"We were back in Portland visiting after living in North Carolina for a few years and feeling really homesick for life in the Pacific North West. While we were on our way to the airport to head back to Chapel Hill, my folks offered to help us buy a home in an effort to get us back on the same coast as them. We immediately turned the car around and spent the next two days looking at as many houses as possible. We ended up putting an offer on the very first one we had looked at and then crossed our fingers and flew back east. Two months and a two-week cross country road trip later, we moved in. The house is 116 years old, hadn't been updated in years, and it will probably always be a work in progress, but it's perfect for us and it's been a wonderful experience to slowly remodel it ourselves. We love living so close to Mt. Tabor and being able to walk to the restaurants, the Montavilla Farmers' Market, and our favorite international market, La Bouffe, just down the street. When we first moved in we renovated our tiny garage into a studio space for me, which came in really handy when lockdown happened, but for the last 3 years I've worked out of a larger studio in North Portland."

"Art nerd comfort."

The happy familly.

Martina wears an L'Envers sweater, a vintage raw silk shirt from Focus Group, vintage jeans, and  Toasties slippers.

Dodge wears a Bobo Chooses t-shirt, vintage sweatshirt, and pants made by Martina.

"The bookshelf wall in the living is definitely my favorite addition we've made to the house. We sketched out the design and my brother-in-law built them for us. As soon as they were done they looked like they had always been there, which I always think is a sign of having made the right choice in a project like that."

"I also really love our couch, but mostly because we don't use it how it was intended to be used at all and that feels very us. It's a mid-century trundle couch that I bought, envisioning this clean minimal modern look for our living room. But that style didn't really work for us, so now we leave the trundle part out all the time, covered it all in painter's drop cloth, and added a ton of pillows and sheepskins so that the whole family and all the pets can snuggle in at once. It's basically a queen size bed in our living room and I couldn't imagine a more perfect couch for us."

The couch-bed in action.

"Most of the art in our house was either made by friends or by us. Our paintings by Joshua Almendinger and Amanda Barr are some of my most treasured pieces."

Art, plants, and interesting finds are everywhere.

Snuggly spots abound.

"I used to get really set on aiming for a certain aesthetic and then struggling around trying to maintain a look that really didn't work for us. It took me so long to recognize that the way you move in and use a space is always evolving and it takes time to see the consistent patterns of flow. The set up of our house had to change so many times before I figured out where the furniture needed to be to maximize the space we have, and when Dodge was born it all had to shift again multiple times to match his added energy. At this point, I try to have the least amount of furniture possible so he has room to wile out in our small home, while keeping all the cozy elements of warm wood, natural fabrics, pillows, and sheepskins to encourage us all to relax. Plus, pops of color and weird art to keep it interesting. I try to avoid anything that feels too precious and rarely buy anything new, because in reality I'm going to let Dodge ride his bike through the house and while we take care of the things we have, they also need to be able to handle getting crashed into, jumped on, and turned into forts on a regular basis."

"Home has always been an important place for me, a comfortable safe zone for stepping back from the busy-ness of life. This last year has made me appreciate it more and motivated me to be more active in the push for everyone to have safe housing as a basic human right."

Candleholders, designed by Martina, grace the dining room table.

"Like most folks who live here, we really love the easy access to nature. A short drive can have you out of the city and in the woods or on the beach and it's pretty amazing. Summer here is really incredible and we spend as much time as possible camping, swimming in the river, and hiking out to all the hot springs this area has to offer. And our long growing season means we can be working in the garden throughout most of the year. Portland has a ton of parks and is very bike and kid friendly, so it's a great place to go adventuring together around town with tons of great local restaurants and cafes to stop by along the way."

"We make a point of trying to support all the many local businesses that makes this city so much fun to live in, especially during this last year when many have been hit hard by the lockdowns. Getting our weekly CSA from Coquine, a neighborhood restaurant that shifted to offering food from the local farms it works with directly to their customers during the pandemic, has been an incredible resource that keeps us out of the packed grocery stores and eating well. We shop at the Montavilla Farmers' Market as much as possible and pick up to-go food from our favorite cafes on the regular. Soro Soro makes the cutest and most delicious desserts, Heart for its wonderful coffee, Drink Mamey for fresh juices and smoothies, and Union Burger for the best burgers in town. We couldn't complete half of our house projects with our minimal budget without the Rebuilding Center."

"I always assumed that I would be one one day, but never really thought about it that much. In general I'm not the type of person who makes those kind of big life decisions ahead of time. When we got pregnant it wasn't something we were striving for, it just happened and we adjusted and rolled with it and it's been the best thing we've ever done."

