Serendib House by Mary Anne Mohanraj

08/17/2025

03/05/2025

Delighted to announce that I’ve been approved as a vendor for the 2025 Berwyn Shops incubator, and will be opening my shop in May! Launch party details coming soon!

Introducing Shop 4, Serendib House by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Serendipity means 'something wonderful, unlooked for.' At Serendib House, author and artist Mary Anne Mohanraj offers stories and recipes, along with garden-inspired art and home goods. Stop in to experience a serendipitous moment and find something you didn’t even know you were looking for!

www.serendibshop.com

Please give Mary Anne of Serendib House a warm welcome to the Berwyn Shops.

To see all the 2025 Berwyn Shops vendors please visit www.berwynshops.com/vendors

10/31/2024

Unmolded the moss & gold chess set (and some dice). There's still some sanding work to do, but overall, pretty happy with the chess set! A couple of the dice didn't fill properly; I'll have to see if I can fix that, might need to re-pour. It's tricky, getting the lid to sit right. Might have these at the store by tomorrow, maybe not 'til Sat or Sun.

I think the next set will be rose petal and gold.


Berwyn Shops

10/31/2024

Autumn rose. (Don't remember the variety, too lazy to go look and see if it still has its tag.)

10/31/2024

11 papers to go, at 7 a.m. I MUST get these papers back to them at 12:30, or I will forever bring shame upon my house.

I leave at noon to teach, and in between, in theory, am supposed to go swim around 9. Should be enough time, if I don't dawdle. Also need to get in my very belated course descriptions for spring semester, and finalize flyer details for Russ event next week (so I can print and distribute them on campus today).

If I don't finish all this before noon, then I might need to stay on campus later than 3:15, which I'd like to avoid, because that gets me home at 4, when trick-or-treating starts. ALSO, we don't have enough candy, because Kevin bought enough but didn't take into account that I'd be giving a lot away at Sprout and the Shops, so it'd be nice to be done at 11:30, so I can stop at Target and pay too much for last-minute candy. (If anyone local has too much candy they want to sell me, now's your chance. :-) )

All of which means that NO, Mary Anne, you cannot go play with resin right now. You must keep your butt on the couch and grade those papers.

I grade in batches of four, normally. When I grade 4 of them, I am allowed to go unmold my chessboard and see if it came out. Eep. So excite. I also really want to try brushing mica powder on the resincrete ornaments I made last night (see photos earlier in feed). MUST. RESIST.

Kavi has given permission for two last pics from the Taylor Swift concert. I don't think you get the cute video of her dancing and singing along, sorry. :-) She loved it, esp. surprise guest Sabrina Carpenter (her actual favorite).

10/30/2024

Grade a paper, make some art...

Ageratum, pansies, fairy roses, zinnia. The zinnia explosion is my favorite. :-)

10/30/2024

Why am I so resistant to grading papers? I feel like it's gotten worse over my years of teaching, even though I don't actually mind reading the papers once I've opened the file and started. But there's such resistance to opening the file....I'm having to bribe myself with garden (particularly tempting because the weather is unseasonably warm and gorgeous).

Read and grade a paper, go pick some flowers and press them. Repeat, adding leaves for variety. Sigh.

Pictured: rosa "The Fairy" and fothergilla, one of my favorite color-changers in the garden.

10/30/2024

Kavi's first (co-)publication. :-)

https://biotreks.org/e202415/