I'm lucky. My dogs have a beach house and I get to spend a good amount of time working and living in Cape May, New Jersey. This time is special. It's Helena's birthday. Saturday is Helena's birthday. We are celebrating ten years. Over the past decade, Helena has been by my side through thick and thin, accompanying me on countless adventures and filling our home with love and joy. A Decade of Adventures: From coast to coast, Helena and I have traversed the country, em-bark-ing on road trips that have taken us to the most picturesque landscapes and charming towns. We've hiked in the mountains and lounged on sandy beaches. Through it all, Helena has been my steadfast co-pilot, always ready for the next adventure. Our bond runs deep. Over the past ten years, we've developed a special connection built on trust, companionship, and unwavering loyalty. Helena's intelligence and sassiness never fail to bring a smile to my face, and her occasional playful antics remind me to embrace the simplest joys in my life. Here's to many more years of laughter, love, and unforgettable moments with my girl one. Happy 10th birthday, Helena Tazmania. Thank you for a decade of love, loyalty, and cherished memories. Your special day will be filled with treats, belly rubs, and all the happiness in the world. Here's to many more years of wagging tails and unconditional love. Cheers to you, my dear girl. Nine Birthdays + 1 Theo's Costume Party Helena's 9th Helena's 4th

First trip of the year, Bluffton, South Carolina. OK, so I didn't really "hang with the birds" on this trip, but I did hang with Lucy Rosen, a longtime friend, client, and colleague. Lucy's work is sensational, so when she asked me to design a business card to represent her work, I was both honored and challenged. My primary goal was to encapsulate the essence of Lucy's exceptional photography skills, particularly in her captivating captures of nature and birds. I sought to create a visual narrative that not only mirrors her brand but also teases the viewer into the profound intricacies of her photographs. This design isn't just a card; it's a view through her lens into Lucy's world of mesmerizing imagery, inviting each recipient to immerse themselves in the beauty she seems to effortlessly capture through her lens.

Full of flavor and design, Armenia is a country nestled in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. It is beautiful and boasts a rich history and a vibrant cultural heritage. I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Yerevan, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with a history dating back to 782 BC. One of Armenia's most prominent features is its stunning landscapes, which range from mountainous terrain to lush valleys. Mount Ararat, an iconic symbol of the nation, holds cultural significance as the supposed resting place of Noah's Ark, as mentioned in the Bible. Having faced numerous challenges throughout its history, Armenia has a resilient spirit, and Armenians have preserved their unique identity and traditions. The Armenian people have a rich cultural heritage, with a language that has its own distinctive alphabet, one of the oldest in the world. Their contributions to literature, art, and music reflect a deep connection to their history and a strong sense of national pride. More importantly, spending time with my team was the highlight of the journey. Yervand and Lilit headed the adventures, and the time spent with them is unforgettable. Daniel, Grisha, Artyom, Narek & Narek, Nelli, Gayane, Armen & Armen, Vahan, Artak, Hovhannes - Thank you for spending so much time showing us around. And should we talk about the food for a moment? Hospitality is a cornerstone of Armenian culture, with guests often being treated to an abundance of food and warm welcomes. There was no shortage of hospitality and food, both delightful: dolma, lavash, and the famous barbecue known as khorovats. Armenia leaves a lasting impression on those who explore its history, culture, and natural beauty. It's a country that invites you to delve into its past, savor its present, and appreciate the indomitable spirit of its people. This collection flows from the heart and is dedicated to our unforgettable time spent in Armenia. It was a special trip, and it is now in my heart forever.

