190/365 :: Monday 9 July 2018
what do you do when you have nothing better to do? make brownies from scratch.

191/365 :: Tuesday 10 July 2018
bubbles at the park.

192/365 :: Wednesday 11 July 2018
​truffle pig!

193/365 :: Thursday 12 July 2018
​just hanging out under a rain cloud for a couple days.

194/365 :: Friday 13 July 2018
I ordered myself my first pair of Vans as a reward for surviving SBSF2018 and two dental appointments. I sometimes forget when I order things online, and I also ended up buying another pair of Converse at TJ Maxx in between ordering these and them arriving.

195/365 :: Saturday 14 July 2018
I can't tell if Target just put the stripes on here really weird (probably) or if they purposely made some of them look like piano keys from a couple angles.

196/365 :: Sunday 15 July 2018
can someone please tell me if I killed this succulent? the spiky part used to be bright red, but now it seems to have grown an arm? I'm so confused.

183/365 :: Monday 2 July 2018
I went to THE Farm with a friend because baby goats. but there were too many people and I only took a photo of this chicken.

184/365 :: Tuesday 3 July 2018
we took the kids to my favorite field trip of the summer - the USCG Canal Station in Sturgeon Bay. I think it's so special that they allow us to come visit for a tour. I think this was our seventh annual trip (last year we switched to July instead of the usual visit near/on my birthday), and we've had a slightly different experience every time. the Coastguardsmen (we've had women too, but I think that that's still the proper term) and Moose the dog have always been so wonderful. anyway, this lighthouse is on public property, but seeing it always makes me think of these great summer trips.

185/365 :: Wednesday 4 July 2018
​America.

186/365 :: Thursday 5 July 2018
that proud moment when you perfectly cut the avocado in half.

187/365 :: Friday 6 July 2018
I don't know whose car this is, but I thought that the reflection was too great not to creep.

188/365 :: Saturday 7 July 2018
I didn't mean to buy anything at the Younkers going out of business sale, but I couldn't stop myself from getting a couple sugar skull bowls when I went in with a friend.

189/365 :: Sunday 8 July 2018
currently my favorite postcard waiting to be sent out. (I can't say that it's my favorite vintage postcard currently in my possession because I have too many of those.)

176/365 :: Monday 25 June 2018
​this is the real deal bug spray and well worth the pretty pennies.

177/365 :: Tuesday 26 June 2018
nature treasure hunt with the kids at Crossroads.

178/365 :: Wednesday 27 June 2018
have we discussed my love for sending snail mail yet?

179/365 :: Thursday 28 June 2018
driving a "WHITE ONE!" while Luna gets an oil change. this is the third Beetle I've had the pleasure of driving (thanks, Dad!).

180/365 :: Friday 29 June 2018
oh look, more mail to send. those popsicle stamps are scratch 'n sniff, but I'm not really sure what they're supposed to smell like. they don't seem to smell like popsicles.

181/365 :: Saturday 30 June 2018
this is the best dish soap, and yes I did buy it in the winter. I'm also loving my new dish "sponge" made by my friend Jen. (:

182/365 :: Sunday 1 July 2018
I may have sort of killed one of the succulents, but one of them is really thriving.

162/365 :: Monday 11 June 2018
dearhearts Jimm, Vincent, and Bruce working on a song outside.

163/365 :: Tuesday 12 June 2018
class photo sound effects.

164/365 :: Wednesday 13 June 2018
​a quiet moment in the lobby.

165/365 :: Thursday 14 June 2018
kicking off Steel Bridge Songfest 2018 with the Legendary Sons of Crack Daniels at the Red Room.

166/365 :: Friday 15 June 2018
#songfamily love.

167/365 :: Saturday 16 June 2018
Hott Ttarget, one of my favorite bands of all time.

168/365 :: Sunday 17 June 2018
love, come rescue me.

169/365 :: Monday 18 June 2018
​rainy airport drop offs that reflect my mood.

170/365 :: Tuesday 19 June 2018
field trip with the kids to Whitefish Bay Dunes State Park.

171/365 :: Wednesday 20 June 2018
first day with no plans in a few weeks. sending snail mail and then remembering that I've neglected my camera all day.

172/365 :: Thursday 21 June 2018
​laundry day.

173/365 :: Friday 22 June 2018
when you're putting on the bracelet that you've worn every day for nearly three years and it decides to explode everywhere. thankfully, the lovely young lady who made it for me is able to repair it, but it's weird being without it!

174/365 :: Saturday 23 June 2018
color-coded life.

175/365 :: Sunday 24 June 2018
newest plant baby; jade from Alice!

