The End of Summer and How Things are Going...

Jessica McGhee
Sep 19
2 min read

I spent most of this summer building a little garden paradise in my backyard, so I've been very nervous about facing the winter. Seasonal depression is no joke, and my fear is that my summer was so peaceful and full of the joys of nature, that winter might hit me even a little harder this year. So I've been trying to plan ahead a bit for indoor house projects that I've been putting off for literally years - my hope is that I can make my home more joyful, and winter won't sting as much.

As the summer winds down, that means the riverfront market season is almost done, as well. I'm both happy and sad about this. I love the market and seeing everyone, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't exhausting. It brings me great joy...and it wears me out. And balancing the market and the website and my online content has always been tricky. I am full of ideas and it feels like summer just doesn't allow me to execute any of them properly. So I'm sad to say goodbye to the market for the season, but also very happy to be able to focus on this website, my online content, our public studio space, and public education.

Speaking of our public studio space - it's going so great! I believe we've had it open for 5 weeks (we took one week off for the trashion show) and we've had visitors almost every day. Of course, the beauty of the space is that even if we don't get visitors, it's functional for our needs, as we use it to house a lot of my art supplies.

The space is meant to be a combined creative reuse shop (although everything is free) as well as a little environmentally themed education space. My hope is that as we get more visitors, that will help refine the space. Because honestly, at this point, we're just winging it.

We just updated our website and finally have new pictures and listings for the art pieces that we had at my "Self Portrait" exhibit. I've loved these pieces for years and I'm so happy to finally be able to offer them for sale.

And of course, there's jewelry! The recycled (upcycled?) water bottle cap earrings have been restocked, and there's some new pieces made from dyed water bottle caps. They look very water color-y, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I've also made some fun garden inspired earrings using school folders. Plants and moths, because I haven't quite mastered a butterfly yet. But I'm going to keep experimenting! You an shop these pieces here.