- 🧠 The chaos of closing out a project—why shutting down 28 browser tabs is basically the adult version of finishing your homework.
- 🛠️ A new addition! The first installment of Tool of the Week—aka, things I can’t function without (but somehow used to?).
- 🏺 A years-long mystery, an ancient artifact, and the most dramatic olive oil experience of my life.
Hi, friends! How's your week going?
The latest from my end:
- 🧹 Spring cleaning, but for my laptop: You know that moment when you close out a big project, and suddenly, the 28-tab browser window, the 7 open Figma files, and the rogue email drafts are just...gone? It’s like hitting a mental reset button. One second, you’re drowning in a sea of overlapping tasks, and the next, you’re a minimalist monk, staring at a pristine desktop like, wow, is this what peace feels like?
- 🤮 Fun stuff: Currently on day 4 of what I can only assume is my immune system rage-quitting in the form of a high fever and the flu. This arrived right after a two-week bronchitis bonanza in my body, which is starting to feel like a hostile takeover situation. So if this memo suddenly ends mid-sentence, assume I’ve been dramatically escorted off the premises by my own white blood cells.
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⚒️ Tool of the Week: Okay, this is a new section because my dad always says “You’re only as good as your tools.” And while he was probably referring to, like, actual tools, I’ve decided this applies to anything that makes my life function. First up: Magnet for Mac—the tab-wrangling, window-snapping app that stops my desktop from resembling a conspiracy theorist’s bulletin board.
I had highlighted this a month or so ago when reading through this (absolutely mind-bending) book, and thought of it immediately when the news of Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip broke (basically, a huge breakthrough in quantum computing—the extent of its real-world application is TBD).
When quantum computing is powerful enough to model things at an atomic level, what do we do when our old-school, organic brains can’t even keep up with the breakthroughs we created?
Some things that I hope quantum computing solves (beyond the obvious climate change and cancer etc.): the common cold, the back of your socks falling down in your shoes, and an automatic mute button for people playing short form videos OUT LOUD in public.
This book is part how to be a better storyteller, part how to actually notice your own life happening in real time.
My favorite takeaway from it so far is the idea of doing “Homework for Life”—basically micro-journaling your days in simple spreadsheet form.
At the end of each day, you ask yourself: What’s the one thing that happened today that I’ll actually remember? Then you write it down. That’s it. No paragraphs, no “dear diary” formality—just a simple line in a spreadsheet.
I’ve tried and failed to get into journaling consistently so many times, but this? This I can do. Two minutes a day, and suddenly, your life has a highlight reel. Highly recommend.
- 💄 New Shopify build kicking off for Claudia Colombo! The uber-talented Kadie from Drop Cap Design is crafting her brand and Showit site, and I'm diving in right after to design + develop a Shopify store that feels like it’s part of the same site.
- 👀 On that note, I'm thinking about making Shopify collaboration a thing. Designers, if you’re getting a lot of Shopify inquiries but don’t want to touch the eCom backend, I might be your new best friend. Let’s talk.
- 💊 Anti-aging supplement brand identity + packaging design in progress. The cool part? I worked with this client six years ago on a different brand—and we’re actually reviving and evolving a concept we created back then. Nothing like looking at past work and thinking, yeah, that still holds up.
- 🌴 Disco call today with a Caribbean-based skincare brand. (Manifesting a future site visit.)
- 🛍 90-minute sprint tomorrow with a past client for some quick Shopify housekeeping. AKA, knocking some bits off the to-do list and making sure everything still runs like a well-oiled machine.
Got an idea in the works? I’ve got openings starting mid-April to bring it to life.
The mythical EVOO.
Seven years ago, on a weekend trip to Malta, my husband and I had the best olive oil of our lives. Like, stop-mid-bite, wide-eyed, “what is this sorcery?” level good. Ever since, it’s been the stuff of legend in our house—the kind of thing we bring up randomly, like, “Remember that olive oil?” followed by a deep sigh.
Well. He randomly found it online the other week and ordered it. The shipping from Sicily cost more than the oil itself, but honestly? Worth it. When it arrived, I opened the package like I was handling a lost relic from an ancient civilization. Indiana Jones, but instead of the Holy Grail, it’s a glass bottle of liquid gold.
The verdict? Every bit as magical as we remembered. If you need me, I’ll be aggressively rationing this like it’s the last drop of water in the desert.
You know when you’re in a kebab shop in like, Greece, and there’s always a TV on the wall playing those travel-drone-shot YouTube videos with a very specific type of tropical house on repeat? That’s what I was going for with this one. No kebab necessary (but highly recommended).
Hit Reply If....
- You’re a designer who keeps getting Shopify inquiries but doesn’t actually want to deal with Shopify…let’s fix that. You get to say yes, I handle the messy eCom backend, and you get a referral cut. Win-win.
