( updated 02/24/2022 ) Welcome! Nice to meet you!   I’m Eden, a fourth-generation Californian. Together my husband, 9.75 year old daughter, and Maine Coon/Ragamuffin rescue cat are in the process of unpacking and nesting in our new 100+ year old Craftsman in Berkeley, CA (until this past December we called a 100-year old, a 847 sq ft Edwardian flat in San Francisco home). We define The Good Life with haves not wants and experiences not things.     What's your story?  

Humans are wired for story. And according to Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence (*affiliate link), " [w]e think in story, which allows us to envision the future ."   In other words, our stories signal to others how we will act.     What is a story? Leo Widrich defines a story thus: " [a] story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect ." Telling a story is the most powerful way to activate our brains.   In today's world where every device is connected and potentially sending information about us 24/7 (depending on what settings you may have inadvertently set or not realized were set by default when a new feature was added), it's more important than ever to actively curate your story.   What's holding you back from telling your story?  

What do you see when you check Facebook or Instagram? (Honest, this isn't a trick question.) The images see in someone's social media stream or on their blog are those they're comfortable sharing.   Whether intentional or not, we all have different boundaries or rules for how we protect our own and our family's privacy.   Do you consciously choose what you share online?   To jump start your thinking about how you share (or might want to share), consider the four rules Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, has and the ten rules I have.

Years ago, I contributed to the last We are the Contributors project: Alter Ego ( update 8/21/2015: the site is no longer live ). In the call for submissions, we were asked to explore inhabiting the mind, space, and life of another person, an adult version of "let's pretend," using the medium of our choice and to share a little about our process.     To say I didn’t struggle with the We Are The Contributors project would be lying.   Whose shoes would you step into? Would you trade places with them?   As the project wore on, I wondered what I had been thinking taking it on. Sure I had women I wanted to be like. But, none felt “right.”  

There's a rhyme oft repeated across playgrounds: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Alas, the pen (words) are indeed mightier than the sword (a somewhat more modern weapon). A few recent commercials and public service announcements have me considering and reconsidering the words and phrases I use.     Do you choose your words with intention?  

In today's world, the tendency to share very personal stories is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because the stories live on. And a curse both because the stories live on and because the need to document and to preserve the story risks changing it by the very fact it's being observed. Where to draw the line is an ever evolving art.   When I'm sharing a story or interacting online, I have two goals: mostly I want you to feel a little better about the world and maybe brighten a bad day you might be having. These goals can easily result in a sort of personal highlights reel. So with everything I share, I try to be intentional and think about how you may interpret what I'm sharing.   What do I mean by that? If I'm sharing a personal success story or a recap of an event I went to, I want to be authentic and possibly inspirational, but not self-congratulatory. If I can't make a story relateable, I don't share it. The result? A lopsided and biased view o...

At my bridal shower, everyone put a memory and a wish into a time capsule for me. Yesterday, I opened it again--the first time since we'd moved into our railroad flat and the first time since Gates was born. It made for a pleasant trip down memory lane and got me thinking of creating a time capsule for our family to share. Today marks the fifth anniversary of cubes and my first kiss; an anniversary I remembered as I was slippping surprises (some left over papers from wedding DIY projects) into the snail mail packages I was sending out. (I originally shared the story of our first kiss with readers here last year.)   So that I could share the significance of the papers (and retell the story of our first kiss), I had wanted to re-photograph our programs using my Canon 5D for a richer visual experience than that captured with my Canon G12 last year. In the search for one of our wedding programs, I came across the time capsule from my bridal shower. (I opened it thinking I might h...

Whether it's subconscious or not, we filter the story we tell of our past. Through retellings, details get lost. We look at where we are and downplay what it took to get here. We forget what it felt like to be standing at the precipice wondering if we'd make it to the other side. Only journals allow true reflection; that's why it's important we make time in our schedule.     How do you mark your journey?  

I've been reading blogs for over six years. As many of my favorite blogs are design and lifestyle blogs, I've read about many milestones in the lives of my favorite bloggers: first child, first house, death of a fur baby, and more. Through their words I've formed an idea of who I think they are. And my impression -- as well as yours -- may or may not be realistic.     Whether we'll admit it or not, we form an opinion of what our favorite blogger is like from their blog posts, their Tweets, their Instagram photos, and so on. What we forget is most bloggers, myself included, don't share/post every challenge we encounter.   Have you met bloggers who matched the impression you had of them? Have you met bloggers who were completely different?  

If I'm not creating, I get stabby. I'll jump down your throat. I'll sulk. If as an adult I could get away with it, I'd stamp my feet and scream until I got my way. But, I no longer have time for any of that.   Rather than focus on what I couldn't do, I decided to look at what I could do. I could commit to 20 minutes three days a week to create: a 20-minute practice in seeing.     How do you fit a creativity practice into your routine?  

