Who am I?

Hi there & welcome,

I’m Joelle, born in Luxembourg in the 60ties, but currently living in the charming little city of Trier, Germany.

I am an artist, knitter, crocheter, cross-stitcher, as well as cross-stitch & beginning knitwear designer. I created this page in November 2022 I started to write and share poems and what else I’m up to and living on my journey.

My journey so far:

After 34 years of struggle to fit in, I left the corporate world as an accounting assistant in 2016 after severe burnout paired with deep depression. I re-discovered painting during nearly 6 months of rehab and took the leap to art school shortly afterward.

As an art student, it felt totally exciting and exhilarating to learn how to paint and draw and discover so many other art techniques, such as sculpture and different printing techniques, too. I am still in awe and forever thankful for my experiences in a world I would never have dared even dream of entering before, as well as for meeting so many wonderful, inspiring people, teachers and fellow artists 🥰

As for crafting, I learned to knit and crochet at a very young age, re-discovering and enhancing my skill levels in these lovely crafts since discovering Youtube in 2013. It was also on Youtube, that I discovered & learned how to cross-stitch in early 2020. Unsurprisingly I began to create and sell Cross-Stitch patterns based on my own artwork very soon, too.

My Cross-Stitch Designs are available on Etsy and ko-fi under the label "cnktdesigns" for now. Most of my Designs are available in my Etsy shop at this time, as it is where I got started selling my patterns. More will become available on ko-fi, too.

In April 2022, I published my first knitting pattern on Ravelry and on ko-fi.

I started my Youtube Channel in 2013, initially under the name “crochet’n’knit tuts” (short for crochet & knitting tutorials) to share my learning experience & beginner tutorials in Tunisian Crochet. I started adding Cross-Stitch tutorials to the channel to complement the Cross-Stitch patterns I had started to design based on my own artwork in 2020. A couple of months ago, I decided to rename the channel into “breathejustbreatheandlisten” as a reminder to myself to just do that more often and maybe inspire you to do the same as you come across my work online.

While browsing and reading my posts you’ll keep learning more about me. What got me into poems to start with and how I’m evolving from there.

If you’d like to support my work, you can do so by making a donation on ko-fi or have a peek into my shops 🤗

Let me know what you are creating right now whenever you feel like it and why not, what type of content/subject you'd particularly love to see from me.

Thanks for being here and taking the time to have a peek into what I’m up to 😁

Love, always, Joelle 🌸

Looking for the links to my shops? Here you go:

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/justbreatheandlisten
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelleleonard

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