Living the Good Life with Chris Olsen Archives - Page 9 of 9

The Number Game with Chris Olsen

February 9, 2014 by ark_admin

Once your landscape design and planting reach the street, a simple house number stenciled on the curb might get obscured by all that happy greenery. Enable your guests to find your house, plus create your own numbering system with staked and planted terra cottas pots. It’s especially easy if your street address is one digit, but if it’s as many as five, you can just add another, smaller pot to the top of your pyramid. Make your stack sturdy by placing plants close to pot rims, so they can trail easily, and not interfere with the pot above.

Supplies:

3 clay pots in graduated sizes

Green spray paint

Oil based stain

Acrylic paint for number

Painters tape

Paper towels

Brushes

Here’s how:

1. Paint pots green, and allow to dry.

2. Tape off large square(s) on pot(s) for house number(s).

3. Brush stain on pots avoiding number area. Blot with paper towel for mottled effect. Allow to dry.

4. Paint stripes along taped edges of pot(s) to feature number(s).

5. Remove tape and paint number(s).

6. Fill pots with soil, stack, and plant around edges of pots.

Enjoy,

Chris Olsen

Want to see more amazing projects from Chris? Follow him on Facebook for garden and home inspiration.

valentine’s day bouquet how-to

February 9, 2014 by ark_admin

Chris Olsen of Botanica Gardens dreamed up a sweet idea for giving flowers on Valentine’s Day! And it’s as easy to create as 1-2-3 (so you can grab what you’ll need on the way home and have it made right in time for a romantic dinner)!

Make someone feel special this Valentineâ€™s Day. Forget about giving the same old flower arrangement you give every year and instead add that special element of surprise. You can do it!!! You can easily make your own arrangement that will mean so much more then a grocery bought bouquet.

All you need:

Heart shaped cake pan
Floral foam blocks (2)
Lavender spray paint
Sweetheart roses (2 or 3 different colors)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Hereâ€™s how:

1. Spray paint pan lavender or favorite color.

2. Cut floral foam to fit in container; hot glue to bottom of pan.

3. Fill pan with water. The bricks will soak up the water; fill until saturated.

4. Arrange rose buds by cutting stems about 2 inch long and pushing into foam.

Happy Valentineâ€™s Day! Good Luckâ€¦

yard of the month

February 9, 2014 by ark_admin

Ever notice how, when one homeowner fancies up the yard and adds a few unexpected elements, others seem to follow — also getting inspired to create their own new landscaping looks? It’s almost as if creating a beautiful yard is contagious. Your yard can be the envy of the neighborhood, and it really is true that if you maintain and create your own little piece of the world, surrounding neighbors will sit up and take notice. And you don’t have to call in a bulldozer and landscape architect to do it. Stroll around your space and see things from a fresh perspective. Replace aging plantings, tired color combinations, and ordinary fixtures. And get on a simple schedule of upkeep. It’s that easy.

Strength in Numbers You can get that ‘Yard of the Month’ look by planting in multiples—in drifts—rather than by ones or twos. By grouping the same plant variety or cultivar, you create the feeling of spaciousness. Even a small bed appears larger when you plant multiples of the same plant. You don’t have to rely exclusively on typical blooming perennials, either. Grasses are a hardy touch, and come in a wealth of colors and sizes. Stay away from the ‘one plant here, one plant there’ mindset and use swaths of color or single plants. And don’t plant in straight rows; nature doesn’t do it that way.

It’s in the Details When dividing your beds from lawn grass, try not to use the steel or black rubber edging that everyone else has laid down. Define those areas with inexpensive cut border rock, found at garden centers. You can still get great curves and rolling effect with your flowerbed borders. Just line the small boulders up so they are touching, and place some into the bed, and others protruding into the turf. You get a natural look, your lines aren’t as harsh, and you add further dimension to your design.

Train and Maintain Don’t forget simple maintenance of your lawn and beds. Your landscape can be low care, but only if you don’t let the plantings get ahead of you in growth and watering needs. Most plants can be weaned from water-heavy care, but you will need to water deeper and longer, if you wish to water less often. And stay on a regular schedule of deadheading and pruning as well as watering. Your efforts will pay off with a yard that looks appealing in all seasons, and gets raves from your neighbors.

