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Let Me Guide You to Lead a Creative Wanderlust Life
I’ve been thinking long and hard about my business goals for this year, and have decided to double down on why I started this work to begin with! While thumbing through multiple journals from my past, I kept seeing ideas I had put down when I first started Wanderlust Designer 9 years ago after transitioning from my thriving party/stationery business to illustration & travel. Many of my ideas have come to fruition that I couldn’t be more proud of (authoring and illustrating 4 books, with 1 more on the way; countless illustrations licensed with big named companies; teaching numerous classes online and in real life) yet many more are just waiting…
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Creative Wanderlust Adventure: Favorite Holiday Foods
What are your favorite foods to bake, cook, or more importantly EAT at the holidays? We do have some family food traditions we love to make around the holidays. Cracked Dungeness crab is always a favorite. Served with San Francisco sourdough bread and a big salad… it’s definitely a crowd pleaser. Another San Francisco dish we often make around this time of year is the American/Italian fisherman’s stew, Cioppino. This stew is also very tasty with a sourdough baguette. It’s the perfect tool to to mop up the soup! On the sweeter side, I always love my mom’s steamed persimmon pudding. It’s served warm and drizzled with either cream or a side of vanilla ice cream. Delicious!…
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Creative Wanderlust Community: Open House #1 – Decorate a Holiday Village
I am still reveling in the first Creative Wanderlust Community Open House held the other week, and excited to share the holiday village we decorated! It was a wonderful turnout of old friends and new. I pulled out all my art supplies from watercolor pencils to brush pens; glitter glue to crayons and gave everyone the option of decorating a pre-made building/home or drawing their own. I couldn’t of been more impressed how everyone dove in and got busy creating! The colorful village came to life before our eyes. I couldn’t help but think of that proverb, “it takes a village…” Although that specific sentiment is about raising children, it also reminds…
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Creative Prompt: Draw and Tell the Stories of Your Holiday Ornaments and Decorations
Ever since I was a little girl, my mom has kept a wonderful tradition of giving my siblings and I an ornament every year. Typically the ornaments are from a trip my parents have been on or memory from that year. Some of the ornaments were even ones she and I made together (i.e., salt dough ornament in the below photo.) Once we were out on our own, my mom gave us all our ornaments so we could decorate our own tree. That first tree I had in my tiny studio apartment in San Francisco was filled with a lifetime of memories. It was magical! I knew at that moment I would carry on this…
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Creative Prompt: Take a Seat at the Kids Table
It’s that time of year, the extended holiday time where we sit down as a family and share delicious food, stories, and gratitude… Oh wait, before I go any further, time to edit the above… For many, many Thanksgivings and holidays, we didn’t always sit together at one big table as an extended family. We had a “kids’ table.” Even when I was a little girl, there was a kids’ table at Thanksgiving. Back then, it felt like being put in the penalty box, like this is where the misfits go, as they can’t conduct an adult conversation and/or just aren’t interesting enough. Once I had kids of my own, I…
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Creative Wanderlust Adventure: Sign Poetry
Beware of a one way road.Keep pushing your belief,Worldwide…To yield an amazingOdyssey On my walk the other day I started taking pictures of signs I saw. Anything from things written on the road, to signs in peoples’ yards. My goal… to write some sign poetry! The walk soon became an adventure. I was definitely on a word hunt. What words would hold a lot of meaning? What words could be used in different contexts to relay different things? What words could be truncated? In the end, I had roughly 20 photos and I was ready to don my poetry cap and start writing. Here are two sign poems I created,…
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Wanderlust Inspiration: Old Books at Trinity College Library
The smell of old books and intriguing tales wafted through the quiet room. Some where and at some time, every page had been turned. For any book lover, a visit to Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland is a pilgrimage. The iconic Long Room in the Old Library, completed in 1732 represents the ultimate in book sanctuaries. This exceptionally long space (213 feet/65 meters) is laid out in rows of nooks, each filled with stacks of shelves lined with tightly packed old books. Some of the nooks have ladders to reach the upper shelves, and some have a beautiful iron spiral staircase leading to the second level. At the entrance…
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Creative Wanderlust Adventure: Finding Inspiration in a Recent Read – Crying in H Mart
I just finished Michelle Zauner’s book Crying in H Mart for my bookclub and although the book had a lot of sadness, as the main character processed the grief of losing her mother, I couldn’t help but be highly intrigued by the constant Korean food references that threaded throughout the book. Since H Mart grocery story is prominently featured in the title, I was also inspired to experience it for myself! Although I have tried a few Korean dishes (I do love bibimbap) I must admit, I’m pretty naive to all the dishes and foods I would find. Near me there are actually 3 H Marts relatively close by, so…
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Creative Wanderlust Adventure: Finding Stories Everywhere
Los Angeles is the city of stories. At any given moment, one has to wonder how many writers are working away crafting the next television show or movie plot. On a recent trip to LA, I too was inspired by stories. When I put my mind to it, I could start seeing them everywhere. A person would be walking in front of me down Fairfax… what was their story? I would pass a building on Sunset… what happened there? I would over hear a snippet of a conversation in Beverly Hills… what was on their minds? I soon latched on to my perfect character, in the perfect setting, with a…
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Wanderlust Los Angeles Book Launch Party!
Join me in celebrating the launch of my new book, Wanderlust Los Angeles! This is the third book in a series of Creative Guides to various cities (Wanderlust San Francisco and Wanderlust Seattle are both available as well.) Enjoy a signature Wanderlust Los Angeles cocktail (or mocktail) and dabble in a small creative endeavor inspired by the City of Angels while toasting to the new book! Click the image above, or email me to get more information about the event. I’d love to see you there!
