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)

In May Dad put down bamboo flooring throughout the whole upstairs, so Riley Mae and I took the opportunity to pretty much gut our rooms. My theme was pink + white + gold, and I think I pulled it off pretty well.

pretty much the only thing that didn’t get a makeover was my desk, because it’s an absolute mess and I like to keep it that way so that I don’t feel like I have to be careful while I’m working at it

I painted a lot of the accenting pieces white, and it just so happens that the mirror that I painted a few months ago matches everything perfectly — like I already had the room planned out.

I made new throw pillows for my bed, and new curtains out of a vintage bedsheet that I’ve been saving for something special. I rehomed quite a few of my plants to my aunt, and trimmed, filled out, and repotted all of my absolute favorites that I wanted to keep.

perhaps the best and biggest change was painting this vintage dresser. It took three days to complete the heavily-detailed piece, but it was definitely worth it in the end

To say I’ve been busy would be an understatement.

We were late getting started on our gardens this year (due to all the house projects), so while we’ve usually weeded and cleaned up the gardens by the time we’re ready to plant, this year we were planting and doing all that maintenance work at the same time. We spent quite a few beautiful mornings weeding out hundreds of baby lemon balm plants from the rocks, spreading fresh compost, and planting all our seeds. It’s felt so good to be out in the gardens again, and most of the seedlings are up and looking great.

Taylor is spending the summer working at an organic vegetable and flower farm right down the road from us, so we ended up with some herbs and zephyr squash to add to the garden (very exciting).

the back garden is being used for vegetables and herbs this year, and the garden with raised beds in the backyard is being used for zinnia, calendula, and pole beans

We also spread clover seed in our yard, because…it’s been looking rough.

While we’re letting the front yard grow up into a meadow again (we have two bird boxes up in the meadow this year — one has been claimed by bluebirds, and the other one has been claimed by tree swallows), the goal is to eventually turn the backyard into a clover field. Because grass really just hates us (and from what I hear, clovers are better for the soil anyway).

I’ve already spotted a four-leaf clover and a five-leaf clover in our new babies that’ve sprouted

As for the rest of my time:

I binge-watched the new season of The Outlaws, I kinda sorta already started on my family’s Christmas gifts (it’s rather complex, so it’s in my best interest to start on some pieces early), I’ve been keeping up on pet portrait orders, and I’ve been working daily on a new and exciting project that I should be ready to announce within the next few days!

(stay tuned)

some of my favorite pet portraits that haven’t been shared