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Maybe I Was the Brand All Along: 10 Years of Rebranding and Still Figuring It Out
From print on demand to mental health, digital art, and now Substack. Maybe all those fresh starts were leading me somewhere. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself over the past ten years, it’s that I’m really good at starting over. And by starting over, I mean rebranding. A lot. New business names, new logos, new websites, new Etsy shops, new ideas. You name it, I’ve probably tried it. My creative business journey started back in 2016 with print on demand. I was a self-taught artist who loved the idea of turning my designs into actual products. Unfortunately, some of my early brands were reported and shut down, and…
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What Does Art Mean to You? Because I Don’t Think There’s One Right Answer.
Maybe art isn’t about creating something beautiful. Maybe it’s about creating something that makes you feel something. Here’s a little 3 AM thought I’ve been sitting with lately. What actually makes something art? Is it a beautiful painting hanging in a museum? A photograph that captures the perfect moment? A messy sketch in someone’s notebook? A poem written during one of the darkest periods of someone’s life? A digital illustration? An AI-assisted creation? Or maybe it’s something as simple as coloring in a coloring book after a mentally exhausting day. I’ve been creating art for most of my life, and the older I get, the more I realize something. Art…
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Is Print-on-Demand Still Worth It in 2026? I’m Not Giving Up Just Yet.
AI can generate a thousand designs before I finish my coffee. But does that mean there’s no room left for independent artists like me? Sometimes I wonder if I picked the worst possible time to be an independent artist. Here I am, a 30-something millennial who’s been creating art and building little online businesses since 2016, trying to figure out how to sell my creativity in a world where technology is moving faster than I can keep up with. And trust me, that’s saying something. One minute, we’re learning how to create digital artwork. The next, we’re opening Etsy shops, experimenting with print-on-demand, figuring out SEO, and trying to convince…
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What If One Day I Walk Into Work and See My Own Artwork on a Shelf?
Sometimes I wonder how far one little creative idea can actually go. And I don’t mean becoming famous. Or building some massive business. Or making thousands of dollars selling artwork online. Although, let’s be real, making some money from my creativity would definitely be nice. I’m talking about something a little simpler. Imagine walking into a store, going about your normal day, and suddenly seeing something you created sitting on a shelf. A greeting card. A sweatshirt. A piece of wall art. Something that started as a little drawing, a photograph, or a random idea inside your head. And now? It’s an actual product. In an actual store. That someone…
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I’m Still Learning to Take My Own Advice About Self-Care
Sometimes the reminders we give others are the ones we need to hear ourselves. There’s something strangely vulnerable about being the person who reminds everyone else to rest… while secretly forgetting how to rest yourself. And if I’m being completely real, I do this more often than I’d like to admit. I spend so much time writing about self-care, mental health, healing, boundaries, and learning to be kinder to ourselves. I create comforting reminders, write reflections, and make little pieces of art that I hope help someone feel less alone. But here’s the funny thing. Sometimes I’m the one who needs those reminders the most. I’ll write about slowing down…
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We Learned the Pythagorean Theorem, But Nobody Taught Us How to Adult
The 90s Kid Guide to Things School Never Prepared Us For Somewhere in my brain, taking up valuable storage space, is this: a² + b² = c². The Pythagorean theorem. I learned it in school, memorized it for a test, and somehow still remember it all these years later. Have I used it since graduating? Not that I can remember. But you know what I have needed? How to understand health insurance. How to build credit. How to file taxes without questioning my entire existence. How to budget when everything seems to cost approximately a million dollars. And how to be a functioning adult when I’m basically a permanently exhausted…
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The 90s Kid’s Guide to Rebuilding Your Life at Any Age
Because apparently adulthood comes with a reset button nobody told us about. Remember when we were kids in the 90s and the worst thing that could happen was losing all our progress in a video game because we forgot to save? Game over. You’d get frustrated, maybe throw the controller onto the couch, and eventually pick it back up and try again. Funny how starting over was perfectly normal back then. But now that we’re adults? Starting over somehow feels like failing. I’m 30, and I’m realizing that the life I imagined for myself growing up looks nothing like the life I’m actually living. I thought I’d have everything figured…
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A Millennial Trying Her Best-ish While Running an Online Business
Because apparently surviving adulthood wasn’t challenging enough, I decided to become my own boss… while still having a regular job. Remember when we were kids in the ‘90s and thought being an adult meant having everything figured out? A steady job. A house. Financial stability. Maybe a little extra money for fun things. Yeah. That was adorable. Fast-forward to my 30s, and here I am running an online business, working a regular job, managing multiple websites, creating digital products, designing artwork, building apps, and trying to remember whether I’ve actually eaten lunch. And somehow, I’m still wondering what I want to be when I grow up. Welcome to being a…
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Meet My Cozy Critters: Two Little Apps for Reflection, Creativity & Self-Care 🐾
Because sometimes we need to write our feelings out, and sometimes we just need to scribble them away. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about taking care of my mental health, it’s that self-care doesn’t always look the same. Some days, I need to journal. Other days, I need to pick up a pencil, draw something completely random, and let my creativity take over. And sometimes? I just need a cute little animal reminding me that I’m doing my best-ish. That’s part of why I created Cozy Critter Studio, my growing collection of cozy self-care and creative wellness apps. I’m an artist, a mental health advocate, and someone who believes…
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The Art of Changing With the Times: What It’s Like Being a Modern Artist in a Digital World
From traditional art and Polaroid cameras to digital creativity, artificial intelligence, and the internet — being an artist means learning to evolve without losing yourself. I’ve been thinking about how much the art world has changed. There was a time when creating art meant picking up a pencil, a paintbrush, or a camera and physically creating something with your hands. Photography meant film, Polaroids, darkrooms, and waiting to see how your pictures turned out. Graphic design meant working with physical materials, cutting, pasting, and carefully putting everything together. And if you wanted someone to see your artwork? You needed a gallery, a local exhibition, or someone willing to give your…
Everyone solves their life issues at 3AM right?!