Last week, I had the opportunity to spend a morning at Autophoto for an exclusive museum tour and lomography workshop. The experience was offered to just 25 people (first come, first serve), and I was lucky enough to catch when the RSVP went live and snag a spot.
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Recess in Cape May
On Friday, I took a solo day trip down to Cape May to celebrate the first official day of summer. I spent the last day of summer there last year - and I’ve been yearning to go back ever since. It’s one of my favorite places. Every time I go, I never want to leave. What better way to kick off the season? It also felt like the perfect pre-game to season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty. Cue This Love by Taylor Swift. 😏
I started off the day at Higbee Beach to create some content (photo and video) for Recess. They gifted me a sampler pack of their magnesium & adaptogen infused sparkling water and gave me an affiliate code to share. Use code “amyventures” for a 15% discount.
https://app.devotion.club/brand/recess/amyventures
**I make a small commission off every sale made through this link with my code, so think of it as a little way to support me / this project (and also stock up on some fun non-alcoholic drinks for the upcoming holiday / summer season)! 💫
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Cemetery Season: Poetry Month + The Grief of April
I’ve always associated the start of spring with what I have called “cemetery season” for as long as I can remember. My family always gets together around this time of year and visits relatives buried in both NY and PA. The tradition is known as “Hong San” and is associated with the Chinese tomb-sweeping “QingMing” festival. My mom always vaguely refers to it as “the Chinese holiday” (and we have never once called it the QingMing festival). For me, it was always just an association with the season - always occurring sometime after the first day of spring but before Easter.
We plant flowers, set out food, and burn incense. After my uncle passed away from COVID (three years ago this month… just days before his 60th birthday), I also started painting rocks and bringing those to leave on top of the tombstones, too. It was something I had started doing for myself during the pandemic (as a way to process trauma and grief) - and now has become something I do annually for this occasion, too.
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Creating In Community
The last couple weekends have had my creative spirit feeling so completely warm and fuzzy - especially after such a long / cold winter! I can feel myself… defrosting? Don’t get me wrong - winter “hibernation” fosters the creative process too (in a different way).. but there is something about springtime - the warmer weather, the additional sunlight… it feels like an awakening of sorts.
Last Sunday, I ventured down to a sweet little boutique called Wull & Oak in Hopewell (NJ) and learned how to shibori dye with food scraps in a workshop taught by Earthencolor.
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Pet Portraits!
I’m excited to introduce my latest self-initiated creative project: custom painted pet portraits! The last time I felt this invigorated about launching a new thing of mine was probably when I launched my beach plastic greeting cards.. so it has been awhile. Years, as a matter of fact. It feels good to feel like I’m finally finding that good creative energy again. I’ve missed it.
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Kindness Rocks
Hi, and happy Earth Day! It’s been a full year since I last wrote in this space. I’ve recently had the urge to start blogging again, but after “falling off the wagon” with it for so long - I haven’t really known quite how to pick it back up again.
A lot has happened in the last year, but I don’t want that to be the focus of this post. In short, I had my first mental breakdown last summer (that involved weeks of panic attacks, hospitalizations, medications, therapy..) and has been followed by months of PTSD / flashbacks / self doubt, etc. To say I felt like I had hit the ultimate rock bottom would be an understatement. Some day, maybe I’ll write more in depth about it all - but for now I’ll leave it at that.
For me, it has been really weird to still be in the process of healing from “fresh” personal trauma while also being faced with the new (global scale) trauma of a pandemic. I’ve just been taking it day by day - and leaning into living slow — and lots of art making.
Today’s post is about the kindness rocks project / movement - which just felt right as a returning blog post topic - all things considered. You can read more about the project on their website if you’ve never heard about it before.
Their mission: