31 Candles.

Birthdays are so weird. Especially in today's age of constant connectedness with cell phones and social media. Your phone goes off like crazy all day... calls, texts, 1000 Facebook alerts from people that you rarely hear from. Unexpected sweet messages. Unexpected, sweet phone calls that make you feel like you are doing something right. It's weird, but it's nice to have an excuse to feel important for a day.

Again on my birthday this year, I found myself thinking back to when I turned 29. That was the year that winter never really showed up, and on March 22 spring was in full bloom. I was working my 9-5 job, and was about to enter into a summer that I knew would change my life. I worked on my birthday, then went to my favorite cemetery afterwards to take pictures. (I know... Who spends their birthday alone in a cemetery, right?) I wandered around thinking about what was about to come: putting in my notice at work, leaving my job, embarking on my biggest (and possibly craziest) adventure yet. So many doubts had started to kick in at that point. This is one of my favorite photos that came out of that day:

Year 30 was a pretty big one for me. It's mind-boggling to sit here and think about all of the things that have happened. This was my first entire year of being a self-employed artist. My little Etsy shop is creeping towards 900 sales. Then will come 1000. It's truly astonishing to me, to think that weird little things I make in my studio are admired enough by people that they purchase them, and hang them in their homes. They give them as gifts. Sometimes people ask me to include little notes to the recipient, and being able to do something so personal and special is overwhelming. And that's my job? Wow.

This year I crossed some things off of my bucket list, including taking a road trip up the west coast. I had never even seen the Pacific Ocean before! My friend Amber and I flew into LA and made our way up Highway 1 to Portland. We saw the Hollywood sign (and oh yes, totally sang the Miley Cyrus song quietly in the back of our taxi), visited wine country, saw Big Sur, hiked in an Oregon forest, saw the Mrs. Doubtfire house in San Francisco... Made memories that will last a lifetime.

This year I got to travel with my family to New York to visit all of our extended family. It was the first time in years that all five of us went together - family road trip! That car ride brought back so many memories; we used to drive every summer from Springboro, Ohio to Schenectady to visit our family after we moved away from Syracuse. Then being in my Grandmas' houses is like being in a memory tornado. We have a big awesome family full of gifted story-tellers, so there is always laughter. Especially when my mom's brothers get together. Watch out.

I also went to the Outer Banks for the second year in a row with my brothers and their friends. This trip is also special to me because the first time I went, it was right after I quit my job. I packed up my office, left the building, and went straight to my brother's place and we started to drive. I could go on and on about the symbolism... but I won't ;)

The summer of my 30th year was one of the best summers of my life. Not because it was a constant party full of drinking and minor criminal mischief like the summers of my earlier 20's, but because I spent it taking little weekly adventures to take photos. Metro parks, state parks, gardens, arboretums - you name it. I sketched by the pool, I walked by the river at night. I lived slowly, and purposefully. Not just letting the days go by, but being sure to live all of them. And never forgetting to be grateful that I am doing what I love.

This year I also opened my heart to someone, for the first time in ages. It was kind of a weird crazy whirlwind: two completely different people living two completely different lives. When it came down to it, we actually had next to nothing in common except for this electric attraction to each other. There's this old Indigo Girls song that says, "The dice were loaded from the start. And I bet... And you exploded into my heart." It's a pretty terrible song (although I do love the Indigo Girls), but those words sum up this situation so well. These situations tend to end badly, and this one definitely did. And I am definitely still reeling from it, trying to process everything that happened, and sort through everything that I am feeling. As much as it sucks right now, I don't regret a thing.

This year I traveled to Chicago a bunch of times to visit my friend Amber. The local photo lab that processed and printed all of my photos closed its doors. (Shoutout to Cord Camera on 5th Avenue in Grandview. You guys were awesome to me. Thank you.) I saw two wonderful friends get married (okay... I saw the reception because I missed my flight which caused me to miss the wedding). I got through my first big Etsy holiday rush. My microwave exploded when I was standing five feet away from it. Someone tried to break into my apartment for the first time ever - when I was home too! I designed a tattoo for a friend I met through Etsy. My work was published in a book for the first time. I experienced my first case of crappy internet backlash about my work - and I survived it, let it go, and moved on.

It's crazy to think about. One year.

