Dear Friend,

It may not be a coincidence that after a long hiatus from writing these newsletters to you, my first letter back in your inbox is on September 1, which is World Letter Writing Day. Letters and cards and sending words to others has been a way I have dealt with this last (almost) year that I’ve been away from your inbox, a last almost year that has held a lot of life changes and adjustments for me and my family.

Before I go further, let me say hello again. I don’t know if we have connected through my Etsy shop, if I know you in my day-to-day life, if I’ve met you at an event or two I might have taken part in, or we are connected through Instagram or online searches, but hi! I’m Jill Howell, founder of Jill Howell Designs and maker of cards and letter writing resources. I’m so glad you are here and giving me space to pop in your inbox.

These last several months that I’ve been quiet have been filled with lots of transitions. The most difficult and demanding change I’ve endured by far has been moving my mom into hospice care.

At the end of 2025 I had high hopes and lots of notes on how I wanted to reorganize these weekly writings to you starting fresh in January. Updating my branding, finding a cohesive look, fine tuning my focus and clarifying the why behind what I do were all top on my list.

And then my mother’s health took a turn. What at first felt urgent and sudden has morphed into the longest goodbye I would have never anticipated.

And to be honest, as this year has marched on, I am just now figuring out how to carry grief and creativity together. It’s been a process. I have very little ability to compartmentalize the layers of life, so all of my dreams plus hard emotions plus creative brainstorming plus buckets of frustrations all sort of melded together and I’ve had to slowly learn to hold all of these things together. I had to navigate my way through what I thought I’d be doing versus what life actually handed me.

At some point I will probably share a deeper look into what the last six months have looked like, emotionally and otherwise; but, for now, I’ll just keep it to the lesson and practice I’ve learned during this time: filling a basket.

My mom is in hospice care in her home. Every time I walk into her house, one of the first things I see are a basket of cards and letters she’s collected for years now. As mail was delivered or cards were given to her, she would read the sentiments and tuck those special pieces in the basket on her desk.

As I reflect so much on her life, seeing this tangible way she has been loved and thought of by others brings so much comfort. She has a lifetime of not only people that love her, but people that took the time to document that in a personal, tangible way.

Seeing this basket weekend after weekend, I got to thinking… what a superb gift to fill a basket. We should all take a few moments and actually write down our heart’s thoughts for those we love. Perhaps one of the most intentional gifts we could give would be an empty basket THAT WE FILL UP OVER TIME.

So today is World Letter Writing Day. Who could you be intentional to get a card or letter in the mail to? Right now, in this moment, who comes to mind and why? Write them and tell them.

I look forward to sharing more over the next several weeks. I’m grateful you are here.

Here’s to basket filling… happy writing!

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❤️ Jill

P.S If you have a friend who you think may enjoy my newsletter, I’d be so grateful if you would forward this to them.

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