My therapist would have a field day with this one.

Typing this feels a little like hitting “send” on a risky text - equal parts thrilling and terrifying.

*taps send anyway*

I’ve officially chosen the launch date for my newest paintings.

Here’s the thing: commitment terrifies me. I always want all the answers before I can say yes. Probably just perfectionism wearing a commitment-issue costume, but I’ll let a therapist unpack that one.

Case in point: when I bought my artificial Christmas tree, I made a spreadsheet - yes, an actual spreadsheet - with side-by-side comparisons of fullness, branch texture, and light bulb density. 

Pic or it didn’t happen:

Seven years later? Zero regrets on my decision (psst it was this tree but it definitely wasn’t $700 at the time, *screams in inflation*). If you ever need a spreadsheet for literally anything, I’ve probably got one.  Including vacation planning spreadsheets.

So when it comes to picking an art launch date, my brain immediately turns into some sort of math SAT question: “Ideal launch date, divided by family illnesses, plus birthday parties, minus school closures, square root of the hours of sleep required.” If only math problems had been this relatable in high school…

I’m fighting through my commitment-phobia, and here it is:

New art is launching...
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21 at 5:30 a.m. CST

Why so early in the morning? Because that’s literally the only uninterrupted half-hour I get in a day (and even then it's not guaranteed), and early birds deserve a smooth website update for these new pieces.

And here’s the best part: this will be my BIGGEST sale of the year - yep, even bigger than Black Friday. Consider it your golden ticket to snag gifts (and, let’s be honest, something for yourself) at their absolute best price. There will be a Black Friday sale, but spoiler: it won’t be this good.

Inside My Studio

What’s officially landing on October 21? Try:

• 3 sports
• 2 dinosaurs
• 1 space (for now)
• 2 butterflies/flowers

…basically, a greatest-hits playlist of requests you’ve been asking for this past year.

Color lovers, rejoice! The moody grays and greens are sticking around, but I’ve punched up the blues, turned the pinks from dusty to bold, and added two new colorways: a rich purple and a crisp black-and-white ink version.

My goal is that you visit my shop, mix and match any prints, and know exactly what colors will jive together.

Have a shade you’ve been dreaming about? Hit reply and tell me—I’m still in edit-mode this week and I love hearing what would make your wall sing.

On the biz side, I’m knee-deep in batch-loading files, print orders, Pinterest, Instagram… basically playing Tetris with my to-do list. 

If you caught my recent Insta stories and posts, you saw the whole saga of me uploading about 75 things at once and nearly breaking the scheduler. Worth it to appease my batch-working tendencies.

My 2025 word of the year is “action” so here we go! New art prints launching October 21, 2025!

What I'm Cooking

It’s still a thousand degrees here in Houston, but fall sniffles don’t care. Whenever someone starts sneezing, I pull out my secret weapon: freezer-friendly chicken and dumplings.

From-the-freezer chicken and dumplings: very “measure from the heart”:

• Sauté chopped celery, onion, carrots (2 : 1.5 : 1.5 ratio-ish, with a clove or two of garlic for good measure).
• Add rotisserie chicken (leftover from the freezer, sautéed, or store-bought—thank you, Costco).
• Pour in chicken stock until it looks “soupy.” (Yes, that’s the technical term.) Insert “store-bought is fine” Ina Garten.  I usually have a backstock of homemade broth in the freezer, see notes*.
• Make dumplings, simmer, and boom—comfort in a bowl.

Or, if you’re me after school pickup on a 97-degree September day? Skip the extra heat from the stove and grab tortilla soup from your nearest Mexican spot.

I’m also still working my way through Pinch of Yum’s fall meal plan. Tiny flaw in the system: she’s in the Midwest, where soup in September makes sense when you're healthy. Here? I’m still sweating through linen like it’s Survivor: Houston edition. I’m saving those soups for when the thermostat decides to chill.

I’m subbing out her soups for stroganoff, these tacos which also include how to make fauxtiserie chicken, or this salad which will actually be eaten by my small child.

Peek my printed recipe stash and my week's contribution to the no waste freezer stock.

*no-waste freezer stock:

• Keep a bag of veggie scraps in your freezer.  Any time you chop off the end of an onion, peel a carrot, or cut the tops off celery, stash them in this bag.  It's not *aesthetic* but it turns food scraps into delicious stock!
• When the bag is full, add some chicken bones from a time you made dutch oven chicken (I also store these bones in a separate bag in the freezer if my veggie scrap bag isn't yet full).
• Cover with water and add 2-3 tsp of salt. Instant pot for 1.5 hours (my fav method), or simmer for 2ish hours on the stove.  
• Store in containers in the freezer!  

Creative Sparks

If you loved the Farrow & Ball-obsessed house account I shared last time, prepare yourself: Framebridge is about to drop an entire line of Farrow & Ball colored frames. Cue my color maximalist happy dance.

Imagine one of my bright new butterfly prints inside a rich, moody frame. Yes please.

Also by the time you're reading this, I'll be gearing up for an online painting week!  I've got all my supplies gathered and I'm so excited to try something new, likely making many joyous mistakes.

What I'm Reading

Fellow romance readers: drop everything. Ali Hazelwood just released a novella and I immediately hit download faster than you can say “only one bed.” I may or may not have toggled airplane mode on my kindle just to hoard some other library books before my loans expired. (Library hack, don’t judge.)

She’s one of my all-time faves, and this was the best surprise. On deck after that? Still plugging through The Artist’s Way, maybe a Julie Soto book, and then I’m counting down to the fall release stack.

Coming Up...

Somehow, October is basically here. In the next two weeks I’ll be finishing edits, processing files, copyrighting, and—most importantly—setting up your special subscriber coupon code for October.

Mark your calendar for October 21 at 5:30 a.m. The art is fresh, the colors are bold, and the deals are the best you’ll see all year.

<3

Katie