Vivienne is our own Irish Lass that joined our group of garden girls last year. She is our manager at Red Zinnia and her style and artistic flair are well represented in her garden as well as at the store. As a member of our local Hospital Auxiliary, she chooses to spend her volunteer hours at their thrift store, and as she and Jaime, also a volunteer member, are often quick to point out “You can get a whole lot of cool stuff there, and we get first pick”. Her garden is filled with little treasures that she has used to either add into a mosaic project, or combine into little vignette’s filled with rustic vintage appeal. We gathered under her patio on this warm sunny evening, the misters keeping us cool, and got caught up on the going’s on in each other’s lives. Having two stores, with different shifts, our semi-weekly garden tours are usually the only time we are all together. It is a slumber party, minus the slumber. As we all settle into their comfy chairs, ~ good food, good drinks and even greater conversation fills the air.

A tour of the garden commences with drinks in hand and we enjoy seeing the newest plantings and projects that she and Stuart have in progress. Living on the outskirts of town they are faced with high winds and heat and over the last year they have added many trees to help cut it down. Everything is maturing nicely, and of course with all of us there we talked them into planting even more. After all, we are Garden Girls.

thrift store finds, turned into treasures

Vivienne is a master at mosaics, and there are many scattered throughout her garden in all sizes and styles

I especially love this mirror that rests under a trellis. It adds not only artistic interest, but depth to the garden.

Not only mosaics, but my eye catches heart shaped rocks as well

little crystals and chimes scattered throughout, catching the light breeze that fills the summer air

Vivienne has a great eye for color, as evidenced by how she does the displays at Red Zinnia, but even on her porch, the combination of old branches filled with lichen blend beautifully with the colored glass chime.

Vivienne's newest and largest project that we saw. She has been building this outdoor patio table top and only the middle part is glued in at this point. She is still experimenting with different combinations for the outer rim. A beautiful colorful piece that combines her love of color, with her Irish heritage. The picture below on the right is her original layout, and then Michelle started to take some creative license to it. We will have to wait and see the finished project.