Happy May! It has been such a full season with work and life and things are just starting to slow down. Summers in Colorado are my absolute favorite. We’ve been traveling a lot but I purposely try not to leave during these months because everything here is a dream and there is no place I’d rather be. The park in South Denver where I walk Wilson everyday is so green and I love seeing people outside 24/7.
Things I’m loving lately:
- Ghia- I haven’t drank alcohol since September 2024 because I started doing paleo and just didn’t stop. I am surprised how much I don’t miss it. Besides the other day at a baseball game when I really wanted a Summer Shandy. Ghia is delicious and the packaging design is amazing, always a plus. My other go to is a Paloma mocktail - grapefruit juice, lime sparkling water, honey, and a Tajin rim.
- David Hockney art books. Hockney’s style is so different from mine but I’m so inspired by the free movement in his brushstrokes and the colors he uses.
- Ilia makeup, especially their highlighter.
- Green striped outdoor pillows on a patio. Don’t have a link for our exact pillows but loving these.
- Melamine plates that are a work of art, affordable, and elevate hosting but also make clean up so easy.
- Le Bon Shoppe socks. Obviously. I struggle pulling off the ankle socks with shorts look, but these are my go to’s with pants.
- Apple AirPod max- Aj and I got these in April and they’ve changed the travel game for me. They’re worth the hype.
- Pink wine glasses- because it’s fun to be a girl and drink out of pretty glassware.
- Evolve Together hand lotion- the best scent in the world. I was gifted this by Four Hands around the holidays and I keep restocking it. It smells very similar to Ragdoll perfume if you’re already a fan of that.
- Favorite Daughter sweatshirt- anyone who knows me knows I’ve been obsessed with Erin and Sarah Foster, the founders of Favorite Daughter, for years. I have listened to their podcast since its earliest days and my sister and I debrief the episodes on the phone in the car. They’re hilarious and I’m so inspired of what they’ve built together—they’re so business savvy, hard working, and creative. If you saw the show Nobody Wants This and didn’t already know this- the show written by Erin and inspired by their lives.
- My new Sezane embroidered initial red t-shirt that my sister gifted me. She called me one day and said she was putting in an order for matching sister shirts and asked what color I wanted. She’s a dream.
In the studio:
I was talking to someone recently about how sometimes we romanticize how much we’d get done if pulling all nighters in this stage of life were still a thing. Thank God they’re not. But when am I supposed to get all of my ideas out on paper? I have a note in my phone full of ideas and dream collaborations that is bursting at the seams.
I’ve been busy working on a few custom commissions the last couple months. I love working with people and hearing their stories and the meaning behind custom pieces. One of the landscapes I’m working on now is centered around the peaks and valleys of my client’s life and I am obsessed with how it’s coming together. I have a weekend membership at my studio downtown and try to go there on Sundays after church. It’s so much easier to get myself there in the summer, there are big garage doors that bring in so much natural light and gardens outside.
Next month I’m starting to work on a fog collection, a whole line of paintings that are variations of my best sellers, Fog I and II. I remember being so surprised at first a couple years ago when I launched these that so many people resonated with the darker, moodier tones in these pieces but now I see it makes sense with the long-standing trend of rich, deep, warm earth tones.
Life things:
A couple weeks ago my sister called and told me she was going to be a guest on the Kelly Clarkson show. My sister has been my best friend since we were little, and we honestly have never had a phase where we weren’t close. She is four years older but basically my twin /piece of myself living on the other side of the country in Charleston. She and her husband renovate historic homes and commercial spaces and went viral a couple years ago for their work on a dilapidated laundry mat that has now become a beautifully designed, thriving community hub. It’s been so special to see these skills I’ve always seen, admired, and looked up to in my sister coming out into the light for the world to appreciate. I couldn’t be more proud. So when she told us about the show, of course my husband and I jumped on a plane and sat in the studio audience. The show surprised them with a $10,000 check to go towards their community events and free laundry days and I teared up watching them receive it. It was such an incredible experience.
