Each year more and more has been added to my plate in some really great ways, and some really hard ways too. Every rose has its thorn, right? My time for writing has been minimal and I have had to focus on so many other things.

So to update all of you wonderful humans that support me I thought I would share my roses and thorns from the past year in reflection.

Rose #3

One of the roses that grew this past year was being re-diagnosed with ADHD (combined-type) at the end of 2022. I know that might sound a little strange, but I now have access to medication that is actually working fairly well for me and I am really happy I took the risk of trying medication again.

… and a thorn.

The process of going back on medication was really hard and exhausting. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do originally when bringing up my ADHD to my doctor. All I knew was that I was riding the struggle bus more than I had in a really long time.

Because of my negative experience with medication in the past, I was reluctant to try medication again, and since my over 20-year-old diagnosis wasn’t in my records (how does that happen?!) I had to rehash everything over multiple months, with multiple doctors and counselors, and way too many appointments, all just to be able to see if the medication was something that even wanted to try.

Luckily as an adult, I have much more awareness and ability to advocate for myself, so ultimately dipping my toes back into trying medication is working out pretty well.

This whole experience is a story of its own that I may have time to sit down and write someday, but that day is not today… so, more on this one later.

Rose # 2

Another rose was the launching of my handmade shop, Atypically Artistic. Today, June 1st is Atypically Artistic’s 1 year anniversary – happy birthday Atypically Artistic! To celebrate I have moved my shop to my own website and will be adding a handful of new creations this month! Check out the new shop here.

Bonus rose! In opening my shop a year ago, I had the dream of supporting causes with my creations and today I am making that a reality – All profits from our LGBTQ+ themed products will be donated to the It Gets Better Project, a non-profit whose mission is to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe. Happy PRIDE y’all!!

…and a thorn.

As much as I love creating for my shop I wasn’t able to focus on making new creations as much as I would have liked this past year. Between my other multiple jobs (teaching, consulting, parenting, chauffering, costuming, etc.) and the abundance of hard personal situations our family and friends went through this past year, things were just hard… and creating for me (and you!) got put on the back burner in order to make it through.

Thanks to my family (and the awesome Mother’s Day gift they got me) I now have some dedicated portable crafting tables that make it way more likely for me to pull out my projects in my free time (what exactly is free time anyways?!?). My typical creations are portable while making them so I have done my best to make mini craft bags to carry with me wherever I go. That way if I find a moment to create I can do it right then and there. So, this thorn has already started to turn around a bit and I am prioritizing creating for my mental health a lot more!

Rose # 1

At the same time I launched my shop last year the #etsystrike was happening. That was what made me shift to listing my shop on Ko-fi instead of Etsy and I have stuck with my choice to stay off of Etsy ever since. Etsy is not what it used to be nearly a decade ago when I opened my first shop. It’s overrun with mass-produced products and centralizes profits over creativity which is just not my jam.

Out of this issue, however, came something truly beautiful. I am really excited to share with you all, Artisans Cooperative.

Back in July of last year a small group of artisans from across the globe came together to meet and discuss how we could solve the problems we are all facing in the handmade community. We shared our stories and ideas and began working to organize what would later become Artisans Cooperative.

Over the past year, this amazing team has worked tirelessly to take our plans and ideas and form them into something tangible. As of May, we have incorporated in Oregon state, elected our interim Board of Directors (Oh hey… I’m on the Board!), formed policy to support our mission, and brought together a community of hundreds of Artisans and Supporters that are now joining the Cooperative as members!

As of today (WOW, June 1st way to be such a momentous day!) Artisans Cooperative membership is now open to the public! There are multiple ways to become a member – through cash buy-in, monthly payment plans, and our points and tiers system – our goal in this work was to make membership equitable and an option for everyone in some form.

You can learn more and join us at https://artisans.coop/membership.

…and if you aren’t ready to join just yet, you can still support Artisans Cooperative by shopping from our cooperative fundraiser items that Artisans have made (find all of Atypically Artistic’s fundraiser items for the Coop here). You can also support our Artisans by shopping from our Artisans Shop Directory which will soon be replaced by our marketplace when it launches later this year.

Well, that’s it for today! I definitely have many more roses and thorns, but I think we will end it on a positive note.

As always I hope to find some more time for writing and sharing my creative journey with you all soon – but if I take another year to write another post you can stay connected with me and follow what’s going on in my creative world through Instagram & Facebook.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fantastically creative day!

Of course, my ADHD brain is like, “Well duh… nobody has superpowers but there is definitely something magical in this little brain of mine so why not call it a superpower?! That’s literally what it feels like!!” But, then I get the other point that is being made.

Calling ADHD a superpower is seen as toxic positivity and I want to take a moment to address this part of the conversation because I get it! There is a lot of good, bad and ugly that comes with everything, and ADHD is not an exception to that rule.

