This year I was looking for even simpler idea for in-house plants. It caught my eyes immediately when I saw mustard and water cress seeds in the pack the other day in the shop. On the pack, it doesn’t seem that they would need any soil or a lot of care. I decided to give them a go, now you can see the result from the photos, except no progression photos at different growth stage.

I used a long shallow ceramic tray for water cress, with a piece of kitchen paper towel which I wet it and folded several times to make it a few layers to fit into the shape of the bottom of the tray. There is no need to SOAK seeds, and please DO NOT SOAK THEM if you want them to survive. Just spread seeds into single layer on the top of paper towel. No worries about seeds being too crowded.

All I did other than the above was to wait. Just a little bit sprinkle of water once a day which is ample enough. I think it took a little bit longer time for them to germinate, than wheat grass, but very similar time frame I would say. Initially the seeds developed some gelatine liked water shell around each seed. Here is what I learned from my failure. Gelatinous seeds do not drain well and may decay from too much moisture. That’s why you do not need to soak them, otherwise you will kill them from the beginning. This happened to my mustard seed, sadly:-(

I guess it took about a week to see the little shoots coming up, then another week to have them grow into about 3-4 cm length. The brown seed shell eventually fell off from the leaves, and fresh green colour came out. They are very pretty with interesting curled leaves, and I left them on the bedroom window sill for a bit of lively decoration.

I think the beauty of water cress is they can grow in any small and shallow containers, even in a broken egg shell. Because they don’t need soil, it is really a no-mess and stress-free gardening project.

The only question left here is “how long they are going to last?” I am curious to find out. Hold my breath……

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My God, I wish I had more fabric, so I didn’t need to feel so pressured to space the strips out vertically and horizontally, and the outcome would be much shaggy; I wish I had a softer (or floppy) cushion insert, as this one is a bit rigid and kind of not very cosy and homey; Also I wish I had a rotary cutter to cut the fabric. The scissors are just not
efficient enough to get quick and straight cut for lots of small pieces, though the project is very forgiving. See, I don’t do quilting at all, that’s why I am a bit hesitant to invest on a good rotary cutter, as they are normally fairly expensive.

Overall I enjoyed this project, except the cutting part. It took me a very long time to have 160 pieces cut up. Fortunately I wasn’t thatimpatient as I always was. I knew it would take time, so I took the casual relaxing approach and just did the cutting whenever I can, not trying to focusing the cutting all on one night. I didn’t realise that the fabric is a bit of fluffy until I was cutting it. I bought it from a thrifty shop with $1.5 dollars. It is velvet, doesn’t fray but has wrong side and right side different looks.

The actual machine sewing only took me about an hour, including stitching the strips on and seaming the pillow case. I altered the pattern and left an opening for the insert at the back, as I really need to be able to wash the outside case which is very important in this house.

I would like to make another one, but with a bit of more intensive bright coloured fabric, like red, purple or spring green like the one in the tutorial. And I would like to use jersey knits next time (of course bigger fabric next time), as they have the same look in right side and wrong side.

This shag pillow goes to Vivian’ day bed and sits with others now. I like its rectangle shape very much. It is just a good complementary part to other cushions.

I hope she likes whatever her crazy mother creates

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So here they are…all up on the wall, with paper butterflies that I made for Vivian initially to decorate the bedroom when she was born. I got sick of staring at them on the ceiling in the last 18 months. It is the time to give them new missions to fulfil.

I used clear silicone glue dots for photos, which I got them from the dollar shop yesterday. These dots don’t leave residues on the wall or photos. You just rub them off if you don’t want them anymore.

I was happy with the result, even though I think I could have done it better with photo arrangement. This morning after Vivian woke up, she immediately noticed the changes on the wall. She was pointing to them and calling her own name, as she knows that’s all about her J

Ok, one bit is done. What’s the next? I really want to fix up that messy desk underneath.

