aunt peaches

Happy Monday: Leaves, Rats, and Portable Air Conditioners

Happy Monday my friends. How you livin’?

This is one of those Mondays I feel like I got cheated out of a perfectly good weekend. I spent most of it at a depressing casino or cleaning out the garage. I’m not going to tell you what was in the garage, but might have started with “dead” and ended with “rats.”

So that was fun.

In other news, I’m working hard on setting up an online shop to start selling art, and, I discovered that if you ask the people at McDonald’s realllllly nicely, they will sell you club soda on ice same as a fountain coke. It’s in the soda gun it’s just not on the menu. Shazam! For former Diet Coke addicts such as moi, this is the best secret since Deep Throat. You’re welcome!

Quick question – Does anyone recognize this sort of tree? All the leaves are different shapes. Some are pointed ovals with serrated edges, some are nearly round with smooth edges, some have 5 rounded points, and some are round with notches? It does not appear to be reflective of a bug or growth cycle (all shapes come in all ages/sizes). Thoughts? I sat under this tree at my friend’s house last week and the obsession has stayed with me since.

Now, onto other distractions!

10 of the most colorful places on earth.

Adult puzzle: How well do you know your 50 states?

DIY portable air conditioner for under $50. Whoa.

Grandma bridesmaids rule.

Tie dye s’mores. Suddenly my campfires seem way under-groovy.

How long does it take you to read that first paragraph? This is what dyslexia feels like.

Have you heard about the #ilooklikeanengineer hashtag? Brilliant.

Eight ways to refresh your home with watermelon.

Last but not least, I was honored to be interviewed by my wonderful friend Jade. Pop over to read my take on blogging, creativity, and Groundhog Day.

Word of the Week: Heteroscian. n. Dweller of a temperate zone.

Also, my friend Dale’s photo exhibit is opening this week at the Skokie Library and will be up until October 10, 2015. I told you a bit about his work last year, but you should really check out his site and read his stories yourself. This video is a terrific introduction! See more here.

Adventures in Removable Wallpaper

by aunt peaches 15 Comments

There are a handful of items that indicate one has officially crossed the line into adulthood; parenthood, paying taxes, and installing wallpaper.

I mean, anyone can paint a wall…but wallpaper? You need big girl pants to handle wallpaper. And although I have done some stand-alone wallpaper projects here and there, I had yet to wallpaper an actual wall. That is, until last month when Chasing Paper (the same company who helped me wallpaper my fridge) asked me if I had a small space that needed some sprucing up and I was like, “Yuh-huh I do!”

Current big girl pants status: ON LIKE DONKEY KONG.

There are a lot of great wallpaper companies out there, but Chasing Paper is my favorite for a few reasons.

1. The paper is removable. You can peel it off at any time. It comes in 2’x4′ panels with low-tack adhesive backing. No glue, no rolls, no soaking. The paper is thick enough that it does not wrinkle, but thin enough that it is easy to handle. Prepare to be amazed.

2. It’s ridiculously easy to install. You just match up the seams and press. Wahbam!

3. The patterns are fantastic. Everything from classic stripes to elegant floral to tropical foliage. They even carry some prints from featured artists and designers.

4. I love to see creative women build successful businesses. Elizabeth Rees, Founder/CEO, is doing such cool things with this company and I am so tickled that I have been able to follow along for the ride these last two years.

5. It looks real good.

I mean…

So. They have a lot of cool patterns. Why the Xs?

First of all, like most sound decisions, I like to decorate around my cat. I was confident Lola would look good with this pattern and I can now say I was not wrong in that assessment.

Told you.

Second of all, I specifically chose this paper because of it’s big bold asymetircal print. I love some of the smaller patterns from Chasing Paper, but this particular wall has some lumps and imperfections (I think there used to be a chimney that was patched over 50 years ago), not to mention a bunch of newly unspackled-nail holes, and uneven surfaces can be tricky with matching wallpaper seams. But, honestly, this was easy. The paper is super forgiving. It’s almost like fabric, but not. And now the pattern is up and you couldn’t find the imperfections if you tried. Everything melts together under the X’s.

