Kansas.com: Home and Garden

Historical Museum to have Wreath Festival

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:16 CST

The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum will be decked out for Christmas and open for holiday shopping during the annual festival on Nov. 19 and 20. The festival will feature decorated wreaths and holiday gifts, decorations and baked goods for sale to benefit the museum, which is at 204 S. Main. Admission to the festival is free. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days for $12. For group lunch reservations of six or more, call 316-265-9314.

Broken dishes tell a story with their thrifty repairs

Terry Kovel — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Recycling and reusing is not a new idea. In the 18th century, well-to-do European and American families bought made-to-order dinner sets from China that were sent across the ocean in ships. It took a year to get the dishes, and if one broke it was even more difficult to get a replacement.

So plates were repaired by the best system known. Small holes were drilled in each broken part and metal rivets were inserted in the holes. Then the rivets were bent to force the broken parts together. Animal glue was added to fill cracks or holes. The finished piece could be used, but it had what we now consider unsightly repairs.

A few collectors today like examples of "waste not, want not" from the past. Sometimes the repair made the piece resume its useful life. Sometimes the repair created a "make-do," a new item made from old recycled parts. An 18th-century Chelsea porcelain teapot with a replaced spout of silver, a broken candlestick transformed into a pincushion by the addition of a cushion top or a kitchen grater made from a tin cup with newly punched holes are good examples.

Get ahead of the holiday chaos by putting your plans on paper

Brenda Gutierrez — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

The holidays typically send many families into high-stress mode. Before you start panicking, "the No. 1 thing is put the pressure on paper," says Deniece Schofield, a home management expert and author of several books on organization, including "Confessions of a Happily Organized Family."

"Make sure everything is written down, because if it's in your head, it's stressful," she said.

Schofield recommends starting a notebook and making lists to keep yourself organized and save time. The real key is to get your planning under way ASAP.

Hot trends will warm the Christmas season

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:23 CST

When you're a home-decor retailer, it's a bit like living at the North Pole: It's always the holiday season. As soon as the decorations are down for the season, we're off to market to pick out next year's. Our warehouse fills up with holiday decor in spring, and by summer, we're transforming the stores into winter wonderlands. Call me crazy, but I love living Christmas year-round because I get to check out the new holiday trends early in the season. To get your holiday-decorating juices flowing, here are a few of the great looks you'll see this season.

* Ice blue: This chillingly beautiful color is subtle and enchanting, and it's taking the holidays by storm. Designers are pairing it with silver and white for a cool monochromatic effect. You'll also see ice blue adorned with pearl accents, which gives it a warmer, more elegant feel.

I love to combine ice-blue ornaments and ribbons with greenery that looks like it was plucked from a frozen forest, like bare sticks sprinkled with clear or silver glitter, evergreen garland that seems dusted with snow or boxwood wreaths that appear to have been caught in the season's first freeze.

Floral design workshops will lead up to the garden show

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

As a lead-up to next year's Wichita Garden Show, the show's educational foundation is sponsoring a series of five floral design workshops this fall and winter.

The workshops, co-sponsored by the show's Amateur Flower Show Committee, are meant to teach design elements and principles, build confidence in design ability and give hands-on experience on how to win at the 2010 Wichita Garden Show Design Competition.

The schedule of topics: grape vine wreaths, Nov. 16; all-green arrangements, Dec. 15; designs using tropicals, Jan. 11; designing outside the box, Jan. 26; and judges critiquing your arrangement, Feb. 8.

Garrity's new book is about Christmas

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Need a little Christmas now? Step into Mary Carol Garrity's "Nell Hill's O Christmas Tree."

Garrity, owner of the home-decorating store Nell Hill's in Atchison and Kansas City, Mo., shares her holiday decorating ideas and advice in the book. It takes readers inside several homes, including her own 130-year-old Greek Revival.

The book reflects the updated traditional look that is Nell Hill's trademark, a style that relies heavily on elements from nature and classic decorating accessories such as silver serving pieces and garden statues.

In bloom at Botanica: aromatic aster

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Botanical name: Aster oblongifolius "Raydon's Favorite"

Location: Perennial Border

Description: "Raydon's Favorite" is a very showy, bushy perennial aster. In the fall, hundreds of fine-textured, blue-lavender flowers with contrasting yellow centers cover the plant. The mounded gray-green foliage is aromatic when handled. Reaches a mature height and spread of 2 to 3 feet.

