fill it up buttercup

Kelly Barton and I have gathered up all that we love from the more than 10 retreats we've taught at together and created Fill It Up Buttercup. The retreat version of this adventure will take place September 17-21 at Frog Creek Lodge near the shores of Puget Sound outside Seattle.

This retreat is your invitation to dive into the blank white pages of a journal and fill them with words, watercolors, ink, dreams, lists of good things, photographs, and love letters. 

As we gather in the Pacific Northwest woods, we will:

• Circle and paint and daydream and sketch.
• Sit under shady trees and spin stories.
• Poem it out on vintage typewriters.
• Look for clues and get curious about what we're drawn to and why.
• Brainstorm ways to stay connected to our creative selves.
• Push through the fear of the blank white page.
• Discover our "go-to" creative moves.
• Go on photography adventures and treasure hunts.
• Walk along the shores of Puget Sound and find talismans and treasures.
• Gather up all of this goodness and more into one gorgeous journal.

And there will be food + laughter + good music + light + love surrounding all of it.

Registration opened today and there are just 9 spots left at this intimate retreat. Learn more and register for Fill It Up Buttercup right here.

get outside

These are a few of the things we found when we headed to Point Defiance Park on Saturday.

Really good stuff.

And one of the most accessible practices to help you get out of your head and back into your heart.

Try it for a few moments today. I dare you.

(And if you want to gather with a group of kindreds to practice this simple but profound act of getting outside for a few minutes every day, come along and join Hand to Heart this month.)

hand to heart

The words above hang on the wall at my retreats. I wrote them last year as I focused on what I most wanted the experience to be for all of us. It really comes down to a safe space where we can each just show up as our whole selves.

Yes.

As Hand to Heart has grown into an intimate, nurturing comunity over these last few weeks, it's become apparent to me that the safe space created at the retreats now has an online home.

And this feels like pure magic to me. 

The magic rests inside the way that the members of this community are using this safe space. Some of them have a quiet presence, sharing mostly with me via email. Others check in with the group on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Some turn to the montly practice each day; others adapt the practice to support their own ongoing self-care. Each person is finding a way to create space for what they need.

The thread that runs through it all is this simple but life-changing act of pausing to bring your hand to your heart, taking a deep breath, and listening to what you know.

*****

On this Monday morning, as I sit here in my studio with blue sky peeking in on me through the window, I know this: My deepest wish for you is that you remember you don’t have to go it alone. 

Hand to Heart is my offering of a companion for your journey. It’s a soft place to land on the tough days. It’s a safe space to practice connection. It’s an invitation to listen and remember what you know. 

Together, we stand tall in the defiant act of seeking beauty even in the midst of the hard, messy times. We practice bravery as we share the stories of how we hold grief in one hand and joy in the other. And we do this by just showing up as ourselves each day.

This program is meant to be a support for where you are right now. Think of it like a companion that helps you reconnect with yourself while guiding you in creating space within and around you. It can be a quiet source of support, always there even as you venture into other online communities and ecourses. Or it can be a daily space for connection. You get to choose how it best fits in your day-to-day life.

Upcoming Practices

In May, we'll explore the practice of "get outside." From taking five deep breaths to artist dates to photography walks to simply letting the sunshine warm our shoulders, we'll look at ways to connect with the world around us as a way to support us on our paths. 

In June, we'll explore the practice of making just "one move" each day that supports our self-care and being present practices.

And this is the part where I tell you: It is okay to come along just for one month or to pick and choose what months work for you. I deeply appreciate how full our lives are. If you feel May's practice calling to you, come along for just one month of community and connection as you explore this practice. 

UPDATE I'm excited to share that Hand to Heart is now a free community of kindred spirits on Facebook. Learn more about Hand to Heart and request to join right here.

here.

here a little one teaches us about resilience.

here a woman feels laughter shake out the cobwebs.

here the flowers are bursting with audible exhales.

here the hummingbird chirps.

here the sky appears with unexpected blue.

here is a dream about picking fresh berries.

here black pen slides across the blank page.

here the old story slips into the earth.

here there is a wondering, a sadness, a hope.

here the neverending cold is not fading.

here beads are wrapped, words are hammered, talismans are created.

here days are measured in mugs of tea.

here hand to heart, breathe in, breathe out.

*****

"Here" is on of my favorite creative prompts. You can use it to capture photos of what "here" looks like in your corner. You can try to make sense of your world with a poem note. You can make a list and add it to Project Life. You can fill up a whole page with here. Try it.

a shop sale

A Spring Sale! Because Mother's Day is around the corner...because you might need some color to brighten your corner...because you might need a reminder that you are enough...

Head over to the shop and then when you checkout, just press the Apply Shop Coupon Code button in your shopping cart. Then enter SPRING15 for 15% off your entire order. The sale is good through Thursday, April 24.

a summer dream

I'm having this dream of a meet-up here in Tacoma. We'd gather with quilts + watercolors + cheese + fruit + wine and paint and laugh and eat and connect and share favorite quotes and maybe even read a poem or two. 

It would be more like a potluck (and a bring your own paint + paper sort of thing) and not at all like a workshop. Just a meet-up.

I'm thinking about Saturday, June 14. Maybe Point Defiance Park. But I'm still figuring out those details.

