Saturday, August 25, 2012

Bonsai -- Banzai!

Hello Dears,

So I rescued a half- dead, discounted Japanese holly tree a few weeks back, and through some suggestion form my friend Brandulfr, I decided to turn it into a little bonsai tree. We had to cut it back a bit, lots of dead leaves and branches to prune, but about a month later, it came back like a champ!

It's hard to see, but the blossoms have a tint of pink!
I had a bonsai plant when I was 8 or 9 but, lets just say, I had not yet aquired the wisdom to know when to bring pants inside in the dead of winter, let alone care for a tiny, fragile tree. But when I found this little beauty clinging to life, I figured "why not?" and decided to give it another try,

Brandulfr is saving a special pot to transfer it into as he is an avid bonsai enthusiast himself and will be freeing up a really nice, Japanese pot for me to put it in. For now, though, it seems to be flourishing in the plastic pot it came in.

I've taken to decorating my balcony with some foliage as of late, and I've managed to put a few interesting plants up there. I currently have: A fig tree that actually produces yummy figs! (once you get past how creepy they are, they're rather tasty!) a really soft and fluffy wormwood plant, a show cypris, and another Inkberry holly that isn't doing so well right now.


I made the newbie mistake of putting that holly in a pot without a drain at the bottom. We've since poked holes in the bottom of it and have been watering it a bit less to keep the roots from rotting, so hopefully it will pull through.


I'm also having fun in the fine art of picture-bana, in so much as I have a lot of photos for this entry but not a whole lot to say about it, so I suppose I'll shut up now and let you enjoy the zen plants and super zen pup!

- Ori



Monday, August 20, 2012

Artful Days - Intro to Ori's Dearies

Hello Dears,

I've been having a heck of a time balancing a big Six Sigma project at work, my other work at work, social awesomeness, and my art. I have a few bits of artwork I'd like to share with you all, what is the start of a line of cartoonish, heart-faced drawings  called "Ori's Dearies" Let's see what I've come up with...

Ori the Whitedeer, as she's seen on my art site: http://matsuban.deviantart.com/#/d5bxmys
This is done on a spare index card with crayola colored pencil (yes, you can do more with less!) and I really liked how the hair came out. I'm going to post my DA gallery folder with the other Dearies within, and if you'd like one (animal or otherwise) just shoot me an email and we'll talk it over.

In other news, I'm going to start another blog! While "Oh Dear, its Whitedeer!" will continue to display my artwork and other randomness, I'm going to create a separate blog for my written pursuits. I'm hoping it will, you know, get me motivated to write more.

It will be linked to this blog of course, so check back later for a link and intro to it.

That's all for now Dearies!

- Ori