That's my monkey card. How great is THAT?
And the poor thing has been shoved in a drawer for years, forgotten all about until this post.
I've always had a rule. If someone sends me a card I leave it out on display for a week. Minimum. I also have a rule about not using a cutting from my cat's tail to try to grow another cat (once gardening season rolls around I have to remind myself about these sorts of things)
The problem with stupid birthdays is they usually, sometimes, if you're lucky involve getting cards. The problem with cards is you never seemed to have a good place to put them. You stick them on the counter and they fall over, or get sauce and icing on them. Ditto happens on the bedside table.
Then one day I remembered a photo from a Country Living magazine from a couple of years ago. They were using metal flower frogs to hold seed packets.
I had metal frogs. I also had a cute tin box filled with postcards based on vintage seed packets. I got it as a thank you gift for speaking at Seedy Saturday a few years ago and I love the postcards, the problem was I could never figure out how to display them.
The metal frogs make perfect sense. Flowers, vegetables, seeds, deadly sharp pokey things you could use to slash the hands of anyone trying to touch your stuff. It all kind of goes together.
Stick them under a glass cloche and you have a place that makes anything look special. Even that horrible birthday card that your Uncle Joe gave you that makes farting sounds when you open it.
My glass cloche is from an antique clock that I have that I never use anymore. And I got the wood stand for it at Value Village. But what would really make more sense for displaying vegetable seeds is one of these glass garden cloches. And at $53 for 4 of them they're a deal. I'm not sure why they're so cheap but they are. You could buy the set, keep one and give the rest away as gifts. Or at least tell yourself you're going to do that to justify your purchase then of course, keep them all for yourself.
Now if I get a thank you card I put it in my little glass display dome, which sits just to the right of the desk in my office.
And just so you know, this portion of my office looks neat and tidy. That is an illusion. My desk is currently covered with a white mug filled with pens, a toast rack filled with notebooks, one pair of glasses, two old coffee cups, a note on a new way to pinch back tomatoes, 2 empty gum packets, some jewellery I took off while typing, my iphone, some camera memory cards and 2 bobby pins. And a bag of cocaine.
Just kidding.
There are 3 old coffee cups.
jainegayer
OMG!!! I was at an antique store last week and saw 4 metal frogs and knew I needed them for something!
I'm going back today to get them. Thank you, Karen for the idea. I love it! Tomorrow I'll look for the cute little frogs tomorrow, ones with fat bellies. Karen, you are positively sick! LMAO
Mary Werner
Nice frog idea but WHERE DID YOU GET THAT GORGEOUS WHITE DOG?
Karen
From a local nursery actually. Terra Greenhouses. ~ karen!
BethH
But what about the new way to pinch back tomatoes?
ellenk
Oh but where can you get a lovely base for the cloche? That really does it! I want that too.
And I'm so glad to see this. I was trying to sort through things, being urged to purge after a very recent basement flood (ugh) and came across my collection of frogs and almost gave in...
No, they didn't get wet, thankfully and now they have new life!
Karen
I actually got the base from Value Village a few years ago. :) ~ karen!
ellenk
One more thing to search for at VV and the like. Funsies.
Diane Richards
Great idea....I had frogs, but no idea where they are now. Must find! Question??? Where did you get those white cabinets...the one with the fern on top? I need something like this and not having much luck.
Love your blog Karen...you are such a smarty pants.
Karen
Hi Diane! Those are Billy cases from Ikea. :) ~ karen!
Jenny n NC
Good Morning Karen!
I too have floral frogs-I collect all kinds. Spiky metal ones of all shapes, colors and sizes. Also have some plastic and porcelain ones along with a few vases and containers that came with their own frog. This shouldn't bee too weird for a floral designer/gardner, huh?!?
But when I go to a trade/bridal/etc show and set up my booth, instead of one of the modern business card holders, I uses a metal frog to stand up one of the cards and then spread others around. Makes for a very unique little display. Never fails that someone will comment on the frog. Keep it on my desk in my studio when not at shows.
Love what you did with yours Karen..... Anything under a dome/cloche is pretty awesome!
Keep it coming......
