Category Archives: home

side quests

Goodness gracious. Officially half way through April, and it’s definitely been an emotionally tumultuous shift from the previous few months.

Spring has returned, and although it brings the joy of green grass, blooming flowers, singing peepers, and birds fighting over our nesting boxes (as cute as the bluebirds are, they are being just as problematic as usual), it also means that our horrendous neighbors have returned to their horrendous ways (unfortunately, it’s been a telltale sign of the changing seasons for the past decade).

the time of the crocuses has officially passed, but today our first mini daffodil bloomed

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march wrap

While January and February seemed to fly by, March seemed to go on forever.

Looking back on the month’s wrap I can’t believe that some of the clips were from the 31 days of March — it felt like they were taken months ago.

Although the weather is in its annual spring fickleness, the fam and I have been making sure to enjoy all of the warm days we get. Spontaneous afternoons spent hiking, laying in sunny fields, and listening to the spring peepers were a March staple (and are carrying into April).

The grass is turning more green every day, and buds are starting to pop on the trees and bushes.

So here’s a short photographic recap of the month:

I’m not sure that I’ve ever posted photos of this coat on my blog, but, FUN FACT: I made it out of my old bedspread last year

I bought the pattern from ReillyFitzsimmons, and it was easy and great, aside from the fact that I did have to downsize a lot because the pattern is unisex and created by a man

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february wrap

February was a really happy and fun month for me.

There was a ton of creativity, inspiration, exciting news, and talking to good people.

Although the winter blues have definitely been a problem for me in the past, I’ve thoroughly and completely enjoyed these cold months this year. I don’t think I’m ready for the world to get loud and active again as the weather warms up, but the first little snowdrop greens poking out of the frozen ground have definitely made me excited 🤍

(top left) February 10th, the nearly-full moon; (top right) February 28th, many evenings have been spent sewing and watching old episodes of Sex and The City; (bottom) February 25th, a juvenile hawk hung out in our yard for a while, Riley Mae identified it as a red-shouldered, and also got some photos of her own

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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).