About

I'm a young professional living a busy city lifestyle in the Washington, D.C. area.  I have a full time job AND a part time job and am generally swamped. Consequently, as someone who must have arts and creative expression in my life to be happy, but who opted to take what seemed like the "safe route" when it came to my career, I struggle to find the time to incorporate enough creativity into my busy and often hectic life.

This blog covers my attempts to balance my creative impulses against my 9 to 5 job, and to share the little ways that I have discovered to meet my need for creativity in a way that can hopefully be helpful to others.

As I live in the D.C. Area, many of my blog posts will naturally relate to goings on in and around D.C.  For those who are not located in the D.C. Area, I hope that such posts will nevertheless be of interest to you and perhaps inspire you to explore similar opportunities where you live.

The Images featured in my blog are either images I have created myself, images I have used with express permission from their owner, or images that are in the public domain and free from copyright or other intellectual property protections.  Many of my cover images are courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, which makes public domain images within its collection available via its Open Access Program.  I'm also a fan of the Getty's Open Content Program.  I encourage you to visit and see all the wonderful pieces available to view and use.

My blog posts may sometimes contain affiliate links to consumer products that I discuss, which allow me to receive a small commission if a reader clicks on them in order to buy those products.  It is my policy to only feature links and products that I would feature anyway, regardless of the commission (but if I am going to feature them anyway, why not monetize when possible?).  Many of my links and features, however - particularly for small, independent businesses and artists - are in no way connected to affiliate programs and I receive no commission for covering them.

Much of my content relates to my experiences making and selling art and craft items.  My primary venue for selling these items is Etsy, where I run a shop called CoupCoup.

Emily