"Getting to create our version of all the traditions and routines I loved as a child. Introducing him to the joy of books and nature and the simplicity that brings grounding and true contentedness to our lives."

"The future of our planet and our country. Especially after being involved in the BLM protests this summer and experiencing the wildfires in September, I worry a lot about the world he will be inheriting and how we can give him the skills he will need to navigate it. I've definitely spent more sleepless nights than I'd like to admit just watching him sleep and feeling overwhelmed by it all."

"We recently added a piece of angle iron to the hallway wall to create a picture shelf for our house rules and our little collection of handmade bobblehead figurines from Mexico and it works so well for displaying Dodge's newest drawings."

"Dodge has the largest room in the house and we try and keep his toys corralled in there as much as possible. He loves to read and his bookshelf is always exploding with books. He has claimed a few from our living room shelf that he keeps on the pink bench for drawing inspiration, specifically a late 80's reference book all about robots."

"The giant giraffe is ridiculous and way too big for the space, but it was a road score from all the pandemic purging everyone's been doing and he has such a blast on it that it's here to stay."

"The large framed newsprint on his bedroom wall is from an old issue of State the Label's secret catalog. I love how perfectly simple the illustrations are."

"He is obsessed with Legos, so we've had to make peace with the organizational chaos that goes along with that obsession. I love looking at all of his creations and always try to preserve them for at least a few days on the shelf above his work table. His fish Bluey lives on the shelf too, and I often hear him saying 'I love you Bluey' in the morning when he feeds him and it makes my heart swell."

"There isn't anything gender specific that I feel excited about, but I love witnessing how his brain works and getting the opportunity to support his interests and relive all the joys and challenges of childhood with him. Raising a child has been a really healing process for me in ways I never expected and I'm so grateful for all the things I've learned about myself in the process of being there for him."

"We chose to find out his sex, not because we had a preference, but more because it was all so new and strange that I felt I needed something to help me wrap my brain around the whole idea of this small person inside of me. It really made no difference though and if we were to do it again I'd want it to be a surprise."

Lego time!

"He turns 5 next week (or one whole hand as he likes to tell everyone). He loves his Legos, robots, spaceships, and drawing robots and spaceships. Most mornings include him and Drew drawing together at the kitchen table and watching their curly heads together, markers squeaking away—it's my favorite part of the day. He's a serious homebody and some days it can be a struggle to get him outside the house, but once he's out he's racing around on his bike, playing on the skate ramp, or carrying his beloved chicken Mopsy all around."

"On Sundays he gets to watch an hour or two of cartoons and he is always counting down the days in excitement. The rest of the time we play it by ear and try not to lean on it too heavily simply because his behavior sucks when he gets too much. It's honestly not worth the free time it buys us. We got him into audiobooks as an alternative really early and I'll be forever grateful for the precious hours of quiet that turning on just the audio for The Octonauts gives us."

Just one of many little Lego vignettes.

"Our bedroom was a porch originally and it had a window that looked into it from the kitchen. We recently removed the window and Drew added the little recessed bookshelf on our bedroom wall in the space it left. It holds all of our 'to-be-read' books before they join the bigger bookshelf in the living room."

"I'm from Canada originally, just outside of Vancouver, but my family moved a lot, so we grew up all along the west coast. Third grade through 8th grade we lived in California and my parents bought a pop-up camper so we could spend every weekend camping and hiking on the coast and in the state parks. Looking back at that now, I realize how much work that was for them to do that the amount we did and I'm so impressed by their dedication to giving me and my sister those childhood memories. They were really formative experiences for me and now Drew and I try to instill that same love, respect, and appreciation of nature in Dodge."

"Neither of us had a singular childhood home we grew up in, so our house has become an important focal point for us, in part because Dodge was born in our kitchen, but also because we wanted him to grow up with the roots that we didn't have. He has two uncles that live within a mile of us, Drew's mom lives with us, and we have lots of old friends in town that have been consistent people in his life, providing varied examples of ways to be in the world. We put a lot of focus on consideration, empathy, and being invested in your community and try to involve him in all the ways we live those values, whether it's mowing our elderly neighbor's lawn, making food for the houseless encampment by the church, or buying everything we can from small businesses."

Fur baby love.

Another beautifully curated shelf.

