photo diaries <3 a weekend in OKC, ceramic adventures, OOAK shop plans

Hello!!! A little photo dump for you on this Friday~~ I spent last weekend in OKC visiting my bestest friend Brooke for their 30th birthday, and my other besties also drove up from Houston, and we all spent the weekend sleeping on the floor of Brooke's living room and chatting and riffing and being goobers together and my heart is so full!! of love!!! and gratitude for these dearest pals of mine!!!

I brought my Canon Powershot with me which was an EXCELLENT move because these photos are so precious to me :') I definitely wanna get them printed and hang some up on my fridge hehe

OKC has sooo many cute little spots that Brooke took us to!! Brooke is vegan and gluten-free, so their food choices are rather limited, but they showed us some REAL gems - it's not pictured here cause I didn't get any good photos of it, but we went to this gorgeous lil affogato bar called Peret's, and it had that really amazing worn-in romantic cafe vibe, and I know that if I lived in OKC I would spend all my days there. Seattle has some of the best coffee ever, but all the coffee shops feel the same here (3rd wave, industrial, minimalist, mid-century modern), and I'm DESPERATE to find a cozy home-y coffee place that I can hole up in for hours.

We also went to Red Cup Cafe and got to meet Coco the Rooster which was a BIIIIIG highlight, of course, AND we got to ride the ferris wheel, as that was Brooke's Big Birthday Wish and I'm very glad we got to make it come truuuuue

I've also been at the pottery studio almost every day this week! I'm gearing up for the first OOAK Patreon shop drop, and my dream is to have maybe 10 ceramic pieces done, but it'll likely be closer to 5 or 6 heh. I'm really struggling with shaping my bowls..I've got a decent handle on my cylinder/mug shapes, but I can never get the curve on my bowls right, I really don't want the sides to be so straight :/ I'm very happy with the little flower bowl I finished, but the glaze is rather uneven on the outside, so I'm gifting it to Ares cause I don't feel comfy selling it but I want it to have a happy home <3 and I know he'll love it and get good use out of it!!

It's been so fun to be doing pottery regularly again -- my job is very lonely, by nature, so it's wonderful to get to spend time around other creative folks and chat with people and join a lil artsy community of sorts.

Speaking of the OOAK shop drop!! I'm currently planning for it to happen on Wednesday, August 7th, at 12pm PST. It'll include some ceramic pieces, a few pouches, charms, and potentially some paintings/jewelry. I have also signed with White Squirrel, and I'll be bringing my inventory to them next week, so I'm hoping on that same day I'll be able to open up my public shop again which will carry my leftover postcards/stickers from Patreon, as well as the handful of stationery I have leftover from my clearance sale last year. I'm hoping to get into designing some products like notepads and stuff again, now that I won't have to worry about shipping them out, but I'll save that for later in the fall. I'm focusing on the keyboard stuff first and foremost >:) Though my current artistic woe is trying to balance sketchbook/drawing time and pottery studio time...

On a personal note, my adderall has completely fucked my sleep schedule -- usually taking melatonin at bedtime sends me right to dreamland, but there's been four nights in the last two weeks where I've climbed into bed around 12:30am and lay awake until 6:30am, before crushing out two-ish hours of sleep in the morning. And my sleep on the other nights has not been the greatest, so! Suffice to say! I'm exhausted and now I fear that I'm getting sick?? Or maybe it's burnout I feel creeping up on me?? I feel rather miserable, but of course the timing is terrible, so I'm trying to REST REALLY HARD in the evenings to get ahead of it. I've also decided to skip my adderall for the next few days to hopefully catch up on sleep, but then it means my executive dysfunction is in full swing :') Don't you hate it when your disability...disables you? Ain't that just the worst :)

ANYWHO! Love y'all! Hope your July has been decent!! Sending all my love <33