Casual reading is a beautiful thing that brought a light into my life when everything else felt a bit dim. I found peace and solace in stories where the depth of the chaos matched our reality, but the power remained with the narrator… even if sometimes they weren’t all that reliable.

A distant world where good overcomes evil and lessons show up in the form of love stories, battles, sports, handcuffs, and everything in between gives me just enough dopamine paired with cortisol to level me out.

I’m Kat.

I’m a full-time nail tech and salon owner in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been a chaotically creative creator for as long as I can remember, and honestly, my soul died a little more each day I worked in a corporate setting.

After doing nails for 10+ years, my body started to cave. During a remodel of our salon space, I began reading more, mostly to force myself to slow down during an overwhelmingly busy season. Then I had a hand injury that made it painful to even hold a book.

Enter: My first Kindle. Gifted to me on a random Tuesday by my husband who saw how much I struggled with facing the reality that my passion-job may have to come to an end sooner than I wanted it to.

This entire experience has really shown me how having so many ways to consume stories is about accessibility and not just the aesthetically pleasing parasocial view of what being a reader is.

I started designing and painting cases for myself, then my husband, and shortly after that, my friends. It spiraled quickly because it became a place where I could create without the constraints of only creating client desired Pinterest and AI inspired requests I was constantly being asked to recreate in my day job (don’t worry, I still love doing most of those and I’m sure your nail tech does too!).

Only one problem.


My hand still hurt. Just… a little less.

So I started using my laser engraver to apply my designs to cases. It let me use my hands in less straining ways while still putting my art out into the bookish world. From there, it grew into bookmarks and keychains. More recently at markets, I added stickers, mostly from digital drawing becoming a keep-my-hands-busy-during-hard-seasons kind of coping skill.

While I adore what I do in my day job, and this isn’t my full-time job (yet), in times where everything feels a little heavy, what do we really have besides hope?

Being kind to each other and burying our faces in stories where the women win (you know exactly what I’m talking about) are the things that carry us through. Throwing my passion into that mix feels like a pretty fulfilling way to exist in it all. Or at least break even. But I’m having fun doing it.

I’m really grateful to be part of this community and to make things that other readers might enjoy in the same way I do.

Thanks for being here. In general, but also here, in my little corner of the bookish world. I look forward to connecting with y’all.