Nurturing my Brown Thumb

I think we all know that there are health benefits to having live plants in your home.  And we do, I have three I've successfully kept alive for many years.  However, the ones I've killed very much outnumber the ones that have stayed alive.  Like this rather pathetic looking Christmas cactus I got for about $5 at Aldi almost 2 years ago.  It looked great for a few weeks and then has looked near dead for way too long since.

It was staring me in the face way too often and I was tired of it.  I've had good luck with keeping fake plants looking good so we went that way.  For now.  I have some good intentions on bringing more plant life into our house but like all good intentions, that may or may not happen.  I know you know what I'm talking about.  And when your live plants look as bad as that cactus...I think the health benefits are pretty few.

These lovely, and very fake, succulents have been working their way into our house, slowly but surely over the last year.  I love the appearance of plants and ones that require no care and can't die are pretty appealing.  It started with one in our (pretty) newly remodeled bathroom.

You know what else is nice, besides not being able to kill the plant?  Having a shower and toilet.  My sister was just asking me about the particulars of how we handled the no toilet situation for 3 days, twice.  There are not enough words for how grateful I am that that experience is behind us.  Would a real version of this plant survive in a bathroom?  I'll never know.  I also don't need to know.

Then one was worked into our new bedroom bookshelf.  I know you were all spotted it in this post and were just waiting for more information on it.  Also awesome (besides the working bathroom) is having a handy husband.  One who will make all the crazy ideas that I come up with, even if they might take a few months to get to (like the spice racks mentioned here, have had a box of spices on the dining table for over a month now...). 

Then the most recent additions to the family, some on the kitchen table (to replace the not very alive looking cactus).  It joins a lighthouse from the Dollar Store (which Luke calls a trumpet) and a family picture from a vacation we took long ago enough that I printed pictures from it but never wrote about here.  Which I intend too, maybe before it's been 2 months and it's really cold and the beach sounds really good. 

And this one which I photoed on the porch but "lives" on my desk.  That shell, also from vacation but we bought it, didn't find it. This owl was a particularly favorite find of mine and definitely an impulse buy but at $5ish it's a very inexpensive impulse and I think bringing it home was definitely the right response.  Also, I worked my fabric covered books into two of these pictures, they really are all over the house.  And I plan to make more this week.  They remain one of my favorite craft projects ever. 

I also added a fake succulent to my new (own!) desk at work but it's never been photographed.  I didn't have much luck keeping a 49cent clearance flower alive there either, so it's not just my house. 

There you have it.  More than you probably ever wanted to know about the fake plants that reside in our house.  Need to add some green (plants) for little green (money) and no green thumb?  These are your answer. 

Notes/Sources:
All succulents from Joanns, around $3-$5 each, all purchased on sale/with coupons.
White rocks from Joanns, also around $4-5, purchased on sale (I used 2 bags total for all these.)
Clear blue cup (bathroom) - Hobby Lobby
Blue/Green dip bowl (bedroom) - Target
White square vase (kitchen table) - Target (Dollar Spot, purchased very recently!)
White Owl (porch) - Joanns (I can't find on their website and they didn't have any when I went in two weeks ago!  I bought this one 3-4 weeks ago.)