A Little bit about me 

NOT YOUR TYPICAL ABOUT PAGE

I’m naturally a very smiley person - when I see someone, my instinctive reaction is to smile and wave—even if I hardly know them! There is something about taking a moment to show another human, “Hey, you’re here, I’m here, just want to let you know I see you and regardless of what we are both going through, we can take a moment to connect and say hi.”

My tiny change in the world.

I think this is really how Miss Sunshine came to be. The name is a representation of who I am, not just what I wear. Wearing yellow clothes are simply an outward way of expressing me.

So, when people ask “why yellow?” I’m now realizing that it goes beyond choosing it as a wedding colour to give tribute to my dad, Terry, as his favourite colour and embracing it as a way of continuing his legacy. Yellow has become a way for me to communicate with the world. As much as I want others to feel seen, I also want to be seen. Not in an egotistical way, but in a deeper, spiritual way. Yellow is the brightest colour on the spectrum, it is the first colour our eyes process. Scientists believe it is one of the only colours dogs see the way we see it.

In wearing all yellow, I am inviting people to connect with me. People stop me, while I’m walking my puppy Hurley, to say hi. Sometimes it’s a quick back and forth before going our separate ways, and sometimes there’s a deeper conversation about each other. Getting to both listen and be heard is such an important part of mental health—especially after the collective isolation our world experienced.

The connectivity that comes through wearing yellow is also probably why Turmeric Gold is currently my favourite shade at the moment, because it is what I would describe as a more introspective shade of yellow. It doesn’t grab the eye as quickly as more pure shades of yellow. It’s earthier and more grounded. Last year I started therapy for the first time and have been on a journey of finding myself and healing.

Part of this journey is discovering how I want to share my life with the world. I’m a processor and a researcher, and in the past I share my process of coming into an awareness of and finding ways to heal my depression through #projectsunshine in 2017. The process is often not pretty, it has failures and struggles. Other than for entertainment value, it’s one reason why we love those timelapses of people making things on Instagram—it covers all of the mistakes and accidents! I remember when I made a timelapse of making the wooden stands for my shop Little Yellow Doors, you couldn’t even see one of the stands going flying as I was drilling a hole into it and knocking over all the other stands!

Apparently I’m on a timelapse vent, so bear with me, because those super fast videos also make us feel like maybe we should have superpowers. An hour of lovingly sewing an embellishment can be distilled into a few seconds—missing the care put into the design, the frustrations of the beads going flying or pricking my finger with the needle, and the true value of my time. I’m not saying I’m never going to share a timelapse again, because they are fun! They are simply an example of how as humans we often try to skip over the process, to get to the end result—take shortcuts.

One of my favourite people, Joanna Waterfall, the founder of Yellow Co. says, “The process is the point.” So, I’d like to invite you into my journal, my process. I’m going to share some of the things I’m working through. The things I don’t have a full answer or resolution yet. I’ll share things that matter to me, things that I’ve learned (including moving back the UK), my creative processes, and more. This time I’m opening up the comment section, so I’d love to hear from you—what you want to hear about and your thoughts on what I’m sharing.

Check out my journal here, and let’s get curious, spread sunshine, and shine a light together!

With sunshine,
Ella ☀️