It’s time for another giveaway!  Having just started selling these lovely new plant hangers in the shop, it’s time to give one away.  One lucky winner will receive this pretty hanger (minus the plant) for his or her home.  It’s made of cotton rope and naturally-dyed wooden beads.  It’s a great way to add a little color, a little interest and a little plant love to your home.  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me why you love plants.  Don’t forget to leave an email address!  Next Wednesday, May 29th I’ll randomly choose a number.

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Rules: Available only to residents of the contiguous US (due to shipping costs elsewhere).  Open only to applicants 18 and over. Valued at less than $100.  No duplicate entries.  Lottery prize will be shipped using USPS Parcel Post w/in a week of the drawing.  This sweepstakes is sponsored by Urban Tastes Home & Furnishings.

On a whim, I’ve decided to to offer free delivery this week so if you’re interested in a piece, this is the week for you!  When you’re checking out, just click the ‘local pick-up’ button and contact us after purchasing to let us know you’re interested in having it delivered.  This only applies to people living within the Beltway and your purchase must be $100.  Delivery has to take place BEFORE Saturday, May 24.  Easy!
We’re celebrating my son’s fourth birthday this weekend and I’d love to have the house cleared out a bit before then.

I got a stag head fern a couple months ago.  I have been meaning to ‘mount’ it for ages.  I almost got to it a few weeks ago but then was sidelined due to the prohibitive cost of sheet moss.  The bag was $20 and I just don’t think I’ll use it again anytime soon so I was back to square one.  But I was at Joann’s yesterday and found one of those plant liners that goes in a wire plant hanger.  It’s says it’s ‘coco’.  I’m not sure if that means it’s made out of cocoa fibers or what but it seems pretty natural other than a plasticy-coating on it.  Anyway, it was only about $2  so I decided to go with that.

So here’s a quick how-to inspired by this one.  I think there’s about a million more variants of this project out there.  I had no idea until I went to actually do it.  So forgive me if this is old news.  Either way, there are lots of ways to do this so get creative and use what you have lying around the house.
Please note that I didn’t use any sort of water-proof board but I highly recommend coating your board in a few layers of polyacrylic or polyurethane so it will seal.  Mine warped enough in the first day that I’m sure I’ll have to redo it within a month.  You could also use something like this one that is already seemingly water-proof.

Materials:
Stag head fern
One board, mine was approximately 11″ sq
Something round like a plate to make a circle to use as a guide when placing the nails
8 small/medium nails with flathead
Plant liner like this
Hammer, pencil & scissors
String, cord or fish line (the fishline is better if you don’t want to see the string)

How To:
1. Place your board on a flat surface and trace a circle around it with a pencil.
2. Place nails evenly around the circle, approximately every 45 degrees.  Tap them in about half way
3.Take your plant out of the container and flatten its roots a little.  Place in the center of the board.
4.  Cut your liner (or whatever you’re using) to size, being sure to leave a cutout for the center of the circle where the plant is and place it where you want it.
5. Get your string out and knot it around the first nail you attach it to to secure it.  Then using whatever pattern you like, secure the liner / moss to the board by wrapping the string around the nails (I went around twice).  I never directly crossed over the plant.  I originally did it that way and it looked sloppy and I couldn’t really tell there was a pattern so I redid it (see photos).  On your last nail, pull it tight and knot it again.
6. Water and let dry (don’t try and hang it when it’s still wet like I did).

*** And below are an excessive amount of photos.  I tried (and succeeded) at making a quick movie of all the stills but I could not get it to embed properly in the post.  It takes the viewer to a link of the video which wasn’t what I was going for.  Then I went to great lengths and made a  youtube account so I could then embed it from there.  That looked ridiculous and was absolutely not what I was going for.  If anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate it.  And yes, my fern is looking a little rough.  It is on the mend though. Oh, and lastly, I did use a little potting soil for mine, but the deal with stag head ferns is that they don’t need soil so I skipped this step b/c it wasn’t actually necessary and could potentially make a mess.