Summer Art Projects, Party Snacks, and My Favorite Book-as-Food Ratings

Hi friend,

Now that the ABC 123 collection is officially live—and the subscribers only sale ends tonight!—I’ve been turning my attention to a few fresh updates behind the scenes, and I’m excited to share them with you.

✨ First up: have you noticed the website refresh? I also gave my logo a little glow-up. It felt like the right time to shift from the logo that symbolized my milestone illustrations and custom work to something that feels more me—my personal signature—reflecting the heart behind my art prints and illustrated collections.

📬 I also created a brand new Studio Vibes archive, so you can now revisit past newsletters, drop a comment, or bookmark a favorite post for later. Come check it out [right here]!

🎥 And for those of you following along with the Culinary Canvas series, I’m working on adding written shownotes for each video. The full supply list is already up (so you can gather your materials stress-free), and the rest are coming soon! You can binge all the episodes over on [YouTube], but I wanted to offer a written version for those of us who love a good written reference.

 

Inside My Studio

Done is better than perfect.

Easier said than done when you’re a recovering (okay, still very much in progress) perfectionist.

To shake myself out of overthinking, I’ve given myself a very ambitious challenge: to design, print, and hopefully sew a new tablecloth before a girls night dinner party on July 3rd.

The theme? Garden-to-table joy. I have this vision of a pattern sprinkled with perfect little farmers market tomatoes—red and orange, bright and fresh—dancing across the fabric, maybe with an herb runner winding through the middle. It’s still part of a larger garden-inspired series, but I want to let this one lead the way. Even if the design isn’t perfect, it’ll be something real. A start.

And if I don’t love it? I’ll try again. The point is: let’s create anyway.

 

What I'm Cooking

I spy a little product trial for the ABC 123 collection...

 

We recently rented a big house with friends for the weekend—pool, snacks, and zero plans to leave the property. It was a much-needed getaway and a good first long car ride with the three of us. My family’s food duty? Snacks. Here’s what I did and would absolutely repeat for another snack-extravaganza:

Pinch of Yum’s Chicken Meatballs

• Adult sauce: classic buffalo (equal parts butter + hot sauce)
  
• Kid and kid-at-heart  sauce: plain ol’ ketchup

Crudité Platter:

Celery, mini peppers, carrots, cucumbers, radishes, and that Caesar dip from Wishbone Kitchen. It felt like eating a salad but way more fun. Here’s a similar recipe (WK has garlic confit vs raw garlic).

Watermelon with Sumac-Salt “Sprinkles”

This is now a forever summer favorite. Mix ~2/3 sumac with ~1/3 flaky salt, stash it in a shaker jar, and sprinkle over chilled watermelon slices. Bonnie named them “sprinkles” and it stuck. It’s like tajín, but dare I say, better.

And when we got home and real life hit? I had zero desire to meal plan. So I leaned on Pinch of Yum’s weekly plan. I used up leftover crudite veggies, tossed them in her go-to thai basil dressing, and felt like a waste-free genius.

 

Creative Sparks

Instagram friends becoming IRL friends 💫

We made a stop at the Silos on our way to the weekend rental and got to meet the incredibly kind and talented artist Michelle Boyd. Her landscapes and florals are just so dreamy—and she even let Bonnie "help" paint one of her pieces. Moments like this make the online-to-real connection so special.  I picked up a print similar to this piece.

 

What I'm Reading

I have an issue with star ratings. I’d rather compare books to food—because vibes matter more than “literary merit” sometimes.

Twilight? A McDonald’s chicken nugget. Not fine dining, but oddly satisfying to millions.

So yes, I do rate books like I’m describing a dinner menu. Here’s what I’ve been devouring lately:

📖 Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
→ Food rating: a fancy bistro’s deli sandwich. Familiar, comforting, and hits the spot—even if you wish for a few more layers of turkey.

📖 Every Summer After by Carley Fortune (just finished!)
→ Food rating: steak tartare sandwich à la Wishbone Kitchen. Unexpected, emotional, and surprisingly refined.

📖 Currently Reading: Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
→ My post-launch wee treat read. Smart, fun, and unapologetically fluffy. I cannot wait to sink into it.

📖 Up next: Manacled by SenLinYu
→ I tracked down the original version before the publishing house edits out the Harry Potter references.  If you don’t know this one, it became famous on the fanfic circuit as a spin off of Harry Potter…so much so that it’s now being published.  It’ll be my Boston travel read—because yes, I love a good paperback, but sometimes you need a built-in night light and no extra baggage weight.

 

What's Next

Will the tomato tablecloth make its dinner party debut? Will the fabric arrive in time? Will I learn how to sew a straight line?

You’ll be the first to know. I’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday, July 1 with (hopefully) a juicy update—and maybe even a peek at the pattern.

Until then, go sprinkle some sumac salt on your watermelon. Trust me.

xo,
Katie