Dirt Happy, Composition Notebooks & Cats: Updates for August 14 2026

McFloof sleeps while I work on creating a garden + homesteading altered composition notebook.

Happy Friday! This has been a busy week of projects and new content up here on the site - there’s so much to share!

New on the Site: Dirt Happy Garden + Homesteading Content

I’m thrilled to announce a new category on the site: Dirt Happy, which is all about gardening and homesteading!

I started the site DirtHappy.com several years ago when Ray + I first made the decision to homestead on our 1 acre property just outside of Pittsburgh, PA - I'm so happy to get all that content here at Chelle Stein now so that you can actually find it easier!

Here's some of my favorite new posts we've added:

151 Ways to Start Homesteading Now: This is a MONSTER of a post at nearly 14,000 words - it should be a book lol. (Maybe someday it will be!) Ray + I started with one acre and no money, so my hope is that it inspires you to start no matter what your situation may be. It's our way of life and it's so much fun!

How to Grow Blueberries: I am apparently really good at growing blueberries, so here I share all my tips that helped us get beautiful, healthy blueberry bushes and a generous crop every summer.

Croton Plant Care: This post shares the basics of how to take care of a croton plant and also follows the journey of our own Croton who started as a diseased $7 bargain clearance plant to the thriving humongous plant that it is today.

Building a Plant Database: This is a fun new thing I started that I think all of you techy/geeky friends out there will love - I dove into creating a database of all of the plants around our property. Bonus: Premium Subscribers can access my spreadsheet!

Speaking of premium subscriptions, I want to give a HUGE thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have already subscribed - it means the world to me that all of the content I've created for you has helped or inspired you in some way - and I love that with your support I can continue to do just that!

Not a member yet? Join Premium

We added 14 new posts this week from dirt happy, and I still have many more to add! Mostly I am going through each one to manually update them before publishing them on the site - and of course I have to add all the plants from my database - that will be fun to work on for eternity! (and that's not sarcasm, I actually LOVE working with data and coding!)

Also Coming Soon: The Mighty Composition Notebook Series

One of the other things I've been working on behind the scenes is creating a new series called The Mighty Composition Notebook and will be all about composition notebooks and using them as organizers, planners, daily journals, junk journals, art and more for all kinds of crazy things.

If you're new here, I am kind of obsessed with composition notebooks and I already even have a few posts about them:

How to Make a Glue Book
Seasonal Gluebook (Which is also exactly how I prep my composition notebook Planners!)
Altered Composition Notebook Art Journal

I love using them for absolutely everything! The next two weeks I will be launching some foundation posts on how I prep them for mixed media and after that I'll be doing some flip throughs of ones I've already made and OF COURSE there are more in the works. (I just bought a case of 12 from Amazon, Lord Help Me! lol)

With back-to-school season in full swing, composition notebooks are on sale, and you know I can't resist them – it seems like the perfect time to launch this project!

You might also like my post of journal theme ideas - that's where a lot of inspiration has come for the different ones I'll be sharing and some of the new ones I'm starting!

Our Kubota is Sick :(

If you've been following along Ray's YouTube channel, you know that we have a small Kubota BX23s tractor. We love that tractor and Ray really puts it to the test. Unfortunately, it recently had some issues with one of the parts inside the fuel tank rusting that was stopping it from running.

The good news is it's something Ray can fix - the bad news is it's been raining and thunderstorming like crazy, and if it's not raining, the bugs are attacking - somehow we've got those nasty "no-see-um" lawn gnats and they make it miserable, especially as the humidity cranks up.

Fortunately, Ray's mom had a screened in tent so we set that all up last night so he can hopefully get this tractor done ASAP! We're filming all this as it happens so as soon as we have videos published I will definitely let you know!

Enough Already, Let's Talk Cats

I know this is a longer post than I usually write, but there's just so much happening. However, we cannot forget the cats!

Taco is a real cutie as always:

Taco Perched on the Deck Privacy Wall Railing

Burrito helped me brainstorm how we might clean up and decorate this little side garden space this fall. We're open to ideas - especially in repurposing the cute little "house" our neighbor gifted us.

Burrito says he wants it to be his house.

In tractor repair zone of our property, Cookie and Crystal were available on standby to help.

Cookie found a new place to sleep on an old outdoor bakers rack we use for drying projects.

Crystal reminds Ray he has another project tractor to work on.

Enchilada was a slacker napper as usual - I can't believe I got this pose of her stretching.

And of course, last but not least, what would a post about composition notebooks be without McFloof? I was working on prepping several at once as I often do and he naturally curled right up on top of them! It's okay, I wouldn't have it any other way!

McFloof is ready for his next journal project!

I hope you enjoy the weekend and I'll catch you up next week with all of our latest posts! And of course - I'd love to hear from you in the comments! Tell me what you've been up to!