And now I can't stop wondering what this year will bring. It is starting off pretty awesome, with a cruise for my mom and I in April! We both have never been on a cruise before and are super excited; we'll be visiting Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Honduras. All new places for me. Spring is taking its sweet time this year, but I think that yesterday was the last of the snow that we will see, and today looks like it may be the last bitterly cold day. I cannot wait to be able to work with the windows and my patio door open.

Speaking of work. I've been doing a lot of it lately, and will end with the last creations of my 30th year:

"A Skilled Sailor"

"Divenire"

"Scattering Stars Like Dust"

"Snow Jar"

"The Universe Was Ours"

"Moon Garden"

"Wild Hearts (Can't Be Broken)"

Finding Beauty In A World of Gray

Whoa. It's been a while since I've written a blog post. This time of year is so bleak; I get swept up in it and spend too much time dreaming of warmer days rather than living in the moment. January and February are admittedly my least favorite months. It seems like the world has no color, the sun seldom shines, and days spent outside are some kind of faraway dream.

This part of winter just sucks.

But... there's also something about it that makes us think of bigger things. Fantasize about warmer days. There is this hope that comes in the spring, when the world starts to thaw and bloom and breathe.

I've been completely lost in my own thoughts lately, to the point that when I'm driving I've completely passed my destination, I've spent almost an hour wandering the grocery store only to leave with one thing (wine, usually), and today I accidentally maced myself. Yeah. That actually happened.

Life is so funny, how it unfolds itself to us. I remember being in 12th grade English class, with everyone talking excitedly about graduation and college. One week early in the year, the guidance counselor set up a desk outside the door and called us out one by one, to talk about college plans, what we wanted to major in, what we wanted to do with our future.

I had no clue. I knew I wanted to go to Ohio State. Major? Yeah right. Absolutely no idea. It seemed like everyone else knew... they wanted to be a teacher, or a physical therapist, or an attorney. I felt like some kind of freak, like I was the only one who didn't know.

But life unfolded for me the way it was supposed to, and after a wild few years of bartending after college, then a miserable few years of a desk job following that, I am where I'm supposed to be. I found my way. And we all do somehow. We just have to trust our instincts, keep moving forward, keep doing what feels right in the moment. In the end it will lead us where we are supposed to be.

Finding love seems to be unfolding the same way for me... an unknown journey that differs from everyone else's.

I thought a lot about that while wandering through Three Creeks Metropark today. After weeks of being buried in snow, temperatures warmed up this week, everything started to melt, and once again we could see the grass. Today the weather called for 55 and sunny. My cabin fever was seriously at fever-pitch. Time for one of the mini adventures that I live for in the warmer months.

There's still snow and ice. There's mud everywhere. The landscape is a muted mix of brown and gray. But today the air smelled sweet and the sun felt magical. I started walking with no map, purposely getting lost, and felt like I could breathe again.

I've never dangled my feet off of a dock over a frozen lake. Lately I have these dreams about sitting on the end of a dock with someone, a man. We are dipping our feet in icy water, and the sky above us is just exploding with stars. I have no idea who he is, but in the dream, I am head over heels in love with him.

No one else was braving the muddy and often flooded unpaved trails but me (story of my life haha), and the complete solitude of being the only human being in the woods was energizing. Good thing I wore boots, because the mud was not messing around.

At one point I crossed a bridge, and there was a couple standing on it together. Hugging so tight that you couldn't fit a piece of paper between them. Just looking out at the water, the muddy, gross brown water, and smiling. They matched my thoughts. I wanted that. I wanted to be doing the same thing with someone. I almost asked to take their picture, but felt shy about it and didn't want to seem like a creeper.

I probably stared at this frozen puddle for ten minutes. Good thing no one else was around to call the men in white coats. It just looked like a weird martian world or something. It was beautiful.

Little moments, frozen in time. Kind of like memories.

Finding love has never been my forte. Pretty much any situation that even somewhat resembles a relationship that I get into results in disaster. After this happened a few too many times for my liking, I just gave up on it. I wanted to find myself, my purpose in this random world that we are all living in. No time for anyone else.

I always think back to high school. I swear half of my graduating class married each other. All the people who told the guidance counselor with such affirmation what they wanted to do with their lives, at age 18. They had jobs two months after graduating college, were married a year after that, and had kids a year later. At age 25, so many people were settled into a one-way track that was never going to deviate.

I never wanted that.

