Gardening is Latin for digging your own grave…

For quite a while I’ve longed to have an English garden––or as close to an English garden as I can get in America. My perfect garden would be an oversized one, with flowers that grow tall, bushes that grow thick and full, and it would have non-symmetrical flower beds. I image a garden that at first glance appears to grow wild––but on closer inspection it becomes clear that this garden is subtly partitioned. Herbs, flowers, and vegetables would be placed together with their Latin-named family members, but each of the three groups would share the same soil.

I went to CVS a week and a half ago on some mundane errand. Before entering the automatic double doors, I noticed something miraculous. Giant dahlias! I hadn’t seen those since I volunteered at the Green Gulch Zen Center, an experience that further ignited my desire to start my own garden. Green Gulch had acres and acres of organic vegetables gardens, flower gardens, and well-manicured fields of lavender. The people who worked these gardens were extremely knowledgeable about plants, and I learned proper weeding, harvesting, and composting techniques. It was at Green Gulch that I first laid eyes on these giant dahlias. Giant dahlias can grow to be 7 feet tall, and the flowers look like they grew right out of the pages of Alice in Wonderland. I almost expected them to speak or break out in song. When I saw these same flowers at CVS I was shocked. I had to buy some.

These dahlias are what encouraged me to actually begin work on my new garden. My mom and I had the clay-like earth rototilled and mixed with fresh soil. After that, the ground was just begging to be planted in. However, there was still one dangerous problem: Dogs!
I have two golden retrievers that love to dig, rip, stomp, and chew on anything and everything in sight. Having a freshly planted garden with two dogs running around is like unleashing an epidemic. They will destroy it, without a doubt. For the last three days my father and I have been working on building a dog-proof fence. In theory this project is flawless. In reality there are endless un-seen obstacles. Damn you, reality! Despite our countless trips to Osh and Home Depot, we’ve hit a brick wall in our progress. Originally we planed a beautiful, lightweight wooden fence, but as we started to put it together I came to a depressing realization. I looked at the wooden swing, the wooden corners of the deck, the wooden arms of the deck chairs, and I saw matching chew marks on all of them. There was no way this lovely, spindly fence was going to withstand the wrath of our monstrous dogs.

I spent yesterday afternoon with my dad at the dining table, poring over fencing websites. It was the most frustrating day ever, because we came to the conclusion that we had to start over with stronger wood and wire fencing. Our previous hours of work had amounted to nothing. My dad was irritated. I was irritated. Only the dogs where happy that they could still dig in the garden.

I’m still trying to figure out our next step. One option is to get 2x4’s and dig 2 foot holes to put them in. But that would involve torturous digging and messy cement. Our other option is to stay with the petite redwood poles and try our best to find a light-weight wire to mount on them. I’m leaning toward option two. Hopefully I’ll make some progress by next week, because those dahlias are itching to be planted!

In the mean time, though, I recommend that everyone go to Filoli Gardens. If you’re like me and get tired of the hustle and bustle of city life, you need some beauty in your day to center yourself and re-awaken your inspiration. Filoli is a 600+ acre estate with breathtaking centuries old mansions and gardens that you can lose yourself in for hours. It’s only 30 miles south of San Francisco, so you don’t have to fly all the way to England to see some lovely gardens. Grab a friend, put on a pretty dress, pack a picnic lunch and go! It’s still summer, so make use of it and do something nice for yourself. Have a secret garden adventure! It’s a lot easier than trying to create your own…

Dangerous Necklaces!

Thank you Ian, for letting me drag you to the local bead store. Baubbles and Beads––one of my favorite places––was calling to me while I slept, and thus I had to give in and buy some new materials. While the lavender dries and my sachet project remains on hold, I’ve delved into some fun beading rampages. You might ask, “did she just use the word rampage to describe her seemingly low-key beading projects?” Yes. Yes I did. When I bead and make jewelry, the adventure is as perilous as extreme ironing while hanging from the face of a cliff.

While my hands are in the fray of whirling needle nose pliers, flying shards of wire, and exploding glass beads, my soft fleshy hands are always in danger of getting injured. My right index finger was a casualty when making my latest creation. I took a nice piece of metal and managed to jab it painfully into the pad of my finger. There is now a rather intriguing looking red line that goes from nail to knuckle.

Although Brian well knows that I am often a hazard to myself, I am pleased to say that my injuries have been worth it. I finished a fun new necklace! In my defense I would like to say that I was trying a new beading technique and thus my dexterity was somewhat compromised. Inexperience often leads to my greater injuries, however after that struggle I am now wonderfully improved. This necklace was my second attempt at using chain instead of beading with chord or wire. In my opinion, jewelry that exposes chain is rather pretty when the chain is high enough quality. When using a chain that has a stylish design the jewelry often looks very finished and elegant. If you bead with cord, the whole point is to cover the relatively unattractive cord with shiny beads to make a necklace. With chain you want to show it off.

