A Floating Garden

I am not a designer or decorator, but I know a good idea when I see one.

I saw a good idea this past weekend and I said "Hey, that would look really cool in our house", and Music Man suddenly remembered that he had something to do in Mongolia.

Then I bribed him with the last piece of German Chocolate cake the kids and I made him for his birthday, and he decided to remain in the country and help make all of my decorating dreams come true.  What a good guy!

The funny thing is that this idea sort of developed out of a nature find that our youngest daughter made at the park by our house. She found this ginormous branch, and insisted that we should bring it home and make a craft out of it.  There was no way that I was going to talk her out of it, so the branch came home with us and we named it George.

Here's George.  He is one huge stick.  And I have heard that he is self conscious about his size and can kind of get bent out of shape easily.

We decided to put George to good use and make him into a floating garden over our kitchen table. With a little help from our friends...

Miss Twine and Mr. Hook.  They hooked up at the local hardware store. They are engaged to be married. 

And of course every respectable super hero needs an electric drill to tackle tall decorating projects in a single bound.  Music Man to the rescue!

And every super hero needs a cute side kick to help him save the world from renegade decorating projects.

After drilling two holes in the ceiling and installing the hooks.  It was time to fasten the branch to the ceiling with twine.

The branch provided a home for these little glass beauties to dangle from.  Aren't they funky and fun?

I love the look of glass and wood together.  It is so organic and natural. 

Our monkey was quite pleased to have contributed to this project with her most excellent nature find.

And there you have it, a floating garden above our kitchen table.  Isn't it lovely and eclectic at the same time?

So, now that the garden is hanging, I would love some advice on what I should put into those gorgeous glass vessels.  Flowers?  Pebbles? Shells? Candles? Cheerios? What would you put in them?

Update:  Many people have asked where we got the glass containers for our floating garden.  Well, we splurged a bit and got them at West Elm, but it would be totally doable to use recycled glass jars or bottles for this project.

Also, Music Man was able to screw the hooks right into a support beam (He's fly like that.).  However, if you are going to hang a branch or plank of wood, consider using these babies in the hanging process:

 

These hooks have a piece of metal that sits sideways on top of the sheet rock in the ceiling so that the screw can not pull through.  These are similar to toggle bolts. 

Hugs,

Melissa