Hallmark Mahogany: Uplifted & Empowered
I was honored to be a small part of the team of editors, writers and artists who came together to create Uplifted & Empowered, an eleven-card collection for racial resilience and pride. All of the cards are written by Black writers and Hallmark’s Union Hill photography studio did a beautiful job capturing portraits of some of the writers and artists involved!
Editorial Director Dierdra (“Dee”) Zollar leads the Mahogany team in ensuring every message on every card rings true, feels relevant and reflects Black culture in all of its multifaceted realness and richness. The card I created artwork for was inspired by current events, described by Dee:
“One was the death of Congressman John Lewis, who had been such a courageous and highly-respected beacon of light in the Civil Rights movement and on the current political stage. His memorable participation in and subsequent vicious beating on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is such a powerful iconic symbol of his unwavering commitment to civil rights and building bridges across race, religion, culture and political parties.
“An inspirational card with a bridge on the cover pays homage to this icon and honors Black people’s marches then and now in our fight for equality.”
You can learn more about the other talented writers and artists
who contributed to this Mahogany collection on Hallmark’s website!
© Hallmark Licensing, LLC
Diptychs 57
Cross Country Skiing at Turkey Hill
I spent New Years’ weekend at Turkey Hill with my family. My mom and I went cross country skiing around our property two times — it was so beautiful and I was amazed at how much the scenery changed each day. The second morning there was a hoarfrost which made all the pine trees look like real life flocked Christmas trees! It was the perfect way to kick off the new year.
New Year’s Day Snow Day!
2021 kicked off with a snow day! We spent the day cozy inside and only left to shovel and take a walk around the neighborhood. I hope you all are having a peaceful start to this new year.
2020 Best Nine
I somehow skipped last year but I’m happy to be sharing my best nine from 2020 today! It is truly impossible to sum up 2020 with any combination of social media posts. It was a year of many lows and challenges for all of us. This year, more than any other year in my recent past, was spent with my immediate family. There was less travel than I had planned and MUCH more time at home, but these photos do reflect a few highlights:
This year I worked from home from mid-March through December. While there isn’t an end in sight to this WFH life yet, there were some amazing projects and learnings that came from re-imagining my daily work life. Pictured is chalk art I created for Hallmark spreading positivity in a time where we needed it more than ever!
This year Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected! While a highlight, there is still much work to be done and divisive challenges to work through. There is also a vital need to keep up the work led by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dale and I celebrated five years of marriage! Our plans were to spend a week in Santa Fe. While that trip didn’t happen our outdoor appetizers at Campground and outdoor dinner at Plate in KC were just as special.
Dale matched at KU Med for his Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship! I’m so proud of all the work he has put in over many years to get to this point in his career. It is an unbelievably strange year to match in Pulm Crit Care and he amazes me every day with his dedication to his patients.
I was still able to participate in some amazing extra projects for Hallmark this year! They included helping with this mural for Children’s Mercy Hospital led my my friends Meredith and Matt. It was a much needed bit of normalcy to work on a creative group project (safely outside!).
My grandparents (Grammy & Pop) celebrated 60 years of marriage!! This is one of the days I’m most grateful for this year. So much work went into safely celebrating with our family this summer and I will never forget it!
My sister Sophie got engaged to the best guy, Alex, this year! I can’t wait to be a matron of honor in her wedding next summer and helping her find her dress was another highlight of 2020!
Dale and I managed to take a road trip to Colorado in September. I’ve shared lots of photos here on the blog and it was an amazing escape from reality for a week. I know that I will forever be extremely grateful for any opportunity to travel after this year.
We also fit in a sister staycation in Brookside this summer! I had really been missing the pool this summer so we rented an Airbnb in our neighborhood that had a pool and had the best day swimming, relaxing, and playing Catan.
The moments that aren’t pictured really are hard to sum up. Covid changed all of our lives significantly and while the year ended with Dale receiving the first dose of his vaccine those who have lost family and friends this year have been on my mind a lot. I hope that we can stay strong through 2021 in order to save lives and see a much different recap of this coming year!