.happy 2019.

2018 was a year of unexpected journeys that took me from the northeast to the southeast and the northwest - known + unknown places offering new lessons and new layers of awareness. Every time I became tired and confused and frustrated it seemed like the universe whispered "stay open" and and asked "what are curious about?"

As I transition into 2019 the potential is based on the ability of letting go of these boxes I put myself in and allow myself to tune into my voice and listen to who I am becoming.

As for AEO, this past year I spent much more time teaching than making and it felt nourishing to connect with and guide aspiring metalsmiths begin to craft their voice into the language of metal. I also made two brooch series translating places into metal, learning how to capture a moment - tell a story - hold a place.

Thank you for being a part of this unknown + beautiful unfolding. Happiest of 2019 to you and yours!!

.july.

I spent most of July traveling. There are places that feel extra special in certain seasons/months/transitions but I love summer everywhere. 

I left the hot muggy summer thunderstorms of Western North Carolina for the arid summer heat and wildfires of Central Washington. I grew up in Central Washington but having spent many summers now in humid heat and it struck me this time going back the way dry heat radiates from the earth. On a hike in the sage hills I could feel the heat radiating from the dusty cracked earth, heating me from the feet up. 

I travelled to my favorite lake - bathing in the crisp crystal clear alpine lake, saw the dense smoke from wildfires across the hillsides and went to my favorite hikes collecting sagebrush. It always feels like home, the pulse of land is the strongest there.

The next stop was Boston for a few days to teaching a jewelry workshop. The city felt so loud and chaotic after time in the quiet vast west. I was thankful for the fun of summer nights biking thru Harvard Square with girlfriends and also the reminder of the space I need to feel free. After the weekend workshop I headed north for a week long camping adventure staring in Southern Maine and ending in New Brunswick. 

I’ve been curious to explore Acadia for the past 3 summers, but timing was never right. It’s July and the chaos of the tourism season is in full swing but it was beautiful and wild. A new rugged Maine I’d wanted to meet. 

We hiked as many trails as possible, swam in the freezing ocean and forage for wild blueberries. I can’t wait to go back sometime in the Fall when it’s a little less chaotic.

The surprise of the trip was New Brunswick, Bay of Fundy to be exact. En route driving thru the city of Saint John the fog was so thick we couldn’t see anything but a small patch of road in front of us so when we finally arrived to Fundy National Park the lush wilderness, rugged coastline and the 55 foot tide drop leaving inlets dry at low tide felt so dramatic. We could’ve stayed a week without running out of things to see. Each part of the park offers different landscapes and flora. One hike paralleled the Salmon River, it’s wide open pebble beaches felt like Montana or Idaho. Another hike follow the coastline with fern lined paths and amazing rocky lookouts felt like the Oregon Coast and at low tide exploring the ocean floor I found the most perfect flat and smooth red jasper! I was daydreaming about buying a small cottage near there and taking morning walks to gather stones and inspirations before an afternoon in a studio with an ocean view. Sigh.

The last night was spent at Cobscook Bay in Northern Maine. It was the most peaceful state park I’ve ever stayed at. The sites are isolated and peaceful, most you have to drive down a long driveway before it opens up to the site. We enjoy a totally secluded site sheltered in trees and surrounded by the bay on 3 sides. The low tide was dramatic, totally emptied out the cove at low tide leaving only the cracking sound of clams and a few birds pecking in the muddy ocean floor. 

I’ve mostly spent time in Southern Maine but really loved the wildness of Northern Maine, it felt like a new perspective on the state. 

I’m back in North Carolina already missing my dear ones and counting down for another camping adventure before summer is over.

.make time to visit.

I'm out west in the arid foothills of the cascade mountains, my hometown. I've been going on daily walks in my favorite places. I cherish so many corners of this place - the colors + textures and the knowing of a place so deeply. 

