stitch therapy

After years of hand sewn personal projects, wonder | wander | women now advocate openly to stitch away our troubles and sorrows, thoughts and dreams, fun and schemes! 

Whether a newbie or a seasoned crafter - there's much to dive into and bring out those creative vibes through a world of colorful threads and mindful therapy. 

Want to join a sewing bee? Stitch and bitch circle of connectedness? Form a tribe of Tiny Pricks followers? 

DMC crafts white on white embroidery kit

There are countless ways to apply ourselves in whatever interest drive or skill level we have at hand. Driven and inspired to use and reuse, recycle and upcycle, reveal and rejoice. 

rebinding: giving notebooks a second life

wonder | wander | women love collecting and using up stationery, and between working at a paper store in New York and a bookstore in London we have amassed a library of beautiful journals and sketchbooks. But sometimes the notebooks fill up far too fast and we want to carry around that gorgeous cover a bit longer.

Journals from Moleskine, Paperblanks and Insight Editions

writing & drawing by hand

A lasting benefit our Benedictine education (ora et labora) brought wonder | wander | women were penmanship classes. Before that we watched our parents writing longhand - admiring their beautiful handwriting and eagerly awaiting our turn to put thought to paper so beautifully. 

"Bayan Ko" chorus in baybayin by Mahala Urra

Long before studies showed the importance of hand writing and how among other things it engages the whole human being - we were encouraged to write legibly and well. 

Being creative ignited our love for cursive early on. Eventually this art form spread into other calligraphic options. Including writing in our own regional native alphabet, badlit - the Visayan version of the better known baybayin, Philippine script of Luzon islands. 

wonder | wander | women creative collaboration

Baybayin is a pre-Spanish 14th to 18th century writing system used in the Philippines to write Tagalog and other Philippine languages and dialects. Baybayin is an abugida, which combines a consonant and vowel into a single symbol that represents a syllable. The name comes from the Tagalog word baybay, which means "to spell".

art journal: old friend, new art

A journal is like a second brain but also a peek into the owner's heart. wonder | wander | women love filling our notebooks with words, scraps and sketches. These journals aren't toys or hobbies - they are our lives and thoughts, set down on paper as they pass through our mind.

hand made, heart based

Long before any arts, crafts or design movements were ever started the skill of hand work was born of necessity as well as creative enterprise. 

Hands hold, make, do, and express so much. They grasp at even more - tools, objects, people, issues, concerns, etc. 

exploring the wonder in everyday acts of manipulation

We lend a hand, shake hands, hold hands, raise our hands. Even taking matters into our own hands. Often admonished not to keep hands idle. 

"The fingers were the eyes of the heart." ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce  

custom made

Whether there's a pandemic on or not we still love our clothes; why wait for an occasion to dress up? Mom is a master of alterations and as a short stocky person with small shoulders and wide hips, I reap the benefits of her sewing projects.