Filling blank wall space cost effectively is always a challenge. Creating art that tells a story and stands the test of time is an even greater challenge. Never one to back away from a challenge, to celebrate cubes' return home from the hospital (and our belated anniversary), I wanted to add some memorable art to our bedroom wall. My solution? Repurpose decorations from our 10/10/10 wedding.     In 2010 my husband and I had two wedding ceremonies, an unofficial ceremony out at Burning Man under Syzygryd and one in San Francisco at the Swedish American Hall. As not everyone who was attending our SF wedding was able to make it out to the desert to be with us, I decided to decorate a hallway between the reception and the happy hour halls with photos from our Burning Man wedding. Our venue didn't allow us to tape decorations to the walls so I got creative; I looped ribbons over the banister of a stairway and secured the end of the ribbon to itself with safety pins.   Becau...

Most days twenty minutes to myself where I can just create is a luxury. Crafting prose to complement a series of photographs is a seemingly impossible task, one often accomplished over the course of a few stolen moments throughout the week. However, I still find time to create. Recently through the "viewfinder" of my iPhone and published via my Instagram feed.     I can't believe the summer's almost gone, and that there's only a week left in the Find Your Voice workshop . It seemed like just a few days ago, I was hosting my Girls Night In Thai Cooking Class and packaging it into an online Thai Flavors: Introduction class for Atly's launch at ALT SF. But flown it has. So I've snatched moments here and there to whet my appetite for making.   One of the best sessions I attended this past January at ALT Summit SLC was the Makers Gotta Make: Fine-Tuning Your Creative Process for Success roundtable co-lead by Sandra Harris from Raincoast Creative Salon and...

To chronicle my experience at Alt San Francisco earlier this month I decided to make a scrapbook. While crafting I discovered some key differences between a physical scrapbook and a digital scrapbook.     Do you change how you craft your story?  

I collect inspiration. Magazines. Catalogs. Children's books. Direct mailers. You name it; if it has an interesting design, chances are I have it squirreled away.     Rarely do I sit down and ponder what grabbed my attention or really think about my own design aesthetic. Until Week 5 of Find Your Voice workshop, I had never really looked at my collection and identified why an individual piece or series of pieces spoke to me.   Where do you find inspiration?  

Part of my exploration of fonts for my updated logo led me to really think about the weighting we give fonts and the words written in those fonts. After this exploration, I used my two logo fonts in a project for the Find Your Voice workshop I'm contributing to. With the fonts, I created I AM photo labels.     We all know that words have power. Often, in childhood, we're called names that are hurtful. When we're embarking on a new adventure, friends and family maybe more confident in our skills than we are; their words bolster us. Like fonts, the words we use to define ourselves are personal.  

Raise your hand if you've ever participated in a photo-a-day Instagram project. Now lower your hand if you've ever done anything with the photos after the project concluded. Like me, you probably haven't.   Until this week, the only Instagram photos that I'd printed or compiled into a physical project were those from Alt Summit SLC. It was a simple project, 20 photographs with no captions. This week's project, a photo memoir box combines photos and captions to tell a story.     What do you do with the photos from your smartphone?  

I was once told I was not creative. At that moment I realized I'd failed to show the person who I was, who I am: a maker. I didn't know then, but people write their stories of you based on the data they see or don't see.     Deciding I was creative and taking proactive steps to show I was creative was foreign to me. Until that moment I'd always answered who I am by listing what I wasn't. (I finally realized I was approaching my answer from the wrong direction at Alt Winter this past January. My big A-HA moment was "Don't define yourself by what you're not.") I wasn't conscious that I could choose how I wanted to be defined until yesterday when I worked through Lesson 2 of the Find Your Voice Workshop.   When did you realize and appreciate who you are?

July is always an awesome month for me. July means Fourth of July and fireworks. July means a vacation; a vacation that typically doesn't leave my PTO (paid-time off) balance negative.   It also means I'm starting or partway through an eCourse or participating in a workshop. This summer the workshop is Find Your Voice , led by Kristin of Ruskin Papercrafts. And it's one you can participate in as well--for free!     How are you spending your summer?  

This summer I'm excited to announce that I'm a contributor to The Find Your Voice Summer Storytelling Workshop. Why another project you ask? The Find Your Voice Storytelling Workshop is a logical next step in my journey of self-discovery that started last year shortly after Gates was born.     Have you used storytelling to help you dive deeper into your life?  

There are some moments in a relationship that are life changing. Often they mark a turning point. If you journal (or blog) you're able to recognize the significance when you look back. And, sometimes when the beauty of the moment hits you, you need to share that moment with others.   Not everyone who attended our 10/10/10 wedding knew cubes and my love story. I decided to solve this by turning our programs into a mini-book complete with chapters. I published the first few chapters on our website as a teaser and left the more poignant chapters for the day of the wedding. One moment that was shared both on the website ahead of time as well as in the program was the story of our first kiss.   Chapter 10: "The Kiss" Sometimes a story is best told directly by one of the actors - not retold but raw from the heart. This is one of those times. You see the girl and boy had been sharing dinners together for a month and a half. Sure there were the casual, awkward kisses good nig...