We swam, shedding our rings and tucking them into tiny hideaway crevices, should they decide to free fall off of our fingers into the clear cold.
The small.
The sacred.
Isn’t that what the days that stick out in our minds are most often made up of?
Sleeping underneath the heavy cloak of the brisk arresting air, unhindered by ceilings, the shushing of HVAC units, general beeps or digital lights that we are never able to quite fully emit from dreamland.
It’s so much cooler here than back home. So much so that we felt as though we had transcended seasons.
That, coupled with the simplicity of it all— a kind of coming home.
Of meandering unstructured time associated with an ease that precedes a peaceful and simple joy.
Wanting to incorporate such simplicity into the every day of back home but somehow never quite getting there.
If only it could be as it always is, on The Road.
Travel
On The Road Again
I am headed out on The Road.
I don’t know yet how long I’ll be gone but I’m connecting some dots between some photo jobs, vintage picking and most of all—
Answering the pull to be out amidst new and natural wonders of the country I call home in the simple, free and easy way I miss so much.
Although, I’m not sure how free and easy it will be.
I don’t know what I’ll encounter out there as the world has changed quite a bit since I was last out in it ten months ago.
Granted, The Road for me usually encompasses large periods of time alone, away from people, out in nature.
But I always enjoy meeting others wherever I happen to be. Hearing their story, exchanging some communal goodness and good will between passing kindred spirits.
But now, I won’t be able to interact with people and make friends quite in the same way.
The Road has been built up and elusively out of reach in my mind this last almost-a-year.
I have felt grounded and content at home and enjoyed my sweet Virginia more than I have in a good long while.
Made new friends and loves and discovered new corners of home that were before unknown.
All of which I am so grateful for.
So I’ll come back.
(I always come back.)
But I am a woman with a two sided nature—I love to be here and I love to also be there.
Here and away—both are home.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to have both in quite this way, or if this will be the end of my wanting it even— but I need to go out and see if The Road, this ever persistent promise, is what I remember it to be.
—————●—————
I am opening my books for @agirlnamedleneyphotography for the next little while, so if you’re somewhere out there and have a photography or documentation proposition for me
(or some of your grandparents clothes/quilts you want me to buy for @folkling)
— shoot me a message.
xo
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Folkling Home
Introducing Folkling Home.
Similarly to when I created Folkling in 2017, this venture too is a long time in the dreamin and plannin.
Folkling Home is a venture for sharing interior design projects and lifestyle concepts centered around slow living and a more sustainable life.
Which, for those of you who have followed along on the Folkling instagram, know that’s an important ethos and reason behind why I do what I do over there in finding old things new homes and appreciation in layered stories.
But this is something I believe in not only for the pieces that make up our wardrobes and homes, but our every day lives as well.
I want to share more of the slower and mindful lifestyle that I’ve been spending the last five years pursuing.
I will primarily be sharing the unfolding of these narratives on the Folkling Home instagram which you can follow here: @folklinghome.
I can’t wait to start sharing more of these stories with you all.
Thank you for being here.
The 900 Kilometers Scarf
I used to have a full time knitwear design job.
I would design and release knitwear collections seasonally and knit all of the pieces myself, by hand, one stitch at a time.
(You can see some past collections here, here and here if you like)
I gave it up a few years ago in pursuit of other ventures, but lately I’ve been missing creating things with my hands so I’ve been knitting a few pieces again here and there.
I had the pleasure of knitting this commissioned one-of-a-kind piece while I was in Ireland. Inspired by the rolling green landscapes and the 900 or so kilometers driven over the course of a week.
Knitting is a thing I’ve done for almost twenty years of my life and you just can’t shake that kind of engrained motion.
Perhaps more knitwear work will be in my future down one of these roads somewhere...
See more posts on Ireland HERE.
—☽ —
Folkling Shop Update | Books From Ireland
A tiny collection of special tomes from my adventure to Ireland are now listed in the shop ✨
As a writer and photojournalist, literature is one of my favorite things to hunt for in shops on back country roads and down funky city side streets.
For years, no matter how little money I had, or where I was in the world, books were always the exception to any budget or any packing restriction. I have been known to carry armfuls of books onto various forms of transportation all over this world because they wouldn’t fit in my suitcase... I have long held the belief that there is an appetite in each of us that nothing like a good book can fill.
You can shop these special books from Ireland here.
Folkling Shop Update | Ireland Vintage Vessels
I am home from Ireland and I brought this sweet little collection of vintage vessels home with me just for you guys!
Packed away all tight and snug in my carry on bag…. they’ve definitely come a long way to be here.
I believe the tiniest touches can make all the difference in making your space feel special and uniquely yours.
You can shop these pieces in my online shop here.
The Road
I think this film photo from Washington a few months ago is just about the most accurate and perfect portrait representation of my year.
The Road.
One of the foremost loves of my life.
I have been home for two weeks now.
333 days before that were spent largely in my car all across this country.
But now I am back in Virginia, I won’t say for how long, mostly because I don’t know. And though it makes others uncomfortable I’m usually okay with not knowing. It puts me in a place of trust in something (someone) other than myself and I know that’s the best place to be.
I am happy.
To be amongst my people and the other strips of pavement that don’t represent the proverbial “Road” to me, but are open and inviting nonetheless. Familiar in their curves and bumps, they illicit a different type of pleasure. One of anchored contentment, knowing and recognition.