Attaching the beads to the chain was the hardest and most dangerous part for me. You have to slip the bead onto the wire, make loops on both ends of the bead to attach to the chain, and then you have to curl the free ends around to secure the bead and make sure it doesn’t come loose. I apologize for describing this so terribly, and I hope to make amends by adding a picture.


All in all the project was really fun a.) because I got to try something new, and b.) because I have very few long necklaces, and I can now proudly add this to my collection. I spent an inexcusable amount of time looking in the store aimlessly for a pendant to dangle on the necklace, but they were all sooo expensive! Instead of buying an overpriced pendant from Baubbles and Beads I found a cute (and cheap) one from forever 21. It was on the ugliest chain I’ve ever seen so I maliciously snipped it off and added it to my own necklace. Technically I cheated! But whatever :) I’m a corner cutter <3

I was browsing in the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Japan town when this older man came over to inspect some books on the shelf next to mine. He must have been about 60 with white hair, and he had these cute little Elton John glasses on. He looked over at me and with a gasp said, “You’re dressed like a Harajuku girl, aren’t you!” It wasn’t really a question and so I sputter out an, “um…I guess so.” I smile at him, not wanting to appear rude or anything, but I looked down at myself questioningly. White gathered skirt, hoodie, curly blond hair, and a black hair bow. Pretty normal clothes for me, today anyway. I started wracking my brain to try and remember what a Harajuku girl was.

In Twickenham England one of my favorite classes was Culture and Society in Modern Japan. At the very end of the class we were going to discuss Otaku culture and Harajuku, and it was even right there on the syllabus. We must have watched too much anime or something, because we ran out of time and missed the last lecture. However, I have at least a smidgen of popular culture knowledge, because I remember Harajuku as a shopping district in Japan for alternative styles. I remember someone in the UK telling me that Harajuku is similar to Camden Market, which is an exciting, fashionable part of town in London. Consequently, Camden Market is my favorite part of town. But of course we already knew this.

If Harajuku breeds a plethora of young and alternative fashions, then what is a Harajuku girl? This was a job for Wikipedia. Apparently “Harajuku girls” are teenagers living in Japan who come to (or live around) Harajuku and dress in one of the many outrageous styles popular in the area. The styles range from cyber punk to gothic Lolita, from ganguro to cosplay. For the record, ganguro really freaks me out with the fake tans and the long nails. *Shivers uncontrollably.*

So a Harujuku girl can be dressed in any of these fashions, and of course they can be dressed in many other styles that I didn’t happen to mention. It’s a broad term I guess. Thanks Wikipedia! Now I really want to go to Harajuku and see for myself!

Lavender sachets

I hadn’t done anything very creative lately, so I did what I often do when I don’t feel particularly inspired. I SURF… the internet, that is. I think Google is not the product of Stanford educated geniuses with a flare for business… IT’S GOD’S GIFT TO MAN. I looked online for project ideas and I stumbled upon a list of lady-like summer fun. There was an idea to creating an afternoon tea ritual. There was an idea to start your very own image journal, in which you’d collect magazine clippings, personal drawings, photographs, or anything that you found visually beautiful or inspiring. There were tons of lovely ideas, and the whole thing got me thinking about some of my own summer inspirations.

And then it popped into my head. Embroidery! I’ve never tried it, but I’ve decided that an attempt at embroidery is going to be one of my future projects. Specifically I’d like to embroider a sachet with initials, or maybe a simple floral design.

After I settled upon the embroidery, I was inspired to put on my capelet, clip on Eoin’s leash, gather up my basket lined with starched white linen, grab a pair of scissors, and head out into the night to collect lavender. I walked leisurely down my street in the moonlight––with leash in hand––to the front yard at the end of my block. I tried to look appropriately busy doing something respectable and not illegal while some woman got out of a nearby car and walked into her house. After making my best attempt at being inconspicuous, I stooped down and began to harvest lavender. I laid all the dreamy smelling lavender stems gently in my basket, and when I had cut enough for two bunches I walked Eoin home. After some snipping, arranging, and tying of awkward dentil floss loops, I had made two lovely bunches of lavender, ready to be dried. It takes about a week for the lavender to dry. Once it does, you’re supposed to untie it, lay the stems on a dish-towel and wrap them up. Then you pretend like the bulky bundle is a lump of fresh dough and you roll it back and forth under your palms on a hard surface . This friction is supposed to dislodge all the little buds and flowers. Once you remove the flowers, the buds are ready for sachets!

Bolinas

I must confess that I am rather sad to leave Bolinas. My lovely, relaxing three night vacation up here is about to come to an end. It has been only my mom, my dog, and I, and we've all been enjoying some luscious relaxation together. I brought by sewing machine, I brought my novel, and I brought my spanking pink DS. I happily got a chance to play with all three. Every morning Eoin would jump on me to wake me up at about 7:30. I slept on the window seat bed, which is right next to a couch, and so Eoin was able to climb the couch in order to launch himself onto my face. It was a lovely way to wake up in the morning. He really is like a little kid who get's a kick out of teasing his older sister :P

It's not that I don't love aspects of living in a city. There's the great food, the interesting people, the easy access to tons of entertaining activities... But there is also something spectacular about a more rural place. In the country, nature runs wild. And for some reason when I'm in nature, I can't help but run wild myself.

