Art Classes
I’m a big fan of community education art classes. In college I took a drawing and a pastels class. I took a water color class in High School. After graduating from college, I took an oil painting class and an upholstery class. It was awesome!
When I was in college, I started using sites that would help me on my English skills. I was surprised that this kind of sites was free. There are some that would need a dollar or two to enter but it really helped me on English classes. It helped me on the spaces such as widening my vocabulary and educate myself more about helping verbs or advanced English. Try it!
I’m itching to get back into the class scene. The real benefit of a class is the time set aside every week to just sit down, relax, and create. If i was more disciplined, I suppose I wouldn’t need to pay for classes but with my hectic life, the class is a way to relax and focus.
Here’s a sampling of some of my masterpieces.
I even did a blog post on my oil painting class way back when I first started the blog.
First Half of Oil Painting Course
And I’ve got some news, I’m starting another class! This one is through the Arlington Center for the Arts and is just down the street from the house. It’s an oil paint class and I’m really looking forward to it. It starts April 1 and goes through June. I’ll be keeping you posted as I hone my painting skills. I’m super excited!
Sarah
Weekend Update: March 9&10 Not much and some seedlings
Stefan has been having a busy time at work and worked 2 10+ hour days Saturday and Sunday. Getting home the no-longer wee hours of the morning. Daylight savings didn’t help. With Stefan gone and me fighting off a bit of a cold/allergies, I did what any girl would do, I read and baked. I finished the 3rd Game of Thrones book and made Daddy’s Cookies and these delish Coffee Cake Cookies. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Daddy’s cookies before. My sister and I made these cookies nearly every week with our Daddy starting when we were teeny tiny. To this day, these are the cookies I make when I’m happy, sad, excited, or just homesick. They taste like home and love and they are the best.
The Coffee Cake Cookies are a sweet bunch of yummy. Next time I’d add pecans to the crumbly topping. I meant to and completely forgot. I also just made some simple sugar cookie recipe since I didn’t have a tube of Pillsbury slice and bake handy. I’d go with a dryer, less buttery cookie to offset the sweetness of the topping.
Also, a bunch of seeds sprouted!
Mostly Roma and Cherry tomatoes and cilantro. The Peppers and Shasta Daisies will take a little longer as will most of the herbs. SO exciting!
And since this is such a weak post, here’s a picture of Vector on the way home from the Pound on June 10, 2012. Cutie-Pie!
Have a good week!
Sarah
Foundation Plantings
I’ve got a plan. I even sketched it out:
I’m planning on a big hydrangea on the corner. I don’t know why exactly but I want a Hydrangea there. Stefan isn’t convinced but I’m set on it. I want a mix of evergreen and deciduous plants to give it plenty of texture. What I don’t want is the stereotypical 2 dwarf alberta spruce and a row of boxwoods. We need something that will complement and show off our awesome porch.
This is what the front looked like when we bought the place. Huge Yews were overtaking the front and there were Trumpet vines taking over the porch.
After removing all the vegetation and re-building the porch:
Does my bad drawing make more sense now? I’m planning on a Hydrangea on that corner, with 3 equally spaced Hollys. 2 round boxwoods and 2 globe arborvitaes fill out the rest of the space. We’ve got a lot of texture which I think will make it look full and finished without having anything that grows up in front of the porch. With the Holly we have shiny, the boxwood is smooth, the globe arborvitae is more yellow-toned. They hydrangea is soft. I’ve also got either some taller, more casual plants like Phlox or Roses tucked in the back of the bed. I need to give this some more thought. I could even do something more cottage-y like Hollyhocks or Daisies but I’m not sure they’ll get enough light there. Some hostas to add blue and white tones and some very low-growing flowering groundcovers (creeping thyme) finish out the look and edge the bed.
As far as sunlight, we get fairly good sun on the front of the house.
You can see the front faces northwest which is not super sunny, but sunny enough for most of these plants I think. We do get good afternoon sun even if it isn’t blazing. The boxwoods are sun/part sun and they have been there for a summer and look great.
What do you think? Good plan?
Eventually I want to get rid of our front yard. There is so little grass that it almost isn’t worth it to have it. I’m planning on starting on the corner between the sidewalk and the driveway where I’ve planted a bunch of bulbs. From there I’ll slowly expand the bed and eventually, we’ll head over to the yard-less side.
Any thoughts about what other plants would add some color and spring/summer interest? The Yews left the soil quite acidic so something that doesn’t mind acidic soil would be ideal but we’re going to have to supplement with lime either way.
Sarah
25 before 25
Stefan turned 25 in February and I’ve been giving some thought to my own quarter-centennial. I thought it might be fun to put a list of things I’d like to do before I turn 25. I got this idea from Making It Lovely’s own list, 30 before Thirty.
Here’s what I’ve got:
25 before 25
- Bedroom next to bathroom: One day, I will not have to traverse 2 flights of stairs between taking a shower and crawling into bed. One day…
- Walk barefoot in my house: No more plaster dirt!
- Have the neighbors over for dinner: I need to come up with a standard company menu. I’m thinking maybe burgers and potato salad?
- Finish Game of Thrones books 1-5: I’m part of the way through book 3… the only difficulty I see is a library backlog.
- Grow a sunflower: I already bought the seeds. I’ve never had success but this year, I’m gonna do it.
- Cut flowers for my kitchen: Zinnias everywhere! Also clip some cherry blossoms while they are in bloom. They would look gorgeous in my kitchen!
- Landscape the front yard: So many plans.
- Eat another fresh cucumber with Vector: Vector and I love cucumbers. He gets all antsy as soon as I get out the peeler!
- Spruce up my cubicle: The walls are teal. I’m thinking a black and white toile would be a nice accent wall pattern.
- Buy a queen sized mattress: It will have to be a split queen boxspring to fit up the stairs but between Stefan, Vector and myself, the full isn’t cutting it.
- Make an 8’ tall cat scratching post: It’s gonna be seriously awesome! Vector’s pumped.
- Visit the NYC Natural History Museum: I didn’t know they had a natural history museum! I love the dinosours and any rock exhibits. I really like rocks.
- Go on a hike: I’m going to start working on not letting my asthma prevent me from doing and seeing fun things
- Not have to use a flashlight to get up the stairs: Lights are one of those things you don’t truly appreciate until you have to use a flashlight to traverse the house after about 4 pm.
- Ride my bike to an estate sale: I put that crate on there for this very reason. I need to use it!
- Get another good picture of me and Stefan: And not one where we look cutely covered in dirt like all the ones we’ve taken in the last year.
- Walk to Barismo for morning coffee: And if you walk to barismo for coffee, you’re silly if you don’t pick up pastries from Quebrada across the street.
Vacuum out my car:DONE! I just got it back from the body shop and it’s been vacuumed! Stefan was supposed to do this since he trashed it on a business trip over a year ago. I guess he’s off the hook now.- Sew cushions for outdoor furniture: I have old cushions and great fabric I just need to do it!
- Organize the basement: Sigh, yah I guess I need to do this.
- Sip wine on the front porch and people-watch with Stefan: I’d like to break into a Delicious riesling and yell at the people that don’t pick up their dog poop. In my mind that is the most grown-up thing one could possibly do.
- Have a weekend without plans: A weekend without lists so I can check this one off the list
- Bike to Cambridge for a great dinner: Maybe Hungry Mother again?
- Convince Stefan to make dinner for me: Does that need more explanation?
- Travel: Somewhere, anywhere!
Pretty Solid list if I do say so myself. Anything else I should put on the ‘ol goal list?
Sarah
