Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

Heartfelt Valentine’s Finds

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With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s time to spread some love and celebrate the special people in our lives! Whether it’s your significant other, family members, or cherished friends, there’s no better way to show you care than with heartfelt finds.

Creating Heartfelt Creations

I’ve made some new creations around my favorite shape for the shop-hearts! Each heart-themed item I hope warms the hearts of loved ones.

I love how the heart design/shape is a quick way to represent love, kindness, and joy. For this Valentine’s Day, I hope you are inspired to celebrate love in your own unique way. Whether it’s a special gift you’ve found or a heartfelt DIY creation, every gesture counts to show love to those you care about.

3 Ways to Show Love Within a Family

As we are in our busy basketball season as a family, it feels like we are all going in different directions and just scrambling to keep up with schedules daily. Even in this season, I want to be intentional with showing my family they are important to me. Often it is little gift pick ups or adding their favorite snack to my groceries. It is also just going back to the basics, so let’s take these ideas listed below, as going back to the basics for both you and I.

  1. Express Gratitude: Say “thank you” and show appreciation for even the smallest acts of kindness or assistance. When I only have to ask one time for the trash to be taken out, that means a lot. In the same way, when we get the text that a kiddo is ready to be picked up from a team dinner, and my 16 year old jumps up to be the chauffeur without being asked…I am super thankful, so I say it.
  2. Help Out: Pitch in with household chores or tasks without being asked, showing that you’re willing to lend a hand and make life easier for everyone. All my kids/husband are way able to pack their own school/work lunches, but I still do it. I know it means something to them, and I have the time. I just have written into our family values that is my love letter to them everyday. They know it. I don’t write cute lunch box notes anymore, but the lunch itself is their note. 
  3. Share Laughter: Find moments to laugh together, sharing jokes, funny stories, or just enjoying each other’s company. Lazy weekend days are my favorites. I look forward to them. Matt and I are drinking coffee in what we call our “snow room” and one by one a kiddo wakes, slips in, and we just are hanging out as we start our day.

There’s no better feeling than spreading love and making someone smile. I hope you too are able to be find windows to be intentional with those you love this Valentine season. If you need a card or small gift to help you, I have some good ones listed online.

In it with you,

Erica

 

How to Embrace Winter’s Warmth

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Discover Cozy Crafting Delights

Embracing winter’s warmth can feel like a contradictory statement, yet it is possible! Want to know a secret of how to help with the winter blues!?  The answer is simple…yet not always easy. Create! Crafting during the winter months is more than just a pastime; it’s a gateway to warmth, creativity, and shared joy.

Three reasons why we should all be creating more right now:

1. Winter crafts bring an extra layer of coziness to our homes. Bonus: if you create something IN your home, you can enjoy it with all the extra time you are inside. I added some black paint to our TV console TODAY, as the picture above shows the final result.

2. From toddlers to adults, everyone can find joy in creating something beautiful. It’s a timeless activity that allows for self-expression fun! Check out my new kit in the shop for those sensory loving young artists.

3. Creating gives opportunities for meaningful connections. Whether it’s a family crafting night or a solo project by the fireplace, these moments foster connections, laughter, and shared memories. My eldest likes to create with pictures and videos. Did he go outside with me today in the negative temps for a photoshoot?? He DID! Running back inside the house was a fun moment. We now have a shared memory of this cold day.

To help make it easier for you to jump into creating, you can check out daily doses of my imagination here or pick up a craft kit for you or your artist in the shop!

In the spirit of sharing and creativity, I’m thrilled to announce that my “You” collection is now available for purchase online!  Maybe there is a reminder you need or one you know a friend needs. I hope the beauty and individuality captured in each piece can inspire and encourage you and your people.

I have been creating more, as I embracing winter’s warmth with all the colors and images in my head coming to life!

My little art room is my current happy place, so I am sure you can expect more creations from me to be listed real soon! Give it a try with me, and create something today!

