front yard 1: an intro
I decided to post gardening stuff by project, which means I'll be backtracking around a year or more to get things started.
The front yard is not an inviting place. It is gloomy and shady, except for a bit of afternoon sun. An ugly eucalyptus with a penchant for dropping branches towers over it all. The house sellers tried to hide things with a layer of nuggety brown mulch and clowny marigolds, but within a month, all the junk that was hiding underneath started showing up again. After half a year, it was mostly weeds and grass.
september 2008, march 2009: what it started as
Not everything was bad ... in the spring, I found a ton of violets hiding in the grass. The yard also came with a cute green japanese maple and what I found out later were a mexican bush sage and several japanese anemones.
I watched and charted and researched for almost an entire growth cycle. Some things, like the begonia and princess flowers, didn't make it through my turning off the water. Some things, like the volunteer baby loquat tree, I weeded out. Some things, like the blue potato bush, I tried to chop down thinking they were shrubby weeds, until they came back the next year with flowers and proved they weren't. (Most things I ended up finding in various excellent California plant books at the library, but the blue potato bush was a tough one. Be impressed by my image-search abilities.)
L: what it came with, R: what died in the first 6 months. the marigolds dried into little husk corpses
The plan is to have a much better front yard, done mostly by myself. It will be drought tolerant, and have California natives where reasonable. It will also probably take 3-5 years to get there.
List of useful books and websites about drought tolerant and CA native plants:
- Las Pilitas nursery website - incredibly useful articles for the beginner
- Northern California Gardening: A Month-By-Month Guide - by Katherine Grace Endicott - indispensable. tells you what to do, when. I found the 1st edition in a used bookstore, but it looks like there's a newer one out.
- Golden Gate Gardening - by Pam Pierce - really practical tips on gardening in this area. I learned the names of half my weeds from this book. I think a 2nd edition is coming out this week, and it will be mine.
- Bruce and Sharon Asakawa's California Gardener's Guide - I used their books to ID most of the stuff I had
- Designing California Native Gardens - by Keator & Middlebrook - in-depth view of ecology, gardening, design
- Plants And Landscapes For Summer-dry Climates Of The San Francisco Bay Region - similar to above. detailed explanation of things, more about design and ecology.
- any book with the words "Western" and "Sunset" in the title
blog babble: gardening projects
Occupational hazard ...
Cannot decide whether to post gardening projects:
A. by monthly activities
B. by project steps
I'm guessing people enjoy reading about projects more. But time-based is probably more useful for other gardeners.
fox mask 2: done
I was envisioning very painterly fur-like brush strokes, but I was not capable of that.
I cannot paint symmetrically. Expect the mask to always be tilted, if I ever actually use it. People still give me strange looks when I mention this project.
Also, orange is a surprisingly hard color to mix. Between me and S, we kept making buckets of salmon-pink. I settled for brown.
See also: fox mask 1
sencha 1
I got the Sencha pattern for Christmas and was aiming to make it up before my tailoring class started.
I'm trying to use up all my existing fabric, which includes a thin pink-striped cotton I picked up in Japan ~6 years ago.
The whole thing went together pretty easily -- be aware that there is ~4 inches of ease in the waist, so plan accordingly. The only adjustment I had to make so far was the usual one of increasing the back darts.
But ... the neckline. It's so high it feels like it's pushing into my neck. It is covering the hollow at the base of the throat by a little more than an inch. Maybe that is normal for vintage-esque styles, where they expect you to have excellent posture.
Of course I found this out after I understitched the whole facing down and clipped and graded the neckline. So that is why it is not done yet, and now I am busy with class.
fox mask 1
Ever since I saw this zebra mask / vintage dress photo on Dress a Day, I've wanted one of my own. I'm in this odd in-between state where I like to share my sewing projects, but not over-share with photos of faces. A mask would be a cute way to avoid having to crop my head out all the time. And that's cute, not creepy. I think. People keep telling me it's weird.
It's pretty easy to do, most of the internet has the same following steps.
1. Armature
Use 2-3 layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil, and mold it to your face, marking the corners of your eyes. Add details like snouts and ears ... I did a bit of clipping and taping for curves to stick on. Cut out the eyes, and the general shape of things. Check it out in the mirror.
2. Prep paper mache
Rip newspaper strips; they will rip easily in 1 direction. I think I went through 3 or 4 pages of Barrons. Make paste by boiling 1:5 parts flour:water + a teeny bit of salt, mixing lots while bringing it to a boil .. I found that ~1/8 cup of flour was enough. This will make a nice gel (don't use the no-boil recipes, they will flake when dry.)
3. Paper mache away
Lay a piece of saran wrap over the foil so it doesn't stick. You should remember how to do the rest from elementary school. Tips: Let each layer dry before you put on another one. I made 2 layers, then removed it from the foil and trimmed the edges and eye holes.
After that, I did 2 inside+outside layers, being sure to go over the edges to smooth them out. Ripping small tears in your strip in the same way you'd clip a curve in sewing helps things lie nicely along a curve (i.e. rip perpendicular to the curve). When the mask is wet, you can kind of mold it back into shape -- it will want to flatten. As it's drying, try laying it on top of or inside the foil to help keep its shape, maybe with the help of rubber bands around the snout.
4. Finishing
Paint it. Punch holes for an elastic band. Tada! No pictures of that yet, because I can't find my white acrylic paint.
Other animal mask ideas: raccoon, bunny, owl.
See also: fox mask 2