just flowing, man...bun mom, artist, permaculture and sustainable farming, silly things, whatev~ 🧡💛💚 follow my silly art here if you’d like 💕Commissions are currently: OPEN. Send me a DM for inquiries ✨
The complete triforce of the zonai/dragon armor sets. I love all three of them but the ember set is my favorite one because of the horns and also because Dinraal is my favorite of the dragons 🔥
You ever see something innocuous, minding its own business on the clearance shelf at Michael’s and before you know it, it takes over your life for a few weeks?
So it was with this desktop greenhouse.
I took it home and after taking an appropriate time to “season” my idea in my mind (read: a month or two) I set to make my vision of a mini botanical garden a reality.
I started by removing the heavy glass panels and building a raised floor above the latch. I wanted to use the base as a foundation on the building.
I wrapped the foundation in plastic stone textured flooring (meant for Christmas villages) and built a pond at one end of the same. I then gave it a more realistic paint job and designed a rough layout for my plants and displays.
I also knew I wanted to make the ironwork significantly more intricate, but I wasn’t sure how just yet…
Up next - PLANTS! I went wild making all kinds of plants. Some were specific species and some were more conceptual.
I made several trees with polymer clay and moss, cacti out of beads and flocking, cattails out of raffia, hot glue and coffee grounds, and giant monstera leaves out of paper and wire.
This part should have taken me a long time, but it really came together fast. I loved finding ways to replicate natural shapes and patterns using bits of this and that.
I did make adjustments to my plans as I went like eliminating benches in favor of a simpler overall design.
Then I needed to fill my pond with water. For this I used resin. Lily pads were added to the top layer, and I wired in simple LED fairy lights. The batteries are kept in the box under the foundation.
In a weekend frenzy I added more plants, metal (paper) steps, new (plexi)glass windows, a roof, wrought-iron vines (paper again), doors that open, and a hose reel disguising the latch. Suddenly, a project I thought would take months was finished…
I love my desktop botanical garden. Right now it sits on a simple lazy Susan in my office. But I’d love to get it a proper display box to protect from dust.
Thank you for coming on this little journey with me. This piece packs a lot of joy into a tiny space. I always love building miniatures, and I’ll be doing more in the future I’m sure.
My resolution last year was to do one thing before bed that would make my morning feel easier, and that’s become a daily habit that I’m carrying into this new year.
Some nights even filling up the kettle and setting an empty mug out for my morning tea felt hard. But I was always thankful for it in the morning.
Other nights, one thing would lead to another, and I’d wake up in a clean house with everything ready to go.
And, on a rare few nights, the one thing that I could do to make my morning easier was going straight to bed and allowing myself to rest.
What stayed the same each day is that I would take a moment to think of what I could do for my future self and do it, even after a hard day. And I would wake up knowing that I had done my best and any effort—no matter how small—was a kindness to myself.
I’ve been doing a lot of “a treat for future me” moments lately.
That’s a great way to look at it, and I love this artist! (Anna-Laura: instagram / website)
As a young boy in school, Masaki Sashima would be dragged out of his classroom and beaten by his fellow students.
Masaki, now 72, was different to the other kids.
He was Ainu, an Indigenous people from the country’s northern regions, most notably the large island of Hokkaido.
“During recess, the hallway door would open, and several guys would yell at me to come out,” he said.
“I clung to my desk in the classroom and kept quiet.
"Everyone would surround me and beat me.”
Japan has long portrayed itself as culturally and ethnically homogenous, something that some have even argued is a key to its success as a nation.
More than 98 per cent of Japanese people are descendants of the Yamato people.
But the Ainu are distinct, with their own history, languages, and culture.
But, as the victims of colonialism, assimilation, and discrimination, much of that identity has been lost.
An Ainu woman named Chiri Yukie wrote down some of her people’s oral traditions into Japanese because, as a child, her people were being displaced by Japanese settlers in Hokkaido. Her language was disappearing, so she (ironically) saw translating the stories into Japanese as a way to preserve them. She died at age 19.
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Some of the objects from the Ainu exhibition at Japan House in London this year, showcasing traditional Ainu skills and culture. There is a campaign to get Ainu recognised as an official language, at least in Hokkaido, and small steps are happening, for example, bilingual bus stops. It reminds me of the struggle for Welsh to be revived after suppression for centuries.
Tem um livro sobre contos do povo Ainu lançado em português, segue o link, caso seja de interesse.
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