The Love I Was Missing + Summer Favorites 🌳

I didn’t know how much I missed the feeling of living in a smaller town. The world labels it as boring; and it sure is, compared to a large, multi-cultural city, with countless options of cute cafes, big stores, famous bands concerts and any signs of life happening after 5pm.

You can find so many kinds of people, fashion styles and personality types, that no one will bother judging yours. You can be whatever you want, everyone else is busy doing the same thing.

That's exactly why I moved away from my hometown and home country, and what I thought I was missing out on. I assumed being able to live life with no one watching me was the perfect fit for my introvert soul.

But the thing is... I don't really care about the anonimity anymore. I wanna be around people. Don't get me wrong, I still need to be alone for like 80% of the time lol. But for those 20% left, I want to do the most mundane things with an extra human around.

Last week I got a notice in my mailbox to come collect a parcel at the post office. I drove down the many kilometers all the way there, and I was greeted by this new officer in training. I handed her my notice and ID, and a few minutes later she apologized, saying she couldn't find my package, and was waiting for her manager to get off a call and come help.

After a few minutes, this lady comes to join us in the room and looks over at the computer to quickly understand what's going on. She looks at the screen, and I can see a smile starting to form on her face. She turns her eyes to me, completely ignores my paperwork, and lets out the cutest laugh, followed by a loud: "OH MY GOD, IT'S IVNA!".

She starts punching in my address that she knows by heart, as she tells the trainee how much she loves to see the drawings I add to each shipping box that ends up going passing through their system, and how they all think it makes the post officer a happier place.

I'm very much caught by surprise. So much so, that I forget I'm already holding the parcel I came to retrieve (she's good, where did she find it so fast?!), and I'm still there chatting.

I'm used to being "just another artist in the city", and in five years of running my small business, no one probably even remembered my face at the multiple post offices I used to visit, let alone my art, my name and my address. It's the kind of thing that happens when there's less of an overwhelming amount of people to deal with. They remember us. They learn us.

As I'm thinking out loud, I see another officer coming in, carrying two big grey bins, filled to the brim with monochromatic letters and soft mailers. I open the door for her, and what I thought was a nod of gratitude for the small act of kindness, turned into a two person chorus of more compliments? "Hey! Ivna is here!".

I left the post office wanting to come back soon with muffins, and itching to start adding easter eggs and jokes to my boxes, because I know the sweet ladies will see it. And they know me. And they'll get it.

We don't know much about each other, but we can still make our days a little brighter. It makes me feel so powerful, like I can actually make a difference. Isn't that how we actually end up doing it?

I didn't know I missed the feeling of being known, but it all makes sense. Maybe when there's less excitement with big things, the smaller ones take more space. And love just hits differently.

1. Sometimes my husband and I like to turn on the radio on long drives and road trips, just for the irony of it. These days we all have so many apps, "Listen later" lists and automatic recomendations generated from our own playlists, that tuning into something that's already playing takes away the decision fatigue.

In one of those times, we "met" Alexis Nikole, being interviewed by god knows who lol. She's the perfect blend of hilarious nature talks and fun foraging tips and recipes, to find and make the most of what's growing naturally in your area.

Three years later, I'm here so happy to see she's launching a book, and this big boy is sitting in my shopping cart right now. Check it out!

2. It's summer, which means outdoor festival season is on! I've done my share of vending outside and fighting the weather for the year already lol.

After all the chaos and stress that comes with checking the weather app every ten minutes and praying for the rain to be pushed away over and over and over, all I wanted to do was lay down on the earth and rest. Not literally on the earth, as it's not only festival but also tick season and I'm not participating on that one.

So I got myself a very cute puffy blanket to keep me safe from crawling evil creatures. Look how colorful and adorable it is!

3. While I'm busy participating in markets and taking care of my small (growing!) business, I haven't been expanding the garden that much, which makes me sad.

One of these mornings, I was walking around just to look at the pretty things growing around here, when I saw our first haskap berries and apple babies from bushes and trees we planted last year, as well as wild tiny strawberries everywhere!

Such a beautiful reminder that the effort you put one day still counts on the day you can't put in as much work, and that it all compounds! 🍓

Cool things I want to share with you:

• I've been reading books about "Consumer Behavior" (we're all consumers!), and found a little summary for one of them, called "Buyology: Truths and Lies About Why We Buy". It feels like a fun podcast to learn how we are what we do, not what we say we do.
  
  
• I was going to try out some more lilac recipes, and only after showing you my results I would share the links for them, but how silly of me lol. It takes a while to write/design/send these newsletters, so by now the poor lilacs are long gone! hahah
  
  
• If you like stationery (or have been reading my digital letters for a while), you've certainly come across some videos from Bungu. I had no idea the guy who does the voice overs for them is actually the CEO, AND he has a Youtube channel with long format videos!!! Woohoo :-) This is him testing ALL the 2026 japanese stationery awards winners: