ReBloom

What can a love of reading make possible? Anything!

This week, we welcome Kwame Alexander, poet, educator, Emmy Award-winning producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 47 books, including The Crossover, The Undefeated, Black Star and Say Yes.

Kwame shares how books and reading shaped his life and his journey as a writer. Together, we explore how creativity and confidence can help us find our voices, open our imaginations and, even when we’re given a “no,” find the courage to keep looking for the “yes.”

Kwame is the founder of the literacy nonprofit One Word at a Time. He also opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana. His work invites readers of all ages to imagine what’s possible.

Until next time — peace, love and rebloom 🌸

Lori & Jamie

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/KwameAlexanderBooks/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/kwamealexander/

Website: kwamealexander.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0zZOM9cgu6LEgJQlQ1JjQ

One Word at a Timeonewordcommunity.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onewordorg

IG: https://www.instagram.com/onewordorg

In this episode, we’re joined by Flora Bowley, artist, top-selling author, and internationally recognized creative guide whose work has helped shape the modern intuitive art movement.

For more than fifteen years, Flora has inspired thousands of people around the world to see creativity as more than an artistic practice. Through painting, movement, writing, retreats, and online programs, she helps people reconnect with their intuition, move through change, and live with greater courage and aliveness.

Creativity as a Way Forward

Flora believes creativity belongs to all of us. Her approach encourages us to loosen our grip on perfection, trust the unexpected, and allow the creative process to show us something new about ourselves.

It’s a philosophy that reaches far beyond the canvas: creativity can be a source of resilience, self-discovery, and possibility, especially during times of transition.

The Art of Aliveness

Flora is the author of four books, including Brave Intuitive Painting and The Art of Aliveness, and the founder of FREE FLO, a global creative community centered around creativity, courage, and connection.

Her invitation is beautifully simple: trust your intuition, stay curious, and make space for what brings you alive.

Connect with Flora

Website: https://florabowley.com/we-are-the-revolution/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florabowley

Until next time — peace, love and rebloom 🌸

— Lori & Jamie

In this episode, we're joined by Wendy Solganik, an artist, educator, and the founder of Willa Workshops. She is also the creator and host of Fodder School, an internationally recognized, year-long mixed media art program that has inspired thousands of artists around the world.

Wendy believes art is more than something beautiful to hang on a wall. It can help us relax, express ourselves, build resilience, and live with greater intention. Her invitation is simple: choose curiosity over perfection and rediscover the pleasure of making something with your hands.

Wendy's warm, practical approach gives students permission to experiment, quiet the inner critic, and make room for play. The goal is not a perfect finished piece. It is a creative practice that brings more calm, connection, and joy into everyday life.

Through Fodder School, artists make painted papers, collage elements, handmade books, and mixed media projects alongside instructors from around the world. Through Willa Workshops, Wendy also collaborates with artists and educators to create engaging online classes and meaningful creative communities.

Whether she is teaching or hosting a conversation, Wendy's goal remains the same: to help creativity become a joyful, lifelong practice.

WillaWanders.com

@willa.wanders on Instagram

Until next time — peace, love and rebloom 🌸— Lori & Jamie

For episode 50, we're joined by Janne Ford — a floral designer and photographer based in North Yorkshire, UK. Her background is in fashion and textiles, and more than a decade in that industry gave her a deeply trained eye for colour, texture, and movement. That eye now turns entirely toward flowers.

She grows what she photographs. She shoots only in natural light. The results are floral portraits that feel less like images and more like moments — intimate, seasonal, and full of quiet intention.

Janne's move from fashion to floristry wasn't a departure — it was a deepening. The principles that shaped her textile work (how colour behaves, how texture creates mood, how movement draws the eye) translate directly into how she designs and photographs flowers. That compositional confidence is hard to pin down until you know where it comes from.

Because Janne grows what she photographs, her work is genuinely tethered to the seasons — not styled to look that way, but rooted in the real, day-to-day changes of a living garden. Each image belongs to a specific time of year, a quality of light, a bloom at its exact peak. It's a patient practice, and the body of work it produces feels honest and alive in a way that's increasingly rare.

