http://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com Recent blog posts from my shop. en-US Rising in Love: How Radical Self-Love Heals the Wounds of Emotional Abuse and Weaponized Childhood Trauma

The Silent Scars No One Sees Emotional abuse and weaponized childhood trauma can devastate your inner world while the outside world tells you to “just move on.” The truth is, survivors of emotional abuse don’t only lose their sense of safety—they often lose everything: family, home, community, identity, and even the right to their own story. They carry the weight of gaslighting, victim-shaming, and isolation, all while fighting to reclaim their sanity in silence. Sun, 11 May 2025 18:38:15 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1372945139046/rising-in-love-how-radical-self-love https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1372945139046/rising-in-love-how-radical-self-love?pub=1747003095 Regenerative Design: Moving Beyond Sustainability to Give Back to the Earth


The world is shifting.

For decades, conversations about climate action, design, and environmental responsibility have centered around sustainability—doing less harm, reducing impact, conserving resources. Sustainability has been essential in slowing the pace of degradation, but as our planet faces escalating climate crises, loss of biodiversity, and depleted ecosystems, it’s clear that sustainability alone is not enough.

What the Earth needs now is not less harm, but active healing. Enter: regenerative design. Fri, 09 May 2025 21:19:12 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1372560655541/regenerative-design-moving-beyond https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1372560655541/regenerative-design-moving-beyond?pub=1746839952 What We Make With Our Hands, We Also Make With Our Hearts: The Soul of Craftsmanship and Creativity

“What we make with our hands, we also make with our hearts.” – Unknown

In an age of rapid automation, mass production, and digital saturation, the simple act of making something with your hands has become a radical act of love, presence, and resistance. Whether you’re sewing a bag, shaping clay on a wheel, weaving textiles, or carving wood, each creation becomes more than just an object. It becomes a story—your story—infused with memory, meaning, and care. Tue, 06 May 2025 22:07:01 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371784519052/what-we-make-with-our-hands-we-also-make https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371784519052/what-we-make-with-our-hands-we-also-make?pub=1746583621 Cosmic Gratitude: Forgiveness, Dinosaurs, and the Deep Magic of Ho’oponopono


Have you ever paused to thank a dinosaur for the fuel in your car?

It sounds absurd—until you realize that the very oil we rely on is the ancient alchemy of compressed plant and animal life, including the creatures that once roamed a very different Earth. That car ride you took today? Fueled by eons of evolution. The water you drank? It may have once flowed through the veins of glaciers or been exhaled by ancient forests. The calcium in your bones? Stardust. Mon, 05 May 2025 18:23:33 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371525386591/cosmic-gratitude-forgiveness-dinosaurs https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371525386591/cosmic-gratitude-forgiveness-dinosaurs?pub=1746483813 Return to the Playground: Reconnecting with Your Inner Child to Unblock, Create, and Thrive

Have you ever watched a child immersed in play—imaginative, joyful, fully present—and felt a pang of longing? That’s your inner child calling. Beneath the layers of responsibility, past pain, and conditioning lies a part of you that remembers what it means to be free, creative, and deeply loving. By returning to that part of ourselves, we can uncover where we’re blocked, reignite our joy, and begin to live with more compassion, curiosity, and connection. Sun, 04 May 2025 19:55:49 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371285295695/return-to-the-playground-reconnecting https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1371285295695/return-to-the-playground-reconnecting?pub=1746402949 Believe me, I understand burnout.

In my early days as an independent designer, I found myself desperate for something outrageous—an eighth day of the week. That’s right, I wanted an entire extra day just to keep up with everything I had going on. My business was taking off, and while it was exciting and full of promise, it was also overwhelming and exhausting. I wasn’t about to quit, so I did something radical—I broke time. Sat, 03 May 2025 15:28:14 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370956066538/working-with-technology-as-a-small https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370956066538/working-with-technology-as-a-small?pub=1746300494 Stitched in Time: The Art, History, and Language of Quilting

Quilting is far more than fabric and thread. It is storytelling. It is math and art, history and innovation. It is both deeply personal and profoundly communal. Across generations and cultures, quilting has served as a language of identity, resilience, and connection—a silent dialogue stitched into cloth. Thu, 01 May 2025 00:18:54 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370298443612/stitched-in-time-the-art-history-and https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370298443612/stitched-in-time-the-art-history-and?pub=1746073134 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 03:40:55 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370121889141/centering-yourself-when-life-triggers https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1370121889141/centering-yourself-when-life-triggers?pub=1745998855 The Power of the Pause: How Slowing Down Can Calm Anxiety and Rewire Your Brain

We live in a world that tells us to go faster, try harder, do more. It praises hustle, productivity, and constant movement. But if you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, you know that pace can become suffocating. Sometimes, anxiety feels like being trapped on a runaway train—your mind racing, your breath shallow, your heart pounding out Morse code messages you can’t quite decode.

But what if the way forward isn’t to push harder? What if the medicine your mind needs isn’t another productivity hack, but an invitation to pause? Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:55:20 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1369936596146/the-power-of-the-pause-how-slowing-down https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1369936596146/the-power-of-the-pause-how-slowing-down?pub=1745949320 What Is Upcycling?

Upcycling is the art and science of taking old, unwanted items and giving them a second life as products of higher value. Whether it’s turning worn-out jeans into chic tote bags, using pallet wood to create rustic furniture, or transforming vintage sari fabric into stunning dresses, upcycling is rooted in both innovation and respect for resources.

While recycling typically downcycles materials (turning plastic bottles into lower-quality plastic, for example), upcycling often maintains or even enhances the value of the original material. It’s about working with what we have rather than discarding it—and in doing so, creating less waste and more wonder. Tue, 29 Apr 2025 02:00:37 -0400 https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1369857725029/from-trash-to-treasure-how-upcycling https://merakieclecticdesign.patternbyetsy.com/post/1369857725029/from-trash-to-treasure-how-upcycling?pub=1745906437