Of home.
Consistency too.
Which has always been one of the two dualities in my makeup.
My love for nesting, being in a space of my own and near my people who I’ve spent a decade or two or (nearly) three doing life with.
But also my addiction to newness—it is the thing in me that tugs at my center when I’ve been stationary and stagnant too long.
Which I recognize not only as a physical state but a mental one as well.
Most people think this is a thing I will outgrow.
A characteristic of indecision and lack of maturity. Of youthful “wanderlust” and do-it-now-while-you-can.
I used to believe them.
Used to be ashamed of my insatiable appetite and voracious curiosity. “You’re just restless” people would say.
“Oh, you’re finding yourself…”
But actually, I’ve known for quite some time who I am.
I have for most of my life.
As a child I remember being quite sure of things. Sure of myself. Sure of what I wanted to do. It is only with age that I somehow reverted and lost this confidence.
Perhaps because there is more at risk. But I don’t even know if I really believe that.
I think we get tricked into thinking there’s more to lose, but really, it’s the same always. We are just more trusting when we are new and resilient to the voices trying to tell us otherwise.
I’m fortunate to have a few people in my life who encouraged and watered the garden of my abnormalities but there is only so much you can do in the way of becoming grounded in yourself with others trying to do all of the work for you. At some point you need to take root in the knowing yourself and do some pruning of your own.
I encountered a great many people this year who thought what I was doing, traveling alone as a woman, quite insane and unsafe.
But I also encountered those who encouraged it.
But neither should matter. Whichever way the scale tips in its outward affirmation of who we are: we know.
We know because if you pause long enough to listen, you will hear that rhythm inside of you that was created and placed in exactly you and made to push you towards your place of purpose.
Read MoreArtists In Film | Siobhan Watts of Bless The Weather in Hitchin England
Siobhan is someone who you might recognize my having talked about before here on the journal. I visited her in England last fall and took these portraits but she and I have been virtual friends for nearly eight years through our blogs and social media. She is quite definitely my favorite virtual-turned-real-life-friend and though my practice of doing that throughout my life baffles some people (you mean you’re going to somewhere you’ve never been to meet someone in person that you met online… that you don’t even know…) I have to say that it is that very openness that has invited what I would deem some of the dearest friends I have in this world.
She has taught me many things in the way of bringing artistry and beauty to all that you do (we share love and vocations with photography and knitting for one thing, though she has many other talents besides).
But one of the primary ways I’ve witnessed this is through her relationship with her daughter, Rory.
Being a mother is a thing that in most societies, defines a woman once she becomes it. All-at-once she loses her identity as anything other than Mother.
Motherhood is an incredible roll to have and embody. One I hope to have myself one day. Indeed, it is through my own spectacular Mother raising me in just the way she did that I have the view and independence I do in the world. If it weren’t for the way she helped shape my view of myself and others and the world around me, I wouldn’t view it as the miraculous and beautiful place that I do.
Rhythm and Routine
It’s been a stationary week and a half.
I’ve been spending some time in a little coastal town in Oregon working on some projects.
Something I’ve really relished after the rush and spiritual high of driving up the Pacific Coast Highway earlier this month.
Driving up Highway 1 was a venture I embarked on for the first time last year when my brother and I drove across the country and back over the course of a couple months. It was a highlight of that year in a way that I have been unable to put into words in person, or virtually, since.
So of course being back on this side of the country I knew I needed to do it again this year.
My left shoulder is a bit darker than my right from the sun ushering me up the highway, but my heart is lighter for having done it.
Anywhere on the water is a place I call home.
Finding balance in stillness amidst the motion I am so drawn to, has been a reoccurring theme in this season.
The ever constant duality in my life of holding both contentment and far reaching dreams.
I am unsure if it is the heightened self awareness I have at this point in my life, or the constant information overload that plagues my generation especially, that keeps the search for this balance at the forefront of my mind more often than not.
But I am finding that, wherever I am, it is in the tiny in-between things that I choose to make time for and often the things that have little to do with work or “making a living”, that bring that balance.
And to be sure it is a choice… It’s rare that the things that sustain us in life are easily earned or just so happen to fall into our laps.
We have to choose the important things.
We all know this. We do. But we so easily let them slide by and time unrolls behind us and all-of-a-sudden we look back and think… Did I even enjoy that? When I was there, in that place, did I appreciate it for what it was?
I am trying to do that more. Enjoy the now. Especially on this journey of being on The Road this year. To not look ahead to the next place quite so much and just be present in the morning I have here.
Such has been the gradual accumulation of tiny motions of thought towards the goodness of searching for symmetry.
Folkling Vintage | The California Coast
I have been in California for part of August, and while there I picked up a few vintage finds for folkling.
Shooting these pieces while driving up the Pacific Coast Highway was such a fun artistic endeavor for me.
It is combining many of my loves, photography, vintage, travel, all into one.
I appreciate all of you who’ve supported Folkling over the last two years of its existence. It’s a venture that I get so much enjoyment out of and not only something I preach, but practice.
I truly believe in the sustainability and ethical consciousness in buying secondhand first and appreciating that which already exists in the world.
Additionally, you are fueling my life on The Road in more ways than one, and that’s a dream for which I cannot thank you enough.
If you are interested in any of these pieces, shoot me a direct message through the Folkling instagram.
Thank you to everyone who sees value in shopping slow.
xo