Category Archives: home

january wrap

January is officially over, and Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter (i.e. he saw his shadow). Although his history of predictions is ✨questionable✨, he may be right this year, because there are still plenty of low temps and chances of snow on our forecast.

January has been a month of intense creativity for me. Work has been extremely slow (as per usual in January), and although I’m currently very poor, I’m always happiest when I’m not just sitting at my desk painting all day.

Although pet portraits are a great staple for me, I’m hoping for some new opportunities to come my way in this new year.

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sock curls

If you’ve found yourself on any girls’ social media pages lately, chances are that you’ve seen someone trying the heatless sock curls — and I finally tried them too.

I’ve seen a million different products being advertised for heatless curls, but I’m not willing to spend money on something that’s such a gamble. _{(and that looks to be kinda complicated to do by yourself)}

I’ve tried my fair share of curling methods over the years; all heatless, of course, because I refuse to kill my hair again after I bleached it to death with hydrogen peroxide when I was 14. My hair was fried, broken, and stretchy when wet (a very weird experience) for a couple of years until I grew it out and cut it off.

Ever since then I’ve been scared to do anything that will cause damage to it. That means no straighteners, curling irons, or curling products.

ft. my support local street cats t-shirt from GOODVIBEQUOTESSHOP on Etsy

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wrapping up 2024

We got our first real snow on December 4th. We were only supposed to get an inch or two, but when I woke up and looked out my window it was a winter wonderland! There’s such a specific feeling to going to sleep with no snow and waking up to this beauty, and it cannot be explained. The fact that I have a friend who lives in New Zealand and has never seen snow in his life still boggles my mind.

Of course it was very heavy, wet snow which resulted in us losing power for a few hours, so I went outside and built a little snowman while we were left in the dark. He had a face on both sides: one for us and one for everyone driving by. The faces didn’t end up lasting long (the eyes very quickly started to melt out), but the snowman [incredibly] lasted for days. He defied all logic — and gravity — by bending completely over, while never losing his head. By the time he melted, his head was almost touching the ground, while still remaining firmly attached to his body.

I truly magical snowman.

when you wake up in the night to a snowplow going by your house, you know that you’re going to wake up to something beautiful in the morning

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exciting new things

I painted my room pink.

After years of debating, I did it, and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. It’s a pale, light pink, but the paint color is called lavender moon, so it has a subtle lavender undertone which makes it super soft 🌙

looking cute in one of the outfits I finished this year (although 90% of the time lately I’ve just been in comfy shorts and an oversize t-shirt because I’ve been workiiiiiiing)

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spring showers

Years ago Mom got tired of the maintenance of the front gardens, and so she dug them all up, dumped the contents into the brush on the edge of the yard, and filled the gardens up with pea stones and a couple carefully-placed azalea bushes and bird baths.

We didn’t give much thought to what we dumped, aside from Riley Mae being rather morose over the loss of the annually-blooming mini daffodils. But lo and behold, I think each and every bulb and plant that got tossed aside successfully rooted and sprung back to life in the brush.

Each year the bulbs continued to spread along the edge of the yard: snowdrops, crocuses, grape hyacinth, a couple different kinds of large daffodils, and, of course, the beloved mini daffodils.

baby crocuses drinking up the spring showers

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the art of sharing

Sharing good news scares me.

Well, not only “good news,” but like…things that I’m excited about it.

Doesn’t it always seem like as soon as you do, the things that you were just gushing over start to fall apart…? Or is that just me??

Like recently when I sent out Christmas cards and hard-launched my love for a sweet giant rabbit, only to have to hand her over to a foster home after Christmas…?

braving the 15-degree morning to enjoy the world covered in ice

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snowy day

For much of last week I was down sick, but honestly, I wasn’t even upset about it.

Morally I couldn’t take any more time off of work on my own (since I’d just gotten back to work after my little Christmas vacation), but being passed out with a beautiful sweaty fever for a few days forced me to take some real rest time. Which I really needed. Mentally and physically, I just hadn’t been spending enough quiet time with myself, and I had really been starting to miss it. If I’m being honest, I feel like I’ve been in go-mode since October, and although a lot of positive things have happened since then, I just haven’t had the time to simply allow myself to calm down. Or even process everything that’s happened.

So cue the 12-hours of sleep every night, lazy days, and wasting time while rotting — unshowered — on the couch with a weird feverish rash all over my body (Mom said it was nothing to worry about).

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november 18, 2023

You know that warm Christmas-is-coming feeling that you used to get when you were a kid, and you never really get it anymore, but every year you look for it? And hope that it’ll appear? I’ve been feeling that warm Christmas-is-coming feeling lately, and I don’t know where it came from, but I want it to staaaaay ❤

On Saturday evening I was standing at checkout with a basket full of candy, and the woman standing behind me (holding a couple rolls of Christmas wrapping paper) commented that I was either going to the movies or had some crazy munchies. I told her that I was actually on my way to a gingerbread house party and how happy I was about it, as I hadn’t made one in years. She got really excited and said how much she loved making gingerbread houses, and she and the cashier both agreed that it was an amazing Christmas tradition. I finished paying, and the cashier and fellow shopper both gave me a big smile and said goodbye with a genuine, and exuberant, “I hope you have fun tonight!!”

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braids

Recently I got incredibly bored with myself. You know when Bruce Springsteen said:

I check my look in the mirror / wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face

That’s been the mood. So I started scrolling Pinterest and pinning all the braids and simple updos, and why did it take me so long to start learning this stuff?

Crisis averted. I did not have to cut my hair, or mistakenly bring back the bangs, I simply needed to learn to show off what I have.

She’s cute, she’s classy, and she stays put all day long 🤍

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Edgar

I’m in love.

His name is Edgar.

He’s now 20 days old, and though his eyes are open, there ain’t nothin’ behind ’em. He looks absolutely clueless and soulless 100% of the time, and it’s absolutely infuriating how cute he is.

Although I knew kittens grew up fast, it’s still hard to believe how quickly he’s quadrupled in size since the day of his birth. And the size of his paws?? They’re tiny, but also massive. We all think he’s going to end up being a much larger cat than his mom.