I remember sitting on my kitchen floor in my tiny Oregon apartment, staring at a lump of gray clay and feeling a profound sense of inadequacy because I didn’t own a spinning wheel. I had this idea in my head that if I couldn’t achieve that perfect, symmetrical, high-speed rotation, I wasn’t actually “doing” pottery. …
I remember standing in the middle of my first apartment in San Francisco, surrounded by half-unpacked boxes and a crushing sense of overwhelm. I had this beautiful, oversized botanical print rug, but every time I tried to add a cushion or a throw, the whole space felt like it was shouting at me rather than …
I remember sitting in a high-pressure boardroom during my corporate wellness days, listening to a consultant drone on about “customer acquisition funnels” and “aggressive conversion metrics.” It felt so cold, so clinical—like we were talking about harvesting crops rather than nurturing people. There is this pervasive, exhausting myth that the secret to growth is a …
I still remember sitting on my floor in my tiny first apartment after a grueling ten-hour shift, surrounded by a chaotic sea of paint swatches, fabric scraps, and half-finished design mood boards. I felt completely paralyzed, staring at the mess and wondering why I couldn’t just organize my creativity. I had spent so much money …
Read more “How to Keep a Colour Reference System That Works”
I still remember sitting on my studio floor in Portland, surrounded by half-finished canvases and a mountain of unpaid invoices, feeling like my brain was nothing but static. The air felt heavy, and even the smell of linseed oil, which used to excite me, suddenly felt suffocating. I had fallen into the trap of believing …
Read more “How to Keep a Creative Business From Killing the Craft”
I remember sitting on my living room floor last November, wrapped in three different blankets, watching my breath mist in the air as a biting chill seeped through the bottom of my front door. I felt so defeated, thinking that creating a cozy, warm sanctuary required an expensive home renovation or a massive heating bill. …
I still remember sitting in my old corporate office in San Francisco, staring at a mountain of emails while my coffee went cold, feeling that familiar, frantic tightening in my chest. One specific notification popped up—a client asking for something completely outside our standard scope—and instead of feeling inspired, I felt completely overwhelmed. We’ve been …
Read more “How to Handle Custom Order Requests Without Regret”
I still remember sitting on my floor in a tiny, overpriced San Francisco apartment, staring at a glowing laptop screen at 11:00 PM, my brain feeling like a browser with fifty tabs open and none of them responding. I was exhausted, yet I couldn’t stop the mental loop of emails and deadlines. I tried the …
Read more “How to Use Making to Wind Down at the End of a Day”
I was sitting on my floor last Tuesday, surrounded by scraps of velvet and a stubborn, sagging dining chair, feeling that familiar wave of corporate burnout crashing over me. For a long time, I thought that if I couldn’t master a task perfectly on the first try, it was a sign of failure—a mindset that …
I still remember sitting in my old cubicle back in San Francisco, staring at a lukewarm cup of coffee and a mountain of spreadsheets that felt more like a personal attack than a to-do list. I was convinced that the only way to be “successful” was to grind through eight-hour marathons, fueled by caffeine and …
Read more “How to Make Real Progress in Fifteen Minute Sessions”