Jenny n NC
Karen
That's true. You could put a rotten potato under a dome and it would look impressive. ~ karen!
Su
cute....
Karol
Hi Karen! I have metal frogs that I bought specifically for that purpose. I've never used them for flower arranging. But instead of new cards, I like to display vintage cards under the cloche.
On another note, one of the things I love about you is you use the word "fart" a LOT in your posts. Makes me teehee out loud.
JMC
Great idea Karen. My mother is a certified Ikebana teacher of the Sogetsu School, after years and years of classes some person came over from Japan to test her she got a certificate and a flower name. So she has a number of kenzans (what they cal those deadly spikes) including one I gave her that is a series of small connected circles that you can have in a straight line or bend the connection to have it snake along (it's early I'm not expressing myself well sorry) I think it might be fun for your card idea. You've got so many good ideas Karen - it must be busy in that head of yours.
Karen
I would LOVE to take an Ikebana class! Best floral designs ever. ~ karen!
natalie
"She would have been happy with a somewhat less sincere form of flattery."
You're welcome!
tajicat
What a great idea! I have my mom's old metal frogs, didn't know if I would ever use them, now I do. Thanks for the great idea, not only the metal frogs but putting old cards etc on display. :)
Hudson Valley
Years and years ago, my friend Maureen Longo and I went for coffee (so long ago I still drank it.) She said she'd bought me a gift (?for my bday? I don't remember.)
She said she saw a jacket, gold colored, with a paisley pattern, very pretty with purple frogs.
Not being a sewer (or a sewing person) I quietly gulped.
In this case the frogs were not purple frogs cavorting in the fabric of the jacket. They were perfectly lovely purple closures-- in lieu of buttons.
I love that story.
Ruth
Suzie Baker
Ladies, it's almost 4am and I couldn't sleep. I was hoping to go back to bed.... NOT! Here I sit, by myself, laughing and giggling at the wonderful article and now the replies! Thanks.... I may have to turn to drugs myself to calm down :)
JMC
Suzi fyi cocaine won't help with that.
Karen
Hope you got some sleep Suzie! ~ karen
Sande
Great idea, I can't wait to try. When you run out of flower frogs, you can also use black binder clips. Lay the clip base on a tabletop so that the clips are facing upright and insert your card or photo.
RosieW
Sande's idea is excellent. We all have those clips or can get them easily.
No idea where my frogs are.....somewhere in the shed.
Thanks Sande and Karen!
Grammy
I love this idea. Now, if I can find my wire frogs, I'll do this. If I can't find them, I'll probably be so distraught that I'll turn to drugs, and it will be on you that I went nuts and ended up in a gutter somewhere. Wish me luck on finding the frogs!,
Barbie
So......I'm totally sending you a card now.....as long as I know it's going in that cute lil thingy for a minimum of a week!
Luanne
Happy belated birthday!
Karen
Oh it's very belated, Luanne, lol. It was in December. But thanks. I'll celebrate anyway with cake. :) ~ karen!
Paula
The glass cloches are still unavailable. I have had my eye on these since you mentioned them at Christmas time.
Karen
They're available in American Paula. It may only be Canada that doesn't have them. Typical. ~ karen!
Fiona Verdouw
Now you've got me all perplexed. What ARE these metal flower frogs? I can see they're metal, but where do the frogs and flowers come into things? Unless I were a transcendental fakir frog, I would want to steer clear, as they look more like a bed of nails than a lily-pad... And on that note - can you enlighten me?
Karen
Well Fiona you just smash the frog's belly right onto the spikes. Keeps him right where you want him. As long as you don't pull him off there's no danger of him dying. Just kidding. He'll die so don't do it. You put the flower frog at the bottom of a vase and then stick the stem of the flowers into the spikes to hold them where you want them. They're especially good for Ikebana floral arranging. ~ karen!
Sylvia
I LOVE THIS SOOOOOO MUCH. What a wonderful way to display so many meaningful things. I have my grandmother's flower frogs...5 sizes...from long ago. I can't wait to use them to display a special card or photo.
Thanks for your wonderful blog. I look forward to all your posts.
Karen
Thanks! I know! I love it too, lol. ~ karen!