Little Bits of Charm | No. 5

It feels like summer is fully doing its thing around here: the garden is growing, the temperatures are climbing, and the groundhogs are causing trouble! And believe it or not, I’m still discovering new things that were fried in the power surge. Ha!

Thankfully, it hasn’t all been chaos. There have been flowers, new recipes, little watercolor paintings, and even a very lucky shopping moment. So, let’s catch up on all the little bits of charm from the past couple of weeks.

Summer Garden Update

How about a little mid-summer garden update? I think it’s time.

I have officially concluded that while I love flower gardening, flower gardening does not always love me back. I’m used to dealing with some of the “usuals” such as extreme weather shifts, poor soil, and annoying groundhogs, but now a deer has somehow figured out how to get into my yard and eat a bunch of things.

I’m about two seconds away from setting up a trail cam because I have no idea how it’s getting in. But we carry on!

Dahlias

A little update on the dahlias: To recap, I planted 26 tubers this year. Three never came up, and four are still pretty small, although I haven’t completely given up on them yet. That leaves me with 19 strong plants, which honestly feels pretty good.

A few of them even have buds, so things are moving in the right direction. Fingers crossed we’ll have some flowers soon!

Snapdragons

I somewhat randomly decided to buy a flat of snapdragons this year, and I am SO glad I did because they have been absolute rockstars.

They’re doing incredibly well. They’re nice and tall, which makes them great for cutting, and I ended up with a beautiful variety of colors. I’ve been told they’re a cut-and-come-again flower, so I’ve been happily cutting away, and sure enough, they seem to keep producing more.

I also planted a few snapdragons last year. They were pretty, but much smaller and not particularly useful for cutting. I let them go to seed, and amazingly, a few came back this year. One somehow managed to plant itself in a crack in my stone wall and is growing there quite happily.

Honestly, nature is wild.

Zinnias

We officially have some zinnia blooms, but the plants themselves are going a little wild.

Perhaps I planted too many seeds or should have thinned them out more because they’re really leggy and starting to fall over. I added supports, but I’m not sure if I did this soon enough.

I’m hoping that once I start cutting more blooms, they’ll branch out and sturdy up a bit. We shall see. This whole gardening thing is apparently one giant experiment.

Hollyhocks

The hollyhocks are still struggling along. The rust really did a number on them this year.

I recently saw a post on Instagram from a woman who had an absolute plethora of hollyhocks, some almost twice her height. Naturally, I needed to know all of her secrets. She said the only thing she uses is neem oil, which I’ve actually used on other plants before.

I’m filing that little bit of information away for next year. Maybe next summer will finally be my hollyhock summer.

Rolling Side Table

In other news, I just ordered the cutest little rolling side table.

I want to use it next to the couch in my family room so I can work on things while I’m watching TV. 

If you’ve been following along on Substack, you know I’ve started this little routine of making quick watercolor paintings at my dining room table. It has honestly been such a joy. They’re just small studies. I don’t think too much about them. It’s simply marks and paint on paper, and I think that’s exactly why I’m enjoying them so much.

Well, I’m hoping to bring a little bit of that same energy into the family room.

Anyway, I’ve had my eye on this table for a while. Most of the color options were $219, but the color I wanted was $299 (of course it was). Then yesterday I randomly checked again, and not only was it on sale, but there was an additional 40% off. Somehow, some way, I got it for $112.

I have no idea what sort of shopping magic happened because I checked again this morning and it’s back to $299.

It’s supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I’ll report back once I’ve had a chance to assemble it and use it. Hopefully my grand vision of casually painting from the couch works as well in real life as it does in my head.

Power Surge Update

I don’t want to dwell on this one too much, but unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of news regarding repairing or replacing everything that was damaged by the recent power surge.

It turns out the washer and dryer couldn’t be repaired, so I purchased new ones, and they arrived yesterday. After far too much research into quality, reviews, features, and all the other things you suddenly have to care about when buying appliances, I went with the LG WT8600CW washer and LG DLE8400WE dryer.

I also decided to move back to a top loader after having a front loader for years, which I’m actually pretty excited about. The only downside is that my laundry room is tiny, and I miss having the tops of both machines for extra storage. Even the dryer slopes down a little, so piling things on top of it isn’t an option either.

I think I’ll need to come up with some upper cabinets or shelving. Honestly, I’ve wanted to do something like that for years, so I suppose this is just the little push that I needed to make it happen.

Either way, I’ve done a couple of loads so far, and so far, so good.

Unfortunately, I discovered another casualty this week.  When I went to make bacon yesterday, I realized my vent hood is fried too. It won’t turn on at all.

Ugh.

I’m a little anxious about this situation because the hood is built into the cabinetry. I don’t know what replacing it will involve. Fingers crossed it’s easier than I’m imagining because otherwise this could turn into a whole thing.

New Recipes On The Way

My mom was here this week, which meant we had another big recipe-testing day. We made five new recipes, and I’m pretty darn excited about every single one of them.

Typically, when we test that many recipes at once, there’s at least one dud in the bunch. Not this time. Every single one was a 10/10.

We made my Aunt Maggie’s Sugar Cookies, an incredible new corn dip, an easy, refreshing cocktail/mocktail, a new summer salad, and another delicious, adorable little dessert made with those mini phyllo cups I love so much.

I cannot wait to share the recipes with you. Lots of good things are coming!

On Making More Art

I also shared two new posts over on Substack recently that I’m really excited about, and I’d love for you to check them out.

The first is What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Plein Air Painting. I’m sharing some of the things I’ve learned about releasing the pressure, simplifying the experience, and redefining what success looks like when you’re painting outdoors. Because, as it turns out, plein air painting becomes a whole lot more enjoyable when you stop expecting yourself to create a masterpiece every time.

The second is 10 Simple Things That Will Help You Make More Art. It’s exactly what the title says because wanting to make art and actually sitting down to do it are two very different things.  If making more art has been on your mind lately, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

That’s All for Now

And I think that’s everything I have for this Little Bits of Charm update.

We’re currently in the middle of another stretch of nearly 100-degree weather here and we’re covered in smoke from the Canada wildfires, although it’s supposedly coming to an end today. I’m ready. The garden is ready. I think even the groundhogs are ready. Unfortunately.

I hope things are a little cooler and more comfortable wherever you are.

Thanks, as always, for catching up with me. I hope you enjoyed these little bits, and I’ll see you back around these parts next time.

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