Start Here ✨
Creeeaaaaak... step through an enchanted doorway and join me on an adventure to explore and celebrate creativity of all kinds..
Welcome Creative Explorer
If you have a creative heart, join me on an adventure to explore and celebrate creativity of all kinds, just for the joy of it.
This is a place to get wonderfully lost, to stumble upon unexpected delights, to follow the fireflies of inspiration on enchanted paths that wind through creativity, moonlight and mess and impossible dreams.
All of my writing is free to read, but if you would like to support this creative adventure by upgrading to an annual paid subscription, I will send you a print of your choice from my collection, as a thank you for gifting my creativity another moment of freedom to explore and create, for joy alone.
Follow the links below to continue the adventure…
These are my favourite While I Was Drawing essays and poems. If you’re not sure where to begin, this is a good place to start.
Each is a small act of noticing, of bearing witness to the beauty, complexity and ever changing wild tangle of being alive.
✨Fiction✨
Here you’ll find a growing collection of my fiction.
Archive of Stone is a short fiction series, with the final part coming soon. The others are standalone tales, and I have the first delicate seedlings of another beguiling story growing in my mind, a story of magic and enchantment that I am tentatively enticing out of my imagination and into my notebook.
Illustrations and photographs to use as printable art, creative references, or visual companions for your writing, Substack, website or social media. Whether you're crafting, designing, or simply gathering beautiful things, there's something here for you.
✨Because Creativity Guest Letters✨
A gathering of stories, reflections, and joyful explorations of creativity in all its forms.
Whether it’s singing, painting, writing, baking, gardening, music, mending, or making something just because it feels good, these guest posts celebrate the act of creating simply because it brings us joy.
✨The Creative Bucket List Club✨
An exploration of creativity of all kinds, including tutorials, downloads, videos, creative projects and chat threads.
The Creative Bucket List Club is a celebration of trying all the things, of saying yes to the flutter of excitement in your stomach when you see a new craft or imagine a wild idea. It's for the creative adventurers who want to make not just one kind of art, but all the kinds, simply for the wonder of it.
Lovely words from readers of While I Was Drawing
“Emily’s work and words always feels full of heart.” Linn
“I’m glad I found your little creative corner, especially when your wonderful drawings arrive side by side with good advice!” Susie
“This is breathtakingly beautiful writing. So immersive and enchanting.” Robyn
"Emily has so many incredible insights in the way she thinks and the way she sees things." Keeley
If you’d love to use some of my illustrations and photographs, you can subscribe for free as a Creative Explorer and receive a beautiful bundle of 30+ illustration assets to download, and access to the Creative Explorer’s Photo Gallery that I share in my Welcome Letter.
Thank you for being part of this creative adventure. I can’t wait to see where your imagination takes you.
With wishes for endless inspiration,
You can also support this creative adventure by exploring my Etsy shop — Ink and Oddments — where I have listed some of my creative explorations for sale…
Or buying our book, Is Aunt Moll from the North Pole…
If you enjoy hearing from me and know others who you think would enjoy my letters, illustrations and photography, please do share While I Was Drawing with them - just click the button below 😍
The illustration gallery is for creative adventurers (paid subscribers). Creative Explorers can access the free gallery from the links that I will send out each time I add more photographs.
What a beautiful, warm and welcoming page Emily. But what’s new 🤗