Hey Reader

So I'm sitting here Wednesday morning, third cup of coffee in, looking at my calendar and realizing June is already a chaos collage of graduations, summer sports, yard work, and that one client deadline I keep moving. Cheeseball is judging me from the windowsill. Peanut, my dog, is tearing up tissues (from who knows where) under the table where I’m trying to work. Behind me, my teens are mid-debate about whose turn it is to walk said dog. June energy.

This month used to wreck me every year. I'd blink, hit July, and realize I hadn't touched my portfolio since early May. My email draft folder would be overflowing with half-finished emails. If I accomplished anything during Q2, it was a miracle. Sound familiar?

This week I’m giving you a reset and permission. It’s the plan I wish I'd had ten years ago: a short Q&A check-in you can do in twenty minutes, a summer slowdown plan, and an email setup that protects your summer creative time.

Let's get into it.

Heather Mueller – Dark Botanical Lush, Graphic, and Completely Confident Deep forest green, bold cutout-style leaves, sunflower forms tucked in — this is maximalist without the chaos. She says she's still experimenting with it for #bugsinbloom2026, which makes me love it more. Some of the best work comes out of "I'm still figuring this out." Full-Coverage Graphic Repeat Flat shapes, strong contrast, zero negative space. The two-tone palette is doing all the heavy lifting and it's more than enough. Restrained color, bold composition. Great for Wallpaper, Apparel & Home Décor Statement wallpaper, drapery fabric, tote bags, resort wear. Dark ground lovers are going to lose their minds over this one. Show them some love on IG

Alexandra Weise – Contemporary Desert Flower Chintz Chintz Revival and It's Earning It Warm sandy ground, rust and blush blooms, dark spindly stems, tiny pink scatter florals — this has that relaxed, sun-bleached quality that feels completely current. The "Chintz Revival" trend is real and this is a strong, considered entry into it. Loose Toss with Textile Heritage Multiple bloom scales, generous breathing room, cohesive palette throughout. It feels handpainted in the best way — structured enough to tile, loose enough to feel alive. Great for Apparel, Quilting & Home Décor Dresses, quilting cotton, drapery, throw pillow fabric. This palette works in every room of the house and she knows it. Show them some love on IG

Victoria Kelland – Beachy Boho Spoonflower Entry Collection Thinking from the Start Terracotta ground, white shell outlines, coral motifs — and the collection shot tells the whole story. Hero print, coordinate stripe, neutral blender, palette card. She submitted this to the Spoonflower Beachy Boho challenge and you can see the brief baked into every decision. Full-Coverage Shell Repeat with Collection System Bold, graphic, confident. The white linework on terracotta is a strong call — warm, coastal, not at all cliché. The coordinates make it immediately pitchable as a collection. Great for Coastal Home, Swimwear & Summer Licensing Beach towels, swimwear, coastal home décor, gift wrap. This is what designing with a licensee in mind looks like. Show them some love on IG

Tip #1: The Mid-Year Audit Most Creatives Skip (5 Questions, 20 Minutes, Saves Your Q3)

Here’s the thing about creative business owners, we are fantastic at making things, and we are terrible at stopping to check whether the things we’re doing are actually moving us forward. I have been guilty of this approximately 400 times. Possibly more.

The fix I’m going to show you today is a very simple one. It’s five questions, takes twenty minutes. Grab a cup of coffee and a notebook (or a Notion page) and let’s get started right now.

I do this check-in at the midpoint of each quarter. We’re about a week past the Q2 midpoint right now, which is honestly a good time to do it. You have enough data from this quarter to know what’s working and enough left to act on what’s not.

Here are the five questions. Answer them honestly.

1. Which 2026 system stuck? You set up something in January: a workflow, a tracker, a routine. What is still actively working in June? Lean into it. If something fizzled, drop it for now. This is not the time for well-meaning restarts. This is summer time triage.
2. What revenue stream is growing? Look at your data. Don’t just assume it’s what you’ve been promoting.
3. What’s been on the to-do list since January? If you haven’t gotten to it in six months, it’s an anchor and it’s slowing you down every time you feel guilty about it. Cut it.
4. Did you say yes to something that you wish you hadn’t? Are you accepting work that drains you? Is something taking up way more time than you thought it would? If you can afford to, get rid of it.
5. What’s the ONE thing that would make the start of Q3 meaningfully better than Q2? Pick ONE thing that if it happened, would change the shape of your fall.

That’s it.

You may see some tension in your answers. For example, what do you do if #3 and #5 are the same thing? If you’re stuck, don’t panic. Keep reading. The next section may answer your questions.

In my experience, designers who do a Q2 audit are noticeably less burned out by Q4 than designers who don’t.

Tip #2: The Summer Slowdown Plan: 3 Buckets, Permission to Take a Beat

Next, here’s your permission.