But it's funny... Now that I have figured out what I want to be doing, and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's the right thing, I want someone to share it with.

I was seeing this guy for a while. I guess that's what it's called. Seeing. (Remember I'm not good at this.) From the very beginning, I felt hesitant to go all-in. Spending time with him was great and he was warming me up to all of these ideas that I had previously locked up and threw away the key. But there was something holding me back.

Turns out there was a very solid reason, a very solid something, causing those feelings... which I found out about months after we had been seeing each other. It was something that made me realize what I was, what I wasn't, and what I probably never would be to him. But after finding that out, and after three days of misery, a steady diet of nothing but wine, and blasting November Rain (it happened in November) on repeat, I sent a text. And we kept on seeing each other.

Sometimes you just have to do what feels good. Even if it doesn't make sense. If it feels good, just go with it. Just be sure to keep an open mind and pay attention.

And again, life has unfolded in the weird, mysterious way it always seems to for me. Because now I have realized that I want more. All of the things I have sworn off in the past: putting all of your faith into one person, opening up to someone unabashedly, letting someone pay for my dinner. I want that. I want a partner in crime. Someone to go on random adventures with, whether that be hikes in the mud or a random trip to Belize. I want someone who I will fight fiercely for, and he will do the same for me. Someone to talk about everything and nothing with. Someone to walk to the edge of the world for. Someone to travel with world with.

Am I jumping on match.com in order to expedite this process immediately? No way. But the fact that my mind is now open to letting someone inside has already made the world even more exciting. Maybe I'll go to the store and find love in the frozen food section. Who knows. I think my mom is even more excited about this idea than I am. We are going on a cruise together in April and she said, "Maybe you will find him on the ship!" That would be awesome. Because I want a story. It's amazing to me that someone could be out there right now, and we are living not knowing that each other exists.

I keep seeing the ice and snow melting as this big metaphoric thing.

Also... the recent passing of Valentine's Day and seeing a romantic love story with my friend Lizzie (we have a Valentine's Day tradition - we spend it together) has only fueled the fire to these feelings. And now spring is coming?? I am completely swept up in the thoughts of a reckless summer love. Even if it ends in disaster. I just want to try. 

There's this song called San Francisco by a band called The Mowgli's, and it starts out like this:

I've been in love with love
And the idea of something
Binding us together
You know that love is strong enough
And I've seen time tell tales 
about that systematic drug
Yeah, that heart that beats as one
It's collectively, unconsciously composed.

That's exactly how I am feeling right now. 25 days until spring, and I could not be more excited about what lies ahead.

Holiday Sale AND Giveaway!

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this beautiful snow! And hopefully it doesn't tangle up travel plans too terribly bad. Just wanted to share that I am having both a sale in my Etsy shop AND a giveaway on my Facebook page. The sale is for 20% off of your entire order, and the giveaway is for a beautiful 16 x 20 stretched canvas print of Wanderbloom. So if you want to try to score a free Christmas gift, head on over and tag yourself in the image.

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed Thanksgiving :)

Oregon's Hobbit Trail: A Real Enchanted Forest.

I have been daydreaming about my experience here since the moment I left. The Hobbit Trail, a hidden gem of a hiking trail on the Oregon coast between Florence and Yachats, is a truly magical place: covered by a canopy of trees, blanketed in moss, and completely filled with wonder. As soon as you enter the forest, you feel incredibly small in the presence of something so wondrous. The winding, mossy trail leads you through about a million breathtaking places before spilling out onto an even more breathtaking private beach.

I have a hard time picking a favorite place/activity/experience on the road trip my friend Amber and I took from LA to Portland up the Pacific Coast, but this very well may be it.

Curious about what it feels like to walk through a place that looks like something out of a dream? Come relive the magical journey with me:

The view to the left shortly after entering the forest. This second trail goes to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. I was immediately overwhelmed with the lush surroundings.

The path is soft with things that look like pine needles, and you can barely hear your own footsteps. You immediately feel a sense of being so small in such a magnificent place.

The trail starts to take on the feeling of being inside of a tunnel, where the sides and top are made from plants, trees, and moss.

The entire time you are following the path, you can hear the crashing waves from the ocean.

Moss covers everything. I have never seen so much green in my life.

Trees take on a whole new life with their mossy coverings.

Plants growing recklessly. So beautiful.