Gardener's almanac

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Fertilize cool-season grasses — November is the second-best time of year to fertilize fescue (September is No. 1). Fertilizing now will help the grass green up earlier next spring without the need to fertilize then.
"Other benefits of November-applied nitrogen for cool-season grasses include improved winter hardiness, root growth and shoot density," Ward Upham of K-State says. This application should be quick-release nitrogen, such as urea or ammonium sulfate, applied at a rate of 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.

The germiest places in the house

Vanessa McMains — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:02 CST

Wash your hands. That's a common mantra — and a worthy one — as the H1N1 flu continues to spread.
But all the hand-washing in the world may not be a match for the germs and viruses lurking on household surfaces.
"There is a big appreciation for influenza that you can get it from your hands, but a lack of appreciation that viruses can be picked up on surfaces," said John Oxford, who heads the Hygiene Council and is a professor of virology at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital.

Strange, rare antiques known as 'what's its'

TERRY KOVEL — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:03 CDT

Some antiques are so rare and strange that they are classed as "what's its" by collectors. Sometimes they are also so interesting they can sell for high prices.
This year, two auction houses offered "Victorian glass parlor fountains" — items that were "what's its" to most collectors. A few years ago, only 12 examples were known.
Researchers have discovered that the fountains were patented by Joseph Storer in 1871. A metal stand holds a basin at the top, and underneath it a pair of glass globes attached to a hollow metal rod could swing back and forth.

Home and Garden briefs

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:40 CDT

The Wichita Fall Home Remodeling Show featuring log homes continues today and Sunday at Century II.
The show has more than 200 booths featuring products for remodeling and updating the inside and outside of the home. Micheal Amosson with Viking Productions is offering free antique appraisals at show.
Mill Creek Custom Decks is sponsoring a $5,000 deck giveaway with radio station 104.5 FM The Fox to someone who has the ugliest deck (see details at www.1045thefox.com). Kellie Michaels of the KFDI 101.3 FM Morning Team will host decorating and do-it-yourself seminars today.

Gardener's almanac

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:41 CDT

No trick, all treat — The beautiful fall colors continued this week, though more and more leaves are falling by the day. But they're still pretty on the ground. I can't take enough walks through them, even in the rain.

Colorful tree ID — Ward Upham of K-State notes that people sometimes aren't sure how to tell a maple from an oak. "The easiest way is to look at how the leaves are arranged on the stem," he says. "Maples are opposite-leaved and oaks are alternate. Opposite-leaved plants such as maples and ash have leaves directly across from one another. Alternate-leaved plants have leaves alternating up the stem — one on one side, and the next, further up the stem, on the other."

A mermaid's birthday

ANNIE CALOVICH — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:46 CDT

When Cindy Snyder was in her 20s, she lived in the area of Newport and Laguna beaches in Southern California. "I love the sea," the Oklahoma native says.
That love followed her when she moved back to the land-locked Midwest, manifesting itself in an antiques boutique she owned several years ago in the lobby of the Eaton Hotel. It was called Sand Castles. And no matter how slow any given day was at the shop, Snyder says, she could always count on selling seashells to someone.
The ocean has also often served as the theme of her Christmas decor at home in College Hill. And this year Snyder is sharing her sand-and-surf collection with the public. She'll be setting up an under-the-sea display at Holiday Tables, an annual event at Wichita Center for the Arts that starts Thursday. The event will feature 39 tables decorated by individuals, organizations and businesses.

Two different worlds collide in living/dining room

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:41 CDT

Ken and Sue are living proof that opposites attract. Ken, an old hippie at heart, is content to curl up with a good book, while social Sue thinks life is one big dinner party. And when it comes to their design tastes, things are just as polarized: Ken likes traditional lines, antiques and lots of color, while Sue thrives on a neutral, urban vibe. They work in separate spaces in their town house, which Sue bought before meeting Ken, but at the end of each day, they want to hang out together in a room that suits them both.
They asked me to redesign their open-concept living/dining room to help Ken feel more at home in his new digs, and to make it a functional space they could enjoy together and with friends. I knew I had a big challenge ahead of me: I had to do some major "design mediation" with the couple and combine two completely different styles into one space — seamlessly and beautifully.
So I set out to create the perfect marriage of traditional styling and contemporary details, starting in the dining room, which had existing columns and bulkheads that I used to my benefit. I created a floor-to-ceiling, column-to-column banquette, upholstered in antique raspberry velvet. The striking tone and scale of the banquette creates a bold presence and provides lots of comfortable seating. I knew Sue would love its downtown feel, while Ken would adore the rich color and traditional button tufting.

