Journey as a "muralist"

After the most recent mural project in the master bedroom, I'm starting to think that perhaps there's an opportunity here ~ to help others enjoy some sort of mural in their space. I was trying to think back on how I even began on this journey.  If I'm not mistaken, it all started when I really loved a set of drapes that I wanted for the bedroom of our first-born son.  But it was rather expensive!  So what else could I do, in order to still capture that theme depicted on the drapes?  Yup, a mural!  

I really didn't think of it as a mural then.  It was just a cute painting that I wanted to get on the wall. And of course, I was able to add some more playfulness with a monkey :-)

Here's the link to the completed wall: Wall art in baby room

It obviously did not end there.  Our half bathroom needed some sprucing up - it needed a little bit of whimsical and color, so to speak. And so I had some fun with leaves and an owl and made it 3-dimensional with some birdhouses:

Here is how it progressed: Powder room mural

My projects eventually did get a bit larger.  At our next house, I was not very fond of our retaining wall along the front of our property.  It was quite an eye-sore and so I thought, why not create some sort of art piece/mural. There were a handful of Monarch butterflies that would visit our garden and so when I found a tile that had a flower pattern, I thought it would be fun to incorporate that. 

Here's the link for more photos: Wall art projects

I think what also brought me joy while working on this artwork was that random neighbors that were driving up and down along our street would stop and complement on it.  It obviously made me very proud and happy that someone else was also able to enjoy it too.

Not long after tackling the front wall, I decided to work on another outdoor brick wall. This one also involved using tiles - a whole lot more! Here's part of the "before" wall with some sketches and the beginning or some paint work.

And, here's the "after":

Tiles were used to create part of the sun.  And each ray had some sort of personal meaning - from arrows (we learned archery recently) to waves (we lived near the ocean).  Even the mountain in the backdrop is the outline of the mountain from my homestate in Sabah, Malaysia.

As for the bird, it was from a story in my son's English textbook (while learning from home during Covid).  It was almost a challenge from him and I think I pulled it off pretty well! 

I named this piece "Rising" - here are some more photos: "Rising" mural

And by the way, almost all of these projects were painted with leftover paint that was laying around in the garage.  I try and work with what I have to limit expenses.  Or purchase items at a discount.  It doesn't need to cost much to change the mood/ambiance of a space, but obviously some time, patience, and passion for art does help :-)

Last but not least, here's the tallest mural of them all that I've completed recently. My inspiration was from a mural I saw at the Mall of America earlier this year.  As I was trying to change up the "energy" of the master bedroom of yet another new home. I decided this would be a good piece to do since our bedroom ceiling has such great height.  And this allowed the ability to draw and paint these flowers in such a large scale:

Here's the story and more photos of painting this mural: Master Bedroom mural

The fact that the mural just blends into this wall is absolutely comforting and relaxing. I would love to share this joy in creating this same feeling for others. Let's see where this takes us!

Flowers

Here are some photos of a few flowers that are currently blooming around us. So pretty! So let's start:

Tulips:

There were a small bunch in the front yard that were gnawed off by some animal.  I'm guessing deer? But I didn't think they would get so close to the front door!  I have seen some bright red tulips while driving around - I really like how those look in a garden.  So we'll see for next year :-)

Who knew there were yellow magnolias?!  

I do love the pink one and most definitely the white ones.  Maybe at some point we will get one for our yard, but we already have sooooo many trees and shrubs!  Including these purple lilacs.  Oh man, you can smell these when you walk by the plants.  Smell so good!

I'm so glad I have this App on my phone that can identify flowers and plants.  This one is the Virginia Bluebell.  So cute!

Forget-me-nots.  For some reason, I thought these flowers would be bigger, but they are actually quite tiny:

Even the pine cones are growing on the blue spruce:

Random mushroom at the end of a stick?!  Yeah, we have been getting a lot of rain and I guess this stick stayed moist enough for something to grow on it.  Ha!

I have so many Lily of the Valley and hostas that I've packed them for some neighbors:

The one Japanese Yew seems to be doing well.  You can see the new growth that's a lighter green:

I can't say the same for the other Yew - I don't know why this other one is dying. Noooo...!!

And oh, I though this type of lavender was a perennial.  But I just noticed this same plant in the store and it was labeled Annual.  I guess I was wrong to think that it was going to grow back.  Looks like I've killed another lavender plant!  Booohooo!!

And oh, also found these leaves folded in on the hydrangeas:

It seems that these little moth caterpillars called Leaftiers wrapped themselves in these leaves before they morph into moths. It happened like overnight because I walked out into the garden and there were dozen of leaves that were wrapped in each plant! Ewww...!!

Bob the Cactus seems to be doing very well indoors.  He seems to like this one spot in the dining room, so I guess I'll just keep in there for now.

Look at all his little babies! The new babies are all leaning towards the sunny window though - so funny. It's always so tricky to move him because he is getting quite heavy in that little pot and all his little thorns are so fine that it gets really tricky when I rub myself even a tiny bit on him!

More updates to follow on all the garden/yard work :-)

Side yard work

Wow, the amount of work just for this little section.  Phew!!  Here's the before:

And after!

Okay, not looking like much of a difference but wow did I get rid of a lot of creeping bellflowers and Lily of the Valleys! 

So first, I had to clear out an area to make way for a path to the telephone box and electric meter.  I'm not sure if anyone has actually been to either one, but just in case!

