a hike to twin falls & the studio is shaping up ✦ photo diaries

Hi y'all!! Long time no photo diaries~~ so I hope you enjoy this little collection! I've been at the studio every day this week, slowly shaping up the spot, and it's turning into a space I'm really enjoying. Now the tricky part is figuring out how to split up my "computer" duties between the two spaces...there are certain things that are Easier to do on my Macbook cause of the iOS synergy, but my home computer set-up is infinitely better to sit at for long editing hours and stuff. HMMMM.

Also been doing a lot of journaling, trying to figure out how I wanna finesse my "content"...I want to do everything, because I am 1) a workaholic and 2) have ADHD, but unfortunately, as the record shows, I can't actually do everything!! So I'm having to reluctantly cut certain stuff from my ~content creation rotation~ and it really really breaks my heart....for instance, if I want to make YouTube videos more than once in a blue moon, I can't stream regularly on Twitch. :( I'm not sure why, but for the flavor of streams and videos I do, one doesn't always feed so easily into the other, like it might for other streamers, who make more "content" (I'm thinking specifically of the Genshin streamers I love, but I also know they have teams of editors helping them crank stuff out.) I keep thinking I can do both, but my brain simply doesn't have the space for it, and I have to accept that. I'm thinking that on the days where I'm making crochet stuff to sell for the shop, it could work out to stream while I work on shop product, but again, my studio space just feels so much better for drawing, cause the desk is SOOOOO big and there's no keyboards or monitors or risers getting in my way, it's so nice ;o;

Me and Ares went on a lovely hike to Twin Falls!! Ares recently rearranged his work schedule to cram all 40 hours into M-Th, so now he has every Friday off, so we're trying to start going on monthly or bi-weekly hikes!! He and I are both Gamers and also love being inside, but we do know how good the outdoors is for us, and we do genuinely enjoy it, and WA is just so full-up with gorgeous sights that I've yet to see (I still have never been to Mt. Rainier -- can you believe it???) I brought along my lil Canon Powershot which was very fun heheh and I got soOOOO many beautiful photos that I want to use as reference photos!! Trying to lean more into my fairy era, so I want to use a lot of these for little fairy village references. There were so many tiny streams that disappeared into the foliage, and all I could think of was the tiny towns that lay just out of sight~

I got my first pothos for the studio! It's just got the one north-facing window, and the nursery employee said that that would be perfect, as they like medium indirect light. Easy!! I didn't buy a pothos before this, cause they're not cat-friendly, but I think I'm gonna get a second pothos for my home today, and just keep it tucked up on the mantle so the girls can't get to it. If it starts getting REALLY long, I'll move it to the top of my display cabinet lol.

I also wanted to get another low-ish light plant for my new entry way table, as well as a big ZZ plant to keep in my living room, next to my TV! I'm realizing what a wonder plants do for the vibe of a space. I'm making sure to get all easy-care plants, as I almost killed off my peperomia back when I first got it cause I underestimated the amount of sun it needed...it's very fun to learn how plants communicate their needs! I have a spider plant that sits on the far side from one of my south facing windows, and I feared it wasn't getting enough light, as the ends of some of the leaves were browning, but there's new growth coming out the top! So I think it's doing alright. I also finally potted some cactus cuttings my Texas friend Souther sent me from Houston -- I had them in little jars of water on my windowsill for a couple weeks, until the roots were a good few inches long, and then threw them in some soil. I've never had cacti before, so we'll see if these guys actually grow into anything. I presume cacti usually need pretty bright sunlight, yes?

I found this tiny frame amongst my art stuff, and decided to fashion it into a little wi-fi info frame for the studio heheh. Doubt I'll have many guests coming to and fro, but it's always good info to have readily available! Also finally got around to cleaning my Sugarhouse Ceramic Co paint palettes that have been in desperate need of it for a WHILE

Pepper has been SOOOO cuddly lately -- if I am home, and if it's the afternoon when she's awake, she is on my lap within minutes of me sitting down. I am very very lucky to have such an affectionate cat, but boy oh boy does it get in the way of my work heh. I miss them real bad when I'm at the studio, but it's nice to not have them walking back and forth across my desk while I'm trying to draw lol. Now if I could just get Pepper to not endanger herself by trying to rub her head on my sewing machine or rotary cutter...

Sophie has also begun her summer routine of "becoming a void in the bathtub to stay cool" which is just SOOO very precious and makes me all weepy ToT she's doing good! she's her usual sleepy, shadow-y following-me-everywhere-while-she's-awake self. <3 She just finished another round of antibiotics for some bad poops, but I'm gonna start giving her a probiotic twice a day and see what that does for her. Her thyroid levels went up a little bit again, so her dosage has gone up a bit for her methimazole, and I make sure to clean her ears now before administering it. The transdermal gel can be a bit tricky, but I don't want to switch back to the oral and wreck her sensitive little tummy.

I finished this little free-hand hand-dyed cotton tank top just the other night, and it's...fine? I wish I had made it a little tighter, and a couple inches longer, so I might hand it off to one of my shorter torso-ed friends. To be fair, it did teach me quite a bit about garment construction, so now if I ever want to freehand a top like this again, or make adjustments to a pattern, I've got a much better idea of how it'll turn out.

Pepper has now emerged from wherever she was napping and is currently doing circles on my desk and pushing her face into mine so I gotta go and tend to her heh. I need to leave for the studio here shortly so I'll have to apologize to her with lots of kisses. <333

Love y'all! hope you're well, happy Thursday xx