Glutter

Art Diary

After a month of working in the ceremic studio I was finally able to bring home the first pieces I made. I am especially pleased with the birdbath (front) as I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I am also pleased as currently i am using a plastic disposable noodle bowl in the tree as a birdbath. Can't wait to hang it up!!!

Home Creationism

Pieter and I was quite excited at seeing dragon flies mating (there are two of them if you look real close) and laying eggs in our pond.

Operation California

This is the garden that inspired me to use rocks on our hill for our cactus garden. It's in the old South West Museum in Mount Washington in LA. I happened to be looking at it when the volunteer who made the garden was there, and he told me it took 12 years for it to grow to look like this! He also made Pieter and I decide to use as much materials from our land for our home as (i think his name is Arthur) was saying that he didn't want to import different materials into the landscape.

There are other cactus gardens in Los Angeles area that I still need to visit, as well as things like the Joshua Tree National Park. I have always loved cactus, and being here makes them so much more "real" than in the tiny pots I had seen them previously.

Home Creationism

For our garden I am trying to use natural products as much as possible, and hopefully move to totally organic gardening once I finish all the fertilizer that I have already purchased. One of the things we decided to try was lady bugs. They are supposed to eat up all the pests in your garden while leaving no trace of poison. A few weeks ago we let out 3000 lady bugs in the garden, and watched the little critters crawl around a few days. Indeed they killed off all the problem white flies and other bugs we had and our garden was pretty healthy.

What they are supposed to do is lay eggs in the surrounding area and hatch thus creating a healthy eco system. I am not sure if it's worked as I haven't seen any eggs or baby bugs yet and the white flies are back. I am thinking that we don't have the right plants to foster them sticking around, and living in a really woody and wild area, they may have settled somewhere else. I really loved watching them for a few days, so once I start my butterfly garden, I am going to put more lady bug friendly plants in the area and try again.

Glutter's Hong Kong

Hong Kong's first and premier street artist turned Christie Auctioned Artist passed away today at the age of 86.

There is a lot to say but it's three am in Los Angeles.

I am sad he's gone, but I am sadder that more of his work will be destroyed if the reclamation of the harbour continues. More of our heritage will be lost. I don't live in HK anymore and my want for the government and the people to preserve more of it exponentially increases. One day I will like to come home, and coming home means having a place that I remember to come back to. I wish I owned a piece of his work. Sad I never did.



http://www.pbase.com/frankomania/tsang

Art Diary

I finished the mosaic piece yesterday. Unfortunately, it's in the shadow of the tree above. Will take a better photo of it once I have it hanging on the outside wall of the house. I am planning to mosaic the floor of the backyard and also the front door and steps eventually.

Home Creationism

In late March I planted some Morning Glory Seeds in the ground, and by June they started blooming. These are the first flowers that I have ever grown from a seed. Below is the photo of the first two flowers.



Here is the plant is June, and now it's even larger, probably twice the size. The most we counted on a given morning was 20 flowers at once, since morning glory only opens in the morning and as the midday sun of Los Angeles starts to bare down they close up. Right now we're in the process of tearing down the fence, so the flowers look a bit ratty but there are pods growing and I have harvested the seeds. I replanted half of them in a pot, and kept the other half for the next year. I am also planning to make some "tutors" from the sticks of a tree we had to cut down as it died, and see if I can train the flowers to grow around them.

Art Diary

Our home is placed on a rather large piece of land, so right now I am making it more beautiful. I started making a cactus garden, which is still only probably less that a quarter done, and then in the ceramics studio I started creating a dinosaur fossils to place in them. The following picture is still in clay form and needs to be fired and glazed etc.



This is what the top of the hill looked like before I did anything with it.



These are the very beginnings of the garden. It doesn't look really fancy but most of the plants I grew from clippings, and all the rocks we picked up or dug our during our landscaping and hauled it up the hill in buckets. There is so much more to do!!

Just a grrl

I was playing around facebook and found that you can see all your "status" announcements for the last month. I thought it was cool because it tells the story of the things that has been happening in my life.

Today

Yan is tired from her two three hour session in the pottery studio. But she finally got to glaze! 9pm

Yesterday

Yan is really pleased with her first piece of art mosaic. 11:23pm

July 20

Yan is wearing black after going to the Cure and Morrisey Tribute band at Downtown Disney

Yan is in love with thursday night salsa at the Autry Museum. 3:09am

July 18

Yan is happy Pieter has taken two days off to work on landscaping the back hill... 8:27am

July 16

Yan is awake from trying out her new mattress... 4:51pm

Yan is going to try out Pieter and her new mattress in the middle of the day. 2:42pm

Yan is staring at 200 lbs of dirt in her front yard and is going to bed to avoid it....(landscaping not landslide tho is looks sorta the same). 3:20am

Yan is suffering coz she fell asleep at 7pm and now it's 2 in the morning and she's wide awake. 1:57am

July 14

Yan is surprisingly pleased that Pieter got a truck because she wants to pick up stuff from home depot. 9:30am

July 11

Yan is making dinosaur fossils for her work in progress cactus rock garden. 10:18am

July 9

Yan is pleased she's finished her second scarf!!

July 7

Yan is happy she went out with Pieter to Californian Adventures for their six month anniversary and saw the original electric light parade 1:34pm

July 6

Yan is really annoyed that the raccoons disseminated the pond, but at least her cactus is flowering. 10:02am

July 5

Yan is pleased people turned up for our fireworks watching hike up the hill. 12:58pm

July 3

Yan is miffed Pieter gets to go to Disneyland during work hours as a "team building" exercise (they all work in animation for guess who). 10:02am

July 1

Yan is having an open house on forth of July. Pop over and see the fireworks from our hill. 10:39pm

Yan is potting around the house and garden with Pieter. 2:43pm

June 30

Yan is relieved she's started her yoga practice again after an eight month hiatus. 12:40 pm

June 29

Yan is amazed the coyotes came all the way down to the street and is a bit worried about her cat (which has to stay inside for a few days). 12:19am

June 28

Yan is excited she's been to her two hour class and feels she can crochet the goldfish she wants 5:45pm

Yan is tired from her first proper salsa class with Pieter. 9:06am

June 27

Yan is pissed the raccoons ate her brand new water hyacinths from her refurbished pond. 8:11am

June 26

Yan is happy she finally actually finally got around to do a mosaic piece... 3:08pm

June 25

Yan is enjoying her new pottery classes. 5:18pm

June 22

Yan is starting knitting again at the Yarn Store in Eagle Rock
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June 17

Yan is home from her free citrus tree growing class at Armstrong nursery

Art Diary

As I said I have been learning to Mosaic. This weekend I made my first large piece with my own design. It's just some circular squiggles that I filled in with broken tiles. It's not finished yet, still needs to be grouted. Underneath are the first and second projects I made which are small plant pots... (you have to click onto the photos to see the whole photo..)