A gathering in the Pennsylvania mountains to slow down, create, breathe, and return to yourself.
May 22, 2027 · Wellsboro, PA
The practice begins with one simple choice:
Stay.
I STAY is an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and begin a lifelong practice of relationship—with yourself, the living world, and what matters most.
It isn’t about doing more.
It’s about learning to return.
This morning I went outside to water the garden. The season is beginning to turn. There is still abundance everywhere—flowers,.....
There comes a moment when something you’ve lived with quietly leaves the studio and begins a life of its own......
There are some projects we create. And then there are some that quietly create us. I STAY began during a.....
We often speak of sacred space as a destination. But sanctuary is not a place you arrive at. It is.....
Back at the perfumer’s organ!
It’s been a while since I’ve brought you into this part of my atelier. Books, retreats, jewelry, and a whole lot of making have been happening around here.
Today I’m preparing for a Scent Sanctuary client.
A beautiful presentation box, an empty perfume bottle, and a blank page waiting for someone’s story.
After more than 25 years of botanical perfumery, I still love beginning without knowing exactly where we’ll end up.
That’s part of the pleasure of creating a perfume together.
Scent Sanctuary | A private bespoke perfume experience at Aromatic Traditions.
Details through my website.
Back at the bench.
Tiny drawings on porcelain. Nests, moths, ferns, birch trees, and little pieces of the Northwoods.
Today I’m assembling sterling silver settings, sorting components, and watching these drawings become jewelry.
There’s something pretty wonderful about seeing a drawing become an object you can wear.
A little look at what’s happening in the Aromatic Traditions studio.
Artifacts — made by hand, one at a time.
I mean… WHAT a birthday camping trip! 🍁❤️
67 trips around the sun, and Lake Superior decided to throw me an 80-degree October beach day. In Michigan. In OCTOBER! 😂
Lake of the Clouds dressed in its autumn finest. Wind in our hair. Bare feet in the water. Family adventures. Campfires after dark.
I couldn’t have ordered a better birthday weekend.
And thank you again for all the birthday love. Friends old and new, family near and far. My heart is full.
Here’s to another trip around the sun. Still curious. Still exploring. Still getting my feet wet. ❤️
My view on my 67th trip around the sun. 🍁❤️
Autumn colors, blue skies, my sweet Astro, and a little time to simply be.
Thank you for all the birthday love! So many beautiful wishes from friends old and new, and my family, too.
Feeling very loved. And grateful for every bit of it. ❤️
Meet the Vargabond. 😂
Our new-to-us pontoon boat.
Still recovering from COVID, so life is happening a little more slowly around here.
But today there was a new boat to meet, a little four-wheeling, and the Northwoods putting on its October show.
Turns out you don’t have to be fully recovered to notice how damn beautiful it is out there.
Good to be home. ❤️
Robert Plant. Suzi Dian. Flagstaff. 🤯
I don’t have anything profound to say.
Just WOW.
What an extraordinary night of music — inventive, intimate, wild, beautiful.
And getting to experience it here, in my old Arizona stomping grounds, with my dear friend Chris @ravenseyecreatives ?
Damn.
Some nights you just let yourself be completely alive. ❤️
One year.
I hardly recognize the woman on the left.
Not because she disappeared.
She carried me here.
In the year between these photographs, I created a retreat. Wrote and published a book. Developed scented watercolors. Learned to work with metal and began making jewelry. Painted. Made perfume. Made mistakes. Lost my footing. Found parts of myself I hadn’t known I’d lost.
There was family upheaval. Rupture. Grief. Healing. A whole lot of making. And a whole lot of learning what I could no longer carry.
The woman on the right is exhausted. 😂 She is on the final leg of another trip to Arizona after a very long year.
But look at her.
I don’t think this year made me a new person.
I think it made me more visible to myself.
When TSA apologizes for the extended inspection because they were looking at your jewelry. 😂
I’ll take it.
Five small observations, drawn by hand on porcelain, fired, set in metal, and joined around the wrist.
Apparently they invite a closer look.
I NOTICE.
Artifact 006 · Northwoods Observations
I noticed the colored pencils first.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s colored pencils, worn down from use.
And suddenly I was 22 again.
In 1982, after earning my BFA, I thought architecture might be my calling. I interviewed for the Taliesin Fellowship at Taliesin West. The process was unlike anything I had encountered. Architecture wasn’t separated from the rest of creative life. Music mattered. Making mattered. How you lived mattered.
I believe I met Olgivanna Lloyd Wright there.
I didn’t become an architect.
But standing at Taliesin in Wisconsin all these years later, I found myself looking at those pencils and wondering how much of that young woman actually came with me.
I still care about place.
I still care about materials.
I still want to understand how something belongs to its surroundings.
I still believe the way we make and the way we live aren’t entirely separate things.
Funny what a handful of worn colored pencils can return to you.
I NOTICE.
Happy. Tired. Ready.
Two weeks of going somewhere simply because I want to.
First, the Driftless.
Then home for a breath.
Then Flagstaff.
Art. Good food. Old friends. Music. Landscape. A little wandering. A lot of noticing.
I’ve worked hard this year. I’m ready to go receive some of the world now.
Off we go. ❤️
“Beautifully layered, engaging every sense.”
— Darcy, retreat participant
A glimpse from an earlier gathering.
Scent. Watercolor. Time to notice. Room to follow what draws your attention.
These experiences became part of the ground from which I STAY grew.
Next May, that practice returns with me to Appalachia.
I STAY Appalachia — A Sensory Practice of Return
May 22, 2027 · Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
Early registration is $325 through September 28.
Details and registration at the link in bio.
