here

Over here, linen + thread + words are being joined together and each stitch feels like a prayer of hope, of trust, of choosing to stay open in the midst of whatever unfolds.

water your soul

December, you hold so much in your 31 days. The hustle and bustle of the holidays. The missing of those we love. The gatherings of family and friends and people we can't wait to hug and those we wish we didn't have to see. The loneliness that so often rests in the quiet spaces. The expectations, ours and others, that almost twinkle at the edges of each day. The hopes and the dreams and "the new year is almost here" anticipation all wrapped up around us, within us. 

There is beauty. And there is messy. There is peace. And there is the longest night of the year.

Many feel moved to go inward even though the world around us pushes us to do and be more.

This December, come along on a journey
to water your soul in the midst of it all.

Gather in community with like-minded spirits and give yourself the gift of remembering you, your soul care needs, your stories, you. Be gently reminded you that you are not alone as you experience all that this season brings.

How this program will work:

Emails to ground you :: From December 1 through December 31, you will receive three emails each week that will invite you to nourish yourself. Each email will include a soul care invitation along with encouragement and inspiration. These invitations might include "being present" practices such as meditations and reflection, short photography or writing prompts, or creative self-care recipes.  

Facebook community :: Beginning November 26 through the first week of January, we will also gather in an optional Facebook group to share pieces of ourselves and support one another. Here you will be able to connect about your experiences with the soul care work, share photographs, and have space held for you as you need it.

Learn more and register here.

pieces of this week

Monday started slow

I voted from my couch (this is your gentle reminder to vote)

Mary Oliver guided me back to myself again

I lit a candle and sent lots of love across the miles as I listened to the news

 

I helped a two year old build a boat and felt like I really had it together as a mama for a little while

I worked on a new collection of jewelry inspired by the magic where the forest meets the sea along the Washington and Oregon coasts

This little girl made my heart grow bigger as I witnessed her joy in the simple moments

I found my way to rest

And I made space for in-person connection and had lunch with a new friend.

As the rain falls and we settle in for a Friday evening, I hope this weekend will be full of time to recharge and have fun and unplug and laugh and read poetry and maybe even go on a date. 

May your weekend be full of lightness and ease...

ninja warrior :: a story, a soul mantra

ninja warrior . in the shop

This is me.

Ninja warrior me.

The me who holds a lunch box, juice cup, backpack, purse, and coat in one hand and picks up her toddler with the other.

Who uses words + a camera as secret weapons of peace and truth.

Who sifts through all of it to love fiercely. Me.

The me who puts a chicken to roast in the oven, colors with crayons, cleans up dog vomit, changes her clothes in the middle of the kitchen, reassures and stays calm all in under three minutes.

Who moves through roles almost seamlessly without even needing a costume change.

Who translates toddler code and social media babbling.

Who feels like she's undercover whenever she walks into Target alone.

Me.

Ninja warrior me.

The me who navigates unchartered lands and keeps her head above water even when she is terrified.

Who hides her stealth behind layers, ruffles, and knee-high red boots.

Yes.

Me.

Ninja warrior, sitting in the quiet, dancing in the beauty, honoring the realness, standing tall in all of it, learning how to rest, me.

***

This weekend, I made this locket for myself because I needed to simply own that being a woman is to be a ninja warrior sometimes. 

I shared it on Instagram and after getting a couple of emails about it, I've added it to the shop in case you need one too. Or you can customize this same locket with your own "this is me" phrase. (If you want help brainstorming your "this is me" phrase for your locket, just send over an email.)

May you stand tall as your warrior, peacemaker, real, beautiful self today.

(Thank you to Jen for our conversation a few months ago where she said that sometimes mamas are ninja warriors. I've held onto this phrase daily since then.)

trying to soften into the truth

When I posted this photo on Instagram over the weekend, I added a comment that said, "today feels hard. trying to just soften into that truth." It had been a hard day. And I was deeply missing my friends and family. I took this photo because I wanted to be seen. I took this photo because I needed to just let someone else know that I was having a hard day. And I was surrounded by love on Instagram. And I admit that I really needed it.

Sometimes I just don't know what to do with social media. I am sometimes mystified by what people choose to say or share. As we get closer to the election, my patience and kindness is tested by the words that appear in my various feeds. 

But then I am just so deeply moved by all the love that is there. By the kindness. By the way people circle around each other...when storms come, when tears fall, when grief arrives, when joy appears.

We just keep finding our way, don't we?

Life feels sharp at times. Or maybe it is my own edges that feel sharp. I want to invite in more ease, so I am working with this image of softening into the truths that make up the moments over here. Working with the word "soft" just feels right. It seems to be kindreds with "let it be" and "surrender." It makes me think of these lines from "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Yes. This.

Opening up to the softness and the love. This feels like the right path for this moment.

xoxo,

Liz

there are things i want you to remember {8}

*****

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an october poem note

October 14, 10:12 PM

I'm sitting here listening to Mary Oliver read her poem through the speakers in this little silver box, and five words in, there you are. You didn't write poems. At least we didn't find any among the newspaper articles on how to care for violets and the grocery lists and shells and strands of your hair still threaded through the prickly pink velcro rollers. Yet each morning, you took the hand of your poet self when you walked around your yard curiously unearthing the new.

navigating project life

Since January, I've been capturing our world through photos + words using Project Life.

I love it.

