january

I can’t believe that January is already over. I know it drags on endlessly for a lot of people (and I’m often one of those people), but it really seems like it was here and gone this year.

And not only did I succeed in making all twelve monthly wraps last year (you can find the whole playlist of them here), I started all over again for 2026. It’s too much fun to watch the changing year through them all!

I’m happy to report that winter has been very wintery here in New England. Multiple winter storms have arrived, and the last storm we got (Storm Fern) dropped a good 16″ inches on top of us. We now have snow-blown paths winding through the yard leading to all of our important destinations (the barn, the wood shed, the compost, the birdfeeders…).

The temps have been bitterly cold, and there are some days where I only put Mary Todd out in her pen for a couple hours before she’s brought back in again for the night.

She’s definitely starting to have some days where she’s restless since, despite the low temps, the changing light and the singing birds are starting to make it feel like it spring. But she always remembers why she loves it so much inside after she’s been out in the cold barn for a while (and after she’s witnessed another hawk fly through our yard).

a good winter sunset (left), the first Lunar Halo I’ve ever seen (right)

Rewinding to Christmas: our tree was quite full this year, and we used all of our willpower to open our gifts slowly throughout Christmas day (if you haven’t seen my Christmas YouTube short, you should watch it).

We spent the day quietly at home, only leaving briefly to spontaneously visit a local Christmas-light attraction in the evening. We were happy to return home to a warm dinner as it was very cold out, and even being out there for 20 minutes chilled us to the bones.

We ended the day with a cheesy Christmas movie, and a final present to open before calling it a night, and wrapping up another holiday season.

one of my Christmas projects: embossed clay ornaments; you can watch how I made them here!

christmas 2025

a few of these cork ornaments are still for sale in the shop, see how I made them here!

One of the gifts I made for Riley Mae was this tote bag with a pair of scarlet tanagers on the front.

I also ended up making a handful of other totes and added them to our gift shop (you can browse them here!).

I used these leftover bird panels (from the quilt I made for Riley last Christmas), and combined them with scraps of old comforters, vintage bedspreads, table runners, and other material that I upcycled.

I really love them, and have even sold a couple of them!

Another project that I’ve been obsessed with is upcycling pants by sewing inserts into the sides of them.

Have I already mentioned this on my blog? I don’t remember.

But I do know that you most definitely already know about this if you follow my YouTube channel (I’ve not shut up about them).

this beautiful pair is for sale in our gift shop, take a peek here, and watch the video of my creating them here!

I’ve been making these for myself, Mom, and Riley, and then I decided to make a couple to sell too. I’m still trying to get found by the right people who want to spend the money on these upcycled, handcrafted pieces, but I’m using my YouTube page consistently to promote myself, so I’m hoping that they’ll eventually find the right crowd!

I know that money is tight for a lot of people (especially in this economy), but I also know that people are more than willing to drop money on things that they love, so I’m just working to reach the people who love my work!

They’re definitely projects that I’m really proud of and happy with the outcome. I plan to make more sizes of these too, I just need to thrift some more pants and materials.

All in all I’ve been very busy at the start of this year. Not actually selling much yet (*cries during tax/insurance season*), but I feel really good having this much ambition and creativity flowing.

I feel very similar to how I felt last year at this time, right before I made the mistake of derailing everything by entertaining a man, so we shall vow to not make this silly mistake again ☝🏼😌

this pair is also for sale, and you can watch me make them here!

I’m currently in the midst of creating a whole bunch of white-pink-red Valentine’s Day projects that will fuel my video content for the first half of February.

I might be a bit overambitious with the amount of projects/video ideas currently on my plate, but honestly, I tend to work surprisingly well when I have self-imposed deadlines.