bones

Recently I accidently got super into animal skulls.

Let me explain.

Last year my 20-year-old cat (Oscar) died. It was from an illness or infection related to old age, and she died 3 minutes before midnight while me, my younger sister, and my mom sat around a bonfire with her (that in itself was a strange story for another day).

As many of you know, my family and I live out in the country, so we naturally have a lot of wild predatory animals around us. And when one of our pets dies, we simply put their bodies out in the field to continue the cycle of life. C’est la vie.

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social media + me

A lot of people ask me how I have the willpower to leave social media, but I often don’t know what to tell them…because once I hit the point of wanting to leave, it’s usually not very hard for me to do so. I mean, sure, there are some days where I miss the bliss of easily wasting time by scrolling into the deep dark heart of Instagram, but more noticeable is the immediate change that happens to me as soon as I get off. Usually within 24 hours I’m happier, calmer, more inspired, more motivated, and more creative.

Let’s face it, we’ve probably all wanted to walk away from social media at one point or another, even if it was just for a day, a week, a month…just to get some space, some freedom, or to experience life for life, instead of experiencing life for the ‘gram. That constant pressure of getting the perfect picture to show the world (or, uh, your ex) that you’re having an amazing time!?

It gets heavy.

click on the photos to enlarge them

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pet portraits

Ahhh, pet portrait work. A real love/hate relationship for me, as some of you know.

Let me just say: as much as I love being able to share my artwork, there is a constant underlying stress when it comes to custom work like this. Especially when it’s dealing with peoples’ pets. Sometimes I think people may love their pets more than they love their own children (I mean, I can’t blame them…for 7 years my best friend was a guinea pig).

click on the photos to enlarge them

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🍭🍬🧁

The only reasons that this photo series exists are:

1. I wanted more practice editing photos

2. I was feeling way too good about myself the other day and simply had to document it

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Although those are the only two reasons, I think they’re pretty good reasons.

A lot of times when it comes to photo editing I feel a bit of imposter syndrome try to edge in; after all, I’m definitely no professional. But I’m trying to work through that and just continue to figure out what I’m doing as I go. And since my stomach issues (which I touched on briefly in this post) have been getting me down a bit lately, every day that I feel amazing is a day to celebrate. It’s slow and steady progress over here.

My mental health has been kept aloft by a short list of songs that I’ve been listening to on repeat, and it’s pretty successfully brainwashed me into thinking that I am the absolute shit.

Curious? You shouldn’t be.

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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*)

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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!).