My neighbor had some succulent and it was growing in large blankets across her property. In fact little shoots of it would sometimes come up on my property. She encouraged me to take some and grow it. No warning was given to me. So I put a small bit in a part of my property and it grew over the summer to 18" square by 12" high. It was crowding the coral bells next to it so yesterday I went and cut it back. I may have gotten some of the milky white sap that came out of it on my hands. I knew that milky white latex sap is prolly not something I want on my skin so I tried to keep it off my skin. After I was done with my pruning I came inside, took the gloves off and washed my hands. Then I went and ate my subway sandwich. Two hours later at 10pm I got some slight burning around my mouth. It got worse 4/10 then worse 5-6/10. By 11:30 the pain was now at 8/10 and my entire face, cheeks, mouth area were on fire. I racked my brain of what it was thinking there was something on my sandwich or I had some sort of anaphalaxis to something I ate. Finally I retraced the night and googled "white sap" and found out that I had been exposed to Myrtle Spurge or Donkey Tail spurge.. "Euphorbia Myrsinitis." I drove to the ER and they didn't know much about it. They gave me Oxycodone and had no idea what to apply topically to help it. I went home and the burning was still persistent. I took one oxy and that helped bring the pain down so I could sleep. The second day(today) as I write this the burning pain as finally subsided to just a very fried/burnt feeling on my face. Spurge is highly toxic and should be avoided in all gardens If you have this plant on your property remove it by digging underneath it and lifting it into a lined trash can. Do not break the plant up because the milky sap is a natural latex resin that carries a cytotoxin. Cytotoxins are in venomous spiders and snakes. The sap burns the skin far worse than OC/Mace/Pepper spray and takes days to go away. I got Tecnu poison ivy extreme care and oxies from the doctor for the pain. This plant is no joke. It's killed dogs, cats and children. It should not be on your property! And oddly enough it's common around central oregon where I live. It's considered a noxious weed as it grows quickly and is difficult to remove. EXTREME WARNING:!!!!! The neurotoxin of these plants is a Resiniferatoxin or RTX, and is very, very, dangerous. It is an extremely irritant agent and is the most pungent/spicy substance in the world, much more than ANY chili pepper where the spicy agent is the Capsaicin of 16 million Heat Units. Indeed this oleoresin is so powerful that it destroys the nervous pain receptors for ever! It has more than 15 Billion Scoville Heat Units and is 1000 times hotter than Capsaicin. TREATMENT: If you get this on your skin use a dish soap to wash the affected area continuously for a minmum of 30 minutes. Try not to rub the area much, rather splash the dish soapy water on affected area. The idea here is to let the dish soap break down the oleoresin which is a medium for the cytotoxin. The oleoresin is most irritating to mucus membranes and the sensitive skin around the genitals, mouth, lips, ears, nose and of course eyes. If you get this in your eyes flush your eyes with tap water immediately several times then get to the ER as fast as possible. If treated quickly one can avoid permanent damage to the eye. On skin the pain usually goes away in 48-72 hours. The pain can be minor to excruciating depending on how much got on you and where the area was affected. Dispose of all clothing, gloves, that have the resin on it. Wash all tools, garden clippers, shovels, etc that may have come in contact with the resin in alcohol. This chemical is no joke! It is one of the most poisonous resins on the planet. Most people are highly allergic to it and can even get severe welts/blisters from contact with it. If exposed to your skin in any significant way seek emergency medical help. There is not much in the way of neutralizing the after effects of the pain. Once the resin is gone from the skin by using the sudsy dish soap method and you have cleansed the area many times, relief can only come from narcotics like vicodin or hydrocodone and then you just wait till the inflammation subsides. Some suggest that aloe vera, calamine, and benadryl help relieve the burning to a minor extent. PRECAUTIONS: If you insist on growing myrtle spurge, donkey tail spurge, Euphorbia Myrsinitis then never use a weedwhacker anywhere near it. Wear disposable latex gloves, eye protection and protective clothing when handling or trimming it. You should not have this plant anywhere remotely around pets or children or adults who are unaware of it's extreme toxicity. Some report that just brushing the plant with bare skin is enough to create a painful reaction while others will not react unless the abundant sap touches bare skin. Extreme caution needs to be maintaned so that you do not have secondary or even tertiary contact with the resin in it's milky state or dried state as you can even get burns from the sap if it's on clothing or on tools and then is transfered to the face, genitals or mucus membranes. It is highly advised to keep this plant out of the yard altogether!! Simply exposing the resin to the air in confined spaces like greenhouses can expel enough toxicity into the air so that it burns the mucus membranes and the lungs. These plants should never be cut or trimmed in a confined area. DEADLY CAUTION! Never ever burn poisony Ivy, Poison Oak, Stinging Nettles, Euphorbia or spurge. You can release the toxins into the air and destroy your lungs. People have died from trying to eradicate these plants by burning them!! Eradicate these plants by wearing protective gear and putting them into lined trash cans and carefully disposing of these plants so that others are not affected.

Pastel M&M's Small colored/clear plastic eggs Dried lavender flowers Fine/medium pot pourri Silk flowers taken off their stems Dried flowers/large petals - delphinium florets or rose petals are the ones I've used Small/medium size natural rocks - a more natural/organic look but come in many colors Large beads if you could buy in bulk so not as expensive Look in the bulk section of your grocery store. There are many things that can work - just pick a color you like or mix a few different ones together. Anything dried with a texture can look interesting. I've used flavored whole coffee beans and they impart a nice scent in the room for awhile. One idea I like altho have never done yet is to plant some grass in a container and put tealights on it. Seem to recall it may have been Martha Stewart's idea. Perhaps there were small colored eggs on it as well. I know Michaels has quite a few vase fillers such as the glass marbles, shells, rocks, etc. Oakleyok, I love your painted pinecones! So many possibilities for color.

Known for being cheap----errrr----I mean, Thrifty, I took lots of the really rounded river pebbles we all collected over the years on our family outings and after a good wash and dry, I sprayed them with clear Sealer. Waited for them to dry, turned them over and sprayed the other side. The sealer brings out the most beautiful colors in those pebbles and when I don't let the vase get too grungy, it all looks wonderful with the sun coming in through the window and hitting the clear glass vase and beautiful stones. I like it because I can use the pebbles alone in the vase or when I have flowers blooming I can use the pebbles as a sort of Flower Frog----keeping the flowers upright in the vase instead of flopping over the sides. I'd love to hear more ideas from others!

I see them in wedding reception photos.... I see "staging" as the real-life version of a magazine spread. When we looked at houses, there would be artfully arranged trays on a perfectly made bed complete with teapot, teacup and perfectly draped throw.... I don't know if I think differently than others, but not only does stuff like this not "sell" me a house, or impress me, or make me want that house to be mine, but it kind of annoys me because it's like we're being viewed by others as needing to see things a certain way...like we're stupid or something? Idk... Anyway---I don't have time or inclination to clean stuff like that. And I don't think it looks pretty. (Like greenfish, I have some sea glass collected over the years in a dish...it's good memories)...