Life Lately

I always feel like I need to start a post after a long hiatus with “life has been crazy busy!”, but that would be a lie. It’s been busy, yes, but I’ve also been super lazy and spending a little too much time on the couch downstairs. But I’ve also been making a lot of changes around here that I’m excited for!

-The last three weekends in a row, I’ve been down in the LA area helping out with my old bosses estate sale. In those three weeks we’ve sold less than half of their stuff, that’s how much there is! I let them know on Monday that I couldn’t help out anymore, it was just becoming too much driving down there every single week and spending most of the money I made on gas. I honestly did it to help, not for the money, but it’s just gotten exhausting and I need to focus on my design work first and foremost.

-Now that Kintage is almost done with, I have more time and it’s very flexible so I’ve been spending a lot of my time volunteering with Marley’s Mutts. I cannot express how happy this makes me, not only to be helping out, but to be able to interact with so many wonderful dogs & people! I never really had friends in the area, but now I feel like I do. How sappy.

-Speaking of mutts, I’ve been making an effort to take my own 4 pups on a walk several times a week. The goal is daily, but since there are 4 of them I have to take 2 walks everyday which can be hard. One long walk for Mila & Eintstein (1-3 miles), plus one short walk for Roxy & Ralph (1/2 mile, generally). I bought some Gentle Leader Head Collars (I call them face collars) for Mila & Einstein because they are pullers and it drives me nuts. They should be delivered today so I’m excited to try them and crossing my fingers that it’ll decrease the pulling.

-Speaking of mutts, part two. Since we’re a 4 dog household taking them to the groomer is like a $150 ordeal. I recently decided to try out the self-bathe dog wash in town and I’m nerdily (not a word) excited about it. I’m going to try it out with Einstein today because dude, he’s still shedding a ton even though summer is over. The plan is to take a dog every other week so everyone gets bathed every other month. Yay for clean dog snuggles and getting some one on one bonding time with them!

-Design work has been basically flooding in and I am so thankful!! I’ve been having the itch to redesign my blog & design website, but haven’t had the inspiration on what I’d like to do yet. I think I’ve kept this design longer than any other in the past, though there have been a few little tweaks here and there.

-I also bought a Wacom Bamboo Create Tablet on eBay and am excited to try that out when it gets here. I’ve always used photoshop and I’m starting to learn Illustrator which is a bit frustrating since it’s all so new to me, but I think being able to actually draw with a pen and not a mouse will be fun and I can’t wait to play around with it. I am by no means an illustrator, but if I can handwrite text for designs and do simple sketches I’ll be happy!

-The weather. I am so excited that it’s cooling off. For the first time, basically ever, I’m excited to get some fall decor up. Last year I decorated for Halloween the day before. I think over the next few weeks I’ll get to crafting and doing a little, minimalistic, decorating. I never liked holiday decor because I hate the thought of something sitting in the garage all year taking up space. But I’m kind of leaning towards maybe having one box for Fall/Halloween, Winter/Christmas & Spring/Summer. That’s just 3 boxes. I can probably deal with that despite my clutter-phobia.

You’re welcome for the most rambling post ever! What have you been up to lately?