Home Tour, Handmade Goods, Self-Care Resources + A Mixtape
You asked for it, here's the home content, handmade products, self care resources and more that you are hungry for!
Oh hey, I made you a mixtape :)
I’ve got a lot to share this week so how about you put on some twinkly tunes on the background while you read up all this juicy good stuff. Find the mixtape on Spotify or just click the image to transport yourself to tune town. I’m currently listening while I type these very words. Mmm, I make a mean mixtape.
What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
In an effort to better craft this space into a place you and I both love, I had you fill out a poll last week. Here are the results in order of what you want to see the most:
Home styling + organization tips, product links and home tours
Features on handmade, ethically made and US made designers
Prompts, tips and tools for self-care and self-empowerment
Interviews with fascinating people
Personal stories about my life, family, friends and careers
Updates on my new product launches
Music playlists
Fashion styling tips, shop my looks and links to new products
Stories about the queer experience including my journey
Readings from my cringey and insightful childhood/teen journals
Updates on my adult braces journey
Honestly, the ranking of what you want most and least made me laugh and also makes total sense! The majority of you reading first joined in my journey by signing up for marketing emails from my now closed storefront and online store. It makes sense that you still have a passion for great design like I do. You care about products that hold meaning, that are designed from a unique perspective. You want to support makers, as do I. And I’m excited for the prompting to get back into curating products from makers I adore.
Handmade Maker’s Corner
We’re getting closer and closer to the darkest days of the year with the Winter Solstice arriving on Dec 21st, my half birthday. Tis the season for hot cocoa and tea all day everyday, baby. And here are some beautiful handmade mugs to warm your cold winter days and nights.
Ombre Orange Mug by Modern Science Project. Amanda Woodcock is a multimedia artist living in Seattle, WA.
Green Checked Mug by Handsel Mondays. Kaelyn Handsel is a ceramic artist based in Providence, RI.
Golden Hands Mug by Pickle Pottery. Stephanie Adams is a ceramic artist who lives and creates in the mountains of Northern California.
Today Was a Good Day Mug by Jumie Ceramics. Jumie Ra a ceramic artist based in Los Angeles, California.
White Wiggles Mug by Handsel Mondays.
Pot Head Mug by Parker Made. Parker Heath is a multimedia artist and designer located in San Diego, CA.
If you are a handmade maker, a designer, or own a small business, I would LOVE to connect with you to feature your products. Leave a comment or respond to this email with your name, a link to your shop, and info about what you create and sell!
Welcome Home
Did you know I just moved in with my girlfriend?!? I know, its huge news. We searched Seattle for a few months for the perfect rental and we found it and I would love to take you on the journey of turning a house into our home. This week, I’ll give you a peek into our living room. The first photo is what the space looked like when we first moved in over a week ago. And the last photo is what it looks like now! The light in this space is what made us fall in love with this house first. And sure, all these lovely windows mean it can get chilly on cold winter days. But having a fireplace helps immensely with not only the cold air but the winter blues mood too. I have dreamed of having a fireplace in my own home my whole life. I grew up with one as a kid at my parents and I would often ask for my dad to light it while I worked on homework and read books beside. A fireplace is a physical source of mental health support for me. The sensory experience of listening to the crackling fire, feeling the fire warm my toes, seeing my favorite shades of oranges, reds and yellows lighting up a dark space, smelling the scent of burning wood filling the space all help me to self sooth and find internal peace.
In so many ways, my design aesthetic is shaped by the need to self-sooth. Though my Autism diagnosis didn’t occur until I was 33 years old, I have spent a lifetime seeking forms of self soothing for my mental health needs and disabilities. The calming, warm, textural and moderately minimalist aesthetic of our living room is designed with intention to bring comfort to myself, my partner, and all who are welcomed in. And it’s a joy to welcome you in, here in this digital space as well. I hope you see and feel the comfort I sought to create through these photos.
A few products in my home that you can grab for yourself:
Palermo Tripolina Chair from The Citizenry. Handcrafted + ethically made.
Samsung Frame TV. Turn the eyesore of a TV into art. I LOVE this tv.
Salto Workshop Ceramics by my favorite local ceramicist Sidney Ann Field.
Miller 2 Piece Sofa + Chaise from Wayfair by All Modern.
Rain Garden Knit Blanket by local Iranian-American designer Misha Zadeh. (Please support Iranian women locally and abroad. Read up on the current status of women’s rights protests in Iran.)
Prisma Round Wood Turned Table from Target.
Ivory Braided Texture Rug from Rugs USA.
