my garden

my little garden went through some struggles after moving to a new porch with much much much more sun. but i am happy to say everyone in the succulent department is doing well - just look at succy!! you can see the last remnants of his burn from the red tips on the outer parts..but there are finally some new pedals growing! i'm so relieved.

it was quite the struggle getting these guys back to good health. i had to macgyver this protective shade from an arrowhead box and some kraft paper. i used a normal office hole punch and a martha stewart border punch so some light could get in....okay and so it would do pretty things like this:

so the succulents are finally healthy..however...i do have some other plants. their current state makes me worry about my care-taking abilities.

this flower is a WEED. as in it grows out of concrete on the sidewalk. this is all that is left of it.

this next project...erhmm okay this one is my bad. i bought irish moss but lagged on getting the concrete pot it is in right now. so it kind of dried out before i even planted it. oh. and the purple droopy plant there? also a weed. my dad took a clipping off of a busy intersection on westwood blvd. also on the brink of death :(

and just to make this even more real. the pretty punched out paper? pretty ghetto from a normal person's angle:

oh well. it's a little sloppy, but there is some good stuff percolating in this garden.

i'm leaving for a 2 week trip tomorrow with my dad, aunt, and grandma - we will take a cruise all around the baltic - germany, sweden, finland, estonia, russia, and denmark. it is my first time out of the country and my first vacation since last june! i'm going to leave some of these guys at my parents' house..maybe my mom can nurse some of them back to health by the time i get back :)

zombies.

thanks feedly

interesting finds:

1. the tattly project

2. cross stitch iphone case

3. greg laswell

feedly is amazing - it is a little creepy(it figures you out using your browsing history) but so good at what it does. i've found so many blogs/useful articles that make me sound way more informed than i really am.

i've been in a pretty bummed out mood this week. it is a petty and selfish complaint. but i'm still trying to wrap my juvenile brain around the idea of close friends in relationships...real relationships. like 'let's rent a summer cottage and have dinner parties' relationships. it is the sad puppy inside me that feels neglected and friendless once their happiness reaches full capacity and every rare outing turns into a marathon of staying confident and comfortable as the consistent third wheel.

anyway, kristen wigg helped me out a little tonight in bridesmaids...kind of. well her life was way more of a hot mess than mine. so..

by the way. i've noticed that i am obsessed with grey. some people have things for exciting bold colors like mustard or lime green..but i freaking love grey. sometimes i have to stop myself from walking out of the house because grey skinny jeans with a heather grey shirt and dark slate cardigan? elephant much? even my sheets are grey! i just love it.

oh. and the bird on the foot? rubber stamped. i've been doing that for about a year now. still haven't decided if it's worth making permanent..

oooooooooooooooooook.
so my solution to this blogging conundrum is as follows:
i am probably going to get sick of this emlovescereal kick, so i am going to stick to the whitefelt name. i 'transferred' all of my posts from tumblr over to here and now i will begin to make this blogspace awesome..once i figure out how to adjust margin size in html...uhmm.

jul 9 2011

any further photos had to come to an abrupt halt because after the move poor succy got sunburnt :( just like me, he grew up coddled and in the dark, so this move to culver and the world of exposed sun has taken quite a toll on him. but as soon as he toughens up a bit and figures some issues out(ermm yeah we're still talking about the plant) a longer stop motion(with straighter pictures) will be made.

p.s. yes it is friday night. and why yes i do plan to put pants on and leave the house soon.

july 8 2011

this morning i was exhausted. in a weird over-caffeinated, relieved(done with the gre!), slumpy kind of way. i usually have trouble getting out of bed when i don't know what i want to wear. is that weird? i just really hate standing in the closet(because i have a walk-in right now whaaatttt!) with no clue because then i just end up trying on a million things and throwing clothes everywhere.

anyway. formula for unslumpifying?

1. mustard pants

2. this song by alex&sam

3. iced mocha from here

video from july 3rd - it was kind of a hostile weekend. i think it was the heat.

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but anyway saturday was the calm before the storm - i went with my dad to seeart in the streets...of course we had to load up on imagawayaki and i desperately needed some coffee. i tried a new place(well...new to me!) cafe dulce - i got so much more than i expected. the perfect vietnamese iced coffee(they use lamill roast) and a new app. the barista saw my polaroid iphone cover because i was taking pictures of the takeout cups(lamill cups are freaking awesome!!!!) anyway we got into this intense conversation about camera/video apps(i think my dad felt awkward standing there for so long haha) and i ended up buying 8mm right there on the spot. it is kind of kitschy - it is basically like hipstamatic but for video - you can choose filters and films, etc. but it was super fun. i played around with it in the video above...hence some of the weird pink sequences.

