Loved Amy and Kate’s book event for Terrarium Craft on Sunday – it was awesome to hear a bit more about the book and their collaboration in design + writing. Amy even made a big, gorgeous terrarium in a glass bowl as a demo, layering different sands to build the base and then adding some lovely succulents, moss, seashells, a crystal and an air plant to create this little world. And I got my book signed x2!

I haven’t had a magical couple of hours to terrarium everything in my path yet this week, but Pearl and I re-made two grizzled old succulent dish gardens with fresh new plants (our side yard is full of hens and chicks) and a few little animals. I followed Amy’s advice about direct watering to start off – the weathered aloe on the left was the only survivor from the original garden and it already looks much happier in a new configuration.

It turns out that when you collaborate on a dish garden with a three-year-old, a fine, gritty layer of potting soil on everything, including the kitchen floor, is the required final step. Oh well, it was super fun, and that’s what the broom is for.

After dipping a toe back in to this lovely world, I made a long-overdue terrarium date with Diane for next week! She just got her copy of Terrarium Craft too, so hopefully we can start off with a trip to Artemisia and go from there…

Speaking of craft books, just wanted to mention that now that I’m pretty much done promoting both of mine, I will be reviewing some great ones over the next few weeks – Girl’s World, Block Party, and Make Stuff Together, with some interviews and giveaways for good measure. In the meantime, I have a day trip to Astoria planned, another collaboration with Pearl (for a Father’s Day present this time), some new projects to sew, and some out-of-town visitors to entertain. And the return of the whale chalkboard dinner project, I have a serious backlog of weeks of dinners scribbled on yellow paper to copy over and snap photos of!

Last, a few things about books + reviews…

-I only write about books I like. If I don’t like a book, I don’t write about it.

-A lot of the books I write about are review copies sent to me by the publisher which I will be sure to mention in future posts. (I did buy Terrarium Craft and by the way, it’s still on a really great sale!)

-I don’t have an Amazon affiliate account, and have never earned a percentage of sales off links (and I’ve never had an ad yet on my blog) – this is a straight-up labor of love. Powell’s has been very good to me as a local writer – I still can’t even believe they put my name up on the marquee for my last event! So, as you may have noticed, I link to Powells.com for all of my book reviews/mentions. I don’t get a percentage or fee from them either, just love them and shop with them myself as often as I can (unless I am buying mysteries, and then I go to my favorite neighborhood store, Murder By The Book).

-And speaking of, thanks to everyone who has ever bought one of my books, or checked one out of the library, and taken a minute to let me know you liked it or made something from it. I really appreciate it!!