Sunday, August 7, 2022

A Plant Focused Post

 Behold! Some new plants were left in the lobby of my apartment building the other day:

A collage of two different plants. The top left plant has large single leaves with a purple underside. The topside is green with white-pink veins and border. A few leaves look dried out and dying. The bottom right plant has many leaves on single stems sticking out all over the place from the dirt. The leaves are bright green with dark green border and dark green ovals running along the centre of each leaf (looks like a picture of a vine almost)
Note reads: Adopt me!! (I'm very needy) I need more than usual humidity!!
The top left is Stromanthe and the bottom right is a Rattlesnake plant. The are both in a bit of poor shape, but I hope I can help them out. They both had sticky-notes on them. The stromanthe had "Adopt me :(" on it and the rattlesnake plant had a note explaining that it's quite a needy plant and requires high humidity (you can see it in the photo above). 


Gardening is a hobby of mine, I have many indoor plants. Then, there are all the plants on my balcony that form a vegetable garden during the warmer months. Last year was very experimental in determining which plants will do well on our north facing balcony. Squash and relatives did poorly. Beans did the best, so quite a few of those were planted this year, along with a tomato plant and some leafy greens like kale and swiss chard. A variety of herbs were planted this year too. Last year, I planted different sorts of herbs within the same pot but they didn't fare well. This year, I planted each herb separately so that they can be watered and exposed to sunlight to meet their individual needs. We do get sun on part of the balcony in the morning and all over in the late afternoon, so the plants aren't in total shade all day. The tricks to herb gardening are slowly revealing themselves to me with time.

I've got quite a few drying out right now for use throughout the year.

Fresh herbs on various trays, some of which are stacked. All are in front of a small fan that is flowing air towards them.
My herb drying setup, at the moment.

The mint plant, started from a cutting I took in the woods near my old apartment is very prolific. I've cut it back and dried those cuttings several times this year already. It makes a very nice tea. The dill plant seems to be doing well, seems less is more when watering it. This was the first time I'd picked any of the dill, so will see how the plant rebounds. Basil does well to have its leaves pruned frequently.

A small white tray partially filled with ripe cherry tomatoes.
Cherry tomatoes. I didn't grow the plant that produced these from seed myself this year. The ones I did died by the hand of a neglectful babysitter whilst I was away during one of my adventures this past spring.

Two tiny mostly red with some green crab apples held in the author's hand. They look similar to McIntosh but very tiny. Another four could easily fit into the hand.
Crab apples! 

In foraging news, a tree nearby was filled with nice looking red crab apples. Very shiny. Very bitter. Tried cooking in boiled water. Still somewhat bitter and very sour. Perhaps they need to ripen on the tree a bit more because I know that crab apple jam/jelly is a thing. Wild purslane was also discovered. May go and pick some this week.

And here is my coordinate for today:

The author wearing an ivory cotton swiss dot jumperskirt with a dark rose bolero with lace on all the edging and two ribbons. Wearing crew socks in the same colour with lace on them. Nothing in their hair. Standing in front of a mirror.
Jumperskirt: Dot Stripe JSK
Bolero: Angora Bolero
Blouse: Themis Blouse
Socks: ??
(Everything is Innocent World)
No hair accessory for no real reason, I suppose.

My smaller MeLikesTea petticoat is pink (in a shade which I totally love) so it kind of shows through some of my dresses, such as this one. The size is perfect for casual wear, but the colour presents a problem. Perhaps I should buy another petticoat in a plain colour... How many petticoats does one need, though? Bah.


Saturday, August 6, 2022

New Shoes x 2

There has been a need for a classy pair of pink heels in my lolita wardrobe for quite a while. Cotton Candy Feet has some really cute styles. The problem is that there are too many good options! It's taken a few months, but I finally decided on a pair. It came down to choosing the pair with the name I liked the best. Fairy Ballerina Glitter Shoes was the winner! How can you go wrong with fairies, ballerinas and glitter?

I chose the light pink option. Here's a picture showing some my dresses I plan to wear them with:

Collage of four stock images of lolita dresses surrounding a pair of glittery high heels with a bow on the front. There are sketches of a fairy and some plants in the background of the image.
Top Left: Toys Museum 
Top Right: Whimsical Vanilla Chan 
Bottom Left: Unbirthday 
Bottom Right: Dolls Tea Party 
All Angelic Pretty

(Yes I did some doodles on this collage. Trying to let my creativity out a bit more.)

In other news I found a super cute Angelic Pretty blouse for sale secondhand online and I bought it! 

A cotton blouse with cotton lace. It has three rows of ruffles running down the front, a ruffled hem and collar. The short sleeves also have ruffles and a bow on each. The detachable longer sleeves have ruffles and bows at the end also. The sleeves themselves look otherwise plain. There is a satin ribbon tied at the front. The buttons down the front of the blouse are the same colour as the rest of the blouse.

It's the Decoration Ruffle Blouse from 2009. It has detachable sleeves! It wont come with the detachable ribbon on the front but that's okay because I can just make it myself. It will be my first completely blue blouse. The blue blouses I have are both striped. It is always funny to me how I've been in the fashion so many years but some things that feel like they should be essential (e.g. a plain blue blouse) I just don't have. Something else I don't have is a white bag. Probably, I need two. One for classic looks and one for sweet looks.

Since it's an order from Japan, I picked out a few other items too. Gotta make it worth it. ^^; (goodbye money *watches money flying away*)

A pair of running shoes with a thick sole (trendy). They are mostly white with pastel colour accents. The overall aesthetic is very 80s.
I also got these shoes for more casual lolita looks in a local store! They had a few other pastel coloured shoes as well, but I resisted them. I wish pastel colours could stay in fashion for a long time...

A collage of various colourful lolita dresses all next to a the pair of pastel 80s aesthetic shoes. The dresses all share similar colours to the shoes.
Top row (left to right): Fantastic Carnival, Happy Bunny, Marshmallow Bunny, Toys Museum
Bottom row (left to right): Melody Toys, Toy Parade, Toy Fantasy
All Angelic Pretty

They'll go with many of my dresses! :D Personally, I think combining sneakers with lolita is super cool. It makes the outfits look way more casual.



The Current State of the "Spare" Room

I keep referring to it as the "Spare" room. My husband corrects me that it is "My" room. In our previous two apartments,...