Monthly Archives: April 2023

Fucking fuck fuck!

I’ve thrown out a LOT of good stuff in the move, mainly because I didn’t want to deal with morons on Facebook Marketplace. My Mum’s churchy friends took a whole lot of stuff and all clothes have been donated but a lot of valuable bike and car parts have gone straight into the bin.

I have to clear everything out by the 15th of this month and the only stuff that’s left is a huge IKEA bookshelf, my King Furniture 3 seat sofa and a very solid and heavy entertainment unit. I decided to put these 3 items up on Facebook Marketplace for free in hopes someone would take them.

I very clearly stated in my advertisement that the 3 items were free, and that the items were in Maroubra. I’ve had a lot of interest with most people sending me a message to ask if the stuff is still available (a one click auto response from FB Marketplace, so lazy!). One guy said he’d take all 3 items at 6pm today, but it’s past 6pm now and he’s a no show (annoying as I don’t live at Maroubra anymore).

I’ve since scrambled to reply to everyone else that the items are still available and I’m getting questions like “will these items fit in my hatchback?” and “are these items actually free?” and “where are the items located?”.

FUCK!

/rant.

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Paloma Moderna outdoor furniture set

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Rooftop at sunset.

My outdoor furniture set came in from Living By Design today. I love it! Not advertised, but it came with cushions for all seats too (not pictured but they’re dark grey and they’re great!).

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Do What You Like!

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Much love and respect for the one and only Luca Ionescu. This gift from him is now proudly up on the wall in my art studio!

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Life’s short, listen to more music!

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Wall mounted CD player.

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Some of my faves!

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Signed Faith No More CD’s.

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CD Tower.

I was thinking about setting up my old iMac in the art studio, but I’ve decided I want to keep the studio analog. For music (essential when making art), Spotify has been OK, but it just FEELS wrong. I end up listening to the same playlist over and over again, and I don’t feel good about listening to the music Spotify tries to suggest to me. I want to take back control.

I threw out a LOT of stuff in the move, but I couldn’t throw out my CD’s. Some of these CD’s mark massive moments in my life. They’re like memory boxes. It’s been a while, but I think I’m ready to open some of them up.

Who the hell buys a CD player these days? Well I did! I bought this little wall mounted CD player so I can see the CD art up on the wall. As expected, the built in speakers (despite the adverts and YouTubers suggesting it sounds awesome) are TOTALLY TRASH. It has an AUX line-out though and I’ve got it plugged into my Bose speaker which sounds MUCH better!

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RIP Carol

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Ron Newman, the head of design from my design school just let me know on Facebook that an old design lecturer of mine passed away yesterday.

“Hi Justin don’t know if you know, yesterday Carol Longbottom passed away after a long battle with cancer… she was always a fan of your creative verve.. RIP”

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IKEA Rudsta Greenhouse Project – 3 month update

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Just a 3 month update on my IKEA Rudsta Wide setup!

I’ve had to remove some plants as they’ve outgrown the cabinet (this was inevitable as I’ve had such amazing and constant new growth!). I removed my Billietiae as it’s branching out too wide and my Watsoniana (which was my hero plant centre of the display) as it was getting way too close to touching the light and starting to burn.

I’m really bummed that I have to move the Wastoniana out as not only did it look amazing in my cabinet, but I also know it won’t thrive so well in much lower humidity outside of the cabinet (stable 80-90% in the cabinet vs 50-65% in the apartment).

On a positive note, moving these 2 plants out has given me a bit more room to re-organise the plants for better air flow and more light. I’ve upped my Viparspectra P1000 lights to 30% power now (I started at 20% for the first month and have had it on 25% the past 2 months).

Everything in the cabinet is doing well! Still no sign of any pests. My big Queen has shot out a beautiful new leaf (I bought it with all leaves looking pretty beat up) and my baby queen has shot out 3 new leaves. Everything is still in leca. No issues!

I’ve gone a bit plant crazy (also inevitable?!) the past month and plants are starting to take over other rooms in my apartment. It’s the hobby that keeps on giving, right?! Seeing new leaves shoot out every week still blows my mind and will most likely always bring joy and never get boring!

I’ve yet to kill a plant (touch wood), but I have had an issue with a massive Peperomia Xiang Cao. I’ve been quick to move all my plants to leca. The nursery that sold me the Xiang Cao warned me that it’s a plant which has very fine roots, so moving it to leca might be difficult. She was right as it’s got root rot as I didn’t manage to get the roots cleaned up enough. The stems were going black and I took too long to take action on it (I was naively thinking that it would dry out and be fine if I placed it closer to the window). I’ve cut it up now in an attempt to save it, and have all the healthy stems in water in hopes that roots will form.

I’ve also set up a rice fish pond on my rooftop. I didn’t want to get back into the aquarium hobby, but a low-tech, filterless pond (with plants as filters) is a good side step. Having some rice fish in the pond means I now make use of my rooftop as I have to go outside and feed them daily.

Just reflecting; starting my plant journey 3 months ago with the IKEA cabinet has given me such a great head start. Initially I started using leca to avoid overwatering (as that’s how I killed my plants when I was a teenager), but now I have 3 plants outside of the cabinet in soil, and where I was super nervous about keeping plants 3 months ago I now feel much more confident and that my plants are not just surviving, but thriving.

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Plants from We Know Water Gardens

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All plants came with these great little floaters to hold the pots.

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Got to love a hand written note!

I put in a planty order with an online shop called We Know Gardens last week. I expected a very small bunch of leaves, but instead I got a whole bunch of massive plants! These guys are legit. The plants were packed so well and came in a massive (and heavy) box. 100% I’ve bought too many plants!

Plants:
Native Starter Pack (Knobbly Club Rush, Shield Pennywort, Brahmi, Running Marsh Flower, Hairy Nardoo)
White Water lily (Nymphaea)
Golden Sweet Flag (Acorus Gramineus)
Water Hyssop (Bacopa Caroliniana)

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Loft Bar Stool

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Loft Bar Stool from RJ Living.

I’ve been sitting on my KORG guitar stool when having meals at the kitchen bench. It’s way too big though so I’ve been looking for a super narrow bar stool and I came across this beautiful one at RJ Living. I actually spotted it a few months ago but didn’t pull the trigger on it until now. Really glad I did. It’s perfect!

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Mosaic Plant

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The 2 mosaic plants (Ludwigia Sedioides) I got from Abquatics looked super dead when I got them, but in just a few days they’ve bounced back quite well!

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The fish are in!

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10 x Rice Fish.

Today I took delivery of my rice fish from Abquatics. All of them made it, and settled in SO well, they look like they’re starving as they’re picking at small leaves thinking it’s food! I got some plants too from Abquatics, some of them floating, but some not (so I’ll have to sort out some sort of potting for them). The fish are amazing, the plants not so much (quite unhealthy and ratty to be honest). Overall happy though! More pond plants are on the way from another online shop!

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