Summer is HARD, especially for creative business owners. The kids are home. The schedule is erratic. Client work can slow down. POD sales dip in some categories. How are you supposed to keep momentum?

In my experience, fighting summer is a losing game. Working with it is how you get to September without hating your life or your business (or your kids).

You know I’m all about systems and frameworks. So here’s a 3-bucket framework I use in June to prep and plan my July and August.

The Bucket List

Bucket 1 — Maintain. Pick ONE thing you keep doing weekly, no matter what. For me it’s this Eduletter. For you it might be one social post a week or one Spoonflower upload. This is the bare minimum, your non-negotiable. This is your business touch-point that keeps one thing consistent through summer.

Bucket 2 — Build. Pick ONE portfolio project to finish. A capsule collection. A coordinated set. A trend-informed recolor of work you already love. The project that, if it existed by September, would make your fall pitches easier. Then chunk it into small pieces so you can complete it even with all of those summer interruptions.

Bucket 3 — Pause. Identify what’s safe to take a break from until September. Maybe it’s the second platform you’ve been half-paying attention to. Maybe it’s Reels for July. Whatever it is — name it out loud and put it down. You can pick it back up after Labor Day with fresh eyes.

That’s it. Maintain one thing. Build one thing. Give yourself permission to pause everything that makes sense.

On Monday — write out your three buckets on an actual piece of paper and stick it where you can see it. Mine is taped to the side of my monitor. When I get the “I should be doing more” twitch, that paper will remind me that I’m doing what I planned to do and it’s enough.

So, hopefully you’ve done your audit and have a plan to do the 3 buckets in a few days. If you’re still stuck trying to answer audit questions or if you want help deciding what should go into your 3 buckets (because some of us, me included, try to slip extra stuff into the Build bucket and end up burned out), the Art Biz Audit is built for exactly this kind of clarity.

Auto-Reply + Email Batch Setup (Protect Your Studio Time Without Losing Leads)

One tech hack for the summer. Tame your inbox. Often it’s your inbox that kills your studio time.

Usually you can plan around the kids. Your inbox can be sneaky. You “just check one email” and forty-five minutes later you’ve priced flights on Expedia (just for fun), ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon, and clicked to read some celebrity gossip, but realized you don’t recognize 3/4 of the names anymore.

So here’s the two-part setup. Ten minutes once, used all summer.

Part 1 — The honest auto-reply.

A summer auto-reply is not a vacation message. It’s a boundary message. It tells people you batch your email and they will absolutely hear back — just not in 90 seconds. Doing this protects your creative hours.

Here’s the structure I use (steal it):

Three things that note does: confirms you'll reply, sets expectations for how long it may take you to reply, and gives serious leads a fast lane. Professional energy.

How to actually set it up — by platform:

1. Gmail (web): Open Gmail → click the Settings gear (top right) → See all settings → General tab → scroll down to Vacation responder → turn it on, set your dates, paste your message, save. Gmail re-sends the auto-reply to the same sender every 4 days, not every email — so people don’t get spammed.
2. iCloud Mail: Open icloud.com/mail, sign in, click the Settings icon at the top of the Mailboxes list → choose Auto-Reply (the airplane icon) → check “Automatically reply to messages when they are received,” set your date range, write your message, save. One auto-reply per sender per 24 hours, so no spam loops.
3. Apple Mail on Mac (heads up): The macOS Mail app itself doesn’t have a true server-side vacation responder for non-iCloud accounts. So, if you use something like Gmail or Outlook inside Apple Mail, set the auto-reply on the provider’s website (Gmail steps above), not inside the Mail app.

Part 2 — Batching Emails

Don’t open email outside the batch windows. I know. I know. But hear me out — research on email batching consistently shows that batched email leads to less stress and more focused creative work. Tim Ferriss has been preaching this for almost twenty years. Microsoft Research has data on it. Constantly checking email tax-switches your brain and quietly destroys the deep work hours your creative business needs.

The permission -

1. For summer, I picked two mornings per week where I'm batching emails. Maybe you need to check more often. Do whatever matches your studio rhythm, but no more than 2x per day. Preferably, much, much less. (Trust me.)
2. Block 1 hour on your batch days. Literally put it on your calendar. Name it “Email Batch.” Treat it like a meeting with a client.
3. When you batch — only batch. Reply, archive, done. No tab-hopping to Instagram or TMZ.
4. Outside the batch — close the email tab. Mute the badge if you can. Trust the auto-reply is doing its job.

It’ll feel weird for a few days. After that, your brain quiets down and your hands won’t feel so twitchy without your phone. Your studio hours will expand.

Okay. So, that’s the hack. One auto-reply, two batch windows, all summer.

Until next week — keep creating! 🎨

P.S. It’s not too late to sign up for the Profitable Artist Summit. I’m presenting a talk called "The Artist's Permission Slip to Use AI in Their Business." If you've been wondering if you can ethically use AI to help run your creative business, this one's for you. Free ticket here.​

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