I’ll be honest, the summer is my favorite season. The days are long, bright and warm. Also, during the summer I still have fall to look forward to—which I also love, but a little less.

For me, fall feels like a Sunday night when I was in high school, trying to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend before the alarm goes off the next morning and remember the test you haven’t prepared for.

August 31st was overdose awareness day in America. In 2020 alone, there were 93,000 drug overdose deaths in the US. That is 254 lives per day lost. More than 10 each hour of each day, all year long. 

It's been about a week since our plane touched down in Providence, our return flight from our very first live—post covid, gift show. And not just any show, the Atlanta Market. Lucky for me ( the socially anxious type) I had no idea how big this show was, or what we had actually signed up for. It's hard to image if you've never experienced it before. But to give a little idea, three buildings filled to the gills with showroom after showroom with brands huge, to brands small.

Today I'm re-sharing a blog post I wrote exactly two years ago. Then, it was 15 years since my brother died, now it's 17. That's a LONG time. And in so many ways, the past is so far past, you'd think it would all be behind you. Not actually the case. I was driving home from work today, and this analogy of grief came to me:

Running a small business is no joke. Running and growing a small business while raising 3 kids, during a pandemic, with another job to boot, well that sounds a little bit crazy.

May is National Mental Health Awareness month and it wasn’t so long ago when those words would have gone unnoticed by me. I was honestly more likely to notice National Ice Cream month.

The sun is shining here today and hope you get the change to have some sunshine on your face today too. The below is the next issue of the 5 things taking up space in my brain.  

Enjoy!

Is there anything more important than a true friend? I am lucky to have a handful, and as my brother Tim often said before he passed, if you can hold up your hand and count a true friend for every finger then you have it all.  He was right. This is a short story of my daughter Taylor’s best friend Hope, and how she inspired our newest “love you” tee.