My First Lolita Skirt

Aaaaaand given that the name of my blog is Burning the Midnight Oil, I thought it appropriate that I keep posting until at least midnight.

Although I've been interested in Victorian clothing styles since middle school, lolita fashion is a relatively new discovery. I've been curious since high school, but it wasn't until studying abroad in London that I really started to love it! Oh Camden Market, how I will miss you! 100x better than Haight Ashbury and Telegraph combined! For some reason lolita fashion seemed to spawn in Camden Market, and with so many opportunities to explore the style, I fell in love.

And so, I decided to try my hand at making a Lolita skirt. This is my second attempt, with and without lace––which took for frigging EVER to attach. All together it took 7 yards of lace, so thank goodness the nice lady at Joann’s Fabrics gave me her 50% off coupon. You gotta love the kindness of strangers.

I really should post pictures of my green practice skirt because it is absolutely hideous! I had to create my own pattern, the whole thing came out way too big, and the elastic waist got all bunchy and deformed-looking. Yuck! Interestingly, my more successful skirt also happens to be a slightly more complicated one, with a waistband and zipper instead of a bunchy elastic disaster. That being said, I’m still a novice novice NOVICE when it comes to sewing.

Bonnet

Ta-DA! So here it is: the before and after pictures of my mom's bonnet! It's supposedly fashioned after the Regency style, which is also the Pride and Prejudice era. Very cool project, especially because I LOVE EVERYTHING VICTORIAN! And thus––if you can guess––I love this style of bonnet!



I used this free simplicity pattern, and considering I didn't have exactly the right kind of hat to start out with, I thought it came out pretty good. It took me longer than I thought it would to finish, but I took my sweet time on this project. The ties at the back and the flower in the front are all sewn directly to the hat, whereas the colorful casing is just glued to the brim. We'll have to see how it holds up, but for now it's pretty dang sturdy. It was a belated mother's day gift, so I'm happy it's finally finished!

Oh! And I just had to steal this from Wikipedia. Best bonnet satire :P

A New Blog is Born

I must confess that since high school I have been a very bad blogger.

The years have come and gone. I laid my old blog to rest after senior year of high school, and suddenly here I am as a senior in college, starting up a new blog. If I'm remembering correctly, I stopped blogging because I realized that I had been neglecting my personal writing. For some reason I wasn't able to do both. It's important to me to have a diary, or a journal, or whatever you want to call the the place where you write for yourself and no one else. I loved my old blog, but for some reason it made me lose sight of my other forms of journaling. Now, it's almost four years later and I think I'm ready to try again. I have been–or more accurately I have tried to be–dedicated to my personal writing, and I think I'm ready to keep an additional blog.

So, What is it for?

I'm happily undecided. However, for this blog I would like to have an overarching theme attached to it. I think that would help to make it more focused and interesting. And so far this what I've come up with.

Burning the Midnight Oil is a place for me to keep track of the little things that matter. I'm someone who loves the little pleasures in life, but sadly I'm also someone who easily forgets about them after they happen. For example, lately I've been experiencing a passion for sewing. I've been making skirts and altering shirts, I'm in the process of making a bonnet for my mom, and every night before bed my mind is brimming with new project ideas. I usually hate sleepless nights, but I actually love losing sleep because of an over-impassioned mind. It means I've found something that I get truly excited about. When I can get excited by just thinking about a project, I know I've discovered an activity that really resonates with me.

But lets say that a month from now, I suddenly forget about sewing and spend all my time watching every Monty Python movie I can get my hands on. If that happens, I will most definitely forget about that fleeting and wonderful feeling of all-encompassing passion. That's what this blog is for. To have a place to put the passion. I'm happiest when I'm making something. Sometimes it's sewing, sometimes it's taking pictures, sometimes it's baking, sometimes it's beading, sometimes it's drawing, but whatever it is, it makes me happy. And I mean truly happy. That's why it's so difficult during the year to be in school all the time–I just don't have any time to be creative. I get these ideas in my head, things that I'm just itching to do...but I just have to sigh and put those desires away. I think to myself, "I have to study for a test on Monday. There's no way I can just stop what I'm doing so that I can sew a skirt or teach myself how to make sushi."

Thankfully, it is now summer. I have been waiting for summer all year. It is only in the summer months that I can nurture my silly ideas, my itching desires, and my beloved projects. And this blog will help me to encourage those passions... whatever they may be, and no matter how silly they may seem. When I have the time to play and be silly, I am happy. And when I am happy I feel inspired.