Live Life to the Fullest,

Chris Olsen

Want to see more amazing projects from Chris? Follow him on Facebook for garden and home inspiration.

chris olsen’s quartz centerpiece how-to

February 9, 2014 by ark_admin

Bring the outdoors in with this fun project from none other than garden guru Chris Olsen of Botanica Gardens! He’s puttin’ on the glitz with a quartz centerpiece how-to, which would look lovely as a fancy dinner party focal point, don’t you think?

Inexpensive tealight candle holders in an array of summer colors become a mosaic piece of art for any tablescape. Each one of these tealights cost only 99 cents. Your can find such tealights at most craft stores and even places like Crate & Barrel, as I did here. Let your imagination go wild and have fun with your design. The best part is that you can reuse these glass marvels for years to come whether inside or outside. The natural crystal bowl in the center is made from crystals you can find right here in Arkansas. You can create this look for little cash.

You will need:

Assorted small quartz crystals (available at hobby and rock shops and on the Internet)

Household adhesive sealant (use sealant that is heat tolerant…just sayin’)

Clear bowl or drinking glass (votive holder)

Here’s How:

1.Â Clean glass and cover work surface.

2.Â Separate crystals in piles by size.

3.Â Apply a generous amount of sealant to bottom of crystal.Â Starting at the bottom of the bowl, adhere larger crystals around glass.

4.Â Continue layering crystals around glass, using smaller sizes as you get closer to top.Â About 2″ from top of glass, crystals will be upright when glued.

5.Â Allow to dry at least 24 hours before using with a candle if you made a votive.

Photography: Janet Warlick

living the good life with chris olsen: autumn wall décor

February 9, 2014 by ark_admin

Beginning this month and going all the way through Thanksgiving, you’ll see pumpkins. Mounds of pumpkins, drifts and slopes and arrays of golden globes, all offered for sale. I’m talking about the real kind, the ones cultivated, harvested, piled in trailers, and hauled to market by actual farmers. But, as fresh fruit—or vegetable, if you will—these pumpkins (and squashes) have a limited amount of time to spend on earth.

You can go it one better, create a nice tribute to the season, and have decorative pieces not susceptible to decay. I’m talking about the kind of pumpkin crafted from resin or poly, and found at any craft store this time of year. They come in a jumble of sizes and shapes, just like the real thing, and don’t have to loll on tables, or perch in doorways or corners, just because that’s how everyone else uses them. Since they weigh mere ounces, you can easily nail a grouping of them on a wall for an unexpected homage to the season.

It only takes few minutes, and all you need is a hammer, nails, and a mix of different-sized artificial pumpkins and squash. First, clean and brush them with polyurethane. That sheen will make them actually look more lifelike, once they’re on the wall.

Once they’ve dried, group them in a preliminary mix on an area of the floor that approximates the wall they’ll be nailed to. If you’re sure of yourself, you can skip this step. But placing and arranging them before nailing means you can adjust, and not have to move them around once you put them on the wall.

Begin with the largest pumpkins, place each one onto a nail, then work your way down through the sizes, stepping back often to ascertain placement and perspective. Give each plenty of room, and don’t crowd them, which will make them ‘pop’ on the wall. You might want to reserve one or two to use somewhere else in the room.

When you have them arranged on your wall the way you like, then you’ll want to reinforce your seasonal and color themes by creating small effects for tables, mantel, or fireplace. Think about a mix of pumpkins, fresh flowers, potted plants, and unusual pieces of dried material. Also think about scale, and mix your colors.

Don’t forget the small touches, like a budvase of brightly mixed fruit and flowers on a stack of books. It’s these details that define the personality of the room.

And that wall of pumpkins? When you’re ready for the next holiday and its round of decorating, you can box them up for use another year.

Live Life to the Fullest

-Chris Olsen

The Number Game with Chris Olsen