This art situation up in here is temporary. I’m still deciding if I want to paint the other walls bright white. Or maybe light grey. Or maybe I’ll just leave them blue – it’s growing on me. I wish I had taken the time to paint the ceiling and trim bright white first, but honestly, that is the best part about wallpaper – it hides a multitude of sins. It sets off everything else in the room so that if you notice 30 things, the off-white ceiling would be Thing 31. It doesn’t matter. However, it cannot hide my lack of light fixture…

I had a paper lantern up here but I knocked a hole it in during an especially aggressive duvet swapping incident and never got around to replacing it. It’s not like I have a shortage of light fixtures, I’m just not sure what to put in here yet. Small and flat? Wide and round? White and clean? Colorful and exciting?

I know. Light fixtures, right? Lola is exhausted just thinking about it.

Thanks agin to Chasing Paper for making this project possible. I’m thrilled with my new wall! Be sure to check them out and follow along on social media (twitter | facebook | pinterest | instagram). There are so many cool ways to use removable wallpaper to activate a small space. You are going to love it!

Michael’s Maker Summit Recap (and FREE classes for you!)

by aunt peaches 8 Comments

Okay. I have to make a confession: I do not like travel. Don’t get me wrong — I like being in new places, it’s the getting there that bugs me. I’m not afraid of flying. I’m not afraid of terrorist bombings. I’m afraid of packing myself into an 18″ plot of upholstery with 300 other people inside a tin can hurdling through the clouds at 500 miles an hour. Because, from any rational perspective, that should make you nervous (or terrified!)…Throw in four hours of a limited, recirculating air supply and a lingering whiff of an ebola crisis and you have yourself a really good reason to stay home. That said, when Michaels asked me to come join their other makers in California for their first summit, my immediate reaction was a resounding NO. Eventually I got over it, and now I look back at that ‘no’ phase and think what I would have missed. Oh my god.

Oh. My. Gawd.

You guys. This trip!

First of all. California. I used to live in Southern California and I know the west coast is just different, but this Sonoma wine country situation is a league of it’s own. Seriously. Everyone is pretty. Everyone is nice. Even when the waitress is ignoring you, she is being pretty and nice about it.

And the place is gorgeous. I would tell you what it looks like but it’s all different. You drive 15 minutes in any direction and you hit a new microclimate. The actual event took place at the top of mountain at the Ranch Above Santa Rosa, and the ride up was as an hour long, log-ride quality white-knuckle adventure. But look at this place!

Lounge chairs. In the sun. By the pool. Tassels swaying in the wind. Flowers, flowers, flowers. I have been to some pretty snazztastic events in my day, but this was in a league of it’s own. It was only three days, but every day was like a wedding. A stunning, delicious, thoughtfully planned out wedding. Everything from private drivers to thermoses of ice water to hand drawn messages in our hotel mirrors. The details! The logistics that it would have taken to put this together an event of this magnitude for all 50 of us makers must have been insane. My ~~hat~~ tiara is off to all the folks who put this together. I feel a little sorry for the next event I get to attend, because this is going to be a hard act to follow!

Okay. So, this picture is pretty much the whole event: Pretty girls in colorful clothes on their phones taking pictures next to a pool. And then….there’s me on the left looking like the dishwater Midwesterner like about to pick my nose.

Hashtag: Metaphor.

PS: The photo above is courtesy of Jaderbomb…

Jade is one of the few people I knew before going to the event, which is funny because we had never actually met in person but we talk on the phone all the time. Then we met and it felt like we had been hanging out for years. Don’t you love it when that happens? She is so fun. She’s wearing a flower crown in this picture because Michael’s set up a flower crown making bar (<< yes I said A FLOWER CROWN MAKING BAR)…but Jade could wear a flower crown to the grocery store. That’s just her. She’s like a cajun Stevie Nicks. Everything she touches is interesting and bohemian and involves a back story of someone famous and/or naked. Yeah, you’re going to want to hang out with her too.

