favorite things: may 2025

I begin each month by filling in and decorating the monthly calendar page in my planner, using page tabs to plan out my content schedule; here’s June’s layout.

Welcome to June, friends! Summer has been creeping up on me (it finally reached “close the windows and turn on the AC” weather), but its still nice enough out that I can enjoy my coffee and morning reads on the front porch. Lounging in my papasan chair and reading a great book or zine really sets me up for having a good rest of my day.

Anyways, May was a big month for me! It felt blissfully long, and it was full of soul-nourishing moments. Here are a handful of the highlights that come to mind:

🌸🍓🐛 the garden The old adage about April showers bringing May flowers felt radiantly true this year, and I was glad for all the soggy, grey days because it meant that when my garden did start to bloom, it did so in full force! For most of May, the peonies, roses, sage blossoms, and petunia were blooming, turning my garden into an absolute bouquet. And every morning when I went out to water the burgeoning tomato, pepper, and okra plants (not to mention the pots full of wildflower and herb seeds, plus the oregano and lemon verbena plants), I got to treat myself to a couple of tiny strawberries picked from our lil’ strawberry-and-mint patch. While I’ll always be a Fall girlie at heart, when it comes to gardening there is no season as triumphant and lovely as Spring.

 

 

🐌💌 snail mail society — Just over a week ago, I launched the Snail Mail Society, a Patreon-style membership (featuring a monthly print newsletter!) that will help me sustain my art and zine-making. I was pretty sure when I hit “post” on the announcement that only one or two folks would sign up, but to my surprise, delight, and utter gratitude, I’m already almost to 10 members!! The biggest thanks and all the heart-eye emojis to M.Riot, Shauni, Artie, Rudy, Charlie, Jeremy, Tanrazz, Kaijah, and Diego; thank you, thank you, thank you! 😍 Your support feels incredibly encouraging, nourishing, and inspiring. If you’re interested in becoming a member — memberships start at $5/month and all tiers get the newsletter mailed to them! — visit the Snail Mail Society page.

🔥🚲 outdoor hangs — May featured so many outdoor hangouts with friends: my first fire pit of the year, and an art museum lawn picnic, and bike rides, and long walks, and porch sits. As I mentioned in the intro, I am so grateful that the heat-n-humidity have yet to spike, because I’m enjoying being outdoors with friends far too much and I’m hoping that this carries into June. If the weather cooperates, I might even host a little backyard movie night, screening The Wicker Man (the shitty Nic Cage version! Because “the bees!”) projected onto the side of a neighbor’s shed. Right now rain is in the forecast, but if that changes over the next couple of days, I’m sending out the invites and making it so.

👯🎶 tanka ray — Last week, I got to see one of my favorite bands play live, a band I literally never, ever in a million years thought I would get to see perform. Tanka Ray are a punk band from here in Kansas City that broke up before they hit my radar. And unlike other reunited bands I’ve gotten lucky enough to see perform like Pulp or Jawbreaker, tiny local bands with cult followings don’t really have any financial incentive to reunite. They aren’t being booked at a big festival, and they can’t do a massive, lucrative comeback tour. So I just assumed that I would never get to see Tanka Ray, and that was okay because I still got to enjoy the member’s other terrific bands like the Grisly Hand and Madman. All of that is just to say that when I was scrolling the ‘Gram back in February and saw the recordBar post a flyer for an Effigies show with Tanka Ray opening, it took me a moment before I realized it wasn’t a #TBT post. It was a real, upcoming show and all my stupid lil’ punk rock wishes had come true!

Fast forward to last Wednesday, to their perfect 45 minute set. To screaming along to every word. To going absolutely feral when the opening riffs of “Six Month Skin” started (and jumping around so madly that I sprained my ankle again… whoops!) and the push pit breaking out and all the raised fists and the catchy, catchy keys in “Mississippi Lime” and my big swelling heart full of pride for my city during “KC Kids” and “Riot on the Plaza”. After the show, T and I biked home in the rain and although my ears were buzzing like mad, I pushed in my earbuds and turned on “….and so I abide” and kept right on singing. They’re playing one last show later this month, and you know I’ll be there.

And that’s all for last month, folks! As the planner pic at the top of this post shows, June is gonna be busy-busy (and some of the fun stuff I’m hoping to do hasn’t even been written down on that calendar yet!) But if it is anything like May, it’s gonna be a fun one. Let’s just hope the weather abides and the humidity stays away, and for many more porch mornings to kick off my days. 💛

A welcome reminder posted on the wall of my favorite yoga studio. I’ve been going to Thursday’s Slow Flow classes, and this time of year sunlight pours in then through the prismatic film over the windows, letting me take my āsanas while bathed in rainbow light.