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Weekly Roundup: First Blossoms and Re-Reading
This week the first little blossoms of my potted balcony wildflower garden bloomed with a few delicate white petals, a peek of red, and drops of purple. It’s exciting to see this handful of seeds transform each week, and I’m surprised at all of the growth I already have! I just hope I didn’t overcrowd them! In other gardening news, against my better judgement, I planted some watermelon and strawberry plants in my shady apartment garden downstairs to see how they will grow. Sometimes that’s the best way to garden, plant what you want in the soil you’ve got, and see what grows. So far, so good. As for reading,…
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Claremore’s Belvidere Mansion
Today my friend and I took an outing to Claremore, Oklahoma to do some thrifting and have lunch at the Pink House in the Belvidere Mansion. The Mansion was built in 1907 by John Melville Bayless for his family. It later became apartments, then fell into disrepair, and was eventually deserted. But thanks to the Rogers County Historical Society (RCHS), it was restored and today visitors can dine in the first floor of the mansion in the Pink House, and explore the second and third floors. It was a full house today, and as you can see below, the first floor is adorned with intricate tiling, with touches of pink…
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Weekly Roundup: Sea-Inspired Crochet, Bee-autiful Wax Embeds, and Reading
This week I’ve started some new little projects, including making a sea-inspired blanket of my own design and some bee themed candles. I’ve also picked up something different to read, venturing into a genre I don’t read much of, sci-fi and fantasy. After participating in the “Postcards with Love” crochet-along a couple of years ago, I bought a lot of coral, aqua, blue, and cream yarn to start my own sea-inspired blanket, and have finally started on it this week. For the center, and after a lot of experimenting with the five sides, I made this pink starfish. The next part will be the trickiest part, getting this to fit…
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“Peaches” Oil Pastel Drawing
Recently I upgraded my oil pastels to Paul Rubens Oil Pastels and it has made a world of difference! I had basically started with the cheapest set I could find to practice with, but it felt like drawing with crayons, and now that I’ve switched, I can’t imagine going back! These oil pastels are so smooth and pliable, I just love them. I also found the most inspiring oil pastel artist who shares videos of her works and techniques, Misako Flodin, who does oil pastel drawings as well as oil paintings. I’ve just started watching her videos but I’ve already learned so much about layering colors and preparing for a…
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Gracias, Mexico City
Last week I had the honor and pleasure of visiting Mexico City with a friend of mine. For the month ahead of the trip, we brushed up on our Spanish skills on Duolingo to prepare for the trip. I had taken three years of Spanish in high school but that was many eons ago. Some of it came back quickly, and some of it was a cloudy memory. Starting to get a little concerned about two weeks before the trip, I searched the percentage of people that speak English in Mexico City and the consensus was around 5-10%. After reading this, I hit the lessons a little harder every day,…
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April Gardening Pics
Yesterday I enjoyed spending some gardening time in our perfect spring weather, I planted some Heuchera “Electric Plum” Coral Bells, which I thought were stunning, and Wax Begonia flowers as well as some flowering vine and vegetable seeds in my shade garden. And I adorned my potted wildflower garden with adorable ornaments that my sister gave me for Easter. Not pictured, but I also planted some blackberry and raspberry plants in the shady spot to see if they will grow. In my new apartment, my choices are between a shady plot of dirt or potted balcony plants. These limits are actually keeping me from getting overwhelmed in the garden while…
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A Weekend at the Lake
This weekend my friend and I enjoyed some time with nature at Oologah Lake. It was the perfect getaway – we went hiking, did art, puzzles, had campfire food, and listened to some very spooky podcasts. With lots of nature and minimal screens, it was the perfect way to celebrate warmer days. Here are some pictures from the campsite and our hike at Skull Hollow Nature Trail 💀
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Easter Sunday at the Tulip Festival
Easter Sunday and the Myriad Botanical Gardens Tulip Festival with these chickadees 🐣
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Stained Glass Sunday
This Sunday my daughter and I took a little road trip to Oklahoma City to take a stained glass class together at Strange Earth Studios. Here we made stained glass tulips in celebration of spring. It was a gray, cool, drizzly day outside, which we both loved, and inside the studio we started our projects by picking our glass pieces. We learned to cut glass, as well as to grind glass and to sauter (which, apparently, is an incorrect spelling of “solder,” but I’ve never seen “solder” used in this way before so I’ll just stick with “sauter” for now). We had a great time learning a new craft together,…
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Elephant #1
