Ever since the air started to cool, and the first leaves began to drop quietly from the trees, I’ve had the strong urge to catch up on everything and get it all back in order.
It’s not an unknown feeling — it’s actually a quite common autumn feeling for me, especially after a summer full of responsibilities.
the common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) in the meadow has been stunning this year — I can’t wait to see it continue to spread!
You know how people say that your surroundings mirror your inner world? Well, currently my room is a mess. So you can guess what that means.
But it’s not for lack of trying to clean it up; the problem is that while cleaning it, I simply end up making more of a mess!
And the more things I get in order, the more I realize must still be done!
Upon trying to clean up some stagnant piles of projects in my room, I’ve only discovered more things that’ve been waiting to be finished, and more fabric that I don’t have room for in my closet (my fabric stash has outgrown my small room, but what’s a girl to do!?), and more shirts that need to be altered, and more blog posts that I still have to finish drafting.
we recently finished building our second dead hedge; this is the one between us and our neighbors, and it gives everyone in the situation some much-need privacy 👀
It definitely feels good every time I cross something off my list, I just seem to add a new thing on every time I cross one off.
I’ve also been trying to get caught up on going through, editing, and organizing photos, as well as all the millions of video clips that I have to keep track of (as you can imagine: truly a never-ending task).
I’m not crazy enough to think that I’ll actually catch up on (and stay caught up on) everything, but I do need to reach a certain threshold of completion so that I can start on new projects without getting overwhelmed by the chaos around me.
the pear tree that I took photos in front of this spring had a highly successful fruit year, and I ended up picking dozens of them to eat and add to our nightly fruit smoothies!
There are days that I’ve ended up getting quite overwhelmed, and although plenty of the projects that I’ve been working on would make wonderful YouTube shorts, I’ve had to decide to not slow myself down with more footage and editing.
In these cases, I must simply find satisfaction in finishing them up, and crossing them off my list!
I recently caught up on pinning my most recent batch of collected dead bugs, and added them all to my shadowboxes
I recently found a pillowcase that I had quilted over a year ago and I realized that it never got its zipper sewn in, or a pillow form bought for it, so I accomplished that task and got it listed in my shop.
I mean, what a waste that this adorable pillowcase has been sitting under a pile of fabric for over a year! Especially since I’ve been getting more views and activity in my Etsy shop lately; perhaps someone will appreciate its cottagecore charm 🍄
(feel free to check out the rest of my throw pillow collection, here!)
I love this foundation paper piecing mushroom design, which I purchased from KatePareMakes!
I also finished upcycling this thrifted crewneck sweater with this cat cut-out from a vintage cotton blanket.
This one got added to my shop too (I just recently sold one of my upcycled cat sweaters, and got a 5-star review on it, which was super exciting!) 🐱
this sweater is a size XL, but would be a nice oversized look for any size smaller than that as well!
Both of these projects are just small things that’ve been sitting around, half-done for an embarrassingly long time, and it feels great to finally get them off of my to-do list, and on to my to-done list.
Another thing that has been added to my to-done list is scrubbing and sanitizing my monarch caterpillar enclosures. It was such a relief to be able to fold them up and put them away until next year.
I only have three more chrysalises to hatch!
top fritillary butterflies on our zinnias,I believe they’re Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria cybele); left Hickory Tussuck caterpillar (Lophocampa caryae); right Monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus)
I’ve collected a ton of butterfly data, and have learned a lot this year, and at some point I’ll be trying to condense it all into a post.
As fun as it is to be able to say that I released over 200 monarch butterflies this year, I doubt I’ll repeat the process to the same extent next year.
I definitely want to keep doing it (and I’ve seen an increase in the neighborhood monarchs since I’ve started!), but next year I think I’d like it to be a part of my summer, instead of my entire summer…we shall see! 🦋
we had so many caterpillars in our milkweed patch The Monarch Garden that I had to stop collecting them, and we found a few caterpillars who successfully made their chrysalises on the fence, garden hose, and the side of our house (they have yet to emerge, but my fingers are crossed for success!)
