(Originally published June 2019 — refreshed for The EZ Angel Studio Journal)
Who I Am (and How EZ Angel Creations Began)
Welcome to my creative corner 💜 — the space where craft, heart, and healing come together.
I’m Jacqui, the maker behind EZ Angel Creations.
I’m a mom to three amazing kids and one angel, a full-time employee, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a reader, a crafter, and a dreamer. This little corner of the internet began because creating — with yarn, fabric, or words — has always been how I make sense of life.
EZ Angel Creations carries the memory of two loved ones who left my life far too soon — my brother Eddie, my “E Angel,” and my daughter Zoie, my “Z Angel.” Their love, their light, and the spark they left in my heart are what became EZ Angel Creations.
The Maker’s Path: Learning Through Life
Like many of us, I started this journey wanting to do everything (& let's face it, I still do!). I thought I had to offer endless custom options, always say yes, and keep up with every other maker online. What I discovered was that trying to do it all often meant I couldn’t enjoy what I loved most — the making itself.
So, I’m simplifying.
My shop now focuses on ready-to-ship knit and crochet wear, candles, embroidered pieces, printables, and whatever else brings me joy at the moment. Custom orders will still have a place, but in a way that feels balanced and intentional.
My Instagram will stay real, not perfectly curated — a mix of life, projects, family, and the occasional chaos of both. I don’t have time to agonize over lighting or grid layouts anymore. Life’s too short not to enjoy the creative mess.
What You’ll Find Here
This blog is where I’ll share:
- Creative projects and patterns in progress
- Honest reflections on balancing family, work, and making
- Stories of community, grief, and growth
- And maybe a few adventures (successful or otherwise) along the way
I don’t know exactly how often I’ll post — but I do know I’ll write from the heart.
On Grief, Community, and Gratitude
Some stories are harder to write. When I started this post, I was processing another family’s unimaginable loss. Their grief brought back the raw memories of losing my own daughter. There’s no way to compare pain — it’s all love, just expressed through loss.
What I’ve learned through grief is how vital community is. Our neighbors, friends, and family carried us when we couldn’t carry ourselves. They cooked for us, prayed for us, and showed us what compassion looks like.
So, if you’ve read this far — thank you. Hug your people. Send good thoughts to families walking through grief. And if you ever need to reach out, I’m always just a message away on Instagram at @ezangelcreations
💜 From My Heart to Yours
This space isn’t about perfection — it’s about connection.
It’s about creating, healing, and remembering that even when life gets messy, we can still make something beautiful with what’s in our hands.
💜 Follow along in The EZ Angel Studio Journal for more reflections, behind-the-scenes stories, and creative inspiration — or visit EZ Angel Creations to see my latest handmade pieces.
Crafty business wise: I’ve hit a year of restarting this dream of mine and haven’t gotten very far. I have an LLC, an online shop, know how to do sales tax stuff (I hope), have an Instagram....and huge plans. I’ve also learned & am working on a bit of a change to my original plan. Here’s what I’ve learned about myself this past year & some changes I’m making around a big realization:
- I thought custom order hats & such were the way to go. I planned to make 1 of everything & list a ton of things with all these custom options for available sizes & to let you tell me what colors.
- I have too much anxiety over being perfect to handle custom orders as I want to ensure color of yarn is so perfect to expectation.
- I tend to highly schedule my time out with deadlines for pattern tests and gifts and if I had gotten a custom order it would through everything off since family & full-time job only allow so much time.
When I saw so many makers shops having listings as custom made, I thought I had to do this & so was my plan.
Moving forward, I may consider taking 1 custom order at a time and not through a listing. I plan to set up a form to request something custom, at which point I would access current schedule availability and give a cost/timeline quote. We can then decide together if it is still wanted or not.
My main shop focus will be ready to ship items. These will be knit wear, crochet wear, candles, t-shirts, embroidered things, cups, and whatever else I feel like (really want to include soaps, but I need to spend some serious computer time writing up processes for that first so always becomes a back burner item.
I’ve also spent quite some time worried about my Instagram feed. It’s not pretty enough, I don’t spend enough time placing things for photos, I don’t have good lighting, I need more back drop stuff, & on & on & on. I’m done with that, I am who I am & you will see it in my feed. It will be a mix of the crafty & my life. Some may look great & be well lit & planned shots, others will be a crazy last minute photo I will still probably worry is not good enough - but it will all be me, as I am, take it or leave it. I have limited time & I don’t have time enough any more to agonize over every post, life moves past & has to be enjoyed in between the Instagram feed!
Where am I at mentally/emotionally right now: let me tell you, June has been rough - is it over yet??? Can’t be over soon enough.
At the start of this week, I had in my head the start of a post for instagram around how 2019 was my year. I was going to do all the things & had started already as I had put my first knit and my first crochet patterns out into the world and even died my hair purple! It was looking like my year to focus more on being active and taking time for self-love.
Then some family stuff came up, my laptop hard drive crashed (I am so in denial right now about all the photos & data we might loose, hoping for a computer miracle from my uncle), along with forgetting the anxiety which got pretty close to a full on panic attack related to traveling home from business (had forgotten about it entirely when on a high of what I had done!).
The worst though, is how much I now know my friend & neighbor is hurting. Let me take a moment to tell you about my neighbors - they are amazing.
We moved into our house a few months after getting married, in April 2008. Most of the neighborhood has stayed the same families with a few new additions. They have been with us through some amazing highs of life, like each of our kids joining the family. And I don’t know how we would have gotten through our worst low without them. When my daughter Zoie passed, our neighbors got together and made sure we ate. Garry & I were barely thinking of taking care of ourselves or the energy needed to do things like cook. Our neighbors brought us cooked meals and prayers and love and it meant the world to us. I have never before lived somewhere where everyone was so connected and wonderful. Summers are the best, because we live almost at the corner of where two block meet and both blocks come alive in summer. All of the kids are out and playing and dogs are walked, and people are walking without dogs too. And everyone says hi.
Yesterday we heard the teenage son of one of our neighbors passed away. Having lost my own daughter doesn’t make finding the right words for someone else’s pain any easier. I want to do something to help ease their pain, but there is nothing which will.
I think it is natural as a human to look to make comparisons and at one point my brain went down the path of does the age a child is lost make any difference. Is it any easier to lose a child before they are born or a grown child? Bottom line is pain is pain. Love is love. Words cannot accurately describe the pain of loosing a child no matter how old they were or how long you were able to hold them for. And it is a life long pain, there will always be a missing piece where once was someone you loved.
I’m making my first blog post, part in being inspired to take action and part because I don’t know what else to do with myself right now. So a request to anyone who has made it this far in reading (thank you!), if you have kids, give them some extra hugs. If you don’t have kids, give those who are in your life some extra hugs. And spend some good thoughts &/or prayers on families going though grief.
I’m doing some processing myself right now, so I can’t say when I’ll be posting next, thank you for the read though and if you ever want to reach out, I’m best reached through Instagram as @ezangelcreations
Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed by using https://www.ezangelcreations.com/blogs/my-mostly-crafty-space.atom