Beginning Again: A Season of Creative Revival
It’s been a while since I’ve written here, but I’m returning to begin again. This website has always been a quiet place for me to return to – a place to document, to hold space, to unfold into.
2025, so far, has not gone to plan.
Earlier this year, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer after my first mammogram. Not long after beginning treatment, I lost all seven of my hibernating adult box turtles due to an equipment failure following a power outage. Obviously this has left me to navigate a lot of uncertainty, heartbreak, and grief.
In the midst of all of this, creativity has become an even more important part of my day-to-day life. When everything else feels like it’s falling apart, creativity – stitching, writing, noticing, experimenting – helps me to stay connected to who I am.
In my work, I’ve always been drawn to slow, story-rich practices. Right now, that looks like:
- tactile work with textiles – slow stitching cloth books, English paper piecing, quilting, embroidery, natural dyeing, etc.
- gathering fragments of words and images in my sketchbooks and journals
- setting aside time for collage, stamp carving, printmaking, and creative play
- noticing and documenting the rhythms of this season to keep myself rooted in the middle of so much change
This blog will be a space to share these practices. Not in a polished or perfect way—but in an honest, unfolding-as-I-go kind of way. Here, you’ll find me writing about what I’m making, what I’m learning, and how I’m navigating this layered time of healing and loss through creativity.
At the heart of this work is a need to honor both the past and the present—to let memory and making sit side by side. It’s about tending to the small, meaningful pieces of life and finding ways to carry them forward.
Right now, this season of my life calls for slowness. It requires softness, simplicity, and an ongoing celebration of all of the little things: beautiful new fabric to work with, coffee outside with my journal, the flowers blooming in my garden and tiny turtles to care for. These, and so many other little things, hold and inspire me. They are the things that remind me that I’m still here and here is a wonderful place to be.
Going forward, you’ll find:
- details from my creative practices and projects
- reflections on memory keeping, story, and healing
- gentle invitations to try if you’re looking to connect with your own creative practice
- thoughts I hope might inspire you or offer support
I’m not here to share from a place of certainty. I’m simply sharing what it looks like to unfold – slowly and honestly – one stitch, one page, one post at a time.
Thank you so much for being here. If you’d like to follow along more closely, I share fragments of my day-to-day creative life and other in-between moments over on Instagram. I’d love to connect with you there!