The reality is that ADHD can be extremely debilitating.

There are some people with ADHD who don’t experience the highs along with the very low, lows. It can feel like an incredible burden. To see people with ADHD celebrating it, or people without ADHD not even believing it is a real issue… That can feel like a punch in the face and minimize the very real struggle that ADHD can cause.

I am incredibly lucky to be 20+ years from my initial diagnosis.

ADHD FACT: Girls are half as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD as boys. (5.6% compared to 12.9%)

The knowledge alone that there was a real explanation for my struggles growing up (and now) has been extremely helpful in getting me through those hard times and seeing the brighter side of my ADHD! I also had so many people in my corner, fostering my strengths which definitely shaped where I am today.

There is a lot of good in my life, but I also struggled through a massive amount of hardships– many of which were avoidable had I received the help I needed to deal with my ADHD.

Sooo… this week, some semi-coherent thoughts finally came to me that I want to share. My hope is to help those who have ADHD and those that don’t have ADHD, to understand the very real issues that come with ADHD and what my “superpower” feeling is like when it happens.

This is all from my personal experience and 100% does not reflect everyone’s experience with ADHD.

Are you ready? It’s STORYTIME!!

With my ADHD, I feel a constant urge to be productive. My brain is either thinking of new creative ideas, problem-solving for whatever issues I am dealing with in life, problem-solving my friends’ and families’ issues, coming up with new things I want to learn about, and so on, and soo on, AND SOOO ON! My brain is constantly going from one millisecond to the next, and never really takes a break. This happens each and every day without fail!

At the same time, my brain likes to avoid all stop signs and bounce from one idea to the next without warning. Completing a thought before moving on to the next rarely happens. A lot of the time it feels like I never actually accomplish anything, though I am almost always being “productive” in one way or another. Very rarely is my brain engaged in the way it’s “supposed” to be at any given time. The list of ideas, thoughts and tasks I’ve started grows and grows, but the “accomplished” list barely budges.

This right here is just one small part of the negative side of ADHD that I feel on a daily basis. It’s exhausting to have so many fleeting thoughts. It’s distracting and intrusive when they come up during times when I am supposed to be focused on something else. It’s paralyzing to have so much noise in your head and never enough energy or time to deal with it all!

But every so often… like a force of magic… something shifts… What I am actually doing at the moment aligns with my brain’s hyperdrive to be productive and sparks start flying!

At that moment, it feels like I could do anything! I get so much done in those short bursts of hyperfocus and it feels incredible!!

The moment where everything clicks and the friction is gone feels so supercharged– it’s like a real-life superpower! Since the rest of the time ADHD can make me feel so low, I always try to hang onto and celebrate the bright and colorful moments while they last.

So, does sharing that positivity, when it happens, make it toxic?! Should we stop sharing the positive sides of ADHD? Absolutely not!

BUT I do see how the greater conversation unfolds and how it may harm some when just the positivity is taken out of context. Balance is definitely important — says the lady that has very little of it in her life. ;P

Word choices are also very important when it comes to discussing and advocating for people with disabilities. Language can be weaponized (intentional or not) against those who need protection and assistance. So it would be nice if we all agreed to share the full picture, instead of just the positive sides of things that have just as many if not more negative sides.

I often wonder if what feels like a superpower to me is probably just how neurotypical people function on a daily basis. I guess I’ll never know though considering I am stuck with the brain I was dealt.

Well, that’s my thought for the day… I hope you got something out of it! It definitely helped my brain to get it out of my head since I have been fixating on this idea for a few months now (thanks ADHD!!).

If you struggle with these same feelings, just know that you are not alone! There is a very big community that knows exactly how you feel and support is out there. Look up #ADHDlife or something similar on social and you will find others that get you.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any superpower experiences? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Have a creative & charming day people!!

—

SHOP UPDATE (COME ON… switch topics quickly with me now!)

I am still working on opening my shop Atypically Artistic. It is coming soon, I promise! I am just not putting the pressure of an open date on myself right now.

The past 2 months have been filled with super draining ADHD brain moments, silly avoidable injuries, as well as a lot of other crazy life things. Until this week my “superpowers” haven’t kicked in recently, but the past few days have been feeling a bit brighter so I am going to ride this wave while it lasts!

I am working out the nitty-gritty, not-so-fun, business side details of opening the shop and it feels like it is taking absolutely forever! It is definitely not my favorite part of the process, but it is getting done piece by piece. Not as fast as I would like, of course…. But it is getting done!

More updates coming soon!

Like what you read today?! You can show your support with a tip on my Kofi page: ko-fi.com/misstheraart

Also, a big thank you to those who have supported my shop launch on Kofi already! We are at 83% of the launch goal!!