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i feel a little old saying this but geez little tokyo has changed a lot over the years. when i was a kid we would go whenever a relative visited and i would love eating the rainbow shaved ice, picking out manju at fugetsu-do, and most importantly, visiting the fountain in the center of the food court. i had a weird water complex as a child, i guess i still do. i freaking love waterfalls. you know how people say they could stare at the ocean for hours and hours? i feel that way about waterfalls or any kind of downward stream. when i was little i would make my own out of play-doh and then sneak into the garage and cover the model with plaster and pour water down for hours and hours. at some point i also dug a slanted trench in the the backyard and poured water down that too...this is what happens when you don't sign your kids up for extracurricular activities. anyway, that fountain in little tokyo is gone now and my dad and i sat and ate our treats on the patio that it has been replaced with.

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afterwards i went to a bbq off abbot kinney w/the new roommies(and loren) we brought beer and played around with quadcamera on the way over. i find something really amusing about this pic - it's like i'm trying to be the next awkward poster girl for blue moon or something :)

last night i also came to the realization that i am really obsessed with this homemovie thing. well i dont know if it is homemovie anymore because the video above has a lot of footage of strangers(or at least they were when i was recording!) i just see things sometimes that i know would look super cool as a video and can't help myself. ie saturday was the quintessential definition of a 4th of july bbq. while i was sitting there eating my grilled cheese that fleet foxes song was just blasting inside my head. i'm addicted.

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whoa super long post. i'll cut it off here.

yeah that happened.

image : courtesy of boei

slap : courtesy of albertscience

my body/brain are beyond confused right now. i have not been eating vegetables so i feel bruisy and malnourished. and i'm tired(get ready because this is another rant about the gre). i had everything painstakingly planned. i had actually written out a meticulous hourly schedule so i could take the gre, move, and be done with that hot mess in one short weekend. now i am in this bizarre, stressful, burnt out limbo and i want to just drop everything and go to graphic design school. i think the fact that i can't get a perfect score on a math test whose subject i tutor to my friend's 13 year old little sister is starting to seriously damage my self-esteem.

the new apt is really nice though and i am thoroughly enjoying living in a new area..even if it is just culver. last night loren and i walked to akasha and ate vegetables and quinoa and other delicious things.

this morning i stopped by the nursery to pick up a new planter for an idea i have. it involves moss and concrete and this purple clipping my dad picked up the other day. anyway, in other plant news : my succulents are sunburnt. poor guys. not used to that much exposure on their new deck. one day they will grow and look like this though:

we LOL a little too much so i covered them up to preserve the integrity of the conversation.

torn..

so lately i have been blogging a lot..but not here..

i started a tumblr a while ago - emlovescereal.tumblr.com and have been using that. i don't know why but for some reason using blogspot gave me this weird stagefright - i read so many amazing blogs everyday where the writing is so witty and the pictures so perfect. there is always some kind of inspiration and direction with each blog and i feel like i just ramble about stuff. something about tumblr is more relaxed, but also annoying. it is hard to format things the way i like and i don't really follow anyone there as much as i do on blogspot.

...i am also unsure about the name. i love white felt as my etsy name, but as a blog? it just added another layer of anxiety because maybe this should be more of a diy space on how i make the things i make..but that's a lot of time and plus i've been way more into video editing lately than headbands. ugh. last night i thought about making an emlovescereal.blogspot.com but then wouldn't that just add to the madness?

i wonder if anyone else regrets their blog name. it sucks because one of the things i love most about blogs is how you can go back months(or years) and see how much you've changed/evolved...

why my aunt joan is awesome.

loot from my aunt joans:

1. hand knitted arm warmers

2. tomatoes from the garden

3. succulent scraps – since I keep killing mine I’m not labeling this hobby as hoarding...but it is getting there.

4. cashmere, hand embroidered scarf from a trip she took to India.

5. striped lucky sweater from the mid 90’s – it is an xl and I love how it hangs off my shoulder.

my aunt joan goes far and beyond the job description of ‘aunt’. She has been present for all of my major life events. She was the first person to take me to Michaels. She bought me my first embroidery kit. She taught me how to bake and gave me leg warmers when I started ballet. Besides the standard ‘what’s new with work’ talk, we discuss pie crusts, succulents, and Martha Stewart. She is brash and strong and always sends me home with girly things we both love. She is my middle name and I don’t know what I’d be without her.

Today I attended her dog’s birthday party….and yes I was definitely present for all of little Rocco’s previous life events(duh…he IS my cousin). Mooch and rocky ate hamburgers while we ate fresh baked bread, salad filled with tomatoes from the garden and sweet potatoes only aunt joan has the recipe for. Then moochie ate rat poison and had to go to the vet(he’s okay though – didn’t eat enough to get hurt)