Dark shadows: Book scares up black plants

Renee Enna — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:03 CDT

Black is not so basic when it comes to your garden. Black-eyed Susans notwithstanding, black generally has a negative connotation, a signal that all is not well with a plant — black spot fungus being just one example.
Paul Bonine has set out to salvage black's horticultural reputation with "Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden" (Timber Press, $14.95).
And just in time for Halloween too. With names like the Dracula vampira orchid and voodoo lily, some black plants lend themselves to celebrating the dark side of botany. But Bonine wants to celebrate the sumptuous as well.

Chinese pillows made of bronze, wood, more

TERRY KOVEL — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:09 CDT

Do you like hard pillows or soft pillows? It might depend on where you grew up. Homemade pillows were used in ancient Egypt, medieval Europe and early America. In the mid-19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the evolving textile industry changed the way pillows were produced.
From homemade and hand-embroidered, they became machine-made. Bed pillows were stuffed with goose down or feathers. But in China, pillows were very different. At first they were smooth stones. Later, by the late sixth century, they were rectangular blocks made of wood, jade, bronze, porcelain or other ceramics. Most had a curved top surface for the head.
Porcelain pillows were made from the 10th to the 14th century, then were gradually replaced by pillows of other materials or even European-style stuffed pillows. Porcelain and other hard pillows were decorated with animals, plants, people, mountains and even geometric designs. Some had colorful glazes. Many were shaped like animals or small children.

Around the house

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:13 CDT

The Wichita Fall Home Remodeling Show featuring log homes will be Friday through Nov. 1 at Century II.
The show will have more than 200 booths featuring products for remodeling and updating the inside and outside of the home. They will include kitchen and bathroom remodeling, organization ideas, sunroom additions, color and texture ideas for floors and walls, windows, doors, landscaping, siding, decks, roofing, guttering and garage additions.
Micheal Amosson with Viking Productions will be at the show all weekend offering free antique appraisals. Mill Creek Custom Decks is sponsoring a $5,000 deck giveaway with radio station 104.5 FM The Fox to someone who has the ugliest deck (see details at www.1045thefox.com). Kellie Michaels of the KFDI 101.3 FM Morning Team will host decorating and do-it-yourself seminars on Oct. 31.

Gardener's almanac

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:09 CDT

No tall grass for winter _ It sounds right to let the lawn go into winter at a tall height for insulation. But Ward Upham of K-State says that tall grass can get matted and be more prone to winter diseases. He recommends staying within the usual heights for whatever type of grass you have: tall fescue, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches; Kentucky bluegrass, 2 to 3 inches; perennial ryegrass, 2 to 3 inches; buffalograss, 2 to 3 inches; Bermudagrass, 1 to 2 inches; and zoysiagrass, 1 to 2 inches.
Plant — Tulip, daffodil, crocus and other spring-flowering bulbs, through October; garlic, through October; mums, pansies, kale and asters.
Family of Four Garden _ Salad greens are getting close to a fall harvest in the Family of Four Garden at the Extension Education Center. Extension agent Rebecca McMahon is taking a poll on her blog to find out what kinds of vegetables, herbs and flowers people would like to see the master gardeners grow next year. You can put your two cents in at http://thedemogardenblog.wordpress.com.

Glossary of fall colors

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:13 CDT

Here are some of the best varieties of trees for color in the Wichita area:
* Ornamental pear, especially Autumn Blaze, which is a good example of a tree that runs the gamut of purple, orange, yellow and red. Its glossy leaf makes it even more dazzling.

In color at Botanica:

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:09 CDT

Legacy sugar maple
Botanical name: Acer saccharum "Legacy"
Location: Parking lot beds