personal

Etsy Update

Ah!

My Etsy shop has been open since 2013. I prided myself on being a 5-star seller, but was recently punished by a recent patron giving me 4 stars because the keychain she bought broke! She was using it as a zipper pull, and while I can argue, “that’s not how that works,” I gave her a coupon and told her I was sorry. It doesn’t fix my rating, which is now a 4-point-something.

For years I went by “Mes Petites Dessins,” which, when spelled correctly in French (it should be “Petits”) means “my little designs”. But as time goes on, I’m trying to really make my personal brand cohesive. While it’s not important my Etsy shop match my design persona, I wanted it to.

I bought myself a new portable lightbox for product photography and I went ham this weekend rephotographing a good amount of my finished goods.

This quick post is just to reintroduce my Etsy site in hopes of garnering more traffic (and sales!). Happy browsing (maybe shopping?)!

The new banner I have up on my Etsy. I chose to keep it extremely neutral to allow my product photos to take the spotlight.

Back in Action!

Guys.

2024 ended horribly and 2025 started off horribly for me.

I’m currently in therapy and have been for the past few years now. It helps, to a point.

2023 and 2024 were very busy for my husband and I leading up to our wedding in August of 2024, and after that, things still seemed busy, but for positive reasons! We attended a total of four weddings last year, including our own, and they were all very different and very fun!

But 2024 for me saw change—work became extremely stressful. The company isn’t doing well (we recently found out we are being bought out by another smaller company that doesn’t nearly have the business tenure our company does, nor the footprint—that itself says something) and I’m finding while my metrics show I’m a star employee, I’m constantly being picked on with no true defense. My current supervisor has said to me he doesn’t know how to explain to our workforce management why my adherence looks the way it does. In the four years I’ve been with the company, I never had a supervisor tell me they didn’t know how to defend me.

My health took a random nosedive, and I racked up close to $30,000 in medical bills. Fortunately, while I’m not a huge fan of my employer, I will say they do right by us with our benefits package, especially the healthcare portion. The coverage is phenomenal and they pay, like, ⅔ of your individual deductible. Without it, I probably would not have gotten the care I needed because I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

The external hard drive I had connected to my iMac took its last breath before I could obtain a replacement and I lost everything from the last 20+ years—design work, photos, documents, etc. I can create new work. I can recover documents, as they are likely elsewhere with others (government forms, etc.)…photos cannot be recovered, though, and I’m feeling pretty numb about it. This feels like the universe is encouraging me to invest in cloud space to never lose anything again.

In more recent times, a really close friend I had from work no longer wanted to be friends and instead of being truthful to me, decided it would be more efficient for him to begin ignoring me, treating me as if I’m lesser, and finally robbing me of a possible opportunity I had to move back into the role I was originally laid off from back in 2023. Needless to say, this has impacted me the most. I am cut deeply by the loss of a great friend, but turned sour and feeling vindictive by the betrayal in the workplace. Regardless, the best retaliation I can have is to better myself and move on. I don’t need anyone in my life who will purposely inflict harm on me because they and I do not see eye-to-eye. I still wish nothing but the best for him, as he’s got a family to take care of and despite what our personal relationship became, he’s still a good leader and an awesome coworker to those who do get along with him.

Two weeks ago, just after the new year, my husband’s grandmother passed away. She was 89 and the toughest, but sweetest, little lady you’d ever meet. The woman would drink ANYONE under the table, and she always won at LCR, even if she didn’t.

My health has improved, but I’m still having residual issues and the care team I’m working with at the hospital system I chose to take on these issues has failed me more than helped me. I may seek a second opinion or just let things go until they flare up again. I haven’t decided.

The cherry on top is my depression returned. I typically don’t talk to many people about it. 15-year-old me back in, what, 2003? would have aired out all my dirty laundry on Xanga/LiveJournal, put up an angsty lyric from a song as my away message on AIM, and I would have sulked for days. But as an adult in this time, depression hits a lot differently. My serotonin medication is doing the best it can, that is, when I remember to take it.

Good, great even, things happened too! As I mentioned, I got married. I got a slight pay increase (I’m talking cents, not dollars), I celebrated another birthday. I watched other friends get married, I partied…So while the heartbreak has been real, the happiness has always found its way back. While I’m not doing great mentally, I’m trying to remind myself that the sun always comes back out. I’ll be OK. (Plus, the Eagles are doing phenomenally! COME ON COMMANDERS, BRING IT!)

I have goals for my life this year. They’re not resolutions, just goals. You can argue that a resolution IS a goal, but see, I don’t have a time limit. I don’t only have 2025 to get these resolutions complete. It would be ideal, but I need to make sure I’m doing what I need to do and do it correctly to benefit the most from it. Of course, there are some things I’d like to accomplish within 2025, like read 10 books. I love reading, but as I got older and busier, I don’t make the time for myself to do the things I love. I find myself putting others and their needs/wants first.

I’m currently reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. The structure of the story is interesting…I’m not too immersed in the writing itself, but I appreciate the effort and the story does keep my interest a bit. However, because I’m not totally engrossed in it, it’s taken me months to get maybe a third of the way through. My TBR list is infinite, and I keep asking my husband to take me to B&N on a date and allow me 5 football minutes in the store. My Facebook Reels algorithm is a blend of books, 3D printing, crafts, and cooking. I finally got the wedding content to disappear.

I want to make a more concerted effort to update this portfolio regularly. Maybe once a week at least.

I bought another blank bullet journal to track different things. We’re 20 days into the new year and I have maybe 2 rectangles drawn. I’m trying.

