Like so many others, I find myself far from where I was born. Far from family. Far from what I always thought of as home.

I hail from the lush Lowcountry of South Carolina, but I have also lived along the coast of North Carolina, the windswept plains of Wyoming, and most currently, the fringes of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I miss things about every place I have lived, even every place I have ever visited. A roadside sculpture of a cowboy that always reminded me I was close to home in Wyoming. A close encounter with a raven that left me in awe in Colorado. The space between two rocky islands that looked like it was infinite in Alaska. A blue door on a blue building in Pennsylvania. A flock of seagulls taking flight over the surf in South Carolina. I carry these things with me always.

I watch the mile markers slide past my truck window from memory to memory, even when I am curled up at home. All of these things are home and I am always home.

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I opened my first Etsy shop, Milemarker, in 2007 and a second, Leaf and Bloom, in 2012. Last year I decided to combine them under my name to keep things simple.