Changing Seasons – May 2026

Hello friends, welcome to another monthly wrap up! The first half of the year is almost over, where has the time gone? I’ll save half-year reflections for next month’s post, but in terms of small glimmers and little moments of happiness, it’s been a good year so far.

Did you catch the blue moon over the weekend? Even as I occasionally used the phrase “once in a blue moon,” I only learned of the origins of the saying recently, thanks to this Weather Channel article.

Long story short, there is a seasonal blue moon (the third full moon in a season), and a calendrical blue moon (the second full moon in a month), which was this weekend. My mom sent me photos of the seemingly full moon from Saturday night, so I was determined to witness the blue moon for myself on Sunday. Alas, I couldn’t see it on my night walk, so I guess I will have to wait ’til 2028 for the next one.

Sewing

I mentioned in my last post that I had entered my sewing era. Well, this month I got to use a sewing machine again and made a few things I’m quite proud of. First off, a little cover for the seat back of a chair. It’s not quite symmetrical, but I hemmed in all the raw edges and I think it brightens up what otherwise would be a drab gray chair.

And then I dove into my first attempt at clothing with a pair of pajama shorts! I traced a pair of gym shorts I already owned to make pattern pieces, and made a mock-up with some plain white fabric. Discovered I needed to add more height to the waist to allow for the elastic, and also realized I had sewn one side of the shorts incorrectly (I didn’t sew it right-sides together). Good thing I made a practice pair before cutting into the fabric.

And voila! A pair of comfy and light pajama shorts. I didn’t top stitch over the elastic in case I wanted to adjust the waist later on. I find this type of functional creativity brings its own sense of fulfillment compared to my usual creative practices (drawing, journaling). It just makes me happy to wear and use something I made or mended.

Wanting to use up the odd-shaped scraps created from the above projects, I sewed together the leftover strips of fabric to create a cover for this stool. Alas, I should have made it longer, because it tends to lift off every time I get up from the seat. Lesson learned for next time.

Crochet

My little Miffy doll gained two more friends, slightly bigger in size. All three are standing pretty on my shelf, dressed in coordinated outfits.

And I crocheted this bottle bag for my every day carry water bottle. This was a pretty easy pattern to follow, and there was no need to count stitches!

And finally, another functional piece: a summer bucket hat! My first attempt came out too big and wide (it looked like a pancake sitting atop my head), so I started over and ended up using some of the yarn from the pancake to finish my hat. Don’t the the frogged lengths of yarn look like ramen noodles?

It looks much better worn, and I’m so please to have a hat that was made to perfectly fit my head! Please say hello if you see this beauty out and about this summer. 😀

Drawing

This month I re-started my perpetual journal. There are lots of beautiful flowers in bloom right now, and of course had to document a rose for May.

I also started attending a book talk/workshop series at a local indie bookstore. The third workshop was a drawing session, so I brought along my different “artsy pens” to play around with.

The first week we had taken a tour of the neighborhood and so I had lots of reference photos to work from. I ended up choosing to focus on the electric poles and lines in the photos, even though when I took them the buildings were the focus. The electric lines are all buried underground in newer neighborhoods, so it’s a sign of the area’s age to see the mass network of wires and cables criscrossing the sky.

In the last sketch, I ended up omitting the building altogether and just drew the elements in front. The pens used were: a Japanese brush pen, Pilot Bravo, Pentel GFKP, and a ZIG chisel-tip calligraphy pen.

Calvin Klein x Jungkook Popup in Seoul

In a fit of FOMO, I stopped by the CK x JK pop up in Seongsu-dong. I may or may not have impulse bought a t-shirt despite my merch-buying ban AND the exorbitant price… (it felt so soft… and one can always use a nice t-shirt… ).

And may have also gotten the black sesame ice cream at Cafe Far Ben next door, which was a special menu item made for the pop up.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Seongsu-dong and I was NOT prepared for the masses of people around. It was crazy busy, but here are some photos of the JK ads with said people edited out 😛

Flowers

Can’t have a May changing seasons without a quick nod to the neighborhood roses.

Birds

And finally, the highlight of the month! I went on two more guided bird walks this month and saw several new to me species.

Added to my Korea Life List in May:

• Common Blackbird
• Spotbill Duck
• Asian Tit
• Vinous-throated barrotbill
• Corvus macrohynchos
• Oriental reed warbler
• Little grebe
• Common moorhen
• Either Eastern Great egret or Great White Egret (TBD)

Which brings me to a total of 19 so far. My modest goal was 20 for the year, so I think I’ll have to reset my goal 😀

Some were only spotted and identified with the help of the guide, and my photos of them are blurry blobs, but here are a few cool bird snaps from the month.

(From L to R): Brown-eared Bulbul (I can ID this one pretty easily now), Common blackbird (not so common in Seoul), Mallard, Spotbill ducks, either a Great egret (대백로) or an Eastern Great egret (중대백로), and the ever-present Grey heron.

And finally, I heard these magpies first before I saw them, and for a second I thought the one on the left was a different bird. I think it’s a juvenile based on: the shorter tail, the overall fuzziness/fluffiness compared to the others, and the less vibrant coloring. The little dude’s squawking is what caught my attention, and I’ve now made up a story that it was throwing a fit in front of its parents. See it yelling in the second shot, and running after the other two in the third.

That wraps up this month for me. How was your May, friends?

This post was written as part of the Changing Seasons challenge. You can visit Ju-Lyn’s post to see how other creatives around the world spent their month.