Often, when I come up with a new project idea, it comes to me in a flash of inspiration; like when I made this fun collage painting, and these clay ornaments, and these wooden eggs and magnets!
Sometimes it literally feels like a vision comes upon me and I can see the exact outcome of what I want to create.
Those are the fun times, and that’s when I truly know that I project is going to work out.
That’s what happened with this one.
my muses 🦋
Ever since the air started to cool, and the first leaves began to drop quietly from the trees, I’ve had the strong urge to catch up on everything and get it all back in order.
It’s not an unknown feeling — it’s actually a quite common autumn feeling for me, especially after a summer full of responsibilities.
the common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) in the meadow has been stunning this year — I can’t wait to see it continue to spread!
You may remember seeing my DIY recycled denim patches that I shared in June. Well, I’m very happy to share that the patches have been quite a hit in my Etsy shop 🎉
Although I can always imagine the exact kind of person who will enjoy each new project that I make, I never know what projects will actually get found by those specific people, and therefore get the attention they need to be successful.
But apparently recycled denim patches are a highly-searched-for item.
(who knew?)
I sew each patch freely, so each one is truly one of a kind ✨
If you found yourself wondering if I’d skipped Easter, the answer is yes, and also no.
I didn’t do anything to celebrate (if I remember correctly, my family and I didn’t even wish each other a happy Easter on the actual day), which is a very common occurrence for holidays these days, but it’s also kinda weird when I think about it, because Easter used to be a really big holiday in our family.
Not because we’ve ever been religious (we have not), but it was always a day that my family and extended family celebrated together.
7-year-old Jordan Rae searching out chocolate in my Disney princess pajamas
One of my YouTube subscribers (and repeat customer) threw out the idea for me to design a bag that he could toss a few books into; something simple to throw over his shoulder, made from upcycled denim, with a touch of birds (yes, this subscriber found me through Riley Mae’s beloved bird channel).
At this suggestion, my brain instantly went 💡
these bags look small and compact, but are big enough to comfortable fit an 11″x9″ notebook into, as well as a few books!
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…).
Exciting news: I’ve partnered up with Riley Mae and Mom to design some bird merch for Riley Mae’s YouTube channel, and yesterday we official launched it 🎉
I was excited to get to design some simple, straightforward birds that are now being printed on t-shirts, mugs, pins, hats, and more.
All of these designs were drawn directly from some of Riley Mae’s photographs, and then painted with black acrylic paint before I scanned them onto my computer and turned them into transparent PNG files that can easily be uploaded to all of our projects.
carolina wren, ruby-throated hummingbird, sanderling, blue jay, northern cardinal, northern flicker, turkey vulture
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’ve been giving a lot of energy to my Etsy shop lately, and creativity is going in multiple directions. One day I’m spending hours in front of the sewing machine, the next I have a paintbrush in hand. I’ve also been creating videos to add to many of my listings (adding optional videos to Etsy listings is a fairly new feature on Etsy, but I’ve never used it until now). I feel like my shop looks really good right now, and is successfully reflecting my current creativity.
The hardest part for me when it comes to listing new items in my shop is still setting the prices for them. Does it ever get easier!?
My first reaction is to always think that I’m pricing things too high, because you can pick up things much cheaper from Target, T.J.Maxx, and Walmart (although those are all mass-produced items, unlike everything found in my shop).
But when I deduct the shipping cost (I offer free shipping on everything, so I pay $4 – $12 shipping on each order, depending on the items sold), and the Etsy fees (6.5% of each sale), and the taxes…don’t ask how much I’m left with for the time I put into my work.
Finance can get tight when you run your own business (as they are for me right now!), but this is really all I want to do, so I make it work, and I’m excited to keep branching out!
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