When I posted the above photo on Instagram last week, a friend commented that she was so behind in documenting her family photos. And I wrote back, "Just start now." I wrote this because I have been in that place of waiting. How can I start printing out photos from this week if I still have so many of Ellie's baby photos trapped in the computer? But if I waited, I would never hold these photos in my hand. So finally, I just dove in.

My friend's words prompted me to write this post because I really want to share why Project Life is working for me. 

The big reason: There aren't any rules.
{For real.}

(If you are new to Project Life and don't really know what I'm talking about, head over here to Becky Higgins' site and watch this short video and then come back. I'll still be here.)

As I play with paper + photos + a few stamps + ink, I am letting go of ALL the rules that people might make up for themselves with Project Life. Here's what I mean:

a glimpse at my studio table in action

I didn't feel like I got into my groove with Project Life until late summer. Up until then, I was mostly using products from the original Amber Project Life kit I had purchased in early 2011, but I wasn't loving it. I like this kit, but I wanted more variety and simpler, plainer options. And as I started using Instagram more, a lot of the photos I wanted to use were square, but I didn't have a way to print them.

And then deeply inspired by the approaches both Ali and Elise use, I drilled down to a very simple look and added a few more pieces to my toolbox:

I bought the Clementine core kit when it became available because those colors are more me. (And I can't wait for the new Seafoam kit!)

I bought the grid cards in both sizes + the plain white cards. They are simple and easy to use and don't distract from the photos.

I started using Postal Pix to print 4x4 Instagram photos (then using these two types of 4x4 pocket protectors).

I started using stamps from Elise and Pam Garrison (these are the stamps you see throughout my layouts) and they are giving me a more unified look that I like. They are also great prompts for me (and you know I love prompts). Honestly, I am kind of obsessed with their stamps. Check them out if you journal, art journal, or use Smash books. Awesome women. Awesome products.

I started using mostly blue and black ink for stamps, my writing, and letter stickers to keep the look more consistent.

I moved everything into two black binders because I like how they look on the bookshelf.

I started using my typewriter because it just makes me happy.

And I let go of needing any kind of perfection. For example:

• I don't worry about how many days are in a week. Sometimes a layout is from Monday - Sunday, sometimes it is Sunday to Sunday. The me of one year from now and five years from now does not care about how many days are represented in a layout. I go with how many pictures I have and the stories I want to tell. 
• I don't love my handwriting, but I love reading my mom's writing, my grandmother's writing, so I am writing a lot because it is easy. I struggle with using digital elements and even though I love how they look so clean, the learning curve to figure it out is too much for me. When I want to include longer stories that are right from my blog, I'll just put them into a Word document at the right size and print on cardstock and trim to fit.
• I don't try to tell a story from each day. If I do, that's great. But this never crosses my mind.

• I tell the stories I want to tell. Sometimes there isn't a photo that goes with the story. I write it out anyway. 
• If I'm stuck for a story, I look to Facebook posts and Tweets and Instagram and my blog. 
• When I get behind, I sometimes just lump weeks together into one or several layouts without worrying about what order the photos are in and just put a general date at the beginning of that section of layouts. Crazy! I know! Here is what I mean: When we visited my mom and Steve in April, we were gone for three weeks and had quite a few photos from our adventures that I wanted to include. And I found myself about five weeks behind in Project Life. I didn't want to get into the details of what day we did what and instead just wanted to get those photos off of my computer and into the album. I just put one general date card for the entire month of April and put the photos in where they made sense. It was easy and totally okay with me. 

• I don't let holes in the layout stop me from moving forward. There are a few blank spots where things are missing but I've just put notes in so I can back at some point. 

• Sometimes it is all about me. There are a lot of photos of Ellie in this album, and a lot of photos of Ellie and Jon because I am usually behind the camera. I'm totally okay with this. But I'm including myself too. The week covering the Unearth Retreat is all about me. This will probably happen again as I continue using Project Life. And when looking at the big picture, it makes sense because I am the one putting the album together and thinking "in stories." 
• I let Ellie help me. She loves looking through Project Life.* And she often wants to "help" when we are in my studio. Helping might mean she sits on my lap and helps me stamp journal cards. Sometime it means I give her a blank white card and she draws on it (or decorates it with stickers) and I stamp it with the date and add it in.  

• I share the real stuff. This might mean a raw self-portrait or a photo of our kitchen in all its messy glory. This might mean I tuck some writing behind a photo to be found later. I want this album to capture what is real. It isn't gritty by any means and there are a lot of happy photos of Ellie, but I want to share the tough stuff too.

Other things that work for me:

• I have several baskets on my studio table that hold my Project Life journal cards and the other elements I use. Having them out in the open and ready to use helps me to just get the stories onto paper.
• When I have less than 10 photos to print at a time, I'm using my Cannon Selphy. More than 10 though, I'm uploading them to Walgreens and Jon picks them up on his way home from work. 

*This piece of Ellie loving to look through Project Life, this is what keeps me going with this project. She likes to look through it over and over again telling me the stories she sees in the pages. She points out the things that she used when she was "Baby Ellie" and names her Grandparents and her Uncle Matt and Kelly and talks about the time we played with the blue ball with her aunt and uncle in Wisconsin. It is awesome.

And I do this because I remember when I was a little one and how I used to look through the albums my mom had filled with photos from days when I was "Baby Elizabeth" and then suddenly "Big Sister Elizabeth" and I know that I will look through these albums in that same way and gather the stories to me again.