Three days ago I went on a hike and looked at a sagebrush I remembered collecting sage from years ago. Yesterday, I went on a hike and remembered my favorite patch of winter blooms from a visit last year. Today I walked next to the Columbia river and remembered hot summer days of kayaking thru inlets and that cove where the sparrows sit in the high trees and squak so loud it drowns out the sound of traffic that echoes of the empty field next to the trail. Maybe it's because I travel so much that there is such a richness to visit these dear places, again and again or maybe it's just the connection I have to here because it's the land that raised me. 

I'm so grateful for it - this land feeds me. It taught me how to have a relationship with land. I walk these special corners with such gratitude of the colors + textures + sounds. 

Do you have places you visit? Where are there? Are they places you've known forever or are they new? 

.what is the Universe whispering to you.

My sister was telling me about an article today that was titled, what is the Universe whispering to you? Tonight I went on a walk into the trees as dusk was setting in. I started the walk quickly - moving forcefully as if trying to free myself from something. Then the question came back to me, what is the Universe whispering to you? I started to walk slower to listen to the soft stream below - the gentle chirps of distant birds and felt the awareness of the air getting damper and colder - the autumn night settle in and then I heard: 

Be true to myself

Root myself

Love myself fiercely

Live slower

More being less doing

I kept walking into the darkness and repeated what I had heard a few times. I started to see the truth and also the pattern that when I start to find myself uprooting I find myself reacting which leads to doing more than being which leads to being more uprooted. 

So grateful for those tiny whispers and the clarity that always comes from a walk in the forest.

What is the Universe whispering to you? 

.where I'm from.

A few weeks ago I went back to Washington, my home state for a few days for a dear friends' wedding after a year and that was only for 2 days so it's really been 2 years since I have spent a good amount of time in Washington. I was excited to see what it felt like to be in Washington. What would the year on the East Coast feel like - would I feel/see the difference in my reflection against the PNW background?

I did. It felt different. It felt quiet. There was a solitude, which felt big and a little lonely to my east coast layers. Then we went for a hike up castle rock and there it was - that feeling - that energy - that belonging. If there's anything that reminds me of where I am from it's those desert hues of the sage foothills. Maybe it's not my home but those are the hills that raised me - the hills that taught me to feel inspirations - the hills that calm me - the hills I use to whisper my secrets to - the hills that fill my soul with the urge to create - those hills are my cleansing ocean wave in the the arid inland terrain.

What gives you that urge? Overflows your soul? Energizes your whole being? Where do you find that? I'd love to hear!!

.the road home.

The road home - over the mountains down into the valley.

.sage hills.

This bitter cold of New England winter has made me ache for the rolling hills and valley of Central Washington, home. It's strange and beautiful that no matter how many places I visit/discover/experience it's always Central Washington that feels like home. It hasn't always been like that. There was an awareness/connect that settled into me from my time in Malawi, so many things were given to me in Malawi. A time to connect with the place I was living. When I returned to Washington after the land felt different - I felt connected to the hills - I needed to spend time on those hillsides. When I was in El Paso I had the same urge - I would go to mountains whenever I could - getting lost on a trail in the Franklin Mountains which gave me air and space but not the clarity. This year has found me out east in Boston and it fits for now. It is giving me so much in it's own way - giving me a lessons that can only come from a city but this long cold winter (it snowed last night!!)  has made me really miss Washington. 

I am an artist and I process my emotions though creating - leading me to my latest collection of jewels, Sage Hills. Each piece of this collection holds an element of that land and those beloved sage hills.

-----------------

That hot dry sun with a gentle breeze

Looking down on the valley with the river 

flowing through the land

The hollow echoes of open space

With a gentle smell of sage

A stark - simple loneliness

A freedom - no expectations

Open faced and openhearted

Pulsing earth

With stories to be hear

Slow down

Connect

------------------

Be sure to check out the new wares in the aeo etsy shop.

.live your questions.

“…be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.

“And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you win then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

~Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet

------------------------

pictures from a trip to the north cascades a few years ago. swoon. i love the north cascades.