Miller June 2026 Monthly Update
- Michelle
- Jul 2
- 7 min read
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Our Upcoming Events:
July 26th- ATCs at Rainy Day Anime from 11am-1pm
July 24th- ATCs at Who Gives a SCRAP! from 11am-1pm
July 31st- (tentative) Mini Top Hat Making Class TBD
It will be a low month with my week blocked off and many events we have to be at while balancing a new schedule!
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Another month came anNew d went. This one was full of ups and downs... and a new medication that has some odd side effects that will hopefully go away in a few weeks.
The past month was John's birthday month! If you didn't get a chance to say happy birthday, sending him a small card or asking him more about his art and what he's created over the last few months would definitely brighten his day!
This month is my birthday, and next month is our 8th wedding anniversary! We have a very eventful summer with some of the biggest recurring milestones in our lives. Neither of us expected to still be alive, so we're honestly a bit confused about what we're doing at this point. We're also realizing how little we were taught as children and just how underprepared we were for adulthood. We're slowly learning and fumbling our way through life as we go. Hope you can see some growth from when we first started to now.
John found some fascinating research about DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and how closely many of these experiences and findings align with what we've lived through. It's been a very shocking and sensitive time in our lives, and it continues to heavily influence our daily lives. If you'd like to read it (and have the mental capacity for it), please take a look: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5422461/
Keep in mind that this is a research paper, so it contains a lot of scientific jargon and spans about 14 pages. However, it's incredibly dense with information and includes work from a University School of Medicine in Turkey, a Department of Psychology in New Zealand, and a Department of Psychiatry in South Africa. Oddly no one from the US or China to my personal surprise.
Speaking of research evaluations, I recently watched a video by Autistic Dr. Zee on YouTube discussing how the brain is structurally different in neurodivergent individuals vs neurotypicals. She shares her own lived experience and explains how it is supported by three types of brain scans: Structural MRI (Tesla), Functional MRI (fMRI), and QEEG.
Many of the things she talked about immediately resonated with me, and I've often wondered just how extensive my own neurological differences are and whether they could explain many of my lived experiences. I'd love to have these evaluations done someday, but paying out of pocket would likely be far beyond what I can afford, especially since Medicaid would almost certainly not cover them. It may become a long-term financial goal someday.
I'm still upset about that one "doctor" (I honestly don't even remember if she was a fully licensed physician) who denied me a brain scan over ten years ago. Having that scan could have established a baseline for future comparisons and helped determine whether my struggles were more structural ("hardware") or functional ("software") in nature. Instead, she was condescending and prevented me from getting the help I needed. Years later, I was proven right that there were structural differences. Knowing that sooner could have saved me so much heartache and may have reduced some of my suicidal struggles over the years.
But, as life goes... things aren't always meant to be easy.
The new medication I'm taking is supposed to level out the emotional spikes and crashes that sometimes drain me emotionally to the point of collapsing within seconds. So far, it seems to be keeping those swings within a much more manageable window. However, I think it has also increased my sensitivity to light, especially when I'm stressed. After several days of heavy socializing, my eyes have refused to open, watered uncontrollably, and throbbed with pain... twice while I was driving home. I had to pull over and wait until my eyes stabilized before I could continue driving. Sometimes, when I wake up, the light coming through the blinds seems to pulse, flash, and gradually grow brighter, almost like a television rapidly changing scenes in a dark room.
My psychiatrist said that if these symptoms continue after a few weeks, we'll have to adjust the medication. The interesting part is that I'm not even taking the standard starting dose. Because of my naturally heightened sensitivities, I have to begin with half of the normal starting dose, and I'm even taking it every other day (which this medication allows). It's a bit complicated, but I'm hoping the side effects remain temporary and don't leave any lasting issues. We'll see.
I've been on so many medications over the past fifteen years that I've already picked up a few long-term side effects from some of them.
But enough about that.
I'm still struggling to keep everything together, so please forgive my minimal interactions for a little while longer. If possible, please direct communications through John, as he'll be leading most of our conversations for now.
