Hi, I’m Elizabeth.

I’m a transplant from Pennsylvania, though you might not know it when you taste my homemade pimiento cheese. A painter and handletterer, novel-reader and lover of liturgy, published poet and homeschooling momma, I’m equally at home in a garden or a greasy spoon restaurant, drinking a seltzer or sipping on black tea steeped precisely for four minutes, listening to Taize prayer chants or country music on the radio. Some people know me as a freelance copyeditor, some as an after-school reading program director, some as a soapbox preacher. Let’s just say that whatever I do, it’s usually with a big dose of conviction.

I graduated from Houghton College in western New York, with majors in sociology and English and digging my car out of the snow, and spent four years in Texas before planting my roots in central Kentucky. I earned an MA at the University of Kentucky while growing a garden and a family.

I’m the wife of a college professor and administrator, which means I think college students are rad, even if they do tease me for loving Survivor, putting fair-trade chocolate in everything I bake, and saying things like “rad.”

We’re raising our daughters—a second-grader and a fourth-grader—to call Kentucky “home” and to love words as much as we do.

You can find me trying to find a little bit of grace in the mundane chaos that is raising small children on Instagram @thissacramentallife. If you’re interested in naming some sacraments yourself, be sure to connect with me in that space. Instagram is by far my favorite way of keeping up with beauty and grace.

My book of letters to my daughters–the first fifty!–is available on Amazon here.

A compilation of poems my husband and I have written over the last five years is on Amazon over here!

And, finally, We Live Here: More Letters to My Daughters–numbers 51 to 100–is now available on Amazon here.

I opened an Etsy shop a few years ago, and then closed it a few months later. I realized I prefer face-to-face custom orders and more flexibility with saying “no” or “yes” as my life seasons permit. I still take painting commissions and spend many of my days creating and painting and offering my gifts to the world, but I embrace the freedom to say “not right now.” Or rather, “how about a cup of tea instead?”

When I’m writing and creating on my own time and my own dime, my subjects tend to revolve around faith and social justice, family and work, community and conviction. Hire me to write or create for you and, well, I’ll write about whatever you want. I’ve interviewed chemists and independent singer-songwriters, published sermons and book reviews, composed poetry and liturgy on commission, written about human trafficking and community gardens. I’ve made art for silent auctions, digital giveaways, church logo mugs & stickers, and hurricane relief.

I’m glad you’ve found me. Please visit the pages about my Writing or Poetry & Liturgy to peruse my writing life or to find out about my interest in creative worship. Art explains how I started painting after working through Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. The blog Letters to My Daughters reflects what’s been on my mind recently–I can’t get away from the sense in which everything I write is a letter to my daughters. I try to post new letters on Fridays. Lastly, feel free to download some free digital prints here.

You can also fill out the form below to contact me directly.

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