United States: DE, NY, DC & MD!

Let's quickly flash back so I can cover some cool stuff I did in DC over the spring and never blogged about.

Before my first trip to India, we had several weeks of gorgeous spring. Flowers popping everywhere, beautiful weather, its a DC dream. One of those gorgeous days I headed out to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Potomac, MD because they were throwing a Holi celebration. Holi is an Indian spring festival of colour and sharing love. The main activity is throwing coloured cornstarch powder (very bright and very fine) as a celebration of colour and love. It is great! Aidan (my co-worker) came with me and we met up with Gabe (close friend from high school) and his brother, mom, sister-in-law, and nephew (who he happened to be in town visiting). It was such a fun event! So colourful, lots of music, all different people just hanging out, laughing, and bringing a little more colour into the world.

The Kanzan cherry blossoms are not the ones DC is known for, but they are my favourite 
part of spring here.

Arriving at the Holi celebration.

Things got a little colourful for Aidan and me...

Really colourful!

Spreading the colour.

Aidan, nailing me directly in the face at the moment I took the photo.

At several coordinated times everyone threw their colours in the air at the same time.

Creating rainbow clouds.

The whole colourful crew.

Look at that hair!

And that beard.

Will definitely be going back to the 2017 celebration!

A few weeks later, as part of my concerted effort to actually get out and enjoy DC while living here, I headed to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. It is dedicated to craft and decorative art, so I said YES PLEASE and headed there on the last weekend of their Wonder exhibit. Nine different artists came in and created original work on-site, taking inspiration from the space where they were working. It. Was. Incredible. So much colour, and everything was so large that the whole museum felt like it was bursting at the seams with awe. Wonder was an excellent word for it - I spent my way winding through most of the exhibits with my mouth hanging open and the sheer size and scale of the creativity. It was among my favourite museum experiences ever.

The Renwick happens to be located just opposite from the south lawn, so hi White House!

The exterior of the gallery.

Patrick Dougherty created giant structures woven from tree sapplings.

It was like walking through gigantic bird nests.

Gabriel Dawe trapped a rainbow inside.

Made with thousands of individual strings of embroidery floss.

It was breathtaking.

And captured a spectrum of colour.

It was seriously beautiful.

And perfectly lit.

Tara Donovan created huge mounds.

That towered above you.

And were made completely of individual index cards.

They reminded me a lot of termite mounds.

Janet Echelman took over the grand salon.

Creating a gigantic hand-woven net that was lit up by 
many different colours.

Lots of people just settled in on the floor to take it all in.

It was beautiful.

And took on a life of its own as every watched, slack-jawed. 

John Grade took a cast of a massive hemlock tree in California,
and then used hundreds of thousands of tiny pieces of old-growth 
cedar to recreate it.

The play of wood and open space/light was beautiful.

The whole tree was on its side in the gallery.

Appearing to float in mid-air.

Maya Lin used green marbles to re-create the Chesapeake Bay.

And then there was the bug room.

Jennifer Angus created coverings for all the walls completely out of 
preserved bugs.

These geometric creations uses hundreds of different types of bugs.

Organised into different arrangements.

It was pretty amazing.

And had incredible attention to detail.

I especially loved the skulls.

Of which there were many variations.

But every little detail was thought out.

One of the reasons that I had to get in that trip to the Renwick was because by the time I got back from India it was already closing.  The main reason I couldn't extend my first trip to India was because I'd already booked two weekends that I couldn't give up.

The first was to go visit Jo Anna in Delaware. Jo Anna is one of my favourite people from undergrad and it was nice to just sneak away to visit her for a couple of days. Thanks to the Amtrak, it was a quick trip. We had a series of super random adventures and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way, haha.

Jo Anna's absurdly fluffy friend, Cosmo. She's the sweetest.

Taking a tour of historic Dover with a woman in colonial garb. 
As you do.

And then we meandered over and spent some time in the 
Johnson Victrola Museum. Naturally.

Where I learned that I know basically nothing about victrolas or the physics that make records possible.

Then we enjoyed the sun (and wine) at a few local wineries.

And some live music at Paradocx Wines.

I mean...wine from a paint can and crab flavoured cheese balls. Who could ask for more??

Byeeee, Delaware!

The next weekend, my mom and I headed up to NYC to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces. It was a very fast trip (in fact I had to move up my ticket back so I could return to DC, grab my stuff, and jump on an afternoon flight back to India) but it was so great to see them. It is super fun to watch them blossom into inquisitive, adventurous little humans!

Storytime with grandma.

Still figuring out this tongue thing.

Look at that outfit. I can't with the helmet. Too cute.

Homegirl has places to be.

Small business owner.

Hahahah I cannot remember what was said to cause this face, but I love it.

Driving the groceries home in her cab.

Emma's first foray into soft foods is a family affair!

The weekend after I got back from my second India trip, my brother's family came down to DC to visit a friend of his and see my parents. My mom and I babysat the girls in their hotel room while my brother and sister-in-law went out with friends, and while they might not have been in bed QUIIITE by their bedtime (or...you know...an hour after) it was a good night. We did have one issue with the little one having difficulty settling down, but thanks to pro advice from my brother regarding her favourite soothing noises, we got her sorted, haha.

Would I cry?

She has the greatest dimples.

So help me god, if you play whales I will RUIN YOU.

The next day they came out to my parents' house in the burbs where they got to hang out with the "doggies," relax on the porch glider, play in the yard, and plant some flowers.

Taking advantage of the grassy yard.

Enjoying the porch glider.

SO excited to try on her new Mickey Mouse gardening gloves.

Pouring in just the right amount of soil.

Sticking the plant in.

Grandma making sure it is in there well.

Finished product!

Admiring her sister's work.

Sami (one of our two beagles) was not sure what to do with such a small human.

Snuggles with grandma.

Working on walking.

Such a happy baby.

And fashionable, to boot!

Around that time I also took my first class at The Lemon Bowl. The lemon bowl is an art studio/ class space in Columbia Heights/Park View right on Georgia Avenue. Founded by three artist friends, they offer a ton of classes on things ranging from vision boards to terrarriums to watercolour letterinig and printmaking. Its a tiny studio, so the classes are small and you get lots of 1:1 time. Aidan and I took a terrarium class and planted ourselves some succulents.

Materials all gathered. 

Scrumptious succulents. 

Also stuck a twee little hippo on there.

View from above.

We also moved to a new, bigger, office within our co-working space. At that point there were like 10 of us (including summer interns) and there was no way we could fit in our old space which was only built for 4, so it was about time. While the furniture has moved around since then, its been a good home for us.

So much more space!