Eating: The title of this post was both figurative and literal! I've been trying to eat better lately, and I've really been all over the board. This week I started a food journal, and I hope it helps. I'm trying to focus on veggies, and one of my favorite breakfast/lunch/dinner/anytime meals is eggs with Brussels sprouts and potatoes! I just wing it, but it's based on this recipe. If you're looking for a healthy winter, comfort food-y meal, I recommend this!
That's how my afternoons have been lately. What about you? Have you been up to anything exciting? Let me know! And thanks for stopping by.

You guys! This is a very exciting week :) (even though I've been down with a nasty cold!)

So, I realized today that I haven't shared some exciting news that happened a few weeks ago...


Meet little Lemon, the newest little member of the family!

She's a miniature schnoodle, and as sweet as can be. I have been on the look out for a puppy for a while now, and she was a bit of an early Christmas present for me! When I went to look at her litter, I had a different puppy picked out, but when I saw her, my heart literally just melted!


She has been such a fun little addition to the family, and she pretty much steals the heart of everyone she meets!


I named her Lemon, after Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, but mostly I call her Little Lemon, Baby Lemon, Little Bean, or Little Lemon Bean. She seems to tolerate the ridiculous nick-names pretty well I think ;)

Another exciting thing around here lately is that the shop getting a huge boost! I registered my business name with the state, got a P.O. box, got accepted to sell at a very cool local Christmas market (more on that later) and I have a ton of new products that will be launching in the near future! :) :) :)

I will have Christmas cards, updated versions of some of my old favorite greeting cards, and some brand new products that I can't wait to share with you all! Christmas cards should be up by the end of the month, with the rest to follow soon!


Here's some of the other things my afternoons (and mornings, and evenings) have consisted of.

Reading- Lots of articles on puppy care tips and grooming tips! I don't think I've ever done so much research on an animal before!

Drinking- Coffee, coffee, coffee. But also, I've been doing better with drinking water :) I also had my first peppermint mocha of the season! I'm definitely more of a peppermint mocha kinda girl, than a psl one ;)

Listening- To the Ultimate Christmas Playlist on Spotify! It really helps get the juices flowing for Christmas card designs!

Loving- Cinnamon-Vanilla popcorn, my own recipe! Also, this China Glaze nail polish in Ravishing Darling that I bought at Sally Beauty Supply, and this perfect fall sweater from Maurices!

Phew! This month has been a busy one!

We kicked it off by going out of town for Labor Day weekend to see our friends and family in Oregon, we came home and work got crazy, we had to gear up to plant our back lawn, we celebrated and went out of town for our seven (!) year anniversary, and then came back and planted said lawn!

I have such a hard time getting back on schedule when I've been going so much, and I'm trying to get back into my routine.

And on top of that, I have a list of projects and to-dos ten miles long! However, most of it is really exciting stuff that I will be sharing in the weeks to come :)

So for today, I will just give you a little update, first and foremost on our yard!

Here is what it looked like a few weeks after we moved in, by the time we were able to give it any sort of attention! After pulling so many weeds, and mowing it all down, we realized there was almost no grass in it. It became clear very quickly that we were going to need to replant it this year, so we've been working on it a ton for the last month.

Can you see Dane in there picking weeds somewhere?? Haha!

And here is it now! Granted, there was an in between when we were mowing everything down, but bare dirt still seems like an improvement over that. Now grass seed is down, and as long as I can keep from killing it, we will have a decent lawn to enjoy next summer :D


We are so excited, and it's a pretty big item off the to-do list for the house.

Now, on to the rest of what I've been up to the last few weeks!

Reading- A knitting pattern! I know, technically that's not really the same as reading a book, but I'm still pretty excited about it, and I can't wait to share what I'm making with you all! Although, if you follow me on Instagram, you already know what it is. If you don't follow me on Instagram, why not?? ;)

Drinking- Too much coffee again, and cherry-lime La Croix!

Listening- To this cover of Bad Blood by Megan Davies. It's so pretty that I decided I had to learn it. I've never really gotten the hang of finger picking on the guitar, but I think I finally got this one down!

Loving- That the first day of fall is tomorrow!! Whoop! And I bought some pretty new plaid scarves to get me through my most favorite season, and they are so cozy it's ridiculous. Also, I busted out my fall decor yesterday! It's a good week for Amy ;)

I'll be back later this week to share some of our anniversary pictures with you, and fill you in on some of the exciting things coming up!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy (almost) fall to y'all!

This afternoon, you may have noticed that the blog looks a little different!

