𓂃˖˳·˖ ִֶָ ⋆Snazzy Haircuts & A Drawing Class⋆ ִֶָ˖·˳˖𓂃 ִֶָ

Hi, friends! And welcome to August. I’m not entirely sure where the summer ran off to but I’m NOT AT ALL ready for the school year to start back up. COME ON, LAST A LITTLE LONGER, SUMMER!! Let’s make the most of it! We still do have a few more plans before school starts including celebrating my daughter’s 11th birthday next weekend (HOW?! .·°՞(ᗒ□ᗕ)՞°·., camping at the Renaissance Faire, and a monster truck show in Grand Rapids! I put my yard project, where I was going to transform a corner of our yard into a hammock hang out, on hold. I’d say it is because it’s been too hot but honestly… I have just not been wanting to do hard yard work. I am going to hopefully find some new-found ambition in the fall for that. We also still have our insane renovations happening upstairs in which the whole kitchen/living space/bedrooms will be getting work done. It is a SLOW process and at this point, we wish we could hire someone to just get us moving on it again. (A small side note for anyone new around here: My husband is a licensed contractor and works full time. It’s hard to go to work and then come home to work some more… BUT I’m also like… you tore up my house so put it back together, mkay?! I DO know it will look FABULOUS when it is completed. I will continue to be patient.

Did y’all watch Shark Week 2026?! Of COURSE you did! I felt like this year was really great up until about Thursday which is when they started airing “My Strange Shark Addiction” and also a professional cliff diver, sponsored by Red Bull, jumping into a shark cage from a helicopter… I mean, that’s bad ass. And that girl was adorable as hell. But WHAT?! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜ They also had “what shark attacked” which was a show that used “evidence” to decide what shark bit its (filming) victim… That’s just dumb. I’m not a shark expert and I knew which shark bit each person. BUT I REALLY loved the episodes where they talked about prehistoric sharks and had their fabulous computer renderings of them. I also really liked the hunt for fossils that had proof of shark predation. How about when Dr. Craig O’Connell caught the pelagic thresher shark’s tail whip on camera?! Fucking legendary. I always get really sad when #sharkweek is over… and my family is thankful they can have the TV back.

This week I taught a youth art class in which we drew sunflowers in pencil, added dimensions to them with shading in ballpoint pen, and then we paint with acrylic on top for the color. The kids did really well, and I love seeing all the different interpretations. Teaching kids drawing can get a little tricky because there are some students that are SUPER in to it and take their whole time and really want to get it right. And then there are some that finish their assignment extremely quick and then go and draw something on their paper that they are more comfortable with. I’ve talked with the director at the Arts Council and I’m going to look into getting certified so I can actually host home-schooled kids at my house to do art lessons! How cool would that be?! Now, I REALLY want our renovation moving forward. >ᴗ<

Photo Captions- Cover Photo: My hydrangea blooming, I had no idea they had tiny flowers on their center! Cute. Photo 1: My baby girl at my drawing class. Photo 2 & 3: Both my beautiful girls got their haircuts this week and feel SO confident, love it!!! Photo 4: “It hurt but… You’ve grown.” framed and ready for its exhibition… (Fingers crossed!) Photo 5: Jovi snuggling Cheddar Bob, the cutest most wholesome thing. Photo 6: I loved this license plate, lolololol! Same. Photo 7: I finally found a monarch butterfly egg!!! It took me forever, but I finally found one!! It hatched and now we have a tiny little caterpillar!! I currently still have 5 chrysalids and 2 caterpillars and have released 14 butterflies!

Another art announcement: I created another piece for my “Retrospective Infringement” series from ANOTHER series called “Knack-Romancy” that was created in 2020. This piece is for the newest Arts Council of White Lake exhibition called “Visual Language” and I’m hoping that this piece titled “It hurt but… you’ve grown.” will be accepted. “It hurt but… you’ve grown.” is of a cicada emerging from its husk. It is literal but also representative of the struggles we go through, and though our tribulations can be difficult and life-altering, we can emerge from them better than we were before. So, I now have 3 of my babies that are out in the world… waiting to be seen… waiting for their chance to shine. And I have to sit here and worry about if I’ll ever feel good enough to be a “real artist”. Lord help me. Anyway, I hope y’all take good care of yourselves. Next week, I will have an ELEVEN YEAR OLD BABY GIRL -`♡´- I can’t believe it!!!

xxx- Kanda ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