So much has happened in the past few years. I read back on this blog, and life has made shift after shift. I’m not who I was when I posted last; considering when that was, that’s a very good thing. My last post was June 17, 2022. Man, was that a rough time? Since then, things have gotten better. In October of 2021, I moved back to New York. I think you can say I *ran* back to New York. I had a backpack and some luggage full of things I knew I would need to get life started here. I was scared but determined to fight for my life and start again where I was most comfortable, the Lower East Side. Here we are in September of 2023, and I’m finally settled in my home. I don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to be but who I am at this very moment. I read this blog, and I feel a little disconnected. I’m not an artist who glamorously flits between NYC's bustling metropolis and New Mexico's mountains, designing patterns for shoes and scarves. I’m not that scared widow, running raw and finding my way. Life is pretty simple now. I’m just the COO of a really cool company. I don’t talk much about Skipti because, for a while, it was quick-changing. We had clients we couldn’t publicly talk about and opportunities in the pipeline that were delicate and exciting, but even this has become just solid and stable. I don’t know who reads these posts, but for you - the one reading right now - Skipti is really freaking cool. Personally, I am a minimalist. For me, it’s not about having a cold and sterile living space; it is about living purposefully and only having what you need. Skipti was born from this vision. Why own something when you can have it when you need it and then give it back when you’re done? We are a powerhouse team that has built some technology to provide a turn-key circular commerce solution that inspires consumers to live deliberately and sustainably. Suppose we can inspire the community to live deliberately by powering the circular economy. In that case, we serve a world that values experience over possession, repair over replacement, and quality over quantity while reducing production for obsolescence. We aren't the only ones who think this is cool. Home Depot cold-called us after stumbling on our site, and we began working with them this year. We power sports companies, e-bike demos and rentals, ski shops, and other professional services that require a physical product to accompany the experience. The increase in global circularity processes will not only impact our climate but will give us all the freedom to experience more with less, and Skipti provides businesses with an easy way to adopt circular practices, diversify revenue streams, and find new ways to interact with their customers. How about that for positivity in the workplace? Not to mention, the job is pretty fun. #feature3

He didn’t want to die. I can think of no greater honor than to live as deeply as possible, for I have the only thing he wanted more of … life. Surviving something like losing your husband, makes people start watching what you’re up to very closely. When you’re sad they tell you to smile. If you’re too happy too quickly, they wonder why you’re happy. The one thing that they will say about living, is “you have no choice”. Well, isn’t that the furthest bullshit from the truth ever spoken? I have a choice and getting up and living my life is not the easier of the two options you’re handed. This is a battle that I am proudly conquering, but it is not easy. (Article on Elephant Journal) I tend to err on the fighty side when I’m faced with adversity and thankfully for this, I didn’t crawl into my room and hide. I got angry and decided I’m not giving him up without a fight. I can’t get him back, but I can fight for my life to live as hard as possible. I will pay attention to every moment. I will love the people I love, hard. I will not take a second for granted. We lived our lives this way before, and I will not stop now. You can be happy and sad at the same time. I have learned this. I think it’s probably most similar to wanting to eat and feeling like you’re going to throw up at the same time. Wrap your head around that one. No, I can’t either, but that’s what it is. So that’s what I will continue to do. He didn’t want to die. I will honor him with life. #tableforone #livingfortwo

