Spring Garden Studio

Playground Play Spaces 🐾
Some still shots showing 1.5 weeks of work to get these super cute, interactive spaces done at a local school. They are the Bulldogs and each area was being used as soon as it was dry.

There’s still more to come at this school but for now, we are done and the kids are free to play.

Shady Grove HSA

I’ve been thinking about an interaction I had the other day, and honestly, I want others to hear it.

I was at my daughter’s orthodontist appointment. I walked up to the front desk to schedule her next appointment and pay the fee.

The receptionist looked at me and immediately asked:
“What do you paint for a living?”

I stared at her for a second.
I was wearing painty clothes. Because… I’m a mural painter. 😂
Most days, I am wearing painty clothes.

So I quietly said, “Yes. I’m a mural painter.”
A mom friend who happened to be checking her child out at the same time immediately chimed in:
“Katie paints the most amazing walls and windows in all the local businesses.”
I smiled.

The receptionist said nothing. No acknowledgment. No “Oh, that’s interesting.” Nothing. She just gave me the next appointment time, took my card, and we left.
And I didn’t really process it until later.

I was making dinner when I finally thought, That was weird.

I asked my oldest daughter if she thought the interaction felt strange. She did. She said she didn’t like the woman’s tone and thought she seemed “old and grumpy.”

Then I asked her:
“Do you think she would have said that to a dad?”
A dad standing there in paint-covered clothes, checking his kid out of an appointment.

Would she have assumed he was a painter? A contractor? An artist? A business owner? Would she have asked with genuine curiosity, or would she have looked at his clothes and made an assumption about what kind of work he could possibly be doing?
And maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe she was genuinely curious. Maybe there was no judgment intended at all.

But here’s what stuck with me:
When did paint on a woman’s clothes become an invitation to question the legitimacy of what she does for a living?

I intentionally built a life where I can wear my work.
When my youngest entered kindergarten, I left a corporate career that demanded 60–80 hour weeks. I wanted to be home when my kids got off the bus. I wanted to be present for the after-school meltdowns, the homework, the “you won’t believe what happened today,” the snacks, the hard days and the good ones.
I had spent years working to support my family through some reall

Riding the waves of all things squishy and window paintings! Sometimes we don’t know why or how things take off, but for whatever the reasons we are grateful for being a part of them.

Here’s to officially kicking off the Halloween season with THE MOST FUN windows I’ve painted yet.

Grateful to partner with all of the lovely humans at both Learning Express locations — Blue Bell & Collegeville.

Wishies, fall leaves and pops of warm colors welcoming in the cooler weather and Fall ambiance 🍂🍁

Valleygreen Flowers & Gifts

Get ready for the changing seasons with fall door decor and arrangements.

🍂🍁✨

From Blacktop to Possibility
Before there were chickens, tractors, rainbows and corn mazes…there was a lot of cracked blacktop.
When I first started talking with Walton Farm Elementary, the playground was a huge open expanse of old blacktop—crumbling, cracked and full of weeds.

But then came the bigger question:
What could they actually DO with all that space?
The school knew that traditional playground equipment would cost tens of thousands of dollars, and they wanted to find a way to make a meaningful improvement to the space without waiting years to save enough money.

So I put together a creative brief that helped them envision what was possible—and helped them fundraise for it.
Within weeks, they had raised the money.

The school made the decision to invest in resurfacing the existing blacktop, giving us a completely clean slate. It’s the little things that make a mural painter happy!

What started as an empty blacktop became 6,000 square feet of games, gathering spaces, movement, school spirit, and imagination.

And honestly? Stepping back and witnessing the entire transformation come to life, has been pretty incredible.

Sometimes you say yes to something you’ve never done before…and it changes everything.

Forever grateful to Megan for reaching out and for trusting me with their project.
A couple of years ago, the HSA president at North Wales Elementary reached out and asked if I’d paint something fun on their blacktop.

I’d never painted blacktop before.
So I donated my time, asked for $500 to cover materials, and figured I’d give it a shot.

The finished space included their whale mascot, a game, and a positive-message hopscotch. When it was finished, principals from other schools in the district came out to see it.

One of those principals was from Walton Farm Elementary.
And that little $500 experiment at North Wales eventually led to a 6,000-square-foot playground transformation at Walton Farm.

It’s funny how one project can open the door to something you never could have planned for.
Sometimes you just have to say yes. 🎨

6,000 square feet. One year. And a whole lot of paint. 🎨

I’m so excited to finally share one of my biggest projects to date: the transformation of the playground at Walton Farm Elementary School.

Over the last year, the Home & School Association, the principal, and I worked together to turn a huge expanse of blacktop into a collection of spaces designed for play, movement, gathering, and a whole lot of imagination.

The finished project includes:
🌾 Sit & Relax
🐄 Farm Animal Line Up!
🐔 Chicken Hopscotches
🚜 Big Red Barn & Tractor Trail
🌈 Walton Farm Rainbow Hopscotch
🌽 Corn Maze Mascot

Altogether, about 6,000 square feet of playground space has been transformed.

And there’s a lot more to this project than the finished paint. There was a cracked, empty blacktop, a fundraising effort, months of designing and approvals, and an incredible school community that believed this space could become something much more.

I’ll be sharing more of the story—and all the little details—over the next week.