Traveling — a mini interisland getaway to Ofu, Manu’a!

Do you ever get so excited for a trip you can barely sleep in the nights leading up to your trip? Well, that’s literally me right now. I actually woke up at 4am feeling restless and excited at 5am this morning because I have so many things to do before I leave tomorrow morning! Especially since my trip got moved up a day — I’m now going via boat rather than by plane — I have a lot to prepare and pack before the trip. I’m planning to only be in Ofu for a week, but with the very flimsy travel scheduling, I have to prepare to be there for two weeks, just in case.

PS — American Samoa is thankfully still COVID-free, and borders are still closed. I’m traveling interisland to Manu’a, but even that travel has been difficult as flights are not definitive, and prices have increased since before the pandemic. Wish me luck!

The First Annual Pacific Roots Open Mic Showcase

My good friends, Tamiano and Traci, are leveling up their usually small and intimate Pacific Roots Open Mic (PROM) events for a big corporate-type fundraising event at the Lee Auditorium on October 3. As the name suggests, the event will be a showcase of local creative talent and will include a competition and prizes for top performing artists. For non-performing creative artists, such as myself and others who express themselves moreso behind the scenes, there will be an opportunity to showcase our work, and sell whatever goods we might have. I’m donating a large photo canvas and a photo session for their raffle fundraiser, and am planning to sell a few smaller canvas pieces in case anyone is interested in purchasing to support a local artist. But yeah, I’ll be there to support and hopefully do a decent job of showing off some of my work!

My very first batch of stickers which I designed and illustrated

While thinking about what I could do to promote my work aside from PROM showcase, I also decided to design and illustrate some stickers! My best friend, Gabby, and I have been planning to make stickers for the longest time now, but we kept putting it off. Heck, we’ve been putting off too many of our creative ideas, but we’ll get there. I spent a week illustrating some new sticker ideas, and cleaned up some old sticker ideas I’ve had for literal years now, and placed my order a few days ago — I’m so excited to get them in the mail and to sell them! If anyone’s interested in buying stickers from me, please let me know!

Well, wish me luck as I get my day started! It’s been raining all night, and the sky is just starting to turn a light gray outside now that it’s 6am. I’m going to jot down my to-do list, and I’ll see ya on the flip side!

xo, Nerelle