November, 2025
Thanks once again to Nancy Akerly of Liberty Grove Paper Arts I was able to start AND finish another clever handmade box. It was fun to finally work with her in person at the Handmade Book Club retreat in the Berkshires known as Books in the Woods.
One of the few benefits of the pandemic era was that so many great teachers made themselves available to a wider online audience, and so many great art affinity communities were born. It has enriched my life and I’m grateful for the effort these teachers put into sharing their work, their expertise, and their joy in creating.
November, 2025
It’s been a while since I’ve had a real fall colors experience. It feels like the weather (climate, really) is changing so much that you can’t count on the seasons behaving the way they used to. At the end of October, I drove from Chicago to the Berkshires, and it was 80 degrees along the way, so my expectations were low, but I was happily surprised.
This is the view from one of the art studio windows at Snow Farm in Massachusetts where I attended the Handmad Book Club retreat. (My private name for it is Girls, Glitter, and Glue)
The drive from Chicago across upstate New York was beautiful, and you can see the vibrant surroundings we had when the sun was out.
November, 2025
My favorite new trick isn’t exactly meditation, but it feels meditation adjacent. After getting out of bed feeling way less, shall we say, loose than I’d like to lately, I’ve started to literally shake it off. Maybe you’ve seen it in your social feeds too. Soft knees, and just bounce up and down letting everything jiggle, for about a minute.
Yes, the jiggling is jarring, and a minute is longer than you would think, but it’s one of those things that creates singular focus, and that’s hard to come by these days. And I feel better afterwards, I really do.
I’m told I could feel even better if I started the day with some cold water wild swimming or a cold plunge, or an icy shower but for now I’ll just shake instead of shiver.
August, 2025
I’m a bit of a latecomer to Mel Robbins, and not everything hits with me, but there is a
back episode #296 that talks about body image issues in a way I have never considered before.
Think about this – humans are not engineered to see ourselves as much as we do. Originally our eyesight even dimmed and gave us gentle images of ourselves and others as we aged. We were built to look at others, to assess them as threats or opportunities for connection, but now with screens and reflections everywhere “tech is warping your body image”. We see ourselves everywhere and the brain that was supposed to use the eyes to assess others is not ruthlessly turned toward our own flaws.
There’s science, and research, and even some recommendations.
Worth a listen. Unless of course you feel great about your body, in which case I would love to know your secret unless it includes enormous amounts of self-discipline and the genes of a supermodel.
August, 2025
Last month I traveled to Paducah for some artsy-craftsy fun. Kristin Williams of Ephemera Paducah resurfaced with a great new workshop in collaboration with Mary Beth Shaw. Junk journaling, mixed media journaling, just general playing with paper, fabric, paint, etcetera, etcetera. Lovely location, lovely ladies, lots of creativity on display.
And the best part of all, in many ways, was two full days of not even thinking of looking at a phone or iPad screen for 8 hours at a time. That’s what art-making does for me – precious and rare intervals of focus.
With a project like this, how do you know when you are finished? I was all ready to let it go and call it done, then I filmed a little flip through and all I could see was other possibilities. Nine signatures of options. Spontaneously layering and layering isn’t necessarily my strength, but heaven knows I have enough bits and bobs to keep me going for quite some time. So, for now, it will have a place on the corner of the studio table and we’ll see how loudly it screams out for my attention.
