Behind-the-Scenes Updates: Summer Events

In this newsletter
❤️Celebrating 1 year of business
📰Latest news & upcoming events
🪜Subscription tiers - what's changing and why
⏩What's next and stay in touch

Dear friends and members,

May 27th marks the 1st year anniversary of Love Notes to Nature as an independent artistic publication. I want to thank you for subscribing and following me on this journey.

As such, this is partially an off-cycle issue to ensure that you are getting the latest news about the summer season. This past year, I've been mostly focused on Love Notes to the Ocean, and your Art Mindset. For the summer, this will shift to a new Summer of Art series.

This new summer series will be focused on "What is nature journaling?," as well as answering commonly asked questions about what I keep in my field kit. Each month will vary, as I have signed on a new partner (which you can read about in the Latest News and Happenings section.

After 10 editions of the monthly free newsletter, I'm hearing about the different ways that members like you are expressing their creativity with nature. Some of you are also showing me how nature journaling could be stretched into something so different from how it is defined today. I've received little shares of things like...

• Text messages of birds and flowers on your morning walks, asking me, "What is this?"
• Pages from your nature journal about the little glimmers that you're excited about from
• Also, I've had some of my ideas recited back to me in poetry, which is so fun!

A morning latte revelation

Recently, I learned that one of the big reasons that you subscribe is to learn about local and online events that I'm hosting. This summer, we'll be kicking off Summer of Art, and I am aiming to make this little indie publication even more valuable to Paid members, including some fun art projects and special snail mail delivered to your physical mailbox at the end of this season.

Hint: if you're note yet a supporting member, this is a great time to upgrade to an annual subscription.

First time subscribers: Get 30% off annual subscription →

Or, keep reading to learn what's changing for free vs. paid subscription tiers.

Latest news and upcoming events
This summer, there's something in the air. Maybe it's because we're now 4 years post-pandemic lockdown times. Or, maybe like me, you're also feeling the restlessness that comes with the summer season. I have felt the desire to call friends and get out of my home office to meet other people in-person.

During the summer months, my focus will be on hosting in-person events locally, and I will be offering you more targeted content as part of improving Love Notes to Nature.

1. SF Bay Area Nature Journaling Club: Last month, I led a nature journaling club outing with the SF Bay Area Nature Journaling Club at Pillar Point. It was a great time, and we were surprised by the various seaweeds that were scattered across the beach. If you're interested in seeing the event photos, check out the photo video reel or see the Meetup event photo album.
   
   Save the date for June 20th for the next in-person event. I am working on the details, and you will see it in the next newsletter edition.
2. Join me for Summer Adventure with Santa Clara Library: This is my most exciting news to date. I am partnering with the Santa Clara City Library and librarian, Danny Le, to host once-per-month nature journaling workshops through the months of June, July and August.
   
   June's focus is on nature poetry to kick off summer reading. Nature Poems and Storycatching will be hosted on June 17th. To learn more about this event, visit the library website.
   
   In August, I'll be hosting beginner nature journaling with a 10-minute walk event. And in July, I will show workshop participants how to make a sketchbook folio and decorate it with upcycled papers, which they can use to nature journal without worrying about messing up a more expensive sketchbook.
   
   I am really excited about these events, because I grew up with the library's summer reading program.
3. I wrapped up my Marine Biology studies this spring, which resulted in a very rich notebook of marine creature studies. This fueled my personal nature journaling practice for the first half of this year, as we went on different field outings every Friday. I'm more comfortable now with scouting locations and field sketching, although I still rely on photos sometimes to finish my nature journal entries.
   
   In addition to learning to appreciate all of the richness and biodiversity of the California coast, I met so many wonderful people and knowledgeable docents.
   Check out the selfie of Professor Replicon and me, and consider this your gentle invitation to join her at Mission College in Spring 2027.

🪜Subscription Tiers - What's Changing
Up to this point, newsletter editions have been combined into one single edition, where you may see a paywall at the end. This is not the best experience for most people. I'm learning that my newsletter platform, Ghost, does have some quirks, and I have been participating in a specific newsletter 6-week sprint to update my automations, templates and other not-fun techie things in this new platform.

So thank you for sticking with me and believing in this project. I'm making a special effort to ensure that if you are paid member of this publication, you are receiving a member-specific issue in this indie publication.

Free member benefits: If you're a free member, your tier will not change by much. You will continue to receive event updates and demos from my sketchbook. The biggest difference is that you will not see the paywall in your newsletter edition, as I have decided it is best to separate the two versions, where you can preview paid-member specific issues and decide if they are for you.
In addition, because I am leading monthly SF Bay Area Nature Journaling Club events, you can continue to join us for in-person nature journaling. For some people, it's enough to participate only in the free version.

Paid members will now receive a new benefit where you can formally receive a Share a Sketchbook Page aka "Ask a Journaler 1:1 Studio". You will have the regular opportunity to submit a form, upload your page and receive some encouragement or feedback from me once per month.

The main reason for this new benefit is to make it easier for you to share your sketchbook pages or to share what's new in your personal nature journaling practice. This is also helpful for those who aren't local and who want additional support on a monthly basis.

There's one additional awesome benefit that you may receive as a paid subscriber. As I'm partnering with Santa Clara City Library, we're planning on sharing an event gift with August participants, in the form of a Santa Clara Library custom illustrated button.

Since I will be making some digital illustrations this summer, I will already have several concepts and ideas for these buttons. That means you will also get some additional Snail Mail (yay!!) I won't tell you yet what this will look like, but it could be stickers or a digital print, or something else! In any case, I want to thank you for staying with me for this long in my 1st year of business. I hope you will enjoy receiving a little gift in your IRL inbox.

Questions, ideas or feedback about the new membership tiers below? Give feedback.

⏩ What's Next and Stay in Touch
Thanks so much for reading this update. If you found this information helpful, forward this newsletter to a friend.

Or, consider upgrading your membership to participate more fully in the Summer of Art series.

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