Mid-June 2026 Personal News Update

There has been so much going on in my world as of late, I feel the need to provide a personal news update.

A Just-Before-Summer Virtual Arts & Crafts Camp

At the very start of this month, I attended a week-long virtual arts & crafts day camp, known as Workshop Week.

I heard about it through Andrea Nelson, my virtual watercolor painting mentor (unbeknownst to her, of course).

Omg. I had SO much fun that week.

I pulled out all the art supplies & craft materials I could muster up and transformed my bedroom (in the mountains) to a dedicated creative workspace for the week.

Stocked up on snacks and prepped-ahead soup (thanks to my husband) & easy-to-assemble PB & J sandwiches, I was ready to go.

The event kicked off on a Sunday night with a keynote speaker, Amie McNee, who told us to take art/creativity seriously, but also to make so much room for a mess.

She shared about the importance of creativity, how it is our human right. And that when we create, we are able to heal our society. And I firmly believe that.

I took so many notes from her talk and found her words & insight to be very encouraging & inspiring. It was a great start to the week.

The host of the event was Becca Courtice — now known as Becca C Rafter. 🙂 And she was awesome. I had never come across her before, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her over the course of that week.

I went all in that week, attending all the different classes/workshops I was particularly interested in and completing many of those projects. Then, I mounted my artwork and posted all of it in my Workshop Week Gallery on my bedroom wall & shared a lot of it on my Facebook & Instagram accounts.

Workshop Week Gallery

The event was so incredibly impactful for me.

I was visibly excited every day, having so much fun playing and learning so much through the guidance of a host of teachers, artists & crafters. And I enjoyed getting to know many of the different presenters, and I was continually encouraged by them — and by the other participating creators. 🙂

The classes I appreciated, enjoyed and gleaned from the most were taught by Marina Polovinchuk and Gasper Habjanic.

Marina inspired me with creating the shadow box pictured above, using wall border, even though her workshop involved watercolor painting. And Gasper opened my eyes to a new way of drawing stick figures that make them look more like people. (See my drawings mounted on red paper above.)

The watercolor painting above was like my fourth attempt at ever using that medium. (I can’t even remember ever using watercolor paints as a child.) And the journal spread pictured at the bottom was using assorted wall decals we’ve sold for years on our Amazon store.

At the close of the event, there was a virtual live dance party, which played some really apropos music. I cried. I didn’t want it to end. (It reminded me of how I felt after attending my first Sukkot celebration in the fall of 2010.)

Anyway, what a meaningful (& I imagine, memorable) experience that all was.

The next day I packed up & put away most of my supplies & materials — organizing them in an easier accessible & grab-and-go fashion. (But I didn’t put them away away. They’re all still in my bedroom available for continued use.)

Then I moved on to pick up where I left off on my website design & building projects.

Dancing Online & Off

Another personal interest of mine that has been popping up in my various feeds lately is dancing.

Aside from the dance party at the close of Workshop Week, there was an offline local summer dance workshop series announced last month.

The first was a square dance workshop, which I missed. (I’m already familiar with that kind of dancing, and I wasn’t really in the mood to go out that night.)

The second was a contra dance, which just took place earlier this week. I intentionally missed that one.

The next one coming up is a line dance. And I have every intention of attending that one. 🙂

And the last one in the series is a waltz, which I will likely attend with my elder son, who’s my standing partner whenever a dance partner is needed.

(My husband won’t dance, don’t ask him — on account of his “having bad knees”.)

Aside from these workshops, another square dance was held the night after Workshop Week ended for me. So, I attended that with my son, Unfortunately, I strained something in one of my knees and had to sit out for much of it. 🙁

I took that pain as a wake-up call. I need to make moving my body beyond simply walking more of a priority in my life.

Enter Shuffle Dancing

Have you ever heard of shuffle dancing? I hadn’t before a few months ago. That’s when I started seeing a lot of “shuffle dance” videos coming across my Facebook feed. They were from Shuffle Mamas.

Since I’m clearly not as young & spry as I once was, I turned my sights towards a channel that was aligned with my generation, called Mid-Life Shuffle. There, I signed up for a free live virtual class, which took place earlier this week.

Despite being tethered to my desktop with my headphones throughout it (because the speaker on my archaic equipment was simply not loud enough), I was able to get my feet wet, learning this new-to-me kind of dance.

It involves quite a bit of knee & ankle movement. Maybe this newfound style will be just what I need to strengthen the muscles that support them. We shall see.

Now I just need to make the time to practice it (with proper warm-up, of course).

(I need to be ready for the 80’s Night fundraiser dance scheduled to take place locally in a month & a half.) 😉

Online Business Summit with My Own Personal Twist

Then, this week, I attended another virtual event called the Launch Your Box Summit. That event only lasted three days, and it was geared more towards business. But those days were very full. I took copious notes on 24 sheets of paper (front & back).

That was an exciting event for me as well.

I was able to learn some new things about the platform my husband started using this past winter for our family-run e-commerce endeavor, Shopify. I’m eager to get in there, make some design changes, clean up some more of our inventory listings and develop some new product offerings.

When I registered for this event, I wasn’t entirely clear on what to expect with it. Particularly, I wasn’t sure how it would pertain to what I’ve been working on for the past several months.

But I had been toying with the idea of starting a snail-mail subscription club — among other community-building and -networking ideas. So, given my thirst for knowledge & understanding coupled with my creative entrepreneurial leanings, I gave the summit a go.

And boy am I glad I did.

This morning, I started filtering all that I’ve done in the past 22 years through this new collection of knowledge. And I’m ready to capitalize on my accelerated creating motivation.

I intend on crafting a vision board, 6–12-month schedule, and action plan tomorrow to display on my bedroom wall, where my previous artwork briefly appeared. And I’m so looking forward to doing that. 🙂

So, there you have it, my mid-June 2026 personal news report. 🙂

Would you like to stay in touch with me? Reach out to me and let me know, and I’ll add you to my email list. 🙂 And while you’re at it, let me know what’s happening in your world, too. I’d love to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Carrie (not Kelly)