Hi Beth. Welcome to gardening, but be warned. Nobody starts out with the intention of doing a lot of hard work but when the gardening bug bites you, the desired results often make the required labor seem worthwhile. As long as you start slowly, you should be able to learn fast enough to keep things how you like them and avoid feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. I feel the same way about the "cheap" part. Also, I prefer beautiful foliage over flowers for containers. The leaves always looks interesting, no waiting for flowers, no need to worry about staking floppy tall flowers, and with a minor effort, most of them can be "saved" for next year. They look great from the day you buy them until you bring them inside or frost kills them. Containers are actually more difficult to maintain in many ways than in-ground plantings. There is very little leeway for errors in soil composition, and the plants are completely dependent upon you for nutrition and moisture. They usually need water at least every-other day in hot weather. Some quickly get big enough to need water twice a day. If that sounds like fussing to you, having a lot of containers might not be the carefree type of gardening you have envisioned. If that's the case, pots of light-colored foliage (coleus, caladium, persian shield) that are happy in the shade might work better for you. As you consider what you might enjoy, just remember as a general rule-of-thumb, more sun = needs more water. One benefit of containers vs. growing in the ground is rearranging. You can move pots around if something is taller than you thought it would be, needs more sun, etc... Lots of food for thought. Coleus can be saved by putting cuttings in bottles or glasses of water. Comes in almost any color, grows quickly, and most are equally as happy in the shade or sun. There are also alternantheras which behave similarly. By the end of the year, you can have several plants by using the "mama" plant you bought to take cuttings. Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) is another favorite fast-growing shade lover with large purple leaves. You can bring the whole pot inside or save cuttings in water like coleus. Caladiums and elephant ears are interesting foliage plants that have bulbs or tubers that can be dug up and stored in your basement over winter. These are also pretty happy in mostly shade. Flowers that have bulbs or tubers that you can save over winter include 4'o'clocks (mirabilis jalapa - which also make seeds which will produce blooms the next year,) gladiolus, calla lilies, cannas, dahlias. These would need to be in lots of sun. In the spring, if you buy a little chartreuse sweet potato vine, it will soon make a ton of shoots which you can break off and stick in the dirt anywhere you want new plants. You can turn 1 hanging basket into a dozen within a month, or have pretty light green leaves trailing out of containers with other more upright plants. Happy...

One of the things that I do is de-mold the next day (24 hours later or less). I think my 2 stuck molds may have been left longer. We are also a relatively cool climate and I make them in the shade. I have a feeling that the quicker curing because of heat in some places may make the concrete morelikely to stick to metal molds. The one exception is when I filled a plastic bird bath with concrete and left it in all winter, but that was plastic, and I had to cut the stem off anyway because of the shape. Have fun. Kathy

I've bought it both at Home Depot and Lowe's, the two biggest "box" stores around here. It's about $10 for a 2 cu ft bag. I picked up two bags this past weekend just to try it out because I liked the fine texture and dark brown color. I also don't have any dogs and none of my close neighbors do either so figured there wasn't too much danger. There is definitely a chocolate smell, I don't know how long it'll last, but it is a little weird to walk out first thing in the morning to the car and smell.... chocolate :-)

I have what your looking for dear. I make these every year, an no craftylady, they are not styrofoam balls, they are very elegant beaded glass ornaements. I make mine with swarvski crystals just dripping off of them. Even my hot air balloons drip in onyx and crystals, or amythist, or jade,,,I have a blast making these, an would be willing to scan a few of my books for you. You can find alot of patterns online, but alot are just dreary looking. I have found them cheaply at around 5.00 a pattern. Here are some like I make,,,http://www.accentbead.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4 Email me at TheH00d101@aol.com