Show Her Work

Hey there, and Happy Sunday! I’ve been working with a business/mindset coach for a few years now, and one of the mental blocks that she’s noticed will come up for me over and over again is the thought that, “I’m not very successful.” It’s a weird block because it’s not something I think consciously out loud, but my coach can tell by the way I speak that it’s what I subconsciously believe. She finds it amusing because she could sit down and write a huge list of all the ways I’m already very...

Hey there, and Happy Sunday! We’re a little over two months into the year, which is about the time that I start drifting from my north star intentions I set at the beginning of the year. I don’t know about you, but rarely do I decide to aggressively veer off course. It’s usually a slow, barely noticeable drift, and before I know it I have no idea where I am anymore. That’s why this year, I set an intention of focus, to remind me to stay on course. When I noticed myself getting distracted by...

Happy Sunday & March! This week I’m going to share my February end-of-month review with you. But before that, I said I would give you an update on my ski trip! My husband and I visited Snowshoe, West Virginia, which is where he originally learned to ski but it was my first time. The runs are a little more chill compared to the ones we encounter in Colorado, so I was hopeful that maybe I’d be able to complete my first black diamond run. And I did it! I was pretty nervous, but it turned out to...

Happy Sunday! As you’re reading this, I’ll be packing up and on my way home from my second of three ski trips this year. Hopefully my muscles are a little less sore compared to last week and maybe I’ve even skied my first black diamond run? You’ll have to tune in next week to hear how it all went! This week I wanted to share a few thoughts I’ve been having around setting reasonable expectations for growth. Personally I’ve found, especially in the world of the internet, that it can be...

Happy Sunday! I hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day with the ones you love. 💘 Life Updates Last Thursday I spent the day skiing for the first time this year and my poor legs are still recovering, but I had a great time! I’m always a little awkward on the skis at first, but eventually I got my snow legs under me. I thought I might stay on the easy green runs the whole day, but once I got my confidence back I quickly grew bored and headed over to the blues. It’s fun to see how much I’ve...

Hey there, This week I’ll be sharing my short and sweet weekly review with you where I reflect on my accomplishments, celebrate myself, and share my focus for the upcoming week. What I accomplished last week As usual I created a few new designs. They followed a bit of a “feminine coquette” Valentine’s theme. They’re a little on the simple side composition-wise because I really wanted to explore a few more complex illustrations with the cakes and tea cups. Here’s a look— Not my usual style of...

Happy February! At the start of a new month, I like to review my goals and celebrate my progress and little joys I experienced throughout the month. I’m sure you can relate when I say that January was an insane month. There were crazy things happening all over the world and I found it a major challenge to stay positive. When so much is going on it’s really easy for me to fall into a depressive state and not want to get out of bed. One of the ways I’ve learned to keep the anxiety at bay is to...

This week I just wanted to share a few designs with you I created that I really enjoyed. Not only did I really love the final result, but I had more fun in the creation process than I’ve had in a really long time. I wanted to make some animal prints, which is something I’ve avoided because I never really knew how to approach them. I take a more stylized approach to my work and I wasn’t sure how I’d go about making the print recognizable without tipping too far over into realism. But I decided...

One personal system I’m refining this year is how I stay focused and committed to my goals. I think we can all relate to that feeling of the “new year high” where we’re all in on working towards goals. But as the year goes on, we slowly disengage and forget about all the intentions we had at the start. This year I’m implementing a very simple system for staying engaged with my goals: Define a clear outcome—”what” I’m trying to achieve. Track my progress weekly. Define clear inputs—”how” I...

Last week I shared a review of my first year on Spoonflower. I love reflecting on the year and sharing the lessons, but I’d be lying if I told you that it wasn’t the scariest newsletter I’ve ever shared. I almost talked myself out of hitting the publish button multiple times. But I didn’t, mainly because of a quote I heard a few years ago by a psychologist named Carl Rogers— ‘What is most personal is most universal.’ I’ve generally found this to be true, that the more personal and vulnerable...