Little Bits of Charm | No. 4

I’m a little late with my Little Bits of Charm this week. It was kind of a crazy week and weekend. You’ll see why below. But, as with most things, better late than never, right?

July is officially upon us, and I have a feeling it’s going to go even faster than June. I don’t feel like I did the best job of using my time intentionally last month. I’m a little disappointed about that, but there’s not much I can do now except learn from it and be more thoughtful moving forward.

I actually talked a bit about this over on Paint and Paper and shared how I want to be more intentional and productive with my art practice. Less time scrolling. More time painting.

I also installed an app on my phone called Jomo, and it has been incredibly helpful in curbing how much time I spend on my phone. I’m still new to it and learning how everything works, but so far, I’m really liking it. More importantly, it’s actually working.

You can use it to limit how much time you spend on certain apps, control how many times you open them, and block specific apps during certain hours of the day. My phone has some similar built-in features, but I found them very easy to override and not nearly as effective. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.

Gallery Show

Last Friday was the opening reception for my group art exhibition at Gallery 29 in my hometown of St. Marys, Pennsylvania. This is the second group show I’ve participated in there, and it was wonderful yet again.

There was a great turnout for the opening, and I was honored to be showing alongside so many incredibly talented artists. As an added bonus, I had 16 pieces in the show and sold half of them. That’s a win!

Anything that didn’t sell will be added to my shop, along with a few other new pieces, in the coming weeks.

Power Surge 

In not-so-great news, when I got home on Saturday, my power was out. That isn’t particularly unusual, especially after a storm, so I didn’t think too much of it.

The power came back on around 7:00 p.m., but only about half of the house seemed to have electricity. Weird. I checked the breaker box and noticed that a few breakers had tripped, so I turned them back on. Unfortunately, things still weren’t working.

I eventually learned that a tree had fallen on a higher-voltage wire, which then came into contact with the lines feeding the homes in our neighborhood. This sent a major power surge through many of the houses.

Unfortunately, most of my appliances were fried. I lost my refrigerator, dishwasher, built-in coffee maker, and washing machine. Many of my neighbors had similar damage, and some even lost their entire electrical panels.

Those of you who were around here last year might remember that a microburst came through my yard in May and knocked down more than 30 trees. One fell on my shed, several landed on my fence, and we were without power for nine days.

Needless to say, I haven’t had the best track record with storm damage over the  past two years.

The plan is to see if the appliances can be repaired. Fingers crossed! If not, they will need to be replaced. For now, I bought an inexpensive refrigerator for the garage; I’ll be making a few trips to the laundromat and making the best of things until life returns to normal.

Garden Update

Hollyhocks

Thankfully, the garden is still chugging along. I’m happy to report that I did get some of my hollyhocks to bloom!

I try growing hollyhocks every year, and it hasn’t been easy. Go figure, because in England a six-foot-tall hollyhock will happily grow out of a crack in the sidewalk. Ha!

This year, as in years past, I had a problem with hollyhock rust. I tried to stay on top of it and removed affected leaves whenever I spotted them. Thankfully, I think some of my efforts paid off because several plants have bloomed this year. That alone makes the process feel a little less defeating.

I’ve already started some new seeds for next year. Hollyhocks typically take two years to bloom, so anything planted this year should flower next summer. The same is true for foxgloves.

Zinnias

My zinnias have filled in beautifully. Now the goal is to keep them alive and hope they don’t develop powdery mildew.

I definitely overplanted, so they’re a little crammed in there. We’ll see how it goes!

Dahlias

My dahlias were incredible last year, so perhaps I’m paying the price for that this summer. They seem to be taking their sweet time, and some are still barely five inches tall.

In previous years, I would have had blooms by now because the tubers I saved from the year before tended to grow much more quickly. Unfortunately, I lost all of my tubers during the hard winter, so I’m starting completely fresh this year.

With that in mind, I’m going to be grateful for any blooms I get and hope for an easier winter this time around. Thankfully, I do have a handful of plants that seem to be thriving, so fingers crossed.

Extra Bits of Charm

• The new Enola Holmes movie came out on Netflix this week. I loved the first two, so I’m excited to watch this one.
• I need another sketchbook like I need a hole in the head, but I ordered this one to give it a try. I’m hoping to spend more time working in a sketchbook, so let’s hope I can actually fill it up.
• I also just published a new Studio Journal over on Substack. In this post I’m talking about some plein air adventures, tiny paintings, and a renewed push toward a more intentional art practice.

And I think that’s about all I have for you this week. I hope you enjoyed this little update, and I hope all is well in your world.

Until next time!