I’m excited to introduce my latest self-initiated creative project: custom painted pet portraits! The last time I felt this invigorated about launching a new thing of mine was probably when I launched my beach plastic greeting cards.. so it has been awhile. Years, as a matter of fact. It feels good to feel like I’m finally finding that good creative energy again. I’ve missed it.
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3 Sustainable Christmas Crafts
It’s been awhile (over a year!) since I’ve last written in this space - but I wanted to pop in quickly with a few Christmas crafts that I’ve been working on this year. I love the holiday season for so many reasons - but one of my favorite reasons is the desire to craft ALL THE THINGS. Sometimes it feels impossible to make time to craft everything that you want to during the “busiest time of year,” but last weekend I set aside some time to play and just make some things for fun - and I’m SO glad I did! These 3 crafts are super easy, and the best part is you can use ordinary things you already have around your house without going out to buy (or order) any new supplies. 🙌🏼
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New to the Shop: Vintage!
My etsy shop has been on the back burner for the last year or so, but I’m finally going to be breathing some new life into it in the coming weeks / months. I started the shop in 2016, and over the last few years it has evolved quite a bit. I started off making motivational t-shirts and pins before diving into my beach plastic line of greeting cards (and t-shirts) - and now, I’m introducing a new venture: vintage!
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Kindness Rocks
Hi, and happy Earth Day! It’s been a full year since I last wrote in this space. I’ve recently had the urge to start blogging again, but after “falling off the wagon” with it for so long - I haven’t really known quite how to pick it back up again.
A lot has happened in the last year, but I don’t want that to be the focus of this post. In short, I had my first mental breakdown last summer (that involved weeks of panic attacks, hospitalizations, medications, therapy..) and has been followed by months of PTSD / flashbacks / self doubt, etc. To say I felt like I had hit the ultimate rock bottom would be an understatement. Some day, maybe I’ll write more in depth about it all - but for now I’ll leave it at that.
For me, it has been really weird to still be in the process of healing from “fresh” personal trauma while also being faced with the new (global scale) trauma of a pandemic. I’ve just been taking it day by day - and leaning into living slow — and lots of art making.
Today’s post is about the kindness rocks project / movement - which just felt right as a returning blog post topic - all things considered. You can read more about the project on their website if you’ve never heard about it before.
Their mission:
ONE MESSAGE
AT JUST THE RIGHT MOMENT
CAN CHANGE SOMEONE'S ENTIRE DAY, OUTLOOK, LIFE
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Sandy Hook Beach Clean Up
It’s been a little while since I’ve popped in here to write anything. March was a whirlwind, and somehow we are already midway through April - how did that happen?! On Saturday I attended the biggest beach clean up (that I’ve ever participated in) at Sandy Hook — one of my favorite NJ shore points. The “Beach Sweeps” event was hosted by Clean Ocean Action and was held at over 60 different locations that day. At Sandy Hook alone, there were approximately 600 volunteers! 😱It was insane, and incredibly inspiring to be a part of.
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Asbury Park Beach Clean Up
Yesterday, I joined my first ever larger group beach clean up effort down in Asbury Park (hosted by the Surfrider Foundation’s Jersey Shore chapter). When I first started paying more attention to all the trash and plastic last summer, I remember thinking how I wanted to look into joining a community clean up (in addition to organizing one myself). There’s something so invigorating and rewarding about being a part of something so much bigger than yourself. Truly an inspiring experience - and if you get the chance to be a part of a big clean up in your area - I highly recommend giving it a go! 🙌🏼
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Beach Plastic Valentine Greeting Cards
Happy Friday! Just wanted to drop in quickly today to write an *official post* about the next installment of beach plastic greeting cards that I launched last Friday: Valentine’s Day cards! There’s 8 cards in the series - all hearts comprised of different selections of litter I’ve collected over the last few months. It was a little bit of a different process creating these than the Christmas cards because these required me to sort the trash by color and fit them into a uniform shape. It was kinda like trying to puzzle fit pieces together that didn’t necessarily go together, but overall I’m really happy with how they turned out and generally excited about how this greeting card line as a whole is growing!
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2018 In Review / Happy 2019!