Speaking of home decor and interior design…
I was invited to speak on the show Redefine DIY Interior Design with interior designer Carrie Mader. This one time event will bring together a variety of experts and seasoned home decor DIYers to share collective wisdom on how to style your space to reflect your authentic self. Did you know I wrote a home decor book a few years ago? It’s called Make Yourself at Home. I’ve been a maker, an artist, a designer and DIYer for life. And home is the first place I put my artistic skills to use. My home decor book aligns so well with this online event happening December 16th. I believe in designing your home room by room based on what sort of story you want to tell about who you are. The new living room I now share with my girlfriend is all about welcoming people in. I kept the color palate warm and bright, no fuss, much like the dynamic I share with my love and my community. And I styled the space to draw everyone’s eye to the heart of the room, the fireplace. I want people to feel warm and welcomed when they enter our home. The warm, rich wood tones and the variety of textures encourage people to come in, feel comforted and invited, and call them to engage with the space. My hope is that anyone who enters this space feels like a welcomed member of our community. There are no strangers here. And the styling of the space shares that sentiment without any words needed.
If you would like to hear and see me speak on how to style rooms around sentiment and authentic expressions of self, then grab yourself a free ticket and I’ll see you there!
Self Care: Preparing for A New Year Ahead
I am so grateful for markers of time. The changing of seasons, year endings and new beginnings give us prompting to reflect on what once was so that we can clear our hearts and minds for a more thoughtful future. This week, I am working away on connecting with creative, influential, and truly fascinating minds to join me on my new interview series. It’s turning out to be quite a bit of work to figure out all the logistics, scheduling, communication and hosting. But I can already tell that this weekly series is going to become a core part of my own self-care. The pandemic has created such a culture of isolation and internal overwhelm. I’m a hardcore introvert who grew up in isolated and rural areas, I am used to and crave being alone. But only so much inspiration can come from within. It’s through human connection that our minds truly have the opportunity to expand. The nuggets of wisdom planted by others in our minds are what lead to our own greater expansion. From reading a book, to watching short form videos on Tiktok, we are constantly absorbing the influence of others, yet still feeling alone in an empty and isolated sort of way. My hope is that when you watch the videos from my interviews with a wide variety of interesting people, that you feel transported into our world as if we are all sitting at a table together. I want to make this interview series feel like a communal hearth that we all gather round to find collective warmth together. It will be a place of communal care and self-care, all at once.
Guests on the series will be filling out a list from one of my 52 Lists journals and I’ll let you know ahead of time what list and from which journal it was pulled each week. This way, you can fill out a list and explore your own personal narrative, thoughts, and feelings while we share ours with you as well.
I shared last week that I was thinking of calling the series ‘The Lists that Shape Us’ but I think it’s still not exactly right. I’ve used the phrase ‘I Contain Multitudes’ many times over in recent years when referring to the exploration of self that you, I and so many have been on as prompted by the pandemic. Walt Whitman was the first to coin the phrase in his poem ‘Leaves of Grass’, one of my all time favorite long form poems. What I love about the concept of containing multitudes is that every single person holds contradictory beliefs, experiences and ideas about who they are and what they want. We truly are complex creatures. Anxious perfectionist might find the thought of holding internal contradictions horrifying. And I used to be like that too. But now, it excites me. I don’t seek self contradiction, I enjoy the prompting to be curious and inquisitive when contradictions arise. And it is with a curious and inquisitive mind that I start this new interview series. Which leads me to the new working title… “We Contain Multitudes.”
There will be a significant segment where guests and I explore our inner worlds through list making, likely creating space for multitudes to arise. But there will be even more. I want to offer each guest the freedom to share who they are, what they are creating and pursuing, and offer space for YOU to ask them questions too. This is where their many facets of being are really going to shine and inspire me and you.
I hope that you will carve space in your weeks in 2023 to watch or listen to this series weekly with me. My goal is to publish it in video form within this newsletter AND via a podcast format. I’m more of a watch the video sort of person, but many like my girlfriend are podcast fans. So I’ll use this month to set that all up to suit us all.
I hope you are excited! I am so grateful to have the drive to make this happen, but it’s going to be a lot of work. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber in the new year, but for now, just enjoy what I share <3
Hi Moorea! I would love for you to consider my very good friend Samira Khoshnood’s blankets (https://superstitchous.com/), which feature lucky symbols from around the world. She designs them at home, and they’re loomed in one of the last family-owned textile mills in the US from upcycled yarn. They are high quality and machine washable. I’ve helped her table at craft fairs and a surprising number of people who have one already will come up to share how much they love theirs, and/or how it connects them back to family memories. Thank you for considering it! 😊
Hi! I'm Katie and my small creative business is Seven of Swords Fiber Art. I formerly created macrame wall hangings only, but have lately been experimenting with colorful handwoven fabrics, which I turn into goods, such as pillows and scrunchies. My shop is https://www.etsy.com/shop/SevenofSwordsFiber?ref=seller-platform-mcnav