Memorial Day Weekend (2017)

Friday May 26, 2017

As per usual (for Memorial Day wknd), I started out the weekend by purchasing a hanging plant for our patio. I knew that would probably be the first of many plants I’d buy over the weekend, and I was right. The hanging plant I chose was a fuschia, which is definitely my favorite flower when it comes to hanging baskets (or bushes). I think that’s because we had a fuschia bush in front of the house we rented in Gloucester back in 1998-1999. My mother-in-law took a cutting which grew into a rather sizeable bush at the house they just sold in Wellington. I wish we had the climate to keep a fuschia bush alive, but sadly, I’ve had to settle for just the occasional hanging plant over the summer.

Friday night we went out to dinner at a local favorite Japanese restaurant called Kikoyo. Honestly, I was a bit jealous of all the people eating out on the patio at Figlio’s next door, but I really wanted sushi, so it was indoor dining for us. Andrew ordered a bento box while I got the ‘Hot Mess’ sushi

(which reminded me of Trish ‘Hot Mess’ McKinney). Having liked the Saki I had last fall with our Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to order some more with the help of our waitress. I ended up liking this Saki even more than what we bought from World Market. We each enjoyed sipping out of our little cups while Andrew had his soup and I ate his salad before our main courses were brought out. We both ended up having enough food that we had leftovers (which we later ate on Sunday night).

Saki & Green Tea Ice Cream to finish

Saturday May 27, 2017

The day started out cloudy, but the sun came out by early afternoon. Wanting to do at least one day trip, after surfing the web for a bit and looking through a list of festivals in Central Ohio, I decided on a visit to the Springfield Museum of Art. It was the last weekend for Industrial Nature: Works by Michelle Stitzlein.

We had originally planned to visit on my birthday, but the museum isn’t open on Mondays, so we shelved that plan. I’m glad we finally made it out there because it was a truly spectacular exhibit. I love art made with discarded objects; though I’m not sure if all the parts were, but some pieces were definitely old. Because of all the pieces of hose pipe, many of the pieces had a somewhat aquatic nature to them and reminded me of some of the plants that grow on coral reefs. 

I think Andrew and I both agreed that the pair of moths were our favorite pieces.

Before we left we had a look at the Stories by Hand: (quilts by) Marianne Raab Britton), 

 

as well as the watercolor paintings by the local watercolor society

and the Gardens and Ponds paintings of Jennifer Rosengarten. All were very impressive. Even though we didn’t have to pay the $5 admission fee (because we’re members of the CMA which has a reciprocal agreement), we definitely got our money’s worth, and even more importantly, felt it was worth the 45 minute drive there (but we also stopped and had lunch at Café Mundo on our way over).

Sunday May 28, 2017

Today after church I decided to bite the bullet and buy some more plants for our patio and the bed underneath our Florida Room window. I ended up buying (3) hostas, (2) varieties of Basil (lime and cinnamon), a couple spider plants, a cluster of misc. flowers and some funky grass. $62 and a full cart later, I headed home with my foliage and spent most of the afternoon getting things into various pots and the hostas into the flower bed. It was worth the effort as I’m pretty pleased with the results. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that I can keep everything alive for the duration of the summer.

Since the weather was still pretty nice (rain predicted for some time later though) we decided to chance it and head down to the Columbus Commons for “Evolutionaries.” It was a David Bowie & Prince tribute concert

put on by Shadowbox (a local theatre company whose home venue is near German Village). The concert lasted just over two hours, but it wasn’t exactly a concert under the stars since it was a bit overcast,

but we were happy that the rain held off until we were in the car on our way home.

Although it was a bit difficult to see since we were so far back on the commons (probably should have gotten there sooner to stake out a good spot closer to the stage), I occasionally zoomed in on the action using my camera while taking pictures for this blog, etc.

tribute to Ziggy Stardust

Even though they didn’t play Andrew’s favorite Prince song (“Raspberry Beret”), they covered a fair amount of material between the two artists, and furthermore, it was FREE, so you can’t ask for more than that. I look forward to attending more concerts on the Commons in the future.

Monday May 29, 2017

I had no specific plans for today other than to try and do as many art projects as I had time for. Other than spray painting a couple pages of an art journal I’m working on, all I really accomplished was constructing a Tin Can Pen Rack, which I had read about in a book awhile back and kept meaning to assemble. Like with most projects that seem effortless, it took a little longer than I had anticipated. For one thing, I had the wrong size hair bands for attaching my cans to the pole, and I had some difficulty figuring out how to attach it to the wall. After a trip to Walmart and some assistance from my husband, Andrew, we eventually got it up on the wall.

I hope everyone had a happy Memorial Day and enjoyed their three day weekend. Have a great week everyone!