Welcome to the jungle

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Plants I got from AJ at Growing Grounds: Peperomia Hope, Peperomia Parallel, Peperomia Xiang Cao, Pilea Peperomioides, Calathea Sanderiana.

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Growing Grounds

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Dropped in to see AJ at Growing Grounds today! Picked up 5 pet safe plants for the art studio.

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IKEA Rudsta Greenhouse Project

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Just an update shot!

Everything is growing bonkers in there. Every single plant has been pushing out new leaves. It’s getting hard to try and stop them from touching each other!

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Monstera Deliciosa Large Form

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Sketchy.

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Tip: Do NOT use cheap paper. Just couldn’t get my shading right on this one.

I was browsing Facebook Marketplace yesterday and came across some free art supplies in Rosebery. She had a bunch of art pads and canvases to give away so I sent her a message, sadly (for me) the art pads were taken but the canvases were still available so I grabbed them! Score!

I also came across this gorgeous Monstera Deliciosa Large Form that was reduced from $80 to $50. I’ve seen a LOT of Monsteras for sale both online and in stores but none that I have seen look as pretty as this one. Most of the ones I’ve seen are super leggy (growing out of control and super spread out), and none of the ones Ive seen had perfect leaves (this one does!).

I organised to pick up the plant yesterday afternoon from Marrickville. I’d not been to Marrickville in ages and forgotten just how cool that suburb is. SO many shops, a lot of people, such a great community vibe.

The owner of the plant was super chatty (which was awesome!). She’s owned the plant since she was 14. When she moved to Sydney she drove it from QLD to Sydney in her tiny Nissan Micra. So awesome to have a plant story! The plants gotten way too big for her apartment so she’s sadly letting it go (but she does have some cuttings so the plant will, in essence, still live on for her which is awesome).

The plant fit in the Honda Jazz with ease thanks to the magic seat system (where the rear seats fold up so you can put the pot on the flat floorpan). Honda sold people on the magic seat system with images and videos of tall plants so I knew it would fit!

The plant is in a 25cm pot, which is huge, and she has a 90cm coir stake in there but none of the air roots seem to be attached to it (I’ll probably replace it with a 120cm stake and try to get the air roots to attach to the pole). I really want to convert it from soil to leca, and whilst I’ve had huge success in converting all my plants to leca so far, this monster monstera is WAY bigger than everything else I’m growing, so taking it out of the pot, then washing the roots of dirt is going to be a bit of a challenge as the kitchen sink is too small!

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Shoot with Viv

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She’s back from overseas, and we hadn’t shot since late last year (crazy!), so… we shot!

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Sketch #3!

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I’m so happy to be drawing again!

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INSPORT BTS shots for Nick Turner

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A little while back Nick invited me to shoot some BTS shots. He was shooting INSPORT at Studio Mondo. The name rang a bell, then it hit me; INSPORT’s a brand that’s been around since I was a kid. I vaguely remember their blue and yellow signage on their chain stores. From memory they were out there before Rebel Sports came along (and took over). So good to hear they’re still going and growing. I got to chat with the owner, and his daughter, and hear that they’ve closed down the chain stores, but have moved online. Good stuff! So awesome that they’ve got Nick shooting their new gear too. They’re in good hands!

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Back to basics

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Light and shade.

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Up early this morning to add some finishing touches.

I think I was overly ambitious to start my reintroduction to drawing by trying to do a portrait so I decided to go back to basics and draw some hands. I’m much happier with the result!

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My Alocasia Longiloba is flowering

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Alocasia Longiloba ‘May’ (Hybrid).

What I thought (and hoped) was a new leaf sprouting out from my Alocasia Longiloba turned out to be a flower (if you look closely there’s 2 of them!). From all the research I’ve done it’s best to chop off the flowers on Alocasias as the plant takes a lot of energy to form flowers, and a lot of people have been left with really ratty leaves when letting their plants flower. I’ve not personally seen any deterioration of any of my leaves, and I’m just happy the plant seems really healthy in my care!

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Translucent Roller Blinds

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I had Wonderful BFS over again today to install translucent roller blinds for all rooms of the apartment.

The apartment faces west, so I get the harsh afternoon sun full blast. It gets so hot in here that I can’t walk on the floorboards. I’ve legit had to use the air conditioning daily (I’m currently looking for some fans as I’d prefer not to use air conditioning), closing the blockout blinds was an option, but I’d prefer to still let natural light in so these translucent blinds were a no brainer.

I had them in Maroubra, but never used them (I always just had the full block-out blinds down at all times and only rolled them up for shoots). Funny how now that I’m in a better place (mentally). I MUCH prefer the blinds to be up!

It’s 5.30PM now. Damien (the installer) has been at it since 2PM. What was meant to be a pretty straight forward job has been a nightmare for him as he’s had to drill through steel beams as well as concrete to get the blinds installed (poor guy has been huffing and puffing all day!). I’m really happy with the blinds though, they look amazing and they block out so much heat (yet still let a decent amount of light through!). I doubt I’ll be using the full block-out blinds much anymore, but it’s good that I still have the option as they’re still installed (IE: double blinds on all sliding doors).

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