Thursday, July 23, 2015

Pretty Gardening

I have been away for a really long while. There was nothing crafty happening all these days. It was not like I did not want to do anything crafty but I never found that crafty-time. I was mostly drained out and lacked the enthusiasm to pick up my hook and yarn. There was always a list of TO-DO tasks in front of me and I felt guilty if I even thought about indulging in some craftiness to satisfy my creative needs.

However, I realized that my tasks will always be there whether I craft or not. 


My balcony has some pots and plants. I do not spend much time with my plants now. But how much ever time I spent tending them, I did not like those brown plastic pots, all kept in row. Provided that my balcony is not too wide, I do not have any other options than the pots. So I decided that I'll add some colors to it. 


See how it looked before. 








This was a difficult task than I expected it to be. I had to apply two coats of paint as the pots are plastic and I bought enamel paints for a glossy finish. And when I started the project, the weather was not too great. It took longer to dry. 


Another challenge was placing the pots to dry. I could not keep it close to the balcony glass and also had to keep constant watch on my toddler whenever entry to the balcony was open. There were lot of challenges - the mess, the cleanup, time, weather, space constraint, weight of the pots with the plants to move it around, and so on. 


See an in progress picture.




This is how my balcony looked like on many early weekend mornings.




I was never able to paint more than one or two pots in a sitting. So the project did actually span over some time. And till it was completed, the balcony was kind of non-functional. Each time I painted a pot, I had to clean up the brushes, throw away the newspaper sheets used, and have everything shoved out of reached before the little hands touched them. I had to get up early on weekends to get an hour or so to paint. Sometimes I used to paint these pots at midnight after putting my little one to bed. 


And finally I achieved it. 








You can see the drip marks on the wooden plank placed beneath the pots. That is another thing on my TO-DO list! Phew!


As you see, I tried using two shades for most of the pots. It was again time consuming. I had to put tapes at the dividing area. Paint one portion. Wait for it to dry. Apply one more coat. Again wait for it to dry. Remove the tape and paint the second portion. Wait for it to dry and apply second coat. That was when one pot could be called complete. It was tedious.  




Some are in single random shades.




I experimented mixing the colors to create shades. Some turned out way too awful and I had to throw it away.  

But I loved the result. My colors may not be too bright or great. But now my balcony is definitely prettier than it was. 




I am just imagining bright orange marigolds and roses in full bloom in the colorful pots on my balcony. I may have to wait little longer for that. 


Will I take up these projects again? Yes, I definitely would. For the love of colors and now I have learned few things from my mistakes :-)

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