This is the second of a new monthly thing. What it is and the rules are here.
I’m in Cleveland with the fam for my mother-in-law’s birthday, and back in Serenbe my house still smells like paint and stain. We’re in the final stretch of a six month renovation where every decision I made five months ago is showing up in real life all at once, and I’m having big feelings about all of it.
Eleven people subscribed to this thing in August. Eleven. We’ll get to it.
Fair warning, August was a spiraling confusion funk. My in-laws tease me about being annoyingly good at all the things (oh of COURSE Gina can do that) and August was not that. It was the month I started thinking hard about what ends and what stays. For the record, Play by Play is not always going to be “oh, Gina’s in another ruddy season.” Some months I’ll be insufferable about how great everything is ;). This is not one of them.
Same deal as last month. What I did, made, paid for, and broke. No affiliate links, nothing in here pays me. If you love it, tell me. If you never open it, tell me that too.
Here’s August.
1. I painted my kitchen cabinets yellow, and I'm paying $2,500 to paint them again. Farrow and Ball Dorset Cream. The whole house got painted the same week, so every choice landed at once, and when I walked into the kitchen I had a proper “what the hell did I just do!” freak out, cried, left the room, opened Pinterest, and spiraled on every other decision in the house. Then I stopped myself, did the mental reframe, it’s just paint, shut Pinterest down, and let myself feel it (while feeling a little silly about how strong the feelings were). Once the first coat went on the other rooms, my confidence came back. (thank gawd)
But the part I keep chewing on is that I knew. Before the brush ever touched the cabinets, deep down I knew it wasn’t right, and I painted anyway. Last month I told you I don’t fully trust my taste right now. This month it cost $2,500.
We luckily only made it halfway, the doors never got painted. A friend who paints murals told me afterward that yellow is the one color she’s constantly going back to redo, because it moves so much under different light. Coooooool. We’re keeping mustard on the island and going Farrow and Ball Lime White on the rest, which is the safe choice. If I were braver, I’d do a soft cream with a hint of yellow. I am not being brave about cabinet paint again anytime soon.
The original inspiration was AliceGrace. See that lower yellow? That's what I was going for. Swung and missed. (and actually my lower cabinets got there… it’s just those dang uppers, I now see why she has white up high).
2. I ended the local women's business cohort and sent everyone ~$600 back. I’ve hosted it for a year and a half. Nine of us, and only two or three showing up the last few months. It was quietly fizzling as people moved into new seasons, so rather than let it limp to December I refunded the second half of the year, ~$600 a pop, and closed it. My honest read is that a full year is too long a commitment for a group like this. There’s a chance I rejigger it for 2027 (if people keep raising their hands).
It’s not the only thing on the block. I’m marinating on ending the local event calendar. And I veered hard into coaching the last few months and figured out I like supporting a small number of people one-on-one, and I have no desire to make this a 100% coaching business, because the minute I do I start writing like someone who has it all figured out. I get careful. I share less. Which is the opposite of the whole point. (+ it gives me the ick to write like)
So what stays is this. The writing, the walks, the Days, a handful of people one on one.
I also accidentally became the local guide to Serenbe this last year. That was always a side thing, something I planned to do for the community to connect us all, and I assumed it would bring me a lot of joy. Reality check, it isn’t. I don’t know exactly what I want people to say about my work, but I know it isn’t “she’s the local guide to Serenbe.” It’s closer to this:
She makes you question the life you’ve fallen into, and gives you permission to loosen up, change, and have fun.
Serenbe will keep showing up. It’s just the setting.
3. Eleven people subscribed to this thing in August and 45 on social media. That is by far the slowest month I’ve had across every platform, when I’m trying to make a living telling stories and creating content. So that stings. Then I looked back at the whole summer and found zero regrets, which was the confusing part. I know where those weeks went. Ten days in Steamboat. Three days at the beach. Three days in Cleveland. All with my laptop shut. + A pile of experiments to work out what this thing even is, none of them built to grow anything, all of them useful.
So the goals I set in the spring were never the goals I was living. I set them for a version of the summer I didn’t want, then graded myself against them in August and called it a miss. It wasn’t a discipline problem. I just forecasted wrong.
But I can’t help feeling my feelings about it all. And feeling pressure to make Sept count!
4. A foam dance party in the woods (free, we donated $100). A neighbor's brother owns a souped-up monster truck with a DJ booth built into it and a foam cannon on the roof. For three years now Melody Shemtov has thrown an epic music party in the woods out here, kids and adults, and it's one of my favorite things all year. Partly because it tickles me pink to dance in the trees somewhere you'd never expect it, mostly because watching Rory and Dottie lose their minds in a foam pit up to their eyeballs might be the funniest thing I've ever seen. I counted at least five kids screaming it was the best day of their life. There were soapy tears. We drove home soaked in bubbles and dirt. So un-wellness-town and so Serenbe at the same time. Thank you Melody!