I told Bobby to bring these crescent-shaped pavers up to the steps but did he really have to block the entire pathway?!

Actually bumped my knee trying to avoid these pavers and totally broke skin through my jeans. Sheesh!

Okay, pathway cleared:

The shape of these pavers are pretty unique. I've never worked with them before.  Hmmm, interesting!

I think this might work??

Now to clear up the rest of the slope and I've used the pavers to create borders around the plants.  I think it looks okay.  The circles are definitely cute :-)

Definitely looking better than what it was before:

Next round of sand, gravel, and rocks.  This is definitely a workout!

Okay, I ran out of those crescent pavers but found some bricks in the garage.  Figured I need a path of some sort when I have to water the plants:

After contemplating a little bit as I didn't like the way the bricks looked, I swapped them out with the other crescent pavers that I had used previously for the path.  There - much better!

And yup, mo' better! I will have to fill in those gaps with either sand and/or more gravel:

After 2 afternoons of working on this side yard, I actually lost 2lbs.  Ha!

And now to work on this one lower section.  Sooooo many of the same creeping bellflowers and lilies.  When will this ever stop!  I did just read up on it and looks like it's best to make sure the plants don't reseed. That's one thing we weren't paying attention to - letting nature take its course. So I guess it's really our own doing with this plant invasion??? We'll have to pay better attention this year!

I'm smothering as much as I can with newspaper:

So, I didn't get to take a before photo.  But there was a crawling Hydrangea right against this wall. And since we've moved here, I never knew what it was until just a couple of days ago.  Thank goodness for these Apps on the phone that can identify plants!  I thought it was going to be a tough chore to dig it up, but Graham was able to dig it up with a few good digs with the big shovel.

And now, just prepping this spot where it's going to call its new home.  I'm going to put the trellis right next to the downspout and hopefully that's where the hydrangea will cling on to.  And if it does go up the brick wall, we'll just have to keep and eye on it and make sure it doesn't hurt the brick:

I went to pick up some rocks too for this little section:  

So Bobby think I overpaid for the rocks, but I don't think he realizes how expensive rocks can be!  Anyway, I think it was a good bargain because the guy even carried the bucket and unloaded it into the truck.  He also laid down a doggy pee-sheet so my trunk doesn't get dirty. So I say, win-win!

I didn't realize how tricky it was to arrange these rocks.  I guess we should have picked out flatter ones, but it is what it is now:

And I think the creeping Hydrangea will be happier here in this corner.  I've never seen it flower before so maybe it will this year?

And I've picked one MacDaddy stone for this project and it's the perfect perch for our Yoga Frog. Yay! There are cracks in our frog so that's another thing on my to-do list.  Never-ending list.  Aaahhhh!!!

There's still one more section on the top full of this section that has lots of creeping Bellflowers and Lilies.  I'm hoping to level it out and put a raised bed there.  I found 4 raised beds by the edge of the property near the firewood.  So exciting! Anyway, hope to plant some leafy veggies since this area does not get a lot of sun.  That's the plan for now, at least.

And hope to see some blooms on the peonies that I bought last year.  And also on this one other plant which I have no idea what it is now.  But at least it's seems to be growing and is happy.  More photos to come once everything blooms (let's hope)! 

Grow light

I never thought I'd need a grow light.  But it seems to be a thing here in the Midwest!

I started a few row of flower seeds when we left for NJ during Spring Break last month.  And actually, I didn't set up the grow light yet.  But once we got home after our 1-wk trip, I started to water the seeds again.  And this time used the grow light.  It's set to 9 hours every day, on a timer thankfully:

And look, after a couple of weeks, the little sunflower seeds started to sprout!

And then, another week after that - the other flower seeds were starting to sprout too.  It's amazing how quickly these seeds grow with the grow light.  Impressive!

Look how cute the sunflower seedlings are!

We've transferred the sunflower seedlings into bigger pots:

And eventually, I'll need to transfer the other flower seedlings into bigger pots too.  And once I can clear up a couple of areas in the garden, hopefully we can have a few more variety of flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  I'm so excited!

Perhaps in a few months, assuming all goes well, I can post photos of my lovely garden. Fingers crossed!!

Tree trimming

It was that time of year again to give our leaning tree another haircut. Unfortunately, it's always so expensive! But anything to make sure this tree doesn't topple over.  Even the Tree Guy mentioned that it's leaning even more this year. Yikes!

Okay, tree guys are here and the bench is in the perfect position now to see what's going on in the yard.  I don't know why we had it in the perpendicular position prior to this. This is so much better!

These guys really know what they are doing:

Guy at the bottom has a rope that's tied to the tree trunk. So once that trunk is sawed off, it can be lowered to the bottom gently. Clever!

This is how much the tree is leaning:

And from another angle (where our little garden wind spinner is currently located). You can really see how much this tree is leaning!

If anything, at least we are getting some mulch:

Not much but enough to get through a couple of spots in the yard.  This house has so many trees and shrubs and flowers to take care of.  Aaahhh!!!

Last year, we didn't get to mulch this area - so doing it now :-)

Looks like the snow shovel is coming in handy even when there's no snow. Ha ha!

I think I have a name for this tree now - Linny.  Or Lenny?? Well, which ever name it might be, I think he looks happier now :-D

Okay, until the next couple of years before the next haircut!!