I got to vote in two countries this year, and the stakes couldn't have felt higher each time. Someone on Twitter said that today feels like Christmas Eve - in hell. And I couldn't agree more. The time difference has never felt so cruel. I don't want to stay up all night, but I still have PTSD from waking up in 2016 at 3am to see the news. I wish I could somehow switch off from it all, I know it would help my mental health, but I too much is resting on this election. And though I feel exhausted I still have fucks to give.

Here are just a few: (Rant incoming and if you don't like swearing stop reading.)

It’s hard to keep telling yourself that you are ‘aging beautifully’ or rightfully, or that there is any value at all in aging, when as a culture, we really don’t put much value on wisdom or lived experience.

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Before my senior year of university, I spent a summer back home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, flipping burgers in a kitchen by day and waitressing at Applebees (think TJI Fridays) by night. One evening towards the end of the summer I went over to introduce myself to a couple who just been sat in my section. 

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I hate selling.

There I’ve said it. I spend a lot of time wondering how I got into the business of selling when it’s not something I’ve ever been good at. I had a summer job in London when I was 19 – cold-calling offices to sell them double-sided typewriter ribbons (yes I’m that old). I think I lasted three days.

It’s a hard time for selling right now. A lot of us aren’t quite sure how we are going to pay our bills this winter. I usually trust my gut to read the room when I’m coming up with new designs or trying to do a bit of ‘marketing’ (another term that gives me the cold shakes), but I haven’t bought myself anything very treaty or nice in ages. So it’s not easy trying to figure out what to say. I don’t want to use payment plans like Klarna because I don’t want you to buy my designs unless you can afford them and they will brighten up your life, or if you’re buying a gift - a friend’s life in some way.

I originally designed this bracelet for a beautiful young woman – using her mother's words from near the end of her life. Her father read from the notebook she had kept at her funeral. She’d been in pain and on a lot of drugs, so they were disparate thoughts, lists and memories, but interspersed throughout: the phrase 'be brave,' again and again, like a mantra to herself, and finally right near the end, 'be brave, it's supposed to be hard.' ...