Janne runs floral photography workshops from her garden studio in North Yorkshire and leads creative retreats in the UK and France. If you want to learn to see and capture botanical beauty with more intention, her website is the place to start. Until next time — peace, love and rebloom 🌸— Lori & Jamie

JanneFord.com

@jannelford on Instagram

In this episode of ReBloom, we sit down with Anna Holtzman, a licensed therapist, coach, and what she calls a “multi-time rebloomer,” to explore what it really means to step into a more honest expression of yourself—and your work.

Anna’s story is one so many women will recognize. She began her career in design journalism and spent over a decade working in television and publishing before feeling the pull toward something deeper. Her transition into therapy and coaching wasn’t part of a plan—it was shaped by experience. Burnout, chronic pain, and the quiet habit of self-silencing led her to ask a different question: What would it look like to trust myself instead?

What unfolds in our conversation is both practical and reflective.

Drawing from her work as a therapist and coach, Anna shares how nervous-system-informed practices helped her reconnect with her voice—not in a performative way, but in a more grounded, sustainable one. We talk about how fear of visibility shows up for high-functioning women, why imposter syndrome persists even with success, and how to move forward without constantly second-guessing yourself.

Anna also hosts the podcast How to Trust Yourself, where she continues these conversations around self-trust, visibility, and doing meaningful work in a way that actually feels sustainable.

Join us for a thoughtful, honest conversation—one that may shift how you think about showing up in your work and your life.

Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

How To Trust Yourself Podcast: https://pod.link/1679033028

Free Workshop: “Let Yourself Be Seen”: www.annaholtzman.com/beseen

Big thank you to our sponsor: Jet Creative: A women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Whether you’re launching a podcast or building a website, Jet Creative can help you get started. Visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey!

For nearly five decades, illustrator Mary Engelbreit has brought joy to everyday life through her unmistakable style—bright colors, whimsical characters, and thoughtful messages that feel both nostalgic and timeless. What began as a love of drawing and storytelling grew into a creative legacy spanning books, greeting cards, home goods, and generations of devoted fans.

On this episode of the ReBloom Podcast, Mary reflects on the creative pivots that shaped her career, including how an early dream of illustrating children’s books led her—unexpectedly—into the world of greeting cards. That pivot opened the door to an extraordinary body of work that has reached millions through thousands of products and collaborations.

In our conversation, Mary shares what it means to sustain a creative life over decades: the discipline of continuing to draw, the courage to follow opportunities that appear along the way, and the simple joy that still fuels her work today.

If you have ever wondered how creativity endures over a lifetime—or how one artist’s imagination can bring delight to so many—this conversation offers both inspiration and perspective. We hope you will enjoy this wonderful conversation with Mary Engelbreit.

Website: https://maryengelbreit.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/maryengelbreit?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/138832742816692?ref=NONE_xav_ig_profile_page_web

Big thank you to our sponsor: Jet Creative: A women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Whether you’re launching a podcast or building a website, Jet Creative can help you get started. Visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey!

There are some artists who teach technique. And then there are artists who invite you back to yourself. Tracy Verdugo is the latter.

Tracy Verdugo is an inspiration instigator, prolific painter, and bestselling author whose work radiates color, intuition, and deep connection. She lives in an artsy adobe home along the shores of Jervis Bay, Australia, where she paints in her little purple studio and hosts transformative creative workshops around the world.

Since 2000, Tracy has held 18 solo exhibitions, and her vibrant, intuitive mixed media works are held in private collections both in Australia and internationally. Inspired by global travel, texture, pattern, and bold color, she allows storytelling and instinct to guide each painting, often discovering the meaning within the layers as the piece unfolds.

At the heart of her work is connection — to one another, to the natural world, to the divine, and to the greater tapestry we are all part of. She gently reminds us that in every moment we have a choice: to participate in the creating or in the unraveling.

Above all, she is devoted to her family — visiting her daughters, delighting in her granddaughters, and adventuring through life with her beloved Marco — grounding her expansive creative world in love.

