I can't do much, but I can do this
Here's a small way to help one family impacted by Hurricane Helene (Liz of Cozy Blue Handmade)
Oh friends, I’m worried, worried about Tennessee and North Carolina. I went to graduate school in NC—not in Asheville, but Asheville is the part of the state I’d have wanted to live in if I’d stayed there.
If you’re in that part of the country, I hope you’re safe.
When I turned to embroidery in 2019 to keep my hands busy during the thinky bits of writing a book, the first kit I ordered was from a shop called Cozy Blue Handmade. Liz’s kits made learning easy, and before I knew it, stitching wasn’t just an activity to keep my hands busy while I’m thinking; it was a passion, a practice, a new source of absorbing creative fulfillment. Okay, an obsession, is what I’m saying. By the end of that year, I was drawing my own designs for fun and being tapped to do demo stitching for other embroidery designers.
Cozy Blue got me started, and I’ll always be grateful. Liz’s shop is located in the Asheville, NC area.
My heart was in my throat when I opened her email update today. I’m relieved to say her family and home are all right, though they are without power, internet, and water. It sounds like it will be a while (perhaps a long while) before her business is back up and running again. So I’m sharing this link for Cozy Blue gift certificates in hopes of helping Liz get weather the aftermath of this terrible, terrible storm. Maybe someone on your gift list would appreciate a future Cozy Blue kit. Her kits come with needle and thread and fabric preprinted with the design, so the learning curve is wonderfully gentle.
Related:
An embroidered ode to a rat who has left the planet
This little fellow is a Bramble Cay melomys, also known as the Bramble Cay mosiac-tailed rat. I first made his acquaintance when I began researching “endlings”—the last individuals of a species before it goes extinct. I planned to design and stitch a series of pieces to ho…
Thanks, Lissa, what a good way to help. I admit myself just horrified and flinching from the news reports, but action is always better than anguish.