This is my seventh summer in my current garden. It’s a bit hard for me to believe it’s been that long already. I’ll have to do a general post about creating this garden, but today I want to talk about roses.

This week is National Pollinator Week, its purpose to celebrate pollinators and bring awareness to how important it is to protect them. I spent a little time reading a bit more about pollinators (there are many more species of pollinators than just bees!) and paying attention to all the visitors in my garden these last few days.

I’m delighted to be sharing another Sips of Inspiration interview with you today. This month’s conversation is with Ishrat Khawja. Ishrat hand-dyes beautiful yarns in her home in the UK.

These are my favorite days, dividing my time between my studio and my garden.

I’ve been unplugging as much as possible. And it feels good to be so focused. I’ve fallen in love, again, with my art. There’s so much to paint! Some flowers come and go in the blink of an eye.

I struggled all week with what to write to my Joy Letter subscribers, as I usually send my notes at the beginning of the month.

I’ve also been struggling with what to write to you, dear blog reader.

Hello, my friend. How are you? Are you hanging in there.

I had a rough week. I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m healthy. My family is healthy. My business is doing fine. Matthias’ business is doing fine.

And yet…

May is steadily marching by and spring is unfurling a little bit more each day. The nest of baby grackles in the bushes behind our fence has already been vacated. And yet I’m impatient with spring’s progression this year. Maybe every year. But this year, especially so. Mostly I just want nice weather. Sunshine and warm air so I can walk barefoot in the garden and plunge my hands into the soil.

It’s been a month since I shared my chat with Melanie April. What a month it’s been. In some ways it feels like that time has flown by and in others it feels like much more than a month has passed since then.

Regardless of the strangeness of time, I’m delighted to be sharing another Sips of Inspiration interview today. This month’s conversation is with Ruby Josephine Smith, a dancer, choreographer, podcast host…

One of the things I love most about making and sharing art is forging connections around the beauty and joys of flowers. Over and over again my customers have shared their personal stories of certain plants or flowers.

Back in December I chose “DO” as my word for the year. Lately I’ve been thinking about that choice. Wondering if it’s a bit ironic. Wondering how I feel about it now. Wondering if I should choose another word for the rest of the year.

Right now I don’t have the energy or the brain space to write the post I wanted to for today. So I’ll just check in with you. See how you’re doing. Tell you I’m doing fine. Send some words of encouragement your way.

I’m back with another interview, the second in my monthly Sips of Inspiration series.

Today I’m chatting with Melanie April Houten.

How are you holding up? What a week it’s been over here. You, too?

My feelings are up and down. My energy is up and down. I’m giving myself leeway and taking things one day (sometimes one moment) at a time. It’s all we can do, I think.

Escaping into the world of a book always seems to help.

How are you doing? I hope you’re staying well. Hanging in there. Navigating your way through these days. Noticing joy.

Last week I invited you to share your story and I’m inviting you again this week. Share your thoughts, feelings, anything you want to chat about.

Hello, my friend. How are you doing? Are you hanging in there? Are you riding the rollercoaster of ups and downs that it seems so many of us are feeling?

This is a difficult time and it’s ok if you’re struggling. Let’s all resolve to go a bit easy on ourselves. To allow our feelings. To do what we need to do in this moment.

A couple weeks ago I announced I would be interviewing artists in a new monthly series. And today I’ve released the first installment!

Last month I wrote about taking a social media break. I looked back over my time on Instagram and also touched on the way blogging has changed over the years. I want to spend a bit more time considering blogs and blogging, giving the topic its own post (I’ve written about blogging before and will most likely write about it again).

I am so excited to finally be sharing a project I’ve been working on for a while. First in the dreaming stage, more recently in the DOing stage.

And today with an official announcement.

I’ve been thinking about failure. About journeys. Curiosity. Ebbs and flows. Changes.

We’re constantly in a state of change. Sometimes the change is so slow, so gradual, we don’t notice. Other times we’re faced with bigger changes. Or decisions we have to make which will lead to change.

Over the years I’ve fallen in love with sketchbooks, but it took me a while. I’ve shared before about how even after I started making art I felt intimidated by them. The biggest reason behind my fear was an idea that what appeared on the pages needed to look a certain way. Prioritizing product over process is a great way to stifle your creativity in all art, but especially within the pages of your sketchbook.