Wanna come? (For real.)

And if there's enough interest, maybe we'll do it once a month this summer.

Because oh my goodness I could use some in-person connection. Yes.

(And if you were going to come in from out of town, maybe a group of us would go out to dinner too. Because, why not?)

the spring collection

open up and live with fluorite bracelet

The Spring Collection is inspired by the wishes I have for you (yes, you) in your corner of the world. Soul Mantra pendants, feathers, and lockets are paired with gemstones to invite in peace, calm, connection, and love. 

My studio assistant Bonnie and I went to a gem show earlier this month and had so much fun picking out these stones. When she spotted that gorgeous green Fluorite shown with the bracelet and feather above, she insisted we get two strands and now we're wishing we'd bought them out. It is so gorgeous in person. 

And the Love Wins necklace is my favorite from the collection. I'm wearing mine daily. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those experiences where I started to wonder if one person really can make a difference in the world. Where I wondered why some of us have trouble choosing love even when it seems so obvious to others. Where I wondered if I could choose love in the face of some of what happens in the world around us. So I walked into my studio and hammered the words "love wins" into metal and paired these words with aquamarine to promote peace, courage, and communication.

The intention behind this necklace all comes down to this: Because I believe love wins with all my heart. Because I believe you should be able to love the person you love. Because I believe you should be able to marry the person you love. Because I want my daughter to feel safe becoming whomever she will become and loving whomever she will love. So I made this necklace. Because I believe love will win even when it looks like it might not.

Yes.

Bonnie and me after walking around the gem show for hours...

Bonnie is helping me even more these days. It is such a gift to have her in the studio not only to package orders but to bounce ideas off of. She really helped me brainstorm this collection as we sat together at a big table in the middle of my studio and just dove in and had fun. It was a reminder that I'm at my happiest when creative energy is flowing and this collection reflects that.

You'll be seeing more of Bonnie around here as we start working on some of the ideas I keep mentioning to her when we're packaging orders. Good stuff is coming.

See all of the new Spring Collection right here.

pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Note from Liz: I'm so happy to share that Meg, who is a frequent "Pinned it. Did it." contributor here on my site, had her baby on Monday! Mama and baby girl are doing well! Meg will be taking a break from guest posting for a bit but will be back later this summer.

And I'm happy to share that my friend Doña is going to share a few columns with us over the next few weeks! First up is her gorgeous natural-dyed eggs DIY. Oh my goodness these are gorgeous! Read on for her column...

*****

Last Easter we had cousins visiting from England. Did you know in England they don’t dye eggs like we do in the US? Instead they decorate them with markers and stickers. Last year I made sure we had an Easter egg dyeing day, so my young cousin could experience the American way of colored eggs. Unfortunately the experience was a little disappointing, at least for me. The dyes from the little tablets I dissolved in water and vinegar just weren’t very vibrant. Yet the mess they left on my counter was epic.

This year I wanted to try something different. I’ve always been intrigued by natural, vegetable based dyes and I’ve seen some really gorgeous colors on yarn and fabrics dyed this way. So when I came across a few images of vegetable-dyed Easter eggs, I knew that’s what I wanted to try. 

There’s something just so appealing to me in these natural hues. I picked one post that had good, clear instructions and collected all of my ingredients together. I wanted a range of colors, so I used red cabbage (for blue), skins from brown onions (for dark orange), turmeric (for yellow), beets (for red), and a combination of carrot tops and parsley (for green).

Full disclosure here - I didn’t involve my 3-year-old in this process at all. I wanted to do a “dry” run to make sure it worked and also to figure out how messy it was going to be (it was messy - my butcher block has a big red beet circle!). I started the whole process, including hard-boiling the eggs - after she went to bed one night this week. I also wanted to test out what I’ve discovered is the most important tip for dyeing eggs with vegetable dyes - let them sit in the color over night. 

The whole process went surprisingly fast, even though the color pots all needed to be simmered for 30 minutes. I just used all the saucepans and burners I had!

By morning I had this - success!

I used both brown and white eggs. I thought there would be more difference in the final colors, but the difference is actually pretty subtle. The only color that didn’t really work was the yellow/green from the carrot tops and parsley. The color is barely yellow green and very light. Though I really love the pattern the leaves left on the shell.

I am so impressed with the depth of the dye saturation with this method. It is really obvious here, where part of the egg was not completely covered by the dye water.

I’ll definitely be doing this method of egg dyeing again. I also saved the bowls of colored water and I’m going to try dying some natural-colored sock yarn in the remaining dye to see how the colors turn out. 

You can find all the pins I’ve collected for vegetable dyed eggs as well as other fun egg decorating methods on my Spring pinboard on Pinterest. Follow me on Instagram see the yarn dyeing results and to see what other fun Easter crafts we come up with! 

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. She writes about the practice of moms holding space for their own well being in the midst of raising a family on her blog, Nurtured Mama.  

Note from Liz: Over here in my corner, I'm trying to "use Pinterest for good." I really see it as a community of people trying to see the beauty and possibility in their lives. I'm adding a few new features here on my blog inspired by or directly about Pinterest as a way to invite others to look for this beauty within a social media community. Connect with me on Pinterest here. Read other "Pinned it. Did it." columns here.