As of today, I’ve changed the name of this blog. It is no longer strictly about my fieldwork. In honor of my life taking on a new path, I am giving this blog in a new direction to share my journey with anyone that can benefit from reading it. On January 16, 2021, my life as I knew it died. There was nothing left of it. If I was to keep my memories intact, I would need to work extremely hard to face the reality that it was gone. It wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t coming back. I journaled every day for a year so that I would document what I was feeling, digest my emotions, read them back to myself, hear them, and archive them in the rare case that I would need or want to go back to them ever again. By doing this I would face the second most frightening thing I would deal with in my lifetime — what was going on inside my own head. For weeks after his death, I was useless. For months, I had no focus. I didn’t know which way was up. It was all too much, and I quickly recognized that If I was going to survive this, I had to cut off any and all energy that was going to anything but keeping myself alive. As the year went on, I finished all of the things that needed to be handled. The arrangements were done, the one-year celebration was over, and every bit of the responsibility I had for his death was checked off. Anyone that has been through this knows this bitter-sweet feeling. We don’t want to be done because this is the last connection we have to the person that we love so hard. I feel like moving forward is wrong. I know that standing still is wrong, and somehow I still feel like being sad can bring him back. The reality is that he is dead and that life as I knew it was dead, too. I consider myself to be a realist, often mistaken for an optimist. Maybe I am an optimist. If being sad will bring him back I will do that forever, but I recognize the reality of this terrible situation. The only thing I can do now is live this life for both of us. I cleared out the tasks, faced the grief head-on, and continued to simplify my mind and my life of clutter in the most deliberate ways I knew possible. As I did this, I found that memories came flooding to me. Things I hadn’t thought of in years are now making me laugh and making me cry, too often all at once. So this brings me to this change of the Field Blog direction and the direct connection to my deliberate lifestyle. The writer of the Field Blog is a distant memory. She was carefree and had a creative side that was beautifully naive. She was giddy over travel and bumblebee scissors in Target, and somehow illustrations and patterns were very important. I hope to get back there, but it will take time. Every experience we have holds provenance that we incorporate into the way we live. Minimalism isn't something new to me. In the past decade, I have paid close attention to simplifying - focusing on the things that make me whole. I practice #project333. I hold Mari Kondo’s values close to my heart and think about emptying my purse and thanking it at night - even though I don't do it. I align closely with the Minimalists' values. Buying a camper taught us how to pare down and live light and I’m shamelessly ruthless when it comes to knickknacks and Christmas Cards. I even sold the design agency that I built for almost 20 years to start a company that is dedicated to “Living Deliberately”, maximizing time and minimizing waste. All of this is nothing compared to what losing him has taught me about simplifying. This experience has made me cut even deeper. If I hadn’t simplified, I would not have survived. Time is precious and we can't make more of it. I will not waste it under any circumstance. I give priority to the important things in my space, both physically and emotionally. I am extremely protective of my peace and the people that I allow into my circle. I refuse to expel energy on anyone or anything that doesn’t deserve my time. Practically speaking, I am now single-income and had spent a good part of 2021 defining and budgeting for those things that make me whole to ensure that these needs are met as efficiently and effectively as possible. In October of 2021, I moved back to New York permanently. It is the only place where I found peace. My apartment is familiar. It is a <500 SQFT flat on the 6th floor of a classic tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It’s in the back of the building, so I enjoy the eastern light of the morning sunrise in my bedroom, and I don’t have to hear the native sounds of Hells Square. Everything in this space serves me. The quiet, the sunlight, my king bed, my perfect sofa, and my electric tea kettle. I carefully curate and fiercely protect this space to ensure that there is nothing inside my sacred apartment that might give me stress. This goes for guests as well. I became cutthroat with my people. If you didn’t contribute to saving my life in 2021 then I quickly let you go. This isn’t personal or spiteful. We only have so much time and we have to carefully choose who we spend It on. This is a bigger circle than you might think. Without naming names -- except for my sister Charlie who deserves some serious recognition for what she did for me immediately following his death and continually since -- the list includes my family, of course. Some are blood-related, some of which aren’t even related to me anymore, and some never were. There are IGers that I have yet to meet that have given the right advice, hope, strength, or love in a surprisingly real way at exactly the right time. There are the solid forever friends who I knew would be right by my side. And lastly, the people I met after the chaos and the trauma had settled. Those that didn’t know him - or me for that matter - are meeting me now, AS-IS, and have accepted me and we are moving forward together. With dumpsters and donation bins full of my former life. With people that cloud my brains with static gone. With a life that contains only what I need to move forward, I have the space to enjoy the memories of my previous, beautiful life while giving myself a place to breathe and a blank canvas to create my new one. Ever grateful to be without the clutter and noise. Moving forward with deliberate force. Onward. * * * #RovingBee #fielddesigner #workonsite #lynnplatow #travelerforwork #travelerforlife 🔺#tableforone #livingfortwo #minimalism #livedeliberately

