last days of summer

Officially into the 9th month of the year (in case you missed my 60-second August wrap, you can watch it here), and my Christmas senses are tingling, people. The lights want to be hung! The lists want to be made!!

But summer isn’t quite over yet, and I’m making the most of the last days of it.

_{(Christmas lights will be being hung within the next month)}

hangin out with some beautiful girls 🥺❤

monarchs

The year of the monarchs has been an incredible (and highly successful) journey so far. Twenty-two butterflies have hatched, and 100% of them have been perfect and successful releases.

The current count is up to fourteen girls and eight boys, with thirteen chrysalises left to hatch.

Once all of them are released I’ll be putting a (long) post up about my whole experience raising them — from egg to butterfly (with some helpful info in case you want to try raising some next summer!).

don’t ask me about how my gardens are doing…the flowers are doing well

The whole process has been amazing, although I did have my hands full for a little while keeping 35 caterpillars clean and fed.

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed every minute of it.

I have a small collection of YouTube shorts centered around the raising of the monarchs, from watching them pupate to releasing them out into the big wide world!

some newly thrifted pants that I’m tryin’ on for size — watch the fit check YouTube short here!

sewing projects

Although I love autumn, I truly hate having to start wearing pants again.

I hate wearing pants.

I like to live in either shorts or sundresses, but since I live in New England, much of the year is spent wearing pants. Bah.

My dislike for pants is simply to do with the fact that I have not found a style that I feel like me in yet (well, aside from big ol’ bell-bottoms, but those are simply too much for me to casually wear around the house all winter). I’m truly legs for dayz, so when I cover them up, I tend to feel quite shapeless.

I’ve been saving these gorgeous fabrics for something special, and they were perfect for this project (the one on the right is a vintage bedsheet)

I used to feel more myself when I could live in leggings and oversized sweaters, but with my poor sensitive guts, I had to do away with the daily constriction of leggings and tight pants. I had to start wearing looser pants, that didn’t put pressure on my stomach, but also made me generally feel slouchy and blah.

So this year I’m trying for a middle-ground approach; not loose and slouchy, but not tight and restricting. I thrifted a couple of new pairs of jeans, and also decided to finally give my old skinny jeans (that’ve just been sitting unworn in my closet for years) a makeover so that they can hopefully be put back into the outfit rotation.

my first pair I made into more a straight-leg pair, while I did a bit more of a flared bottom on these (to get to appreciate the fabric more)

I posted the before and after video of my first pair of skinny jeans on YouTube and got someone requesting a tutorial, so I quickly followed up with another couple videos of the next pair that I finished.

They’ve been pretty well-received, and I’m super happy with the outcome!

When I inevitably give makeovers to all of Riley Mae’s, and Mom’s jeans, I’ll probably also end up with a tutorial in post-form on here as well!