I hope that you all had a cozy Valentine’s Day; I certainly did, which means that I spent the day at home celebrating the completion of my Valentine’s to-do list (and starting on my next projects!).
Now I shall dump an excessive amount of red-pink-and-white photos into this post, please enjoy my 5 DIY Valentine’s Day Projects 😌🎀
just look how cute this is; the perfect backdrop for all my videos!
I can’t believe that January is already over. I know it drags on endlessly for a lot of people (and I’m often one of those people), but it really seems like it was here and gone this year.
And not only did I succeed in making all twelve monthly wraps last year (you can find the whole playlist of them here), I started all over again for 2026. It’s too much fun to watch the changing year through them all!
I’m happy to report that winter has been very wintery here in New England. Multiple winter storms have arrived, and the last storm we got (Storm Fern) dropped a good 16″ inches on top of us. We now have snow-blown paths winding through the yard leading to all of our important destinations (the barn, the wood shed, the compost, the birdfeeders…).
Technically I started making this quilt when I started on the fam’s quilts…last spring.
I just finished it a couple weeks ago.
But to be fair, I have definitely not been steadily working on it. In fact the butterfly squares sat antennae-less in a drawer for many months completely untouched (but not forgotten), just waiting for me to pull them out again.
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
I didn’t have the idea to make any Halloween items for my shop until super recently, so yes, it’s too late to actually have any of them for this year’s holiday. But I figured that the real Halloween stans wouldn’t care.
I keep my Christmas lights up ’til March, so I’m not here to judge other people’s favorite holidays, or how long you choose to celebrate them for ✌🏼
I haven’t made any pillows in a few months, ever since I listed the first ones in my shop, but I’m back in the zone and I have a million ideas (winter/Christmas ones are next, but I also want to do some more non-seasonal ones: dogs, cats, seashells, mushrooms, etc.).
To say that my creativity has been flowing lately would be an understatement — I’ve been having so much fun making things for my own enjoyment (Christmas quilts for me and my family!), and for my shop.
I’ve started to add a few new items to my shop (with more to come), some of which are quilted throw pillows (using my new favorite FPP sewing technique!).
every color on the butterflies — including all the small black lines — is an individual piece of fabric that is sewn together to create them!
Aside from watching the flowers grow, I have also been succeeding in catching every illness that Taylor brings home from the office (she hasn’t caught a single one, she just gives them to me). Which has meant that I’ve been making my health my #1 priority, since my immune system is obviously struggling at the moment (I allowed too much stress into my life, and it’s left me compromised). I’ve just survived a not-as-horrible-as-it-could-have-been-but-still-very-not-good case of what I suspect was strep, and thank God for essential oils and Epson salt baths.
But despite my body testing my patience, my mental health has been doing pretty well.
I’ve had to take a little break from work over the past few weeks (what’s new), since sitting hunched over my desk all day has exacerbated all my symptoms, so although I’m still taking orders (and have some patiently waiting in the queue), there will be a slight delay before I get to starting on them.
And if you find yourself starting to wonder: don’t her parents care that she’s not working?? Just know that I was originally very uncomfortable with taking more time off work (and also living with a much smaller income), and it was my dear mother who suggested it and encouraged it, because health and happiness are of paramount importance in our house.
it’s hard to pick a favorite, but the goldfinch is definitely one of them
art by jordan rae 