Author Archives: Jordan Rae

garden planting

In the last week of May Mom, Riley Mae, and I planted our gardens — one of my favorite times of the year.

Sure, my family and I always tend to lose some interest in the gardens during the hottest dog days of summer, and then we kinda just let them go to do their thing (we’re always surprised to go out to harvest the winter squashes and discover just how many were hidden in the leaves!).

But springtime? We love getting everything all cleaned up, going out every morning to water, and seeing the baby plants grow!

irises (left), and bleeding hearts (right) blooming

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the meadow

This year my family and I decided to let our front yard grow up into a meadow…and to say that we’re excited about it would be an understatement.

**sulphur cinquefoil** (*Potentilla recta*)

click on the photos to enlarge them

The backyard is where we spend almost all of our outdoor time. The deck is back there, the gardens are back there, the chickens are back there, the trees are back there, and it’s pretty much completely hidden from the road. It’s our little oasis (when the neighbors aren’t being too noisy, that is).

Aaaaand as for the front yard, it’s pretty much been wasted space.

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buttercups

I don’t know how y’all are doing, but so far June has had me unexpectedly emotionally and physically overwhelmed. AHHH. There have been a few tears, but that’s just how I process things.

So what better time to share some photos from a few weeks ago when I was feeling 100x better and honestly very much like that bitch™

I took these photos last month, before the poor wildfire air quality made everything hazy, gloomy, and all-around depressing.

Now, if I had Photoshop (and also knew had to use it) I’d be unstoppable. But right now I’m just going through long and unprofessional processes to simply make a vision come to life.

Think: multiple layers of photos and tediously erased lines.

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white picket fence

Does this post contain an obscene amount of photos? Absolutely.

If you’ve been following my blog long enough, then at this point one may be beginning to think: is she completely obsessed with herself?? Does she really think we want to look at 30 individual photos of her silly face??

And, I mean…yeah, kinda. But that’s beside the point.

{click on the photos to enlarge them}

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barn sanctuary auction items

Back in 2017 I took to Instagram to try and rustle up a following and audience to launch one of mine and my family’s grand ideas.

Spoiler alert: the idea was a joint-effort blog and business called Follow Us Home, which we successfully sustained for a couple years, before eventually shutting it down. I shared DIY tutorials; my mom shared vegan recipes, and all-natural cleaning products; my younger sister promoted sustainable, ecofriendly, and fair-trade clothing companies; and my older sister highlighted important charities that we supported. It was a wonderful, and exhausting, dream.

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70’s sundress

Last week I was grateful to wake up with the inspiration to take photos of some of my newest sewing projects.

Up until then, the thought of spending hours posing for, taking, and editing photos sounded like absolute hell to me. My almost-ten-years-old Canon Rebel T3i is just a wee bit too old to connect to a Bluetooth remote, so when I do photoshoots, half the time is spent running back and forth from my tripod to my designated photo spot. Pressing the shutter, and then quickly getting back in time for the self-timer countdown is the routine (and a very good workout).

Perhaps it’s not the most professional way to go about things in this day and age, but it’s worked for me thus far (even if it does take twice as long!).

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DIY tiered maxi skirt

Like I said in my previous post, I knew that eventually I would get to posing my maxi skirt tutorial, and today’s the day! I’ve been sewing nonstop, and it all pretty much started with this skirt. Now I’m making dresses, shorts, matching pants + halter top duos, bandanas, and cropped blouses (all of which I’m sure you’ll see in future posts!).

Over the last few months I’ve been prioritizing my gut health. IBS symptoms started showing up last year during all the stressful situations of 2022, and I knew that my intestines were begging for my help and attention. As I’ve been dealing with this, I haven’t been able to wear leggings, tight jeans, or anything that puts pressure on my stomach or intestines. If I do, I end up with horrible cramps and bloating. Wonderful, I know.

Sweatpants and loose pants are what I’ve been living in, and although it’s a very comfy life, after a while, it really starts to make me feel a bit…slumpy. So I’ve been getting super excited to break out my sundresses with the warmer weather arriving. Cute, comfy, and no pressure on the stomach!

Although I have a dozen cute dresses in the closet, I don’t really own skirts, and I thought it was time to change that. After all, I did have a pile of thrifted bedsheets in my closet just waiting for the perfect sewing project!

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may 14th, 2023

We’ve had multiple birthdays, day-trips, and holidays since I made my resolution to start taking more candid photos (you can read my post about that here), and so far, I’ve been successful in capturing the year.

Now while Riley Mae is lugging around a 5-pound birding camera, I go on hikes equipped with a straw hat, fanny pack, and my trusty old point-and-shoot camera from 2014.

Honestly, I’d say I’m aging pretty well.

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work

About a month ago I attended a birthday party while wearing a new maxi skirt that I had just sewn. I got multiple compliments on it (it did come out very nicely, if I do say so myself), and each time someone expressed interest in it, I offered them an exuberant: keep an eye on my blog, because I plan to get the sewing tutorial posted later this week!!!

At the time I had full intentions of doing just that, but here we are, almost a month later, and the maxi skirt has still not graced the page of my blog. A disappointment, I know.

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twenty-five

on march 14th at 5:45am I turned 25

Or, as I like to say: a quarter of the way to death ✌

My cousin and I said that now that we’re 25, and our frontal lobes have finally finished developing, we can now process and learn from things we couldn’t when we were young and ignorant.