I’m also trying to prioritize my health and wellness. I’m trying to encourage my husband to do the same with the promise of trying for babies if he can get on track with his health needs.

I have goals to stay off my phone more (though Candy Crush Saga has made its way back into my life…) and just enjoy the company of silence when I’m not working. I want to see more people more often. I need to break the cycle of depression.

I want to be more active in the design community and I want to find my way into advertising once and for all.

All this to say, I’m back. I hope to stay. I bought a new domain to use with the name change. I debated internally if I wanted to go back to the “Hey There Michelle” moniker or if I wanted to provide a more mature, serious vibe to my brand. I opted for the latter. I’m only getting older and despite what companies and HR and recruiters tell you, ageism is a thing.

Here’s to an excellent 2025! I am leaving you with my most recent work: a label manipulation for some baby oil we brought as a gag gift to a party on Saturday.

A bottle of Baby Love baby oil from Dollar Tree.

We turned it into Diddy Lube for the giggles.

I'm Still Fuctioning!

It’s been a while since I posted here, which wasn’t the intent. I actually wanted to at least post once a month.

Things have been busy. I’m waist-deep in planning the wedding with my fiancé and working on stuff for that. Save the dates will be the first designed thing, but I’ve been working on plenty of other creative stuff for the wedding in between like the bouquets for my bridesmaids and me.

The bridesmaids will have light bouquets with some dark accents.

My bouquet is dark with light accents.

I’ve also taken up nail art. I’m not a licensed technician, but I’ve been doing own nails again and creating sets to sell on Etsy.

My 2023 birthday nail set.

Medium coffin, color changing pearl and caviar deisgn

Neon marble set, medium, square

Medium blue coffin nails, elegant wedding style

Warm neon jawbreaker style, stiletto, medium

Winter penguin set sold to a regular client.

Royal blue queen set, short almond

Orchid/aqua tribal-inspired nail set.

 

Java swirl, medium coffin

XL Black and white coffin nail set

 

I also started dabbling in other crafts, like creating phone grips.

Moon crescent bow phone grip

Moon sceptre phone grip

Cute face phone grip

Multicolor dot phone grip

So I’m still around, just…not around.

Work is exhausting—mentally, emotionally, and even physically. While it doesn’t seem like it would be, sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, talking on the phone for the better part of those eight hours, reviewing insurance claims, benefits, calling doctors’ offices and hospitals, explaining to billers why they need to correct the claim or write off the bill for patients is really taxing.

I’m very much in the market for a new role. My job isn’t a bad one, it’s just not what I want to do and it’s staring to wear me down. It’s time to move on and I’m ready for my next challenge.

I've Been Impacted

Last year saw mass layoffs left and right from companies like GoPuff, Twitter, Google, Meta, Amazon—the list goes on. Even the company I work for had a reduction in workforce, citing reorganization after acquiring PlushCare and 2nd.MD. At that time, I was safe.

This year, we’re already seeing more layoffs from the same companies, including mine.

However, I am not safe.

I, along with several other colleagues of mine, were briefed on the current events and provided a timeline and several documents to review and sign. In order to keep things intact for myself, I am not at liberty to speak on what’s going on or the processes, but what I will say is I’m back on the market, baby.

My master resume has been updated and uploaded to my about page for download.

I’ve been asked if I’m upset.

Short answer? Yes. I’m livid, to be completely honest. Once all is said and done for myself, I will spill the carefully crafted morning tea and provide my personal opinion of it all. But for now, I’m employed on a ticking time bomb and will continue to serve until my number is called to move on to bigger, better things.

I pulled myself back onto LinkedIn and started campaigning for others as well as myself. We’re all in this together.

For anyone else who’s been affected by a layoff event at their company—good luck, you got this!

Top Secret Design Stuff

Ever since Luis and I got engaged, I’ve been getting asked a variety of wedding-themed questions: did you set a date? Where are you having it? How’s the planning going? Etc.

The answers are:

  1. Yes, now we have. We have a date.

  2. We don’t know yet. Apparently the venues where we want to have it are already booked as they’re private estates/vacation rentals. The ones that are available are too expensive for us. *coughcastlecough*

  3. It’s going. It’s slow, but it’s going.

Then there are the questions about what I’m working on when I say I’m working on wedding stuff and the thing is, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.

Why?

Because the stuff we’re working on are in preparation of proposing to our wedding party.

Let me tell you, having multiple close girlfriends as well as those I’m obligated to ask makes this part very stressful. There are two women, three even, whom I want to ask and have as a part of my party, but seeing as I already have 11 on my roster…

I am lowkey hoping some of my girls say no. I know that’s the complete opposite of what most people want, but seriously…

Of course I could make this extremely easy on myself and just ask my matron of honor and like 2 bridesmaids and call it a day.

Problem is, I also want my fiancé’s daughters in the party, and he has a good friend he wants in the party, and then I have a great friend from art school, and—

I’m at 11.

So I have been badgering my fiancé to, like, think of more men he’d like in his party. I don’t mind if the numbers are uneven by 1 or 2, which I think we were able to get to.

My mom told me I should only have 2-3 bridesmaids.

Oh man, Mom, oh man….

Regardless, we’re working on these proposal boxes that have cut/applied vinyl on them with a funny statement on the front with the question popped on the inside. We’re filling them with custom curated goodies and waiting for things to come in for the boxes.

I ~promise~ once everything is said and done and our party is finalized, I will do a whole post on everything we did with photos (and maybe some video, not sure yet).

So be patient! You will get the wedding content you’re looking for!