In Spring 2025, in an effort to literally touch grass, be social, and give back, I joined my community garden. I have always wanted to be a part of a community garden, and I threw myself into it 100%. I learned that I love growing cucumbers; I grew my own lemon balm for my spell candles; I held a journal-making workshop, a Halloween party, and a free food pantry for the neighborhood.

This year has seemed rougher than last. More aggressive mosquitoes, fewer community work days, and more abandoned plots, but still I came almost every day with my son in hand. I had a wall this year covered in cucumber vines. My plot overflowed with sweet potatoes and cherry tomatoes, hibiscus, kale, and basil. I was so happy I would walk there in the evenings just to calm my busy mind.

This past Tuesday I went to pick my cucumbers and found that someone had cut down my cucumbers, torn out my sweet potatoes, and stomped the rest of the plants into the soil. It was just me, just my plot; only my vegetables were destroyed.

What happened next was a whirlwind. I do not have adequate words for the feeling of someone purposely destroying 6 months of my work, food no less, on purpose. I found out I was targeted by someone in the local community; no, I don’t know why.

I have been in a lot of online communities over the years. The Art Journaling community itself has taught me some rough lessons in what it means to be kept on the outside, to be siphoned of creative energy, to be used as content fodder under the guise of “inspiration”. What allowed me, or what allows me, to move past that energy quickly is the fact that those are “online” people. Some whose faces I have never even seen.

To have someone you see every day in person violently destroy your work, and to have a community that is supposed to have your back lie and gaslight you is - something else.

So this week I have found myself to be the outsider again, not wanted in a space that I adored and nurtured. I know I have changed because there is a time when this would have broken me completely. I am sad; I am grieving the safety of my greenspace and my little part of the garden.

This time I am okay with knowing that I don’t fit in. I do not want to be among people who would do something like this to another person. The saying “rejection is protection” comes to mind at this moment. I will continue to make beautiful things for the internet even if people copy, steal, and leave nasty comments. I will replant new things and grow a new garden as well.

I will rise again and again.

This is my monthly works in progress post. A place for me to check in on where I am at with my various ongoing projects. Feel free to use this and the comment section as your own place to check in on your own projects.

Welcome to the first installement of my “Works in Progress” series. A lot of my current progress are connected together via the novel I am working on. I love exploring different mediums and creating different visual worlds for one idea/ concept has been really rewarding for me! I will share all of these projects in more detail in corresponding posts!

THE DOLLHOUSE

I call this a dollhouse, but it is more of an iridescent rainbow castle. I have wanted to make a dollhouse out of recycled materials for a long time, and this one has been a labor of love since about February. Progress on it has stalled because I got wrapped up in other things, but it is one of my goals to have it completed by the end of the year. This photo is how it looks currently from the back, where the “rooms” are.

Here is a photo of it in its original state before plaster and paint:

MY NOVEL

We will call my novel “L&W” as a working title for now. I have been quietly developing this story for almost 4 years, and I feel very protective of it. However, because the writing is so fragmented at this time, I am adding it to the list because I want to hold myself accountable for putting it into a real manuscript form.

My process is unconventional, to say the least, and I will be sharing more of it with my paid subscribers on a bi-weekly basis.

I am hoping to have my novel 1st draft done by May 2026 (if not sooner).

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THE ALTAR EGO PT.2: FUTURE ME

I have not made a big art journaling class in a couple of years, and I am very excited about this one. The Altar Ego was a class that I made for Art For A Spell that is near and dear to my heart, but I wanted to revamp and expand the ideas behind it to create something new. This class will be released on , but I will share some of my process for creating it here. I am hoping to have the first videos for that class ready and posted in September.

WAIT ON ME BOOK

If you have been following me on Instagram, you know I have been working on this album-turned-art book for a couple of weeks now. In reality, I have been trying to make this thing for months. I played with at least three different layouts before settling on my old favorite: The accordion book. This project has been a real lesson for me in not getting in my own head about what I am doing. I care about it so much and want it to look as good as I know that it can. Putting unnecessary pressure on myself over a project that I made up in my head is kind of my specialty.

I am happy to say that I have finished the bases and covers for both sides of the book and am taking my time to go in and work on all of the details. The base of the book being finished has alleviated a lot of pressure for me, because now I can just focus on the details, which are my favorite part.

My goal is to have this done by September 6th, which is the 1-year anniversary of the Kai concert that changed my life.

I am excited to finish out the year with these projects and look forward to reporting back to you next month with my progress!

This might be a controversial topic, but I truly believe that there is no such thing as bad or ugly art. Simply put: Just because you don’t like something does not make it “bad". That is an opinion. Art is vast and encompasses many mediums. Mastering a technique does not make your art “good,” and playing around or experimenting does not make your art “bad”. Being “good” at art in a technical sense does not always have any bearing on whether your art is aesthetically pleasing or not.

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The art-making community has seen a rise in the “make bad art” narrative in the last few years. Instructors and craft club leaders are motivating you to post your “ugly art”. I know this is a call to release perfectionist tendencies and just “get to creating”, but I feel that negative connotations around calling things “bad” and “ugly” do more harm than good.

Words have meaning and weight. I believe that entering into an art-making session with the intention of making art that is “ugly” is just a barrier to creative greatness. Art is all about perspective. Your mess-making could be someone else’s creative inspiration wake-up call.

Art-making can regulate the nervous system and help you process hard experiences and emotions. It is not something that ever needs to be shared unless you choose to, so believing your art is beautiful and worthy is an important part of the process, as it can help you understand that you yourself are beautiful and worthy as well.

When sharing my own art techniques online, I often get the comment that my art is “good for kids”. I used to take this as a low-key dig, but now I take it as a compliment because children create without fear. They will try anything; they get messy, and they do not overthink what they are doing because they are embodying my personal mantra: “The Magic is the Making”. People use “good for kids” as a backwards way to say my work is unserious, but why do I need my work to be serious? My artwork has as much power and meaning in it as I choose to give it. My opinions of my work and process only really matter to me. Those who resonate with my artistic choices will find me when I choose to put my work out into the world.

This is a reminder that art is subjective and you should keep making it, even if it doesn’t look exactly how you imagined it would. It is still “good”; it is still worthy of being seen and appreciated, just as you are worthy of being seen and appreciated.