Maria and I each have different ways of dealing with anxiety and stress. This has been a challenging time for us – our roof has nearly come apart in an awful story, I had some surgery, she is exhausted from taking care of me and the farm simultaneously, and I am just exhausted, period.

Her healing comes from her art, and when she feels low and spent, as she did last night, she gets up and goes to her studio and makes beautiful art.

I heal by writing and taking photos; she heals by making art. The first thing I did when I got home from the hospital we about the surgery and went outside to take a picture. I was not supposed to, but I needed to. Maria ran out of gas yesterday and got up early.

She has been making these beautiful potholders late out of vintage hankies. She calls them Pockets Of Joy. They are $30 apiece plus $5 shipping. She is accepting pre-orders – at [email protected]. There are only nine in this batch.

She expects to finish them by next week. If any are not sold in advance, she will post them on her Etsy studio page. Pockets of Joy magnets went on sale on that page yesterday; she’s already sold 40.

She is hand sketching each one on her new potholders on her sewing machine.

This lifts her and makes her happy almost instantly and every time. My writing and photos do that for me. We are fortunate.

She made a score of these potholders and sold them before any of them was even finished. Pockets of Joy is more than joy; it’s about happiness, creativity,  simplicity, beauty, and what brings us to those things. It’s about genuine art and the deep pleasure it brings to her and the people who follow her work.