Remember House Plants? * Thoughts & Whimsy

Where have these been all my life? Succulents are all the rage—just take a look in any trendy boutique or college dorm room and you’ll find them in mini clay pots, glass terrariums and DIY containers. How can you not love their perfect tininess and the fact that it’s incredibly hard to kill them?

If you remember house plants of old, you’ll recall the hours we spent ministering to our plants. We’d fuss about the best location for each species, research how much to water them and when to fertilize, then agonize over when to repot. We would wash the individual leaves of our potted rubber trees and carefully water the African Violets so no water got on their leaves, causing spots. There were hundreds of books about taking care of house plants (don’t forget, this was pre-Internet) and stores devoted to them. There was even a trend in the 70’s of talking to your plants to stimulate growth—-I kid you not. Needless to say, as my plants died off, (or did I kill them?) I didn’t replace them.

And then along come the succulents! These mini treasures are ideal for 21st century living. They look lovely in any room of the house and you barely need to pay any attention to them.

Of course it would be easy to go out and buy a bunch of succulents but these handmade versions are so darn cute….and they come together in a snap.

Supplies

green felt
scissors
glue gun

Step 1

Cut the felt into leaf shapes as shown.
The small pieces are 2″ along the bottom, 1 1/2″ from the bottom to the point.
The large pieces are 2″ along the bottom, 2″ from the bottom to the point.

Step 2

Fold one of the small pieces of felt as shown.
Glue the flaps down.

Step 3

Wrap another piece of felt around the first and glue.
Continue to glue the small pieces. Be sure to position each piece so that the points are staggered.