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In the past 6 months, V rarely slept in her own cot. It was me giving her the absolute power to under-utilise her own bed. Now I am thinking I’d better to get her back to there before it is too late, or maybe it is already too late…..Mummy’s to blame:-(

What I want to do is to make her cot appealing again. I am talking to my husband to take the front bars off to change it to a open day bed, so she can easily hop in and tuck herself in lots of cushions under a canopy to read a book or something. It would be easy to me too, as I can sit next to her and comfort her to sleep, without getting my hands in between bars like visiting a prisoner or treating a caged bird… no touching, just watching.

I had most of my idea fulfilled so far in regards to this cot making-over business, except a couple of cushions that I particularly pictured in my mind. I don’t think I will be able to find them anywhere and I wouldn’t buy them if they are ever available in the shops anyway. It’s always fun to make one with your own hands, so I decided to do it myself.

I only went for the cotton fabric this time as that’s the only thing I had in hands which would suit the scene in overall. The pattern is a winning tutorial of snow ruffle pillow from V & Co.

It took me much longer time than I initially thought, as there was a lot of hand sewing, making the flowers and hand sewn on pillows. I did a pretty bad job choosing the locations of the flowers, as well as making the flowers. However I am still quite happy with the final result. I think this project is actually very forgiving.

My husband called it cherry blossom pillow. V doesn’t seem particularly being fond of it, but she loves the cot setting very much and sometimes she just sits there flipping the pages of her books or playing with all the cushions, not wanting to get out of there, which is a good sign indicating my idea is probably working…..

I have spotted another pillow idea from the same website, which would make ” Pillow Talk Two”. I just don’t know how long it will take me to get to it. So be patient with me.

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The truth is, our “garden” is almost dead and in the past year, I murdered most of my potted plants except a couple of really tough ones:-(

Actually I can’t even recall when was the last time I got my hands into the dirt. It’s probably back to the early of 2009 when I found out that I fell pregnant. Then I just tried to stay away from soil, plants and fertiliser, etc.

But now, everything just comes back to me. Spring is always worthwhile celebrating, and it would be a crime to just miss it.

However, due to lacking of time, experience and skills, as well as the very unsuccessful history on growing stuff, I wanted to try something different this year, something easy to care, fast happening, but still good looking.

So here it is. After two weeks of “hard work”, let me introduce you my brand-new, completely successful and beautiful looking green project – 3 pots of healthy growing wheat grass.

Don’t you thing they are pretty? They are probably the easiest and the most successful indoor plant that I have ever grown. It’s so green and dense that just looks a bit of unreal:-) I just love its vivid colour and neat appearance so much.

To me, the hardest part is to get the whole wheat grain kernels (also known as wheat berries). I looked in many places, like supermarket, pet shop and Fyshwick’s nuts shop and health food shop but no luck. Eventually I got it from Queanbeyan’s Megahealth Food (that just added another reason for me to love Queanbeyan). I can remember I was very excited when I got to hold that 500g package in my hands.

Day 2: Planting after soaking for 8-12 hours

You can easily find the instructions on “how to grow wheat grass at home” on the Internet. It’s nothing complicated or secretive. I just soaked the grain for 12 hours, planted them one layer on the top of soil in terra cotta pots, kept them moist and covered until the sprouts came out. I watered them about twice daily by using a spray bottle, then i just waited.

Day 6: Sprouting and lovely green shoots

Patience is a virtue. Actually they just grew with light speed, like almost 1 inch everyday. It totally took about 14 days to reach the current height, about 6 inches. You are supposed to do a “haircut” when harvesting to yield wheat grass juice. It’s said that wheat grass juice is a very powerful drink to clean toxic, heal the wound, even cure cancer, but I am a bit hesitate because they also say that it tastes awful and probably would make you feel nausea, plus, I would rather look at it as a home decorative piece than a medical product.

Day 8: About 7cm high, almost there

Yes, a perfect centerpiece for your home, especially if you need to add a bit of green. It looks great on a window sill, a dining table or just a boring office desk.

You can also decorate it with some paper flowers, windmills or butterflies on the top of green grass to make it even more interesting. I made name tags for each of us and used a skewer to put them up in the pots. I guess if you replace the name tags with someone’s photo, it would be more interesting.

My plan? I am intending to grow a lot of these in different containers and develop it into a family tradition:-)

Hope you enjoy this spring as much as we do

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