Removing a baby air plant from its mother

I am a huge believer in surrounding yourself with things in your home that make you happy.  One of those things for me is watching something grow.  I don't know why, but it is so exciting to watch something change day by day, week by week, month by month. And God has his hand in all of it!

Several months ago my mom brought an air plant home.  I don't think she had any clue how much joy and entertainment this unique desert plant would bring me.  First, This thing doesn't need dirt to grow! How cool is that? Second, shortly after it arrived, it started to grow babies! Yes, little tiny air plants and they are the cutest things ever.

I did a quick google search and found that air plants, like anything else, have a life cycle.  Once it gets to a certain point, usually after several years, the air plant blooms.  After the blooming stage, it will slowly begin to die.  This sounds sad, but there is a silver lining. Before it dies it makes babies! We must have gotten ours shortly after the blooming phase.

My air plant grew three babies which I removed from the mother plant when they got large enough.  This is how big they are now!

I was surprised, when a few weeks later I noticed four more new babies coming! Today, I removed the largest of the four from the mother.

To remove it you grab hold of the mother plant in one hand and the baby air plant in the other...and... pull!

It's very simple really :)

Here is a shot of the mother plant (left), the baby I removed earlier this summer (center), and the one I removed today (right).

You can see the the older baby is slightly more swollen and hardy towards the back of the plant than the new baby.

Look how beautiful  it looks in the house.  It's a great way to incorporate something living into your decor. And its so cute displayed under this little covered plate. 

Now I have something new to watch grow :).

Exciting Jadeite Rummage Find!

Last week my mom and I stopped at a rummage sale (as we often do) and one of the most beautiful set of dishes I have ever seen instantly caught my eye! They were a stunning milky, minty, green color and obviously antique.  I had never seen them before, but in my head I was dating them to the glamorous 1940's.

I was disappointed when I realized that there was not enough of any one item to even get a set of four.  I had concluded to leave them there, but I could not bring myself to walk away from such pretties! I  finally caved and pulled together a mismatched set of salad plates and bowls, telling myself that maybe someday I would run into more.

We got them home and unwrapped them and oh! I loved them soooo much more in my own house!

We set them out on the little black chest in our back hall to admire them and they looked so cute there we haven't moved them.  I just might have to leave them there for a while. 

Then..... I decided to look them up online to find some information.  I learned that Fire King produced these dishes from 1942 to the 1970's and that they are widely collected.  Even Martha Stewert collects them!! They named the color Jadeite which has actually become the term to describe that color in anything.  

My reaserch showed that by looking at the label on the dishes you could find the period that they were made in.  Mine says "oven fire king ware, made in USA" with the "Fire King" in scripted letters.  This means that the dishes that I brought home were actually made in th1950's, so I was off by a few years in my predictions at the rummage sale.

Oh and look how pretty they look in a place setting!!!

I can't wait to have an excuse to entertain with my new antique dishes!