A mom of a young daughter, a knitter with more saved patterns than available knitting years, a retired educator, and a traveler who is usually planning the next trip before unpacking from the last one.

After losing my husband, I found myself navigating a chapter I never expected to write. Grief has a way of changing your perspective. It taught me that life is both fragile and beautiful, and that joy is worth chasing whenever it appears.

This blog is where knitting needles meet passport stamps. It's a place for stories from our travels, knitting projects both successful and spectacularly humbling, favorite books, and reflections on finding peace, gratitude, and purpose in the second half of life.

You'll also find an occasional fascination with mental health and lifelong learning. After spending decades in education, I still can't resist asking questions, reading one more book, or falling down a research rabbit hole that starts with memory and somehow ends with the history of Italian verb conjugations.

I believe healing can happen in unexpected places: while watching a sunset in a new country, finishing a sweater that spent two years in timeout, sharing a laugh with my daughter, or discovering that getting older doesn't mean becoming less adventurous—it just means packing more comfortable shoes.

I don't have all the answers. But I do know that life is too short to save the good yarn, skip the trip, or wait for the perfect moment.

So come along as I embrace this next chapter with curiosity, gratitude, a healthy sense of humor, and occasionally a completely overstuffed suitcase.

One stitch, one suitcase, and one story at a time. ✈️🧶📚