quilt leaves

i'm not sure exactly when i picked these leaves up, but i do know i glued them together one on the 22nd of February and the other about a week later. 

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wooden object

i'm on a journey this year, trying new things. at the moment, i'm taking a japanese wood joinery course at a community college. here is the first thing i've made. this is my first time working with wood outside of building things (crudely).

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rat t-shirt

i made this rat t-shirt for a rat themed party that ended up being canceled. all's well that ends well, though, because it motivated me to make a fun shirt. 

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valentine's day cards

every year, i decide i am going to send out christmas cards or new year's cards or solstice cards. some sort of holiday on which it makes sense to send cards out. every year, i wait too long and don't get around to it. twice, in non-consecutive years, i've sent out valentine's day cards instead. 

i feel like valentine's day has a bad reputation as a capitalist holiday celebrating romantic love, used by people in relationships to rub their happiness in the faces of single people, but i don't see it that way. i see it as an opportunity to celebrate the love in your life, romantic or otherwise, and wear a lot of pink and red and eat chocolate. what's so bad about that? it's the only day of the year that i wear my pink hoop earrings with the little red hearts on them.

i will admit that i didn't always love valentine's day. i used to be cynical about it until one of my best friends, while i was still in the aftermath of my biggest heartbreak to date, suggested we do a valentine's day trip. in the end, they came to visit me. we went all out, five days of continuous valentine's day activities. we threw a party, went sailing, ate hot pot, went out dancing, wore color coordinated outfits, made one another heartfelt valentine's cards. it was such a lovely time and i hope that my cards can give people some small taste of the joy i've had on our valentine's day trips!

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flowers on 15.10.2022

a photo of my collection in my old apartment in seattle. 

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all seattle from my bedroom window

from february, 2022. seven-ish months into my time living in seattle, all photos i had taken on my phone.  

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old mail with pressed flowers

before i became a leaf collector, i was a flower collector (and presser). for years i have been coming home from walks with a notebook bursting at the seams with flowers. they've warped and stained the pages. i've sent a lot of them in letters to friends. here are a couple pieces of mail from early on. 

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a birthday card for a friend

a postcard

the first drawing from when i got back to it

as a kid, i was constantly drawing. after high school i got oh so busy with life and college and whatnot that i almost entirely stopped drawing. then, after college, i got oh so busy with life and work and being an adult out in the real world that i actually did entirely stop drawing. this is one of the first little pieces of art i made again when i felt my first real surge of motivation which i, luckily, followed and which has ultimately led me to where i am now. a little self portrait, cozy in bed. i had thought to do a daily series, but that proved to be a bit ambitious. at that point, every little doodle or sketch was a bit win. 

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i have a difficult time giving up entirely on things because i have taken long breaks before and managed to come back to the things i love.