Hello again!

The month of May was a month full of goal smashing, sunshine, and music. I quit caffeine and took up herbal tea, I got my first vaccine dose, I did some great thrifting, and I had my parents up for a visit. Also, importantly, I stuck to my goal of making smaller collage pieces and posting more often on Instagram.

I picked up a pair of spherical 70s speakers that I’m planning on making stands for, though they were originally intended to hang from the ceiling. If they end up working out and sound good, I think they’ll replace the tall speaker towers in the my hifi setup. Speaking of, I spent a lot of time listening to the new St. Vincent album (and officially bought tickets to her tour in September)! I’ll never get over how lovely it is to be able to play my music out loud on quality speakers!

I found this awesome modern looking chair at Goodwill for $8! It’s not vintage and the white cover could use a good clean, but it looks really great in my studio and it’s fun to sit in!

I did some baking, but not as much as I have in previous months and the only new recipes I tried were a chocolate chip cookie recipe and a cherry cobbler recipe, both by Claire Saffitz (honestly, all of my baking recipes come from Claire). They both turned out well, even though I subbed the cherries for strawberries in the cobbler.

I did a fair amount of gardening, this month. I put in some flower beds and cleaned out some of the already existing beds in front of the house. I bought a TON of plants and I would say about a third of them have been eaten by the friendly roving gang of neighborhood deer. I planted hastas out front and they were eaten down to nubbins overnight. I essentially created a salad bar for deer. So any tips and tricks you have for keeping the deer away, I’ll take! Marigolds seem to work, but they don’t have a wide range of potency; if I don’t put marigolds right on top of a tasty plant, the deer power through the discomfort. haha The marigold method seems to keep bunnies under control, though, maybe because they’re closer to the ground….

As far as artwork goes, I committed to my goal of making smaller, less complex pieces in an attempt to kick start my creative flow. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily worked all that well for inspiration purposes, but it does make me feel like I’m being more productive. It’s nice to take the pressure off, for a few pieces. I will say, making the smaller pieces is less satisfying for me. I think they’re good and effective, but they’re not scratching the artistic itch I have that keeps telling me to make it bigger. They work for feeding the algorithm, but I think I’m ready to jump into making another big collage on glass inspired by the novels of Pat Cadigan. So keep a lookout in my Instagram stories for that!

I got a stencil pack and busted it out for some practice use. It was very fun! I can definitely see myself utilizing stencils in my work in the future. I experimented with different shapes and patterns. I found a couple that I really love to use and I will be on the lookout for the perfect cut outs to complete them. You can see time lapse videos of me cutting out the stencils on my Instagram and TikTok accounts.

It was another goal of mine to get my workspace set up in the garage. I wouldn’t say it’s perfectly how I want it, but I did manage to clean and organize my work bench and hang a shelf with some hooks! I had to purge so much stuff I had sitting around, either other people’s junk they passed on to me or leftover knick-knacks from the old studio that don’t serve me anymore. Once that was all out of my space and in the garbage, it felt so good to set up a new, better space of my own to work in! The old neon sign that used to be outside of my studio at Western Ave has a happy new home above my work bench in the garage. I love the act of switching it on as a beginning ritual, when I step into my shop. It sets the mood and the intention: creation!

I haven’t done much to change around my studio space in the house. It’s pretty much as I’ve left it. I feel like where I have everything settled now works well for me, but I still need to get cushioning for under the shag rugs. Yuki has discovered that my chair makes a great bed and I end up standing most of the time because she’s so cute, I don’t have the heart to kick her off of my chair. She races me to it and I have to guard it carefully because she’ll snatch it right out from under me if I get up for too long!

My pitcher plant has finally come around after about two months of me battling to find out its preferred watering schedule. It grew one of the largest pitchers yet! One plant I have in the studio in particular has exploded with growth. The fiddle leaf fig I ~technically~ stole from Western Ave has been going off like gang busters! It’s put out 4 new leaves this month. When I first adopted (plant-napped) this guy, he was on death’s door. He seems to really love living here with me in my studio at home. I’m going to take that as a sign from the universe that I’m in a healing environment, conducive to growth.

Goals and intentions for next month: Work on a bigger scale collage project, bake 3 things I haven’t baked before, and continue to make smaller pieces so I can post every day and feed the stupid algorithm. Lastly… SHOP UPDATE! If you join my email list, you’ll get to see when I drop prints before anyone else! (;

I hope I see you back here for future project updates!