You will be hard-pressed to find a single person that will claim that 2021 was normal - f*ck, it was not - but I will not define it by what it was not. It will not only be the year that loved and lost—hard. It is the year that I proved that I could survive days that should have destroyed me. The year my brother Shawn and I conquered the Colorado Trail. The year I learned I could off-road a truck through the mountains and change the monster truck tire with the still-very-large spare. It is the year that my brilliant team and I brought Skipti to 34 cities across the continental United States. The year I built a Cottage in the middle-of-nowhere New Mexico - some parts with my own two hands, and lots of help from a couple of dear, dear friends. I slept in a tent, a truck, a trailer, a few airports, and bus stops. I dragged a 26' camper into the woods, and the mountains, and across the desert. I booked international solo-travel, visited three countries and about 17 states. I met some beautiful strangers along the way who now hold a permanent place in my world and in my heart. I completed three cross-country trips, ate far too much Indian food (that didn't surprise anyone), got tattoos with Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys, and proudly watched a Mars helicopter exceed the expectations of the mission, (that didn't surprise anyone). I loved, I lost, I survived, and I lived. So welcome 2022. I welcome you as I continue to move forward in this precious life. I’m taking my memories, wisdom, and perspective with me and leaving anything I don’t need behind. Cheers, and thank you to every single one of you that stood by my side, gave me space, fed me two meals a day for 31 days, dropped everything to live with me for a month, bought me earrings on Valentine’s Day and dropped off secret early morning flowers on my stoop. Love, truly with all of my heart. LP

Enjoy the music that accompanies this grainy little video of the extraordinary lifetimes Eric and I lived together. Eric's gallery, Memorial Reflection Service and Obituary can be found at: https://www.lynnplatow.com/the-legacy-of-eric-lindsay Always Lynn & Eric. Always Blue Skies.

Cheers to reflection. Cheers to creativity. Cheers to all of the places we didn't go this time around, and those we stayed-in. Raise a glass to every inch of provenance that builds your life - and your work - into what it is. May 2021 be as filled with creativity as 2020, and maybe just a little less pandemicky. Slainte! Above: Roving Bee Places: Land of Enchantment Cotton Poplin

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The truth of the matter is, when I'm home - not much has changed. Zoom, Skype, and Facetime have been my meeting rooms since 2003. I try to have a dog or two at my feet (or on my lap... or on my laptop...) and I never wear shoes. The only thing that is different is the time in between. Where is the travel? With the whole world in a tizz, my travel plans changed. Trip after trip - CANCELED. State parks shut down, airlines were not offering all of the flights in the schedule. Let's say you were able to get to a city, the city required a quarantine. And let's say you quarantined - where do you go when everything is closed? This is a shift. I have travelled for 2 weeks a month for my whole adult life. I'm just not used to being unpacked for this long! So something has to change. I'd like to eradicate COVID-19 and get back at it, but for now, there is an opportunity to be had. I just have to find it. Maybe it's not an obvious solution. Maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong. I'm going to try a different path here. I bought land in my beloved New Mexico. Wait? Grow roots? How does one-single, immovable location help with the travel bug?" you might ask. The obvious answer is I can hook up the Cabin and take her out there every single weekend. No cell signal. Beautiful views. The dogs have a lake to swim in and we have a place to clear our heads. But the underlying motive is this. By owning a piece of this beautiful state, I don't have to live here. I can move out of New Mexico and know that I can return any time I like. No restrictions. No closures. No cancellations. Well now, this is an interesting thought. So I introduce to you my very own dirt. 360º views in the most beautiful slice of New Mexico around. So what are my plans? Pack up my apartment downtown and head back to my place in New York or Boston? No. Stay tuned. It may be time to start thinking bigger.

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