06.14.10

it was a crafty weekend, internets, a sporty and a yuppie weekend; i put the last nails in three projects which had been floating about the apartment, we migrated up to our old local for the usa-england match on saturday afternoon, shakespeare was parked at last on saturday night - first night of the merchant of venice! - and we returned frosty the beleaguered helper robot yesterday afternoon.* i'm up to my eyeballs in the august issue and haven't a luxurious lunch break in which to tell you about shakespeare just yet, but i can get started on the crafty stuff. a design*sponge sneak peek featuring a cambridge apartment full of staghorn ferns convinced me that we needed one of our own. a catproof plant that addresses the antler trend without, you know, requiring any antlers!

plaque with rings

sprout home had a fern for me, so i spent last week staining and sealing a plaque with which to mount and hang it.

mounted staghorn fern (detail)

i screwed a bunch of eyes into the plaque so that i could lace the moss-wrapped fern against it with wire, gaga-corset-like.

soaking the staghorn fern

i gave the root ball and moss a good soaking; wild staghorns cling to trees and get most of their moisture from the air, but as houseplants they need to be doused every now and again.

mounted staghorn fern

we eyeballed a spot with strong but indirect light, sunk a nail into the wall, and boom.

mounted staghorn fern

meet moose the fern. he's cute, no?


*and somehow managed to hire a 93-year-old man to ferry us and two new window units from wall street back to the lower east side, a trip which was both fascinating and more than a little terrifying.

8 comments:

  1. gracie10:28 AM

    EFFING AWESOME! I SO WANT A WALL OF THESE!!!!!!

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  2. Amanda10:50 AM

    So good to see you again, Moose. You've an exceptionally handsome rack and your plaque looks gooooood.

    (But what about the panty-hose? Weren't there going to be panty-hose?)

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  3. kidchamp11:09 AM

    my go-to tutorial mentioned pantyhose, and i did pick some up at a dollar store - but it also said wire could be alright on its own. since i didn't feel like drilling through the plaque in order to make holes big enough for the hose (i'm kind of afraid of our drill, truth be told) and i liked the look of the rings, wire it was. though i just realized that i didn't make sure my wire wasn't copper, and copper wire can poison ferns - gah. pesky reading comprehension.

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  4. Boggled. Swoggled.

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  5. jamie4:05 PM

    Genius.

    During the 5 minutes they let us off of the tour bus in actual nature in the everglades I saw a tree COVORED in a huge mass of these airplants. It was impressive.

    Totally worth the mirrored mosquito bites on each of my ankles.

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  6. baby jo10:58 PM

    if i have a faux fireplace in my new place, one of those is going above it.  if i don't, one of those is going somewhere else.

    re: wire, i would think it's copper free -- i played with a lot of wire as an art student, and all of it was steel.  

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  7. Peonies1:51 PM

    No way!  That's some crazy genius.  

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  8. Celia8:19 PM

    amazeballs!  i am utterly confused by this.  i will have to show my landscaper, aka joe (my joe). 

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