I missed last week’s post. Ooops. To be fair, it was a busier day at the shop, so it mostly slipped my mind. It’s busier today, too, but I’m feeling the itch to write, so here I am. It’s my last 2 days of in-store sales at my brick-and-mortar yarn shop, and I’m finding myself carrying a mixed bag of emotions. It’s (mostly) fine – this is what I needed to do and, in some cases, even wanted. It’s still hard, though, acknowledging that your dream business just didn’t work out in the way you planned or hoped. In a lot of ways the business was successful, but in others…

Another week, another chance to find the happy moments in a world where it’s easy to get bogged down with all the shit going on. A spontaneous invite to a local winery I’ve kind of pulled away from drinking alcohol over this last year, but it was lovely to hang out with some amazing friends and enjoy the breeze and atmosphere. The wine was pretty tasty, too. Trying new art supplies Taking that pastel workshop had me all sorts of excited to get some for myself. Turns out, though, I kind of hate the Canson Mi-Teintes paper. I think that workshop spoiled me on the Clairfontaine PastelMat, so now I’m…

This Introvert Drawing Club exercise It’s quite hilarious how I forgot entirely how frogs arms/legs look in my memory version. I only did the one comparison that night, but plan to do more just for the fun factor. Getting to snuggle baby goats (again) Last year I got to venture out with a friend to visit her friend who raises goats in her backyard. I tried to find the post to link to last year’s photos but it turns out I never actually got that post out of draft form. Oh well. This year we got to go visit them again, and it was the best therapy ever. This little…

Another Friday, another round of bright spots in my life this week. And, considering the news and the dumpster fire the USA has become, I think we can all stand to appreciate the smaller happy things more. This selfie Felt cute. Actually put a little effort into my appearance after feeling like I’ve been living in jeans and oversized shirts for a few weeks. I will miss this brick wall as my go-to selfie backdrop for my future finished knitwear once the shop closes. Discovering my fig fruiting I hadn’t really been paying attention to my fig (brown turkey variety? Chicago hardy? I can’t remember), so when I discovered these…

I find myself longing for the days when I was younger, perhaps dumber, and had endless things to write about my life without a second thought. A decade ago I would pour my heart out on a public blog for anyone willing to read. These days, I’m more conscious and aware of how permanent (and malicious) the internet can be, and I find it hard to really open up about anything of actual meaning… but I’m still here, and still trying to find a remnant of the voice I used to have. Spring break arrived this week, and I wish I could tell you about the amazing adventures we had……

The world is a dumpster fire of hot, steaming garbage, so here’s some good things that gave me happiness this week. 1. Seeing K. Flay (and opener Vienna Vienna) on Sunday at the Newport Music Hall with my kick-ass kiddo. 2. Painting this grumpy cat 3. The danger noodles (snakes) out sunning themselves on the trail while I walked 4. This note from Substack 5. This safflower bloom in a bouquet of flowers I brought home 6. The way the light played on the water in my mason jar drinking cup

March. Spring and fresh beginnings. Trees are beginning to bud out ever so slightly as the warmth and sun returns, and on my neighborhood walk last night I spied some spring bulbs starting to stretch forth from their wintery slumber in neighboring flower beds. We’re not out of the woods yet, weather-wise, but we’re certainly not in the depths of gray, depressing winter, either, and there’s no denying that the wheel of the year keeps turning. I feel a bit like the plants right now – starting to awaken from my wintering period. I find myself looking ahead at true spring, and even summer, and thinking about the things that…

I’m calling it. This funk isn’t just winter blues combined with political bullshit anxiety… it’s depression with a lowercase d. Not to be confused with Depression, the bigger downer that happens to me occasionally. But we’re definitely riding out this roller coaster right now and tightening down the safety nets (daily walks, eating actual meals with veggies, sitting in the car on sunny days baking in the light like a plant in a greenhouse, etc) in an attempt to mitigate damage and prevent the little d turning into a big D. Part of this mitigation strategy includes easy win art pieces. Instead of beating myself up about how I should…

All those years of learning about Nazi Germany and wondering how people could “let” it happen, how people could go on living their lives despite all the terrors happening around them… only to watch it unfold in real time here in the US. (After all, that wasn’t just an “awkward gesture” that was made by a certain weirdo billionaire, and anyone telling you that is trying to gaslight you.) She’s 10 year old me, painfully aware of what’s going on but with no power to do anything about it.