kate

@TimurNegru Could have won $24 like us 😂

I predicted that Spain will go on and win it after their first game when they played dirt. I should’ve put a bet on it 🇪🇸

Joan Didion, every day is all there is

My parents were throwing a party. I was 10 years old, hiding behind the couch, listening to the adult conversations and reading Gone With the Wind. I got caught because Rhett and Scarlett made me giggle.

A round-shaped interior doorway with an art nouveau design from the 1930’s.

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

protecting my whimsy all 2026 <3

Wait….

@EllaLillyy Oh shoot, puffin pottery, I’m a goner. Those are so stinking cute!

I have been experimenting with new glazes. Very pleased with how these have come out 🐧 I will be at Aberdeen Ceramics Studio this weekend for our annual Christmas market 🎄

Malta had these all over the place, it was so pretty!

The highs and lows of writing my family history are insane. I have added two centuries of European lineage to what we previously knew. I have given a name to the woman only known as “wife” of my ancestor who came to America on a ship in 1750. I despaired at figuring out the branches of the family from my great-great-great-great uncle’s writings from 1911. I figured that out. And I’ve just spent two hours on two paragraphs trying to explain the lineages with clarity and verve. It is so difficult. It will be worth it.

@KJP Paint Merry Christmas using the flag letters and change the tint of the flags so it’s more festive! That way it’s still nautical and still in the holiday spirit 🎄

Okay, friends 🇺🇸 I need your help. Should we keep our nautical flags flying for Christmas season, or switch them over to hand-painted ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ on canvas flags?🎄🚩 I love both… and before I spend a weekend painting these by hand, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think. What’s the move: classic nautical or festive Christmas?”

I have this vague, beautiful moment of a memory from when I was really young. My parents took us to a barn and it was hot outside, the sun made the dust sparkle in the air, and they had what seemed like a hundred different flavored honey sticks to try. It smelled like hot honeycomb and I could almost taste the sugar in the air. Beeswax and honey have never measured up to this memory, until I got my Humming Meadow candles last week. Buy them. Be transported to a purer time.

The Book Boat Women of the Mississippi 1904 In 1904, when river towns along the Mississippi had little access to schools or libraries, a small group of women brought knowledge to the water. They were known as the Book Boat Women educators, widows, and dreamers who turned old barges into floating libraries that drifted from town to town, delivering books, newspapers, and hope to riverside families. One of them, Eleanor Finch, a former schoolteacher from Iowa, spent her savings on a decommissioned cargo barge. She and two friends painted it white, filled it with donated books, and christened it The Knowledge Belle. They loaded it with shelves, kerosene lamps, and a hand-cranked printing press that produced small pamphlets of local poetry and news. As the Book Boat drifted downstream, children would run to the shore, shouting, "The library’s here!" Farmers traded apples, quilts, or cornmeal for borrowed books. In a time when literacy was rare in rural America, the women taught reading lessons right on deck often by lantern light as river fog curled around the hull. During one harsh winter, when the river froze, Eleanor refused to stop. She walked miles across icy banks carrying sacks of books on her back, ensuring no child missed their reading. "The river", she said, "only sleeps. The stories do not". By the 1910s, their floating library inspired copycat boats in Minnesota and Illinois, spreading learning through the heartland. The Book Boat Women proved that education could travel even on restless waters.

Agreed! No purer love than my mom telling me she’s saving the soup bones for me to make the family soup over our Christmas visit. Only condition is I have to make it at her house so it smells good there and she gets to control the soup distribution 😂

I have spent two days ignoring the blank page of Chapter 1. Within 20 minutes of laying out in the sun today, I know where to start.

I had a massive breakthrough tonight in my family research and I was so excited I started crying and then I walked outside and saw three shooting stars. So today was a great day 💫

@theNOBSdentist Fun acedote - I put together a Practically Luxurious travel basket for a donate to a nonprofit silent auction and included a jar of nobs. We’re out here spreading the good word.

NOBS is on a mission to prevent (gum) recession, provide free (plus money) oral hygiene for all, and foster (smile) growth in all sectors.

@OldHollowTree You should gather the top customer product photos and run a contest for the best one. Winner gets the first bottle of next year’s honey.

I somehow overlooked this one and it’s awesome. 🎃

At a Halloween party in LA this weekend, two different people commented on my Midwestern accent. I was delighted! And also confused because I didn’t think I had an accent? It’s not like my friend from the east coast who makes “water” sound like a whole different word. Anyways, it’s fun finding out you have an accent at 35 years old 🙃