155/365 :: Monday 4 June 2018
and then the next day, my antenna corroded off, so it was good that I had taken this picture and could figure out exactly which day it disappeared. but really, I took this photo because I love those paper flowers.

156/365 :: Tuesday 5 June 2018
​cemetery walks.

157/365 :: Wednesday 6 June 2018
new little prints from TWLOHA.​

158/365 :: Thursday 7 June 2018
​hanging out with this guy.

159/365 :: Friday 8 June 2018
I only make deliveries for special people.

160/365 :: Saturday 9 June 2018
a little light reading for the week.

161/365 :: Sunday 10 June 2018
​here we go again.

148/365 ::  Monday 28 May 2018
this sunset view is nice, but isn't my favorite ever. the thing happens to be that every time I plan to go out and see the sunset, somehow I miss it.

149/365 :: Tuesday 29 May 2018
Leslie Knope: Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?
Ron Swanson: People are idiots, Leslie.

150/365 :: Wednesday 30 May 2018
the marking of a preschool teacher.

151/365 :: Thursday 31 May 2018
​girls' day.

152/365 :: Friday 1 June 2018
​meal prep at its laziest.

153/365 :: Saturday 2 June 2018
the jewelry store's windows went from leafy vines to flowers, and the bears at Dancing Bear changed into their summer dresses. it's here.

154/365 :: Sunday 3 June 2018
yet another photo of my beautiful view. perfect skies that soon turned back to grey with rainclouds.

“which one?” is my usual response, even though I’m fairly certain that the one that is being referred to is the one that “looks like barbed wire.” it’s still so unnatural to me to have people just staring at them, and while it’s awkward, I’d rather that people ask questions instead of silently analyzing me. just please don’t touch me if I don’t know you… no, my arm does not turn 360°.

for my nineteenth birthday, my dad drove the two of us to Chicago to Lollapalooza to see Black Sabbath, and then a few days later he gave me a gift certificate to pay for my first tattoo. let’s just say that my mom and grandmas weren’t the happiest about that. it took me a few months, but on the twenty-ninth of May, 2013, I went down to Door County Tattoo and Polly set me up for my first taste of addicting pain. my dad came with me and ended up getting another one while he was there. I feel that I can get away with the cliché “forever young” tattoo since it’s my last name, and therefore I always will be Young. I always knew that this would be my first tattoo, I just thought it was going to be a few years before I got it. I fell in love with this font a long time before I got it permanently inked onto my skin, and a few months later, I officially adopted it for my watermark too.

my Dark Songs raven (designed by the multi-talented Geri X) is of course for my Holiday Music Motel family. I got it exactly one year after my forever young tattoo. customarily, each star symbolizes each year after your first Dark Songs. this would mean that I’m six behind, but for me, my one star represents Dark Songs 2010, the first time that I was really around for an event at the Holiday. that was the week that changed my life and the reason that I decided to stay here.
I purposely got both of my first tattoos on May twenty-ninth to add some happy memories to that day because I was annoyed by something that once happened on that day. I have a thing for numbers and twenty-nine has just stuck out too many times, for positive and negative reasons.

(for what it’s worth, I really just am in love with fresh tattoo photos when there’s red annoyed skin and the tattoo is not only the brightest it will ever be but also puffed up from the skin. both of my tattoo artists - two of the most wonderful and gracious and incredible women: Polly and Tara - have said that my skin is a beautiful canvas which is why I try to avoid the outdoors and keep my skin extra pale.)

it was nearly two years before I got my next tattoo on May 4, 2016. I get a lot of questions and compliments on the little girl. She’s from the Oliver Jeffers’ book The Heart and the Bottle. I am a big fan of Oliver, from his handwriting to his artwork to his stories. for a quick synopsis of the story, there is a little girl who learns a lot from her grandfather, and when he dies, she puts her heart in a bottle so she no longer has to feel anything, and therefore she stops exploring the world around her. she meets a little girl who is able to get the heart out of the bottle (that’s the image I have on my arm) and she goes back to the wonder of the world. paired with a 333 in Billy Triplett’s handwriting, this one is for the ones who have passed before me and a reminder to always learn and explore.

this was my first time working with Tara, and I think she was amused by my desire to not cover any of my freckles. I don’t hate any of them, but there are some that I truly love more than others, like the clump next to the little girl’s head. Tara’s done more than half of my tattoos by this point, and it makes me so happy every time I go into her studio for a consultation or some needle therapy.

only a month later, on the ninth of June, Geri and I went in to get a little surprise SBSF tattoo. she somehow managed to get pat to write the lyrics to the Timbuk3 song Wake Up Little Darlin’ (which she does a beautiful cover of), and we pulled out the line “bad dreams don’t last forever” with Tambourine lightning bolts on either end. pat was going through chemo at the time, but it’s become a personal daily reminder for me. no matter what crazy and heartbreaking stuff my life may bring, it’s not going to last forever.

