Monthly Life Update, July 2022

Stay updated on my latest adventures!
A quick life update about my health, our cabin, our pets, my business, and more. magenta, pale pink, and blush roses in a vintage floral pattern pitcher. David Austen roses: Munstead, Emily Bronte and Alnwick rose

Where did July even go?! I feel like the month passed incredibly quickly and I am so not ready for it to be August shortly! I was running errands the other day and saw the start of Halloween and holiday stuff in a few stores… way too soon. Especially given how late summer was to get here! Anywho, let’s dig into my latest monthly update!

The Cabin

Summer is finally here, including an intense heatwave. It’s winding down, thankfully but we’ve had about 5 days of 100 degree days… and, just as a reminder, we do not have central air! House projects are basically on pause for now, but I still have been doing work in my garden in the mornings and evenings. I’m definitely leaning into taking it easy during the heat and resting!

The biggest change here at the cabin is the plethora of bears who have been breaking into the chicken coop to steal feed! One bear, whom I named Dick Butkus, is about 250 lbs and broke into my camper, stole an entire trash can, opened it and then left with a full bag of chicken feed one night. The issue is that because our spring was so late, there isn’t anything for them to eat. We still don’t have any ripe blackberries in the brambles, so they are trying to feed elsewhere.

I’m not gonna lie, it’s a bit stressful especially when I’m here by myself. Especially at night when I’m letting the dogs out for last call and tucking in the birds. Hopefully things settle down with the bears soon.

The Tiny Zoo

We had a vet check up on the dogs recently… and it turns out that Diamond needs to slim down a bit! Oops! She loves to secretly steal the cat’s food, so it is time to get that a bit more under control… and maybe take her on even more excursions. I guess chasing away all of the bears hasn’t been enough exercise for her!

My Health

Nothing really big to report here, woo!

Business + My Blog

This summer has actually been slower with work for me than the past few years. On one hand, that’s stressful for us financially. But then on the other hand, it’s providing me with a much-needed time to reset and rest. I’m choosing to be grateful for the extra time to read, nap, and spend time in my garden and enjoying life out here… especially because I know that Q4 will probably be very busy as it usually is!

I’m still in the process of revamping The Jojotastic School of Social Media and now offer personalized strategy sessions that are perfect for refining existing game plans for increased success. You can choose between a single session or 6, whichever fits your small business’s needs!

Us

We’ve been taking special care to connect more and spend time together this summer. Most notably, we went to see Cat Power, my favorite artist, in concert and made a date night out of it! It was so much fun to spend time in the city with Sean, eating a great meal, sipping a Negroni someone else made and then nerd out over being in the front row of my favorite singer!

ICYMI here’s what I shared on the blog this month:

So that’s a snapshot of what life’s been like for us in the month of July. As always, thank you so much for following along on our journey and being so wonderfully supportive of everything I share here and on social media.

Photography & styling by Jojotastic.

Behind The Blog

Joanna Hawley-McBride is a Pacific Northwest-based social media strategist, content creator, and former textile designer. Joanna is the founder and editor-in-chief of Jojotastic, a lifestyle blog focused on Joanna’s work-in-progress cabin, finding the best pair of underwear through #UnderwearThesis, and empowering women to explore nature — all in her signature unfiltered style. Her work has been featured in Domino, CNBC, and Eating Well.

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