One pot painted, four more to go

photo taken on the ledge of the small balcony

To give myself a simple creative push, and to rekindle my younger former craft days in after-school programs when I was in primary school, I wanted to paint some terracotta pot planters for the summer.  I purchased about seven basic terracotta pots at Michael's craft store (any hardware or craft store will most likely sell them) and some bottles of cheery outdoor acrylic paint; choosing between a white, marigold yellow, salmon-pink, and a sky/light turquoise blue as my color palette.  

It's been a much slower process than I recall as a child, but I would only paint one pot at a time too.  I really feel that it's worth the effort to bring a little individuality to my small container garden.  I'm sure most of you can recall this simple craft and painting a pot at least once in your life to plant a marigold or other plant in.  

Small, simple crafts like this helps to awaken my artistic self-esteem, even if it's painting cheap clay pots with cheap acrylic paint.  And of course, for those who know me well, I still end up with paint on myself and/or my clothes with each painting session.  I secretly really like the paint marks and smudges I find on some of my clothes and/or hands/fingers/arms/legs; it makes me feel fantastically artsy.   

...And if you've been counting at home, yes, I did purchase seven pots and am only painting five.  To give it to you straight, the last two are the largest of the seven and I'm getting a little bored with mini painting sessions and various drying times.  I got a little lethargic and left the largest in their natural dried clay color for my cucumbers and cherry tomatoes to grow in. Yes, one solid color would have been easier to just do, but one solid color is just a little dull for my tastes, when my artistic being screams, "put more detail into it! Rawr!"

Summer Planter Theme

potential Summer color scheme for terracotta planters

It's almost mid-June and I'll admit I'm not doing particularly well in the sprout department.  I wouldn't say I have a black thumb (when one just cannot keep any plants alive), because I do manage to keep some plants thriving.  I suppose I would say my thumb would be a muddy green in the color spectrum of gardening and figurative thumbs. 
 

That said, I've gone and purchased more seeds and plan on purchasing some new terracotta pots to decorate.  I decided to buy some organic, non-GMO seeds from Seedsnow.com.  They had almost everything I'm hoping to start again with the exception of lavender contained in a basic seed packet.  The majority of the seed packets I chose were on sale for $0.99; with the exception of oregano.  I find that these seeds were cheaper than purchasing them from a chain home improvement store and I feel a bit better about planting them. 

 All I need now is to pick up some classic basic terracotta pots and start painting while I wait for my seeds to arrive in the post (and for my cold to go away).  Above is an idea (hand-drawn and scanned) for my expected seeds to grow in with a funky summer color scheme.  Thank goodness it's still early enough in the New York growing season to start seedlings over again.