on the first of March, 2017, I had a consultation for my next tattoo. there was a snowstorm, so there weren’t really a lot of people out, and both places I had appointments that day were pretty quiet because of people cancelling due to the weather. I brought some extra artwork with me to the consult, not expecting that Tara would have extra time. I was running on only a few hours of sleep after a couple terrible phone calls the night before. Tara had time for a little zap, so I added the last “love” from the lyrics of Deeper Kind of Love (in the late great Chris Aaron’s handwriting) added to my arm. it was perfect for redirecting the pain, and I’ve been told that it’s also a reminder that love hurts.

eight weeks later, it was time for number six. Luna Lovegood is my favorite character from Harry Potter because she is a positive influence showing that it’s okay to be weird and have beliefs that not everyone agrees with. this is another one designed by Geri, and colored by Tara. Luna wears these spectrespecs to see the wrackspurts (invisible creatures that floated through one’s ears causing their brain to go fuzzy - thank you Harry Potter wiki for the correct info on that). these winged glasses have the word “SANE” in them for Luna’s quote, “Don’t worry. You’re just as sane as I am.” it’s okay, I think you’re weird too, but weird people are wonderful.

lucky number seven was obtained on the third day of 2018, and it was Tara’s first session of the year! I feel honored to have been that person this year. let’s start by first stating that it is a rooster and not a chicken or rainbow chicken, and we found the image through a google search. he’s beautiful, but the thirteen colors - especially the tail, which was layers on a tender spot - were brutal. not only was my dad’s first tattoo a rooster on the same upper arm that I chose, but I was born in the year of the rooster. rooster years, according to some website that I read about Chinese new years, are hard, but notoriously so for those of us who are roosters. the last year of the rooster started on January 28, 2017 and ended on February 15, 2018. it was a rollercoaster year for me, and I wanted to get something to commemorate that. a rooster seemed quite perfect.

I’m not sure what my next tattoo will be, but I am fairly certain that I know what I’m going to have done next year on May twenty-ninth. it’s a secret, but I’ll say that it comes from a great book that I read earlier this year.

141/365 :: Monday 21 May 2018
a drive out to see the blooming cherry orchards. I feel like it's usually cloudy when I go for these photos each year, but looking back to last year's, there was more blue in the sky.

142/365 :: Tuesday 22 May 2018
I wasn't too impressed with this book, but I did finish it to know what happened. let's just say it didn't go the way I was really expecting it to go. lots of Van Gogh references, and I do like the quote on the front.

143/365 :: Wednesday 23 May 2018
I drove down to Two Rivers for the first time to wander around a little bit. that clock is definitely not correct, but I really like these signs.

144/365 :: Thursday 24 May 2018
I finished Stay Sweet yesterday and will be starting The Odds of Lightning today. Stay Sweet was the perfect light read to get into the summer spirit. the ice cream stand in the book reminds me of the one I used to walk to when I was growing up. Sally's Super Soft Serve is no longer around, and they ended up building a dentist office on the property, which makes me laugh when I drive by.

145/365 :: Friday 25 May 2018
tree update: Friday was windy and all of the petals blew off of the trees downtown. they don't look as pretty, but I think those white flowers were what was smelling weird on Third, so I won't be too annoyed. they'll be back next May.

146/365 :: Saturday 26 May 2018
forever honored to support and represent TWLOHA.

147/365 :: Sunday 27 May 2018
someone bought a shower curtain with this image on it from my Society6 shop, and that makes me laugh. I want to know who you are and I want to see a picture of it in its new home!

Wednesday 4 April 2018
some early spring snow. early because just ten days later, we would get a blizzard with thirty inches right after this snow melts. anyway, it called for a drive to the boat launch to appreciate all of the different textures of winter.

Thursday 19 April 2018
a drive to Fond du Lac. maybe I missed something, but I wasn't too impressed after driving a loop through the downtown district. I ended up at this park on Lake Winnebago (I think), and I got out to take some pictures while listening to The Lumineers' Cleopatra. the dead fish photo is necessary because just a year earlier, I was parked at Kohl's in Sheboygan by a dead seagull. but back to 2018, later that day found me crying so hard in the Sam's Club parking lot (while Supercut played) that my nose started bleeding. it was a weird day, from dessert and coffee in Appleton at SAP to a sunset in the Aldi parking lot, but life is weird and here we are.

Thursday 26 April 2018
​sunset walk downtown.

I don’t miss you. I miss the person I thought you were.

​this one's for you. and you. and you and you. and maybe you, too.