I can’t believe that this is my FOURTH year writing one of these! And I also can’t believe that 2018 is coming to a close… what a freakin’ roller coaster it was. I started the year off strong - felt really confident for a couple months (wrote a 26 page outline for a book I started to write.. reconnected with some old friends), and then lost steam (again). I went on my first creative retreat (in Montana) and it was really expensive (lol). For the months following that, I questioned whether it was “worth it” and tried to digest all of the feedback I had received on my work. Going into it - I think I was already searching for “what was next” in my life / career. I felt like I had hit a wall again - really uncertain just about everything.. I took a leap of faith by applying to the retreat, and when I got accepted - I jumped into it hoping it would give me fresh insight and some direction… but I think I left feeling unsure what to make of it all (although it was a beautiful place to visit).
I spent the second third of this year in pretty much complete (self inflicted) isolation. May thru August, I didn’t hang out with a single person outside of my immediate family. The immediate family I DID see or spend time around - I felt completely withdrawn from. I dreaded being around people of any kind, and was shutting out even my closest friends. I was falling asleep on the couch watching TV shows I didn’t even really like, and generally speaking… lost my desire to get out of bed in the morning. Creatively, I felt really depleted - the desire and motivation just wasn’t there. I spent a lot of time walking miles and miles of beaches by myself (moody, I know 😂). It was a rough few months where I felt really far from being my best self, to say the least…
The final third of this year has been a surprisingly reinvigorating few months. I feel like I’ve found the basis for the thesis project that I wish I had 4.5-5 years ago - the basis for a LIFE’S work (which is a REALLY bold thing to say, I realize) - but I really do feel that way. I started collecting beach trash at the end of August (after walking miles of coastline in the summer… it became impossible to continue to ignore). This then led to organizing / cohosting my first group beach clean up and the launch of some new products for my Etsy shop (beach plastic holiday greeting cards)! I haven’t felt this excited, passionate, and deeply ROOTED about anything I’ve made in well… maybe ever. In 2019, I plan to continue to grow the greeting card line, cohost more beach clean ups, and continue the important conversation about sustainability through my creative work. It’s gonna be a good year - I can feel it! But first, here’s a little recap of 2018:
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A Winter Love Letter: 6 Things To Look Forward To
Welcome winter! Today is the first *official* day of the coldest season of the four. I feel like most people do not look forward to this season - it’s dreaded by so many. So today - I thought I’d write a short but sweet post offering some fresh perspective - some reasons to LOVE winter. Mostly, I want something positive for myself to refer back to when it’s late stage winter and the holiday magic has long worn off and I’m desperate for it to end and get warmer again (like the rest of you!) 😂I remember last year’s winter feeling particularly long.. I couldn’t wait for it to be over and it felt like it would never end as we kept getting smacked with nor’easter after nor’easter towards the tail end.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the seasons - not just the seasons marked by nature and by the calendar — but seasons of life in general. How seasons come and go, ebb and flow, inevitably changing — and how that has an effect on me and (particularly) my creative process. The natural world is truly wild when you stop and think about! So here are some reasons to love everyone’s seemingly least favorite season:
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Sustainable Gift Guide
I’m SO excited about today’s post - my VERY FIRST gift guide! I’ve never written one before, but this year I decided to give it a go. I’ve always loved giving gifts to friends / family - but I typically (more often than not) go the DIY or baked goods route, haha. IMO, one of the biggest downsides of the holiday shopping season is that so many people buy things they definitely don’t need. Generally speaking, there is a TON of excess waste that comes from holiday gifting… so many plastic toys, clothes that weren’t ethically produced, etc. Not to mention HOW the gifts are wrapped (and how most of that gift wrap doesn’t even get recycled)!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my own personal impact on the environment lately with all of the recent beach plastic clean up / work I’ve been doing. As a result, I’ve become really interested in brands / artists that are consciously creating products / art that either: 1) help people make strides towards a “zero waste” lifestyle or 2) utilizes recycled or biodegradable materials (instead of new / unsustainable materials). I’ve been bookmarking different things over the last few months, anticipating putting together this gift guide for you! I hope that it’s helpful this holiday season (+ beyond). ☺️
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