DIY thistle wreath

A couple weeks ago, I went out to the creek near my house and cut some milk thistle flowers. They are prickly weeds, but they are SO vibrantly colored and pretty! So, I thought they would look nice on a wreath.

I forgot to bring my gardening gloves, so it is was a bit of a painful experience, haha!

I took them home and tied rubber bands around them and some clothes pins. Then I stuck them to my diy herb dryer.

I just love the gorgeous fuchsia color! These flowers are very large and thick, so it took a couple weeks for them to dry out. They had a couple spiders on them, so I returned the spiders back outside.

Alright, here we are now with them all dried out. Their color has become quite a bit muted, but I think they look rustic. Also, some more spiders appeared! They must be spiders from my basement that were attracted to their scent or something.

Alright, let's get started!

Here's all the supplies I used: A garden clipper, glue gun, gardening gloves, wreath from the dollar store, and the thistle flowers. I remembered the gloves this time! 

 

I chopped off the stems and used copius amounts of glue on the back of the flowers and just popped them right on the wreath!

So. Much. Glue. Below is the end result:

Time to hang it up!

You'd better like where you put it, because it hurts to move it! Those thistles are soooo sharp!

I ended up liking it but I think it's more appropriate for a fall wreath. It has those more muted colors that look rustic and cozy. This was all free because I already had all the supplies and the thistles were foraged. I love using what I already have around the house!

- Merewyn

Stumbling Upon Some Wild Chamomile

June 27th

Today I watered the garden after the kids were in bed. While I was drenching the blackberries, I stumbled upon a really strange little bug. It was bright green and it was actually cute!

Anyone know what kind of bug this is?

I immediately told my husband Alex and he said he thought it was a cricket. It's way too cute to be a cricket but I guess we will call it the green cricket for now. In the first picture, she has a bunch of little water droplets all over her, courtesy of me.

After watering the garden, I went for a little walk down the trail in my neighborhood. The trail runs next to a mostly dry creek that's filled with all kinds of weeds and wildflowers.

There has been a ton of what I thought were wild daisies. I decided to use my plant identification app (LeafSnap) and it identified them as chamomile! I was so excited, I love chamomile tea! It's probably my most favorite herbal tea. After further research, I'm pretty sure it's chamomile. I took some home to dry it out.

It's so dang pretty.

I'm going to have a hard time smashing it up to turn it into tea. But I suppose it won't be as pretty when I dry it out.

I have a fear that it's some sort of imposter chamomile weed that is poisonous and it will kill me after I drink tea from it! Dang anxiety always wants to ruin my happy moments. But for now, I'll dry it out in my creepy basement storage room and hope for the best. I will make another post about making it into herbal tea!

- Merewyn