I was so tired of how it looked, and I've been in the process of re-desgning my logo and brand all summer. With other projects, house renovations, and work, it's been a slow one! So, I decided to go ahead and make some of the changes now that were a little easier to do, and when I do get my new logo done,  I will update my header here on the blog :)

Also, I made my August recipe of the month last week, as part of my 26 before 26 list! So I should be sharing that later this week. It was a good one!


Reading- About some of the cutest little doggies over at Wit & Whistle, and highlights from the NYNOW Stationary Show over at Oh So Beautiful Paper! Such great inspiration :)

Drinking- Water! So, so much water!

Listening- Nothing really this week. I keep thinking I should put on A Fine Frenzy though! Her music always makes me think of fall :)

Loving- This sweater from Target! I've been (over) wearing it so much lately, but it's definitely my new favorite! I bought it in green, but they have it in several colors and I want to go buy another one. Also, the fact that we started tilling up our backyard this week! We should get to plant in a couple of weeks, which will be super awesome! It's been a weed patch all summer, and having actual grass will be nice.

The last couple weeks have been a blur of slump-y-ness for me. (Yes, I know that's not a real word, haha!)

Every afternoon it seems I am sluggish and tired. I've been getting head aches, and just feeling blah.
I decided that it's because I'm in almost the worst shape of my life! It's been years since I have been this inactive, and it's taking it's toll.

With so much going on with the house and work, I've been too busy to make too much of an effort in the working out department. So, I'm making it a goal to start walking more, and utilizing my gym membership (oops!).

But, my gym doesn't offer one thing that I really used to love doing, and that's yoga!

I got started with a very cool yoga program on Youtube from Yoga with Adriene a few months ago (recommended by my awesome s-i-l Emily! Hi Emily!), and then life got busy. So I have just started back in and it is just the boost I needed!

So now when I get into my afternoon slump, I just get in my yoga session and I feel much better!

She has a Thirty Days of Yoga program that is a great place to start for anyone wanting to get into it as well :)

I also decided to give a leeetle bit more structure to these afternoon session posts of mine, like I used to back in the day, so here goes!


Reading- Lots of blog posts! (That's all I read these days ;) ) Gorgeous floral sketches from Shannon Kirsten, Emma Chapman's house buying story over at A Beautiful Mess (which I totally understand, since we just went through the whole process ourselves!) and all things branding related from Elle & Co. Also, I can't forget to shout out to my friend Toni and her new blog, Home Sweetly Home! She posts a lot of great recipes and tips (plus beautiful pictures of her house!) so you should definitely check it out!

Drinking- Iced lattes. Yum! And La Croix, to try to break my diet soda habit!

Listening- To Lullatone. I heard of them from Amanda at Wit & Whistle (she uses their songs in her videos!), and they are so relaxing!

Loving- That the weather is cooling down. Fall is on it's way, I can feel it! I've already been busting out my sweaters! Also, those little succulents pictured above that I bought for my kitchen! I may move some of them to my office, but until it's a little more organized, they'll stay put. And can I let you in on a dirty little secret?.....They're fake! I bought them at hobby lobby because, you know, brown thumb and all.

What have your afternoons consisted of lately? Do you ever get into slumps, and what do you do to perk yourself up? Let me know! I'd love to hear :)

Thanks for stopping by!

No this isn't a post about brushing your teeth, but that's what I thought of as soon as I wrote that post title! This afternoon session focus is on brush lettering!

This week I've been practicing a lot with my water colors and trying to get a handle on this whole brush letter thing. I just love the look of it, and I've been wanting to incorporate it a lot more into some of my new designs

I feel like I am making some progress, and it's feeling more natural all the time! I'm by no means anywhere close to where I want to be though, so more practice, here I come.

I think I'm going to need more paper though...

Here's a few shots of my progress (some of you may have seen some of them on instagram!).




I'm having a lot of fun with this, and hopefully I will be adding some new stuff to the shop soon!

I'm also gearing up for tomorrow night. We're going to be seeing Brandi Carlile and Iron and Wine in concert! Brandi has been one of my favorites for a long time, and this will be the fourth time I've seen her in concert. Plus, she has a penchant for touring with some of Dane's favorite singers (a few years ago we saw her with Ray LaMontagne) and he has been wanting to see I&W for a long time.

It's the first concert of the summer for us, and we're pretty excited!

Now I have to go, because this afternoon also includes my oven getting repaired. I've been without it for two and a half weeks, and I'm so ready to have it fixed!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a while since I've been able to totally decorate a room from scratch, so I'm pretty excited!

That's all I'm up to this afternoon, how about you? Anything fun, new, or exciting taking up your afternoons currently? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!