Website: https://tracyverdugo.com

Instagram: @tracyverdugo

Big thank you to our sponsor: Jet Creative: A women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Whether you’re launching a podcast or building a website, Jet Creative can help you get started. Visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey!

There is something meaningful about beginning again.

As we step into our third season of ReBloom, we find ourselves reflecting on all that has unfolded—both in the in-between spaces and in the moments that asked more of us than we expected. Seasons have a way of doing that. They stretch us, reshape us, and invite growth we could not have planned.

In this opening episode of the year, we sit down together to talk honestly about where we have been, what we have learned, and the steady ways we are choosing to rebloom. Not through dramatic declarations, but through everyday decisions. Through paying attention. Through making room for hope. Through believing that beauty still has a place, even after difficult chapters.

At its heart, ReBloom is a conversation between friends. It is also about resilience—the choice to begin again and the recognition that creative growth rarely moves in a straight line.

As we welcome this new season, we hope that these conversations feel like a companion to your own journey. Whether you are in a season of growth, rest, grief, joy, or somewhere in between, there is space for you here. There is always the possibility of new life, new perspective, and beauty ready to unfold.

Thank you for being part of this community. We are grateful to begin again—with you.

Peace, Love and ReBloom
Jamie & Lori

Follow us on @rebloom.podcast, @lorisiebert.studio and @alajamie

Big thank you to our sponsor: Jet Creative: A women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Whether you’re launching a podcast or building a website, Jet Creative can help you get started. Visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey!

What happens when creativity, courage, and a deep love of home collide?
You get Wendy Conklin, better known as Chair Whimsy.

In this ReBloom Podcast episode, Wendy shares her journey from finding a creative outlet to building a joy-filled brand rooted in play, color, and confidence. What began as a weekend upholstery class quickly bloomed into a business that reimagines antique chairs, expands into vibrant art and textiles, and nurtures a thriving community of creative women.

Wendy believes every woman deserves a home that reflects who she truly is—and she shows us how creativity can be both accessible and transformative. From boldly mixing fabrics to trusting your instincts, her work invites us to loosen perfection, take creative risks, and let whimsy lead the way.

Whether you’re a maker, a creative entrepreneur, or simply longing to bring more personality into your home, this conversation is a gentle reminder that creativity doesn’t have to be complicated—it just needs permission. And we all give you that permission to create with joy!

Listen in and be inspired to ReBloom, one joyful project at a time.

Website: https://chairwhimsy.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chairwhimsy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DIYwithChairWhimsy

Book: https://chairwhimsy.com/book/

Shop: https://www.whimsyandco.com/

Big thank you to our sponsor: Jet Creative: A women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Whether you’re launching a podcast or building a website, Jet Creative can help you get started. Visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey!

We loved our conversation with Carrie Schmitt—a radiant artist, author, and creative guide who lives in devotion to Creativity as a sacred, healing force. Carrie began painting in 2009 after a life-changing diagnosis and soon discovered art not as a skill to master, but as a spiritual path to presence, comfort, and connection.

Her vibrant floral paintings and mixed-media pieces are collected internationally and have been featured in BBC News, Where Women Create, In Her Studio, and Spirituality & Health. But what moves us most is her intention: she isn’t trying to “get better” at art. She is continually seeking a deeper intimacy with the spirit behind the art—the presence she feels each time she creates.

Carrie’s newest book, Awakening Creativity: A Sacred Journey to Reclaim Your Inner Artist (October 2025), invites us to view creativity not as a personal talent, but as a loving companion longing to collaborate with us. She expands this work through upcoming retreats and a 10-month Creative Pilgrimage designed for anyone yearning to live more artfully, soulfully, and awake to beauty.

You can explore more of Carrie’s work, classes, and creative community at

Website: carrieschmittdesign.com

Instagram: @carrieschmitt

Direct link to order from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Creativity-Sacred-Journey-Reclaim/dp/1950253694/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Two free chapters of Awakening Creativity delivered to your inbox and order it if you like it here: https://hierophantpublishing.com/books/awakening-creativity/

Join Carrie for a free online book club to discuss the book. https://www.carrieschmittdesign.com/book-club/