Also, for about ten days this month, I've intentionally left my schedule completely empty for my birthday. My plan is to hunker down at home, catch up on projects, or honestly sleep an entire day if that's what my body needs. I still don't truly relax until I've had two or three completely unscheduled days at home. That's also when I tend to enter my best workflow state. So, between July 8th and July 16th, I hope to be mostly home catching up on life.
Oh... and big news!!
We got our art studio!
We moved in just a couple of days ago. If you happen to stop by Who Gives a SCRAP! on Tuesdays, Fridays, or Saturdays from 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m., or Sundays from 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., we hope you'll stop by Studio 12 and say hello!
Right now we're still getting everything set up, so the room is a little chaotic, but we've already hung some of our artwork for people to enjoy.
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In June we had some exciting fun!
Rainy Day Anime didn't happen this month because they were attending another scheduled event that day. Instead, we hosted our trading event at our house for a change, and it ended up being way more fun than we expected!
It was especially nice having everything at home because I could simply run into another room whenever someone needed supplies. This was also the first time our home has been open enough to comfortably fit eight people! (Previously, we only had enough space for a whopping four people.)
We had a lot of fun cutting and making handmade stamps to create a series of Artist Trading Cards to trade with everyone. Take a look at all these handmade stamps!
We also had another wonderful ATC event at Who Gives a SCRAP!, enjoying the company of friends while creating together.
I also finished cleaning up my little sister's stamp that she started about two years ago.
Look how adorable it is!! We will be selling these as prints on my handmade recycled paper. All proceeds will go to my sister towards her Fish Conservation degree!
There are now a few prints of it floating around waiting to be snagged in a trade!
We'll also be making prints on my handmade paper that can be purchased at our studio or at future craft fairs.
We'll continue meeting every fourth Friday of the month from 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., and we hope even more crafty friends will join us!
Paper Day also went really well. We spoke with many people who were fascinated by Artist Trading Cards, while even more people than we expected already knew about them and actively created them!
We're looking forward to future Paper Days beginning again in August. Unfortunately, the July event falls on the same day as a wedding we'll be attending, so we'll be out of town.
Here is a little gallery of the Artist Trading Cards we made during June (and some in May) :
John has been making a crazy amount of artwork!
I've been making a few things here and there, although only a handful can be shared at this time:
If you haven't seen our display at WGAS, you should!
We absolutely love it. The display board will be the next thing updated once we've settled into the studio.
Last thing...
I've become completely obsessed with starting a Snail Mail Club over the past two and a half weeks. It's been an almost nonstop process with multiple steps being accomplished every single day. It's honestly kind of crazy. If you—or anyone you know—is interested in signing up for this wild, in-depth adventure, then this is for you! It will be up for sale in our shop on the website but if you'd like to be notified right away, then send us a message and you'll know FIRST when it's up. I'm planning the full year in advance and I'm so giddy with the exciting experiences in store for my members!
It's much more than simply receiving a letter with stickers and a mini art print.
It's going to explore a world where I've already created 56 characters that are just waiting to see the light of day while you create one to join the world. I think it'll especially appeal to people who enjoy staying home, crafting, and feeling like they're creating alongside someone else in a new world to explore.
I'm also learning how to build the members area of our website so there can be an online interactive component as well.
We're getting to the point where parts of our website will soon become members-only and won't be accessible to everyone!
Speaking of the website...
I've been working really hard updating it, and I'm hoping to roll out the new version during the week I've blocked off. The CMS for the dynamic pages has been driving me absolutely crazy!! But there is a lot in store that will be improving.
One positive, though, is that it's finally gotten me comfortable using spreadsheets to organize everything, and surprisingly, my brain has been functioning much better while juggling so many projects at once!
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This is also the countdown to the closing of art submissions for the TRE Art Show!
The submission deadline is July 15th, and it's open to everyone in the Colorado Springs area.
It's free to enter! The only solid requirement is that it must be able to be hung on a wall.
Or if you would like to sponsor, they would greatly appreciate the love and support!
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That concludes this month's update. I hope you had a wonderful month in June and hope your July is twice that in greatness!
See you at our studio or in the next blog post!
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