I recently finished gathering plates for our kitchen plate wall and I’m excited to be done. Sharing a photo here today but also want to let you know that for three years, I let it be incomplete. As I found new (secondhand) plates in my color scheme I hung them over and next to the window. Then once I had enough to fill the space I took them all down and re-hung them in an order that made sense to my eye. Collecting takes a long time. Old me would have rushed it or bought placeholder plates. Current me enjoyed the process.

I shared this to my Instagram stories in October 2022, so apologies for those that remember, but do not sleep on silk noil fabric as a scarf. Silk noil is made from 100% silk, but woven out of short fibers so it’s a bit nubby. It’s not shiny or itchy. It has a good drape and can be washed and dried in a machine. The best part? It looks 5x more expensive that it actually is. Mine is 45” wide and two yards long. Here’s a link to some great colors, sold by the yard.

This article’s headline caught my eye in early October. I’m sharing a gift link, so you can read the article but the short story is coming into your own and trying new things is awkward! For thousands of years we did it offline! Now we have megaphones in our pockets and livestreams live forever. Content creator Erica Mallot coined the phrase “climbing cringe mountain” to describe the process of experimenting and trying on new identities on the way to finding your voice as an artist (or just as a person). In Mallot’s illustration, you have to climb cringe mountain to get to “The Land of Cool” which to me just means “The Place Where You Feel Confident in Who You Are.” I spent much of September looking back at blog posts from 17 years ago and wow was I doing some cringe mountain climbing. I am so glad I kept on.

I first read this book in 2012 which was about a lifetime ago. I was 27, newly(ish) married, selling rubber stamps and blogging six days a week. On the re-read I was struck by how what I highlighted the first time doesn’t connect for me now and how other passages had really permeated my work (like starting before you’re ready and pushing your creativity by working within a framework). My big “Ah-ha!” moment this time through was how valuable it is to change up your creative pursuits. Tharp writes, “Switching genres was [Beethoven’s] way of maintaining his inexperience and, as a result, enlarging his art. Whenever he came back to the piano, he would bring to the keyboard everything he had learned from the trios, quartets, concertos and symphonies.” I talk all the time about how my hobbies have seasons and I already know that each time I return back to an old craft I am completely reinvigorated. Now I understand why it feels so much easier to “level up” on each revisit: I am bringing fresh energy and different creative ideas but equally important, I am bringing less fear of failure and expectations.

As of this writing, my zinnias and strawflower are still flourishing in the garden but at some point in the next month, I will be pulling everything to prep the garden for winter. In fall 2024, I scattered winter rye seed in the beds and it grew really well (that photo above is from early March 2025). I plan to do the same thing this year. The point of a cover crop like winter rye is to avoid soil erosion and suppress weed growth. When I get ready to plant next spring, I will just cut down the tall grass and turn it into the soil as organic matter. It worked really well last year and I am hopeful my soil will be as healthy in 2026.

For the past few years, I have been ordering a Minted photo calendar to keep track of our family schedule and I just got our 2026 version. The price is good and the paper is great. I love picking the photos each year and they make good grandparent gifts too.

We watched season one of Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple TV after my book club recommended it last month and it’s good. Great cast, bonkers storyline and really beautiful interiors. Plus no one plays a deeply flawed but lovable main character quite like Jon Hamm. Excited for season two to drop next spring.

We made it to candle season. Sharing my favorite tapers (a good price!), my favorite scented candle (a splurge!), and where I get my custom matchbooks printed (too fun!).