5. $26 on Blinc mascara, and the search is over. Julie T. replied to last month’s Thrive complaint and told me to try it, and fifteen days later I’m done looking. It’s not winning any clean beauty awards and I’ve made my peace with that on mascara. It goes on strange, your lashes stick together for five minutes, and then it does not move, and when it does, it comes off in clumps vs running down your face. I slept in it. I swam in it. No itch, no raccoon. Next up I’m dyeing my own brows, either a tinting kit or the mustache dye several of you suggested, so if you see me around town with alarming eyebrows, that’s why. If you dye your brows at home, spill your secrets
6. $45 on EltaMD sunscreen and $81.46 on two Hemlock hats, the Sophia straw bucket and the Lifeguard, bought with an REI birthday gift card because baseball caps stopped cutting it in full summer sun. The sunscreen is light and smooth and worth every penny IMO. From here on out I'm only going to the pool midday in a rashguard and the Lifeguard hat.
7. $3,000 for three days in Florida the last weekend before school started. We drove down to WaterColor Inn, about $1,000 a day once you count the room, the food, the umbrella rental, gas, all of it. Pricey for us… but without airfare, pretty decent. We picked it because it was the closest and easiest, and with a five year old and a two year old, ease is king. Driving instead of flying is what made it feel worth it. Someone told me it had been four times more crowded the weekend before, and I believe them. We kept it simple and ate almost every meal in the room or by the pool. I could see it becoming a yearly thing right before school starts back up.
8. A hell yes and a hell no from Costco. The $16.99 Felina Pima cotton hipsters are a surprise win. The $23.99 wirefree bra is not. Greg was brave first and is a fan of the $18.99 boxer briefs, so I figured I'd try. The bra hunt continues, so tell me your favorite post-nursing bra. I'm begging.
9. Crocheted four winter hats out of leftover yarn, $0. Then I got ambitious and went after a tank top, which is going poorly. Everything I’ve made until now has been square. A tank top is not square. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked so I thought, ah, AI will nail this, and I’m here to report that AI did not nail this. I ran every trick I have. I told it to check itself. I told it to check itself again. I pushed back when the numbers looked wrong. It stayed enormously confident the entire time it was wrong. The tank top is becoming a capped-sleeve shirt. Too far along to unravel. (I now understand why people start with baby clothes.)
The rootball did not go on the wall this month either. September.
10. Three garbage bags of kids' clothes and toys, $0 out the door, handed to neighbors and dropped at Goodwill, and that's barely the start. As we put this house back together, I'm going to Marie Kondo the daylights out of it. Anyone who has done this with two kids under six, tell me your system.
11. What I watched and read.
The Odyssey, phenomenal, and I’m not sure I was smart enough for it. I wish I’d watched Troy the week before. One Hundred Years of Solitude, interesting and different, too slow for me, struggled to finish. My Brilliant Career, loved it, Bridgerton vibes, I want more. Tires, I’m sorry Gen Z, I love it, it’s The Office and it gets better the more you know the characters.
I finished all six Plated Prisoner books, which is funny because last month I said I was lukewarm and then read six books in two months. Book three is the best. A friend asked why I didn’t warn her, so, warning, the opening of book one is rather riskayyy. Started Stillness Is the Key and stopped abruptly, nothing new to me and the audio voice was meh.
On Substack I keep going back to Sam Rinko’s essay on managing multiple interests, which found me in the precise week I was spiraling about having too many.
also this… <3
Coming up. Life at Play Day in Serenbe is moving. October 2 fell apart on scheduling and I’m hunting for a new date, sign up here if you want to hear first. The next free Playdate, my walking club, is this Friday September 4 in Serenbe, sign up here.
Last month’s goal was to break a real, dripping sweat three times a week. I’m giving myself a D+. I landed around one a week. It was ninety degrees here every single day of August, so I had heat, opportunity, and a goal in writing, and I still came in at one. Carrying it into September.
September’s goal: ten hours on the AI class. Five Tuesdays, two hours each, night class in bed. I paid $8,000 for this Automate to Accelerate class by Callan Falkner at Uncommon Business and only finished a quarter of it before it ended, so now I’m working through recordings. I won’t be done by September 30, that’s an October job, but I want a real dent in it. I’ll report back on if it’s worth the $$$ (My friends at Life Hack Method run one for half the price, I’d take instead if I didn’t already sign up for Callan’s. Live and learn.)
Next month: the reno actually wraps, and I hope I’m in a more settled spot about what I’m building here.
Two things before I go.
Last month I asked for the worst thing you bought and promised the best one goes in this issue. The winner is Brittany Beasley-Davis, who got got on a massage upsell of honey glaze for her heels, and then had to shimmy her favorite socks over the goopy mess and walk around in them the rest of the day.
This month’s question: what are you halting?
If this made you think of someone, a like, a comment, or a forward goes a long way. I’m trying to grow this thing, and eleven is eleven.
Report back.
In your corner,
xx Gina
I look forward to these Play by Plays! Love your honesty and candor. It's not easy to do, especially on the internet, and I admire what you're building!
Halting? Filling up every single fall weekend with things that might not actually fill my cup.
Gina,
Thanks for making me smile at the end of a long day. I love your honesty - especially about the kitchen cabinets. I did wonder what you were thinking!
It's hard to believe it's September, and we only have 4 more months to enjoy 2026 and get all the things we said we'd do done... or maybe not! I like having the choice to not finish a book, stop a movie that isn't doing it for me or just say "no" to something!
Keep writing and sharing...
Hugs,
Linda Hayes