Now, about that flower crown bar…

Isn’t this the best idea? This was for the welcome reception, but I’m thinking you could set up one of these at any party. And for kids of all sizes. Birthday parties? Bridal showers? Hello!

I had such a blast hanging out with Jen, Jade and Lia – and although I am sure we would have had a great time regardless of what was on our head, the flower crowns helped set the mood for the evening. California knows how to party!

Again, another picture of more pretty girls on phones taking pictures. Dinner was on a lawn at a vineyard in one of those farm-to-table situations I usually only read about in Sunset magazine. The food was fantastic, but the flowers. Holy cats. The flowers. The entire weekend – every flat surface had flowers and snacks. Snacks and flowers. Flowers and snacks. Californians know how to live!

Initially I thought the welcome dinner was the fancy part, but no. There were flowers everywhere the following day too.

I’m showing you a lot of pictures of flowers here, but it’s very little when you know that I took hundreds. As soon as I got home I started painting them. More on that later!

It was a big weekend for flowers. We even got to make paper flowers with Livia Cetti.

I have been following Livia’s work for years. And although I have some experience on the paper flower front myself, I bow down to Livia skills. Like, Whoa. These are not flowers – they sculpture. Each one is an art piece infused with energy and integrity and the sort of hand skills you usually find in a couture dress. Livia’s work has been featured in every major magazine and high-end retailer in the country – even the White House. I was so thrilled to take her class.

And here is the good news: YOU CAN TAKE IT TOO. Her class is now live on Creative Bug. AND EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS: It’s free for the next three weeks!

AND EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS: Creative Bug is letting everyone take the very same classes we took at Summit. There is always a 14 day free trial, but you don’t even have to sign up. Just watch the videos; paper flowers, watercolor painting, image transfers, frame weaving. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen me going nuts for frame weaving over this last weekend – you’ll be seeing more from me on that front!

If you haven’t looked into Creative Bug yet, you need to get on that I signed up about six months ago and have taken dozens of classes since then. They have HUNDREDS. All of the videos are superb quality and the instructors are top notch. You gotta check it out! Some of my other favorites…

Paper Party Crafts with Lia Griffith
Line Drawing with Lisa Congdon
Sew Embellished Pillows with Annabel Wrigley
Creative Sketchbooking with Pam Garrison.
How to Design Fabric with Denyse Schmmidt, Heather Ross, and Lizzy House
Beaded Leather Tassel Necklaces with Elke Bergeron
DIY Linen Caftan with Liesl Gibson

..and many more!

Thank you so much to Michael’s for inviting me to be a part of this inaugural event. Coming home was a harsh reality made a little easier by all the ideas, inspiration, and incredible new friends. Thank you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Monday: Ice Cream and Lisa Frank

by aunt peaches 5 Comments

Happy Monday friends!

It’s August. It’s gorgeous. It’s open season on ice cream sandwiches. Huzzah! This weekend I popped over to Michigan for a mini-break to pick blueberries and watched the most intense heat lightening I have ever seen. I’m telling you, midwestern weather folks: don’t mess with it!

Some cool podcasts on creativity.

Five reasons I would be an accidentally offensive tourist in Japan.

15 Dollar store travel hacks to make your life easier.

If you are mad about Cecil the lion, you might want to think twice before your next sandwich from Jimmy Johns.

21 boozy ice cream cocktails to try before the summer is over.

Speaking of fun with beverages: What happens to your body an hour after drinking coke?

17 facts about Lisa Frank.

Oh, Chicago.

Random Holiday of the Week: Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors Porch Day.

Word of the week: Semaphorism. n. A conversational hint that you have something personal to say on the subject but don’t go any further—an emphatic nod, a half-told anecdote, an enigmatic ‘I know the feeling’—which you place into conversations like those little flags that warn diggers of something buried underground: maybe a cable that secretly powers your house, maybe a fiberoptic link to some foreign country.