"Drew is really good at focusing on the larger picture of values we're attempting to instill and recognizing how patterns of behavior play into supporting or detracting from those values, while I tend to focus more on our day-to-day and seasonal rhythms and traditions. Our different approaches lead to some pretty big discussions around context, instance, and boundaries, but together I think/hope we are creating a nice balance for him where he feels seen, loved, and supported, but not entitled or special. It's a bit of a proactive push against the rampant individualism that we believe to be at the core of so many of the issues we face as a society today. Sometimes I worry we are setting him up to be at odds with a world that doesn't currently value the importance of collectivism, but at the same time I want him to be aware of the harm our societal focus on me and mine first causes and that there are other options."

"When he was first born I found the book Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck really helpful for figuring out how to nourish him and myself after childbirth and always wished I had found it earlier. I really struggle with staying present and maintaining the routines Dodge craves, especially amidst the stress of this last year, so I make a point of reading Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne once a year or so to reset my approach and it usually helps ground me. I feel pretty blessed to have my Waldorf teacher mother-in-law as an in-house resource for all of the challenges parenting brings as well. I'm not always ready to hear her advice, but it's such a relief to know that she's there when we need it."

"Drew really wanted to name him after Dock Ellis, the professional baseball player who pitched a no-hitter on acid back in the '70s. I didn't love the name Dock, so we compromised and kept the middle name. Dodge was the nickname of an acquaintance from back in the day and we'd both always liked it."

"We're not not-trying if that counts as an answer. That's the best I can do with a decision of that magnitude."

"Sloppy chic? Pottery is pretty messy work and between that, Dodge, and gardening, I'm pretty rough on my clothing. My staples are usually high waisted jeans, wool sweaters, white t-shirts, and Blundstones, but I can't resist a good lacy Victorian camisole or a '90s floral minidress."

"Simple! Everyday Oil has been a staple for me since I discovered it a few years ago. I use it to wash my face and moisturize everywhere. Viola Lee Body makes an incredible sea salt spray that gives my hair way more body than it naturally has, and Lulu Organics Hair Powder really helps stretch the days between hair washing. I swear by all of Sisters Body products. They smell amazing! I don't wear much makeup, but a little Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint, mascara, and brow tint really helps me look put together when I'm mostly just feeling tired."

"I definitely used to put more effort into dressing up and wearing heels, but it's really hard to keep up with a 5-year-old in anything other than flats these days."

Chicken time!

Trying to attract their feathered friend.

Meet Mopsy!

"I try to stretch regularly, but it doesn't take much to distract me from it, so most of my exercise lately comes from lugging 50-pound boxes of clay around, gardening, and riding bikes with Dodge. I take long super hot baths with Dr. Singha's Mustard Bath powder, a LINNÉ Botanicals Face Mask, and a good book at least once a week, especially when I'm feeling stressed. I was a terrible nail biter for years, but I finally stopped this year thanks to the pandemic and now I give myself weekly manicures to fight the urge. Palate Polish is a local company that makes the best nail polish! It's super durable, even with the amount of wear my hands get from the studio, and the colors are great."

"I don't always prioritize me time and Drew is always pushing me to make more space for it. Pre-pandemic that may have looked like getting a glass of wine or coffee with friends and maybe going to yoga, but now it usually consists of wandering around the nursery, digging in the garden for a few hours, or just sitting on our deck staring into space with a joint and some good music."

A visit to Martina's beautiful ceramics studio.

"I still struggle with the idea of referring to my pottery as a company or a brand, because for the majority of its existence my company has just been me, hand-building pots and trying to manage every aspect of what goes into running a business. At first I really had no intention of it even being a business. I have the tendency to go full throttle with any creative endeavor I jump into and this one just happened to take off and I kept running with it. I officially started selling work in 2013 and, aside from a big step back when Dodge was born, I've been working on growing it ever since. My initial focus was for everything to be handmade without a wheel like I've always done, but hand-building is incredibly labor intensive and limiting production to that method wasn't going to be financially sustainable in the long term. So we've expanded a bit over the last few years and now in addition to hand-building I also use molds based off of my hand-built work to cast my to-go coffee cups (the Okay Cup), but I like to keep the focus of my business not on mass-production, but on the value inherent in a cherished handmade object. The simple joy of reaching for your favorite mug or bowl and knowing the story of the person who made it. And while I now have help in the studio thanks to Drew and my friend Claire, I still have my hands on every single piece that comes out of my studio."

Gorgeous work, in various stages of progress.

Vibrant pieces, just waiting for new homes to inhabit.

You can shop them on Martina's site.

"Most of my inspiration comes from the day-to-day rituals of our home. I love choosing my morning coffee cup based on