After a very gently ascent at the beginning of the trail, you start to descend once you get closer to Hobbit Beach. I was pretty much waiting for a hobbit to come down this staircase after me.

Sunlight peeking through the towering trees.

The path starts to open up, revealing spectacular mossy landscapes.

More light starts to shine onto the trail as you near where the edge of the forest hits the beach.

A crazy, gnarly tree that sits right in the middle of the path.

Very close to the beach, more and more light starts to leak in.

Once the path opens up, you can really explore the forest. We found this spot, where someone had camped the night before. Not a bad view.

There are a couple of ways to get to the beach that we saw... both of which involve jumping into little ditches lined by tree roots and covered with bramble, like a little tunnel. Seriously, where are the hobbits?!

You turn around to see the little hole you just exited from real quick, and it looks like this.

Then you turn to the beach and see this.

And this.

Then you turn to your right and see this.

When you get up close to explore the cliffs, they are completely covered with living little words. There are waterfalls everywhere. The sound is unimaginably beautiful.

I was so sad to leave the beach, but wandering back into this magical forest and walking the trail all over again fixed that pretty quick :)

If you are going to be on the Oregon Coast any time soon, please, do yourself a favor, and stop by this magical place. The hike is super easy and would be great for kids or dogs, and is fairly short... which gives you lots of time to explore. It's kind of tricky to find, so here are some tips:

-The Hobbit Trail is located off of Highway 101 about six miles north of Florence, Oregon.

- The trail head is on the west side of Highway 101. There is a parking pull-out on the east side of the highway, so just park there, cross the road, and you will find it.

-The Carl C. Washburne State Park sign is a great landmark to use. The Hobbit Trail is just south of the sign; you can see the sign from the parking pull out. If you pass the sign in your car heading north, you have gone too far. If you are heading south, you will see the parking pull out on your left shortly after the sign.

-After you take a few steps into the forest, you will see signs for Hobbit Beach and the Heceta Head lighthouse. This means you are in the right place.

My last tip is to bring a camera or at least bring your cell phone so you can take pictures. You will not be disappointed: this place is like a little slice of heaven :)

It's November!

Wow. It really is... and the amount my heat is running all of a sudden proves it. The trees are starting to look bare, there is frost on the grass in the morning, the Hershey's Kiss holiday commercial (where the kisses ring like bells... you know that one) has reared its festive head.

I feel like the days since we got back from our road trip have flown by. I haven't been taking any pictures unfortunately, because either 1) the TSA deemed my camera battery charger to be unsafe in my checked luggage and removed it, or 2) someone working for the TSA or Southwest Airlines helped themselves to a camera battery charger. Lame. I've been too annoyed about it to look into how much a replacement costs. Pretty sure someone stole it. Sometimes I wonder how dishonest people sleep at night.

I've had a massive list of ideas sitting on my studio table since the middle of summer, and this week I pretty much started attacking it. Maybe it's the upcoming holiday season that has me super motivated. Or the fact that this is going to be my first real taste of a holiday rush in my shop; last Christmas it was still a baby with a pretty small inventory... this week I went over 400 items. I'm hoping for absolute madness and nights that I'm up until 4am, printing and packing orders, like one of Santa's elves or something. We will see what happens.

Aside from 9000 photos from the trip, these new prints have been added to my inventory:

"Beware of Artists," featuring a quote that was the subject of an internet hoax, and one I am a huge fan of. Prints available HERE.

"The Fix." Prints available HERE.

"Choose Joy." Prints available HERE.

"Elven Girl." Prints available HERE.

"I Like Cats," an idea that's been in my head forever and modeled after the Le Chat Noir poster :) Prints available HERE.

"Under the Stars," further feeding my map obsession. Prints available HERE.

"Love Them Anyway," a beautiful quote by the amazing Mother Teresa. Prints available HERE.

"Run Wild, My Child," created soon after returning from our road trip. The world is meant to be seen :) Prints available HERE.

"You Are A Soul," a quote often misattributed to C.S. Lewis. I love it. Prints available HERE.

Seriously I don't know what is up with the surge of creative energy but I cannot seem to stop making things and I do not want it to stop! 

Sidenote: is it too soon to start decorating for Christmas? After receiving a genius tip from my friend Amber, I went to Kohl's on Saturday and their Christmas things were 50% off, and of course I had a coupon soooooo things got a little crazy. Seriously. Can I start?

Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the fall :)