Everyone is talking about the documentary Tig. And for good reason -it’s incredible.

Ice Painting with Liquitex Paint

by aunt peaches 27 Comments

As much as I have been grooving on painting flowers lately, there is something really satisfying about a totally random abstract. No meaning or purpose – just color, color, COLOR. Michael’s asked me to show a new way to use one of their favorite brands – Liquitex paints. Lucky for me, they are one of my favorites too! And since this is the height of summer, I thought this would be a great chance to cool off with an old favorite: ice painting.

I know what you are thinking; Ice painting? Paint ice? What the?

Yep. Ice painting.

Ice made from paint. You just leave it to melt on the paper and it’ll make these colored puddles like WHOA. I learned to do this in nursery school (shout out to Palisades Pre K!) where we made paint puddles then when they dried we drew faces and legs on top. It was precious. I don’t recall what I made, but I recall it was really messy and that meant I liked it. That’s pretty much the criteria for a good craft – messy meter reading of 8 or more. This won’t be that messy for adults, or, play it safe and keep it outside. Your call. It can be an easy or sophisticated as you like it.

Materials
Liquitex acrylic paint
Watercolor paper
Water
Ice cube tray (you could also use baggies or disposable trays (any sort of plastic ‘bubble’ packaging will work fine too))
Toothpick or plastic fork (for stirring)
Paintbrush
Old towel (or work outside on the grass)

Note on paint: Ice painting can be done with lots of different kinds of paint, but I have found that using a full bodied acrylic like Liquitex will give you the most interesting and saturated results. You’ll want a paint with a lot of pigment. It needs to be water soluble to lend itself to ice, but thick enough to that some of it will resist melting into the ice completely (you’ll see the difference when it melts). I’m very fond of Liquitex because that was what was recommended as the standard in art school, and although they carry several varieties, I like the big tubes you can get at Michaels. They last for years. Literally, I just finished off a tube of white Liquitex from 1999. It’s a workhorse!

So, let’s start. Add a small amount of paint in each compartment of the ice tray (somewhere between 1/2 a teaspoon and a full teaspoon). You can get 2 ice cube trays at any dollar store, or you can line an existing tray with tin foil or plastic wrap.

Add a small amount of water. Maybe a teaspoon. DO NOT FILL (YET). You need enough room for the next step.

Use a stick or spoon to mix the paint with the water. Plan on it splashing around. Don’t worry about it blending completely (in fact you will get more interesting end results if you leave a few paint chunks)…just get the party started.

Now go back and add enough water to fill each compartment. Remember, water expands when it freezes so leave a little room on top.

Put it in your freezer and let it solidify. Most ice will freeze up in a a couple of hours, but I just let it set all night.

Now for the fun! When the ice is solid, plop it out onto a piece of watercolor paper. I like to crush a few of the cubes and let them run around the paper a little. You can actually paint like this, using the cube as a sort of brush, but I like the results that come from letting the ice do its thing.

Note, you really need an absorbent paper like watercolor paper for this. You could also use white fabric, or a cotton rag paper, but regular copy paper will just shred – get something absorbent.

What you see above is what it looked like after about 5 minutes on the paper. The melting has already begun. You can see the colors starting to spread and mingle. Also, note the colors spreading off the edge and the old towel underneath. This is not a project you get to control, so just get ready for spillage.

This is what it looked like after 30 minutes. Still a few large cubes, but all the small ice crumbles have melted and mingled. This is one of the reasons I recommend using ice cubes in a similar color way for each piece of paper. If you do the whole rainbow on a single sheet they’ll melt into brown early on. Then again, maybe you want brown. I can dig that too.

This is how it looked the next morning. I’m telling you, it has a mind of its own. The key here is DO NOT MOVE THE PAPER. Keep it on a flat surface and leave it alone. The paper will gradually start to warp and create peaks and valleys and that will distribute the color while creating the coolest patterns and stain ruffles.

