You could even add fresh flowers.

If you used all pine as a filler in the cup, add christmas ornaments or wrap small pieces of styrofoam up to look like packages and stick in. Add ribbon to the handle and scatter a few pieces of candy on the saucer.

Fill the teacup with candy. Its fast and festive!

Make a candle in the teacup. I used to do this and take them to craft shows. They sold very well and received a lot of comments.

Make a simple sachet using pine greens, cinnamon, clove, cedar chips and mini pine cones. Tie the sachet with ribbon and sit in the cup. If you dried flowers from your garden you can add these to the sachet mix also. Dried flowers can also be picked up at craft stores.

Teacup planter

One of my favorite gifts to give to company is a teacup planter. I use a teacup with a saucer. Fill the teacup with a sandy soil mix. I place a few pebbles in the bottom. Cacti plants work best in a small teacup. make sure not to overwater. I suggest just misting them so the soil does not get too damp and soggy.

Ivy also works well in a teacup planter.

One fun Centerpiece

At a party I went to the centerpiece was a old glass vintage punch bowl. The bottom of the bowl had been layed with the rock they use in fish aquariums. It was put in in such a fashion that it had a sand art look. The soil had been added at the last minute along with fresh small plants. The teacups were scattered on the buffet table and they each had a plant in with dried flowers and ribbon tied on the handle. it was an unique festive centerpiece.

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Keeping a Garden Journal not only records valuable garden information but it is a form of history that can include the entire family.

There are many ways to make a garden journal. The easiest, grab the nearest spiral bound notebook. If you want cover the outside covers, preferably in a waterproof material, for a stonger more  durable journal.

One way I have made a journal before is to take a larger book with a firm hardback cover and remove two pages every other page. Of course you are using an old book, one that is missing pages, or a cheap one from a garage sale. By removing pages you make the book thinner so that you can add items to the pages like a scrap book without the book bulging open.

I have covered some of the pages with ruled line paper so that I have a guide for writing. I have painted some pages  and covered some with thin paper or material. If you chose the right book the inages in the back often work in with your scrapbook.

A garden journal like the one I described above is more of an altered book and usually is used for my garden drawings, gourd ideas or photographs. I often bring it out at holidays and those of us in the family that are garden addicted enjoy the information and the rest enjoy the content and family photos.

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