In it with you!

Erica

New Year and NOT a New Me.

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Friends,

We did it. That week after Christmas when no one knows when it is and all the schedules are off in beautiful, messy ways. We did it.

It’s during this week between years that Matt and I traditionally go away for a weekend to process out the highs, lows, and complexities of the past year and dream/plan for the new year. This year, I will not forget sitting over tacos (and breaking my “low-histamine-only-foods” diet) crying about how 2023 was actually harder than my 2022. 

All the hopes for my new work, getting healthier habits, and being more present at home took me literally ALL year to make wake in.

  • Selling a course turned out not to be fulfilling work for me.
  • The stress of running a studio had taken more of a toll on my mind and body than I had given credit to. It was an untangling mess to sort.
  • My mind, work and time could not figure out the balance of fulfilling work + helping to pay for 3 kids in braces, a third car, and teens on our car insurance.

I knew I had closed our studio to be more present at home, yet I didn’t know how hard the mix of everything all together would be. 2023 was a doozy.

So, when I hear the phrase “new year, new me,” it kind of makes my skin crawl. I don’t want to be a new me. I don’t want to start over. Last year was hard, but I dug deep and I just want to continue the work.

Can you relate?

I want you to know that YOU are enough. Just as you are! Right here and right now… you are alive, breathing and a one of a kind masterpiece.

This year, at our goal planning weekend, was the first time in all our years of marriage that I had no business goals. No launching a store, studio, subscription kits, courses or workshops like there has always been in the past. It was really freeing.

What we all need is to feel confident that we have something to offer right now. It may just be a smile, a little extra kindness, the initiative to reach out, and be a connecting force to show others they matter too. I know I can do that without big business goals. I just need to show up as me. I will be sharing little one minute videos over on YouTube as daily doses of my imagination. This is just for fun, and if you need a little inspiration, I welcome you to follow along.

If you need a reminder, that you can keep going, with where you are in your journey too, I will be launching my “YOU” collection this Saturday in the shop. The pieces have been created to remind you and those you love that YOU MATTER. This is our year to continue to play, rest, heal, and grow. Cheering you on always.

In it with you,
Erica

The Stories We Tell

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A little over a week ago, I was pulling into my driveway, after going on my first ever business trip. I snapped this picture to remember all that I felt.

[I had just taken 4 flights in less than 48 hours, found myself driving an electric car solo for the first time in a new city, set up a table and shared all about Generous Coffee at a fun event, and felt extremely grateful for this life I get to live.]

I do work that I love and have a family I adore.

For the last year, I searched and tried new things, dabbled with different ventures, and wondered what was truly next. All the while, the stories I told were of what I use to do, the studio I had run, burn out, or how dreams change. As I was searching for more life, I did a lot of looking back and living in what was. I know it was all part of the healing and letting go process.

Our journeys can leave wounds. We all have them. They mark us.

As Jeff Henderson so perfectly said, “Wounds mark us for good when we learn from them, decide to shift to a different path, show ourselves grace, repent and change direction or choose to no longer be a victim or listen to our excuses.”

Get this, my new job….builds into non-profits. It gives all its profits away to help sustain amazing organizations fighting human injustices all over the world.

I loved the work I did, but I also love the work I do now. I don’t think I would be as good at what I do now, if I hadn’t done what I did before.

Life is a journey. We only ever get little views at a time, but how cool when we see how things build and connect.

Wherever you are in your journey today, I just want to gently encourage you that it is part of the bigger puzzle of your life. Each moment matters, yet nothing is forever.

So, buckle up and enjoy the ride. We get to do this thing called LIVING!

In it with you,
Erica

Ps. Now, you have officially been warned my emails may start to talk a lil about life changing coffee or gushing about my family’s ventures. Don’t worry, I will sprinkle in my latest creations and ways you can connect with me. Spoonful began as a side hobby and it is officially back to where it began.