Yes I said stain ruffles. That’s a real term. Those ruffles of color stains are what happens when you use a good, full bodied paint. See how the yellow runs from a deep sunset orange to a pale butter yellow wash? Yep. And it’s all from a single ice cube, crushed up and allowed to melt at different rates. It’s magic!

Now, here is the optional part: go back in and fill the white spaces with another paint color. It looks cool with a white background, but I like to pull out the color wheel and pick something to balance off the values I already have working here. Hey now, how about a crash course in color theory?

I don’t usually reference the color wheel, except when choosing final ‘accent’ colors, in which case I won’t finish a piece without it. I use it for painting, graphic design…even putting pillows on the couch or hanging art on a wall. You can make this really complicated but I like the triangle method, aka: three point color harmony.

Here goes: Identify the two most dominant color zones you have going on already, note their spot on the wheel, then use those two points to identify the opposite third point of the triangle. Sometimes it’s an equilateral triangle, sometimes it’s an isosceles triangle (<<brownie points to me for knowing how to spell isosceles)…but no matter what, the third point is always the opposite middle between the other two color zones. For some reason, adding a dash of calculated color always works out way better than anything I pick in my head. I don’t know why, but it does. I don’t fight it any more.

Now, just pop it in a frame and call it a day! Good news: You can also get the frame at Michaels. More good news: Michael’s is having their Big Brand sale next week so you can get major discounts on Liquitex paint for the next two weeks. The colors are intermixable so you can use them for all kinds of stuff. Check out all of the Liquitex products in store or on Michaels.com and check out the Big Brand Sale page for more details.

Summer Favorites

by aunt peaches 15 Comments

One of the things I love most about having a blog is getting recommendations from you guys – books, movies, restaurants…you name it. Y’all have great taste. And word of mouth is a powerful force! And since I forgot to do a Happy Monday post this week (see you next Monday – I promise!) I thought it might be a fun to share some other stuff I am digging right now – not on the internet, but in person. Just a handful of my summer favorites…

This thing. Let me tell you…It took me 30+ years to realize that I didn’t hate grapefruit, but it was worth the wait. And now we are besties! I love it so hard. It’s strangely refreshing and not nearly as bitter as I recalled, although I still like to mix it with something else. My favorite thing: grapefruit spritzers. How? Freeze grapefruit juice in ice cube trays then when it’s solid, put a few cubes in the bottom of a glass and fill up the rest with club soda. Add a pretty straw – it absotootly makes a difference. I sip on these spritzers morning, noon and night. It starts out as mostly soda water, but as time passes and the two blend, by the time you get to the bottom of the glass it’s like a sparkling citrus slushy. THIS is how you get through 9am in 60% humidity. Great news: it’s also a terrific base for a cocktail. Because the only thing that goes together as well as grapefruit and me is grapefruit and vodka. Not that I need it – I could get drunk off the smell alone. Last weekend at the market they were squeezing fresh grapefruit juice right next a big wall of those enormous white Casablanca lilies and the two smells together…!!!zomg!!!…whoever figures a way to put that in a bottle and sell it as perfume will make a mint. Take my money, please! TAKE IT.

This is going to be the nine hundredth time I use this blog to praise Australian television and movies, so pardon me if you have heard it before, but seriously: these people know how to do it! Wentworth is a television series based on a women’s prison, and before you say “That sounds like they ripped off Orange is the New Black!” they didn’t – they ripped off (or “reimaged”) another Australian show called Prisoner from back in the 80s (which I have not seen – but don’t worry – I will). Unlike OTNB, Wentworth does not sugarcoat prison life. You get all the unpleasantries in your face and then some. I’ll confess to covering my eyes at least once per episode. It is gritty, hilarious, and occasionally heart-breaking. It’s not a comedy but each of the characters is humorous in their own specific way. My favorite character, Jax (centered above), switches likeability gears at least twice per episode — something you would NEVER see on American television because American audiences don’t give themselves enough credit to follow along. I am telling you, these characters are complicated. Messy. Strange. Compelling. I devoured the first two seasons on Netflix this month and I’m furious that they have yet to acquire the third season that premiered down under in April. If you have seen it, don’t tell me what happens. You can tell me if it’s good, but don’t tell me. Okay? It’s been a long time since I have been this invested in television characters and I’m going to be hella pissed off if something happens to one of them!

The New Bohemians by Justina Blackney came out a few months ago and it now has a permanent spot on my shelf of favorite décor books. The title hints at ‘bohemian’ but I might call it something closer to ‘gypsy’ or ‘hippie.’ It’s like, you know how everyone knows someone with a cousin in California who joined a cult after college but then they got out of the cult but still refuse to use real coffee mugs? Yeah. It’s like that. None of these homes have Garfield coffee mugs hidden away on a top shelf or anything. There are potted plants dripping from the air ducts. Macramé toilet roll holders. Paisley print boot mats. Every object is infused with energy. Style. Wisdom. My personal style veers a little closer to traditionalist Dorothy Draper-ish formulas, but I so admire this banquet of eye candy. Splendid!

My summer soundtrack of 2015: Jack + Eliza. Childhood friends from New York, they grew up to form a band with an eerie knack for harmonies. If you know your ’60s jams you’ll hear influence from The Mamas & The Papas or perhaps The Beach Boys. There is something very baby boomer groovy about them, but also very fresh and interesting. They have that ‘millennial edge’ that you can hear from new artists but it’s hard to put your finger on it. It’s my go-to album of the season.

Also, while we are on the subject of music, my favorite summer Songza mix lists (If you don’t know Songza yet, check out my favorite apps):

A Badass Summer in the ‘90s. It’s like the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack but better. Really great 90s B tracks – everything from Better Than Ezra to The Notorious BIG.

Cottage Bound. Vintage hits and little-known favorites. Little bit of everything, but each has some serious road-music vibes.

LL Bean Summer Soundtrack. Don’t let the LL Bean label fool you – it’s not turtleneck music. It’s folk and upbeat Americana acoustic. LL Bean is known as a New England brand but this feels very Midwestern to me, which is something I love to hear in music but rarely find.

Here is a problem I share with a lot of people: my stomach doesn’t register that it has eaten a meal unless there is something hot involved, but, in the summer, I really don’t want cook hot food. It’s already hot enough inside my kitchen and I pay too damn much on air conditioning to run an oven at 450 just to make lunch. My answer to this problem: stove salad. I wrote a post about this a couple years back and I periodically get comments and emails from people who are still using it. The crux is this; I make some sort of protein and carb on Sunday (chicken and rice or pork and quinoa…you get the idea) then batch the leftovers into baggies. Next time I want a meal I can just microwave the chicken situation then toss over some cut veggies and arugula. Maybe there is a little dressing involved? Maybe not. It’s good hot or cold, but you get a reasonably nutritious and filling meal without heating up the kitchen. Plus, there is something about arugula in summer. I started liking it when someone told me that French people serve arugula in lemon and olive oil at every meal and that is why they are all so skinny and never get fat. So far this theory has not worked on me, but I am not opposed to continuing the effort. Stove salad, folks. It’s a keeper!

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So that is what I know. Do you have any summer favorites? Good books? Secret cocktails? Holler. I’m always on the lookout!

Painting with Glue Stencils

by aunt peaches 2 Comments

Whewwwwee! Howdy doo my friends. I am coming off a weekend of fun and sun (read: wine and chocolate) in California. More on that follow when I detox and unload the camera (read: catch up on Netflix with the cat).

In the mean time, real quick, I wanted to share this post I put together that might be the best technique idea I have had in a long time. It involves glue and the toddler-sized stack of B track paintings sitting in my closet. I think your’e going to like it.

