As you've seen in my postcard series, I am saving strawflowers this year. They dry so well! I am going to fill some vases and keep them up year round but I am also hoping to have my book club over to make wreaths this fall. The pink one was my practice and it turned out cute! I am using grapevine wreath forms I cut from our vines last year.

I saw this book mentioned by Caitlin in an Emily Henderson Sunday blog round-up. Caitlin shared “The Timeless Way of Building will genuinely change your life. I thought I was buying a book about creating classic architecture; instead, I found something far more profound.” Ummm…what? I was deeply intrigued and tracked down a copy. (It was published in 1979 and is out of print so only used copies are out there.) It's a rambler of a book for sure. So much to digest but I have been stunned multiple times. Honestly I need to write a full book report but in the meantime, some gems: on great works of art, “…we have come to think of works of art as ‘creations,' conceived in the minds of their creators…[but] there is no mastery of unnameable creative processes; only the patience of a craftsman, chipping away slowly.” (pg 160-161) and on building something new, “If you want to make a living flower, you don't build it physically with tweezers, cell by cell. You grow it from the seed.” (pg. 162). Am I ready to build a house? No. But do I have an entirely new framework for thinking about art, ideas and how things can be built? Yes.

I used some of my pop-up shop fabric to sew new pillow covers for our kitchen bench seat and they turned out so cute! The straight lines on the plaid fabric made it a dream to cut and sew. These will be on the pillows until I swap out for Christmas colors in mid-November and will return in January. I still plan to bring back my flower pressed version for the summer months. (ps – here's how the pillows look 65% of the time. No one gets more excited for my sewing projects than Poppy & Sugar.)

It's back-to-school season which means back-to-school night season. I saw posters in a few classrooms that said “Mistakes are expected, respected, inspected and corrected.” I don't remember this phrasing when I was in school or even a few years ago when I started visiting classrooms as a parent but I love it so much. Wanted to share in case you haven't yet seen it. Good advice for kiddos and grown-ups too.

I bought the A&F Madeline sweater last spring and it got a ton of wear when we traveled this summer. Looking forward to pulling it out again later this fall and winter. It is super well reviewed, comes in a bunch of colors and patterns and many options are currently on sale. (Fit is oversized.)

This month, the NY Times launched Pips and it's a nice addition to my morning game routine. It's simple and unlike their other popular games, numbers based. There are three rounds posted each morning of varying difficulty. Have you tried it? It's fun. Also, I have to note – whenever the NYT launches a new game I think of this 2023 Vanity Fair article about how much the Times is betting on games. What started with the crossword puzzle in 1942 is now a division of 100+ people!

I picked up The Names because of the cover but brought it home from the library because of the inside flap. It's a Sliding Doors type story that spans 35 years and three alternate versions of a family's life based on the name a mom chooses for her newborn son. (The three names? Bear, Julian & Gordon.) Although the topic is heavy, I couldn't put it down. (tw: domestic violence. Please take care.)

Last spring I made bouquet after bouquet of the most beautiful ranunculus flowers. It was my first time growing them from bulbs and I was obsessed. I saved a bunch that I hope will produce again but I am also stocking up on more from Petal Back Farm now. In Northern California (zone 9b) I will plant these in November and they should bloom late March-early May.