Who Am I? Sharing the Story of My Life, My Family, and My Business

Hi everyone, I'm Emily. I thought I should introduce myself to those who are new to my artwork and check in with those who have been here before. This might be a longer post, but I promise it will be worth the read.

ES Designs - A Saunders Story has been a passion project of mine since 2017. I started this website during the 2020 pandemic. I sell at local markets, supply local stores, and do custom work. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with other businesses, creating art and stationery for their projects. My favourite part is working with and talking with people about the importance of handwritten letters and thank you cards.

I am a proud mom of two great teens - one in high school and the other away in university. I have an awesome husband of almost 20 years, whom I brought back with me from university. He is from PEI and his family still lives and vacations there. I have lived in New Brunswick all of my life, and have settled in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. I went to high school in this town, I have traveled, and I have lived other places; ultimately, I returned home. We spend our time in nature, driving kids to sports, and spending time at my dad's family cottage on the lake. We love to hike, play music, fix up our old house, and spend time with friends and family.

I am a watercolour artist and teacher. I teach high school grades 10-12 English, Drama, and Visual Arts. I have been teaching for 25 years this year, mostly the high school level. Although I have mostly taught English Language Arts, I am also trained as an art teacher. I only recently started teaching art due to a retirement, and I was recruited as a result of this side hustle. Throughout my career, I have been involved with producing and directing plays for our high school company. The pandemic was hard on public performances, but we are slowly starting to rebuild.

I would be a self-professed theatre geek, Swiftie, proud black female, a dancer, old-school hip hop lover, Generation X grunge girl, super movie fan, Shakespeare/poetry enthusiast, and book nerd. That's it. That's me.

Now let's chat a bit about Saunders which is why we are here. There will be follow-up posts on this subject as I would love to tell and re-tell some of her stories. She was a devoted wife, mom, and teacher to elementary-age kids from Grades 3-5. She taught until she was 60 years old, and only decided to retire when her breast cancer came back. She had been in remission for 8 years.

She loved reading aloud to kids and taught us to love books. As you know, she insisted on sending thank you cards and handwritten letters. Some of my favourite recent conversations have been at my booth where her former students and parents tell of a letter or a note that she wrote to them. It was this inspiration that guided this project. I have always been a creator, but I wanted to do so with a purpose. Once I started thinking about how she lived, sharing her story seemed like the next best step.

This month I have released my Valentines, created a LOVE LAUNCH campaign to raise funds for breast cancer charities, and ordered new stickers; they should be on the website soon. If you want to hear more and receive any special coupons, please subscribe to receive these emails. I am planning a "mail-out" campaign in honour of Mother's Day this year, so subscribers may receive some "mail" and some free goodies. Overall, I want you to write to each other. Take the time to connect to people offline. If you choose to use my stationery - GREAT! You feel good knowing your money is going to a good cause, you feel good as you are writing, and the person you are sending it to feels good receiving it. Everyone wins!

Thank you for reading this far. I have been teaching students to write for years, but rarely have I had time to put my own thoughts into words. My plan is to do so more often. Thank you for listening. We'll be in touch.

Emily Somers