Pop on over to check it out. Also, plan on seeing some more of this around here because I am pleased as punch at how this one came out!

Happy Monday (But it’s Tuesday)

by aunt peaches 6 Comments

Forgive the delay friends. It’s Tuesday and I still didn’t write a Monday post. And it’s not because I didn’t find anything good on the internet this week (DID YOU EVEN SEE MISS PIGGY ON INSTAGRAM?). This week has had some unexpected/exciting developments (more to follow) and I’m hustling to get my work done before leaving for California this week. Heyo! I’m going to the Santa Cruz area to hang out with a bunch of other seriously crafty lady folk. I plan on coming back with large quantities of wine and glue guns. Airport security is going to be really, really confused.

The movie Clueless turned 20 years old this week. Damn, we are old.

Speaking of which, I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE.

The unknown Bohemian designer responsible for the wardrobes on Gustav Klimt’s famous paintings.

The woman who took the Apollo to the moon.

“An open letter to my white friends who love the Kardashians.” (<< note: it is interesting that my spellcheck can autocorrect Kardashian but does not recognize Bohemian as a regional identity worthy of capitalization. #ModernTimez)

Dang. People in Columbia know how to stack a jeep!

This chocolate salted caramel tart is haunting my dreams. (<<not an exageration)

Incredible photo essay on the life of a 21 year old nun.

Hillary Clinton on what it takes to get ready in the morning.

Why the Huffington Post won’t report Donald Trump news in their political section.

The best countries for ex-pats.

Follow of the week: Stasha takes the most beautiful photos of life, her son, and two enormous, cow-sized dogs.

And for those with a pragmatic flair for food, next time you are out in the sun eating watermelon, remember that you could instead be carving it into a dragon head.

You’re welcome.

Eat Your Heart Out, Jurassic Park

by aunt peaches 1 Comment

Thanks to great weather and my laptop, I have been spending more time outside than I can recall in a long while. I’m happiest when I can feel lazy while being productive. And my sunglasses are getting a workout. Last night I saw a man get dramatically thrown out of car by his wife (I assume) and now I’m just sitting here waiting for further drama to unfold. It’s exciting.

You know what else is exciting about chilling outside all day? You come up with weird things to do with plants.

Fern. Ferns. Ferns. I have ferns on the brain. They are my absolute favorite plant. Did you know ferns are older than dinosaurs? It’s true. Eat your heart out, Jurassic Park.

Let’s go make something fun. It’s pretty, inexpensive, easy…and maybe even tasteful (<<which is new for me. Hey now!)

Happy Monday: Monsters and Molly Ringwald

by aunt peaches 3 Comments

Happy Monday friends. It’s pouring rain here right now and the sky is the streaked with eight-fingers lightening bolts, which, let me tell you, is quite a way to kick off a Monday! Thanks to everyone who left kind words on my last post about my new artistic adventure – your encouragement prompted me to spend the whole weekend painting on the porch, totally ignoring anything that didn’t come in a tube labeled Winsor & Newton. I so, so needed that. Thank you! On to new adventures (and distractions) this week…

What happened when Molly Ringwald watched The Breakfast Club with her daughter and saw it from a parental perspective? Interesting.

For dummies: How to be a cat.

Her fiance died two weeks before their wedding and her response could not be more beautiful.

38 of the most haunting abandoned places on earth.

Three cheers for the San Francisco ballet!

Atticus Finch is a racist? WTF.

Word of the week: Altschmerz. n. “Weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.”

Holiday of the week: Yellow Pig Day, July 17, created by a group of Princeton mathematicians to commemorate pigs in text books, yet again proving why math people are gloriously weird.

Follow of the week: Mari Orr. Former chemist turned artist. Incredible eye for color (as evidenced by the swatch rainbow up top!) Her instagram feed is like a walk through a garden. Gorgeous!

The WWF put a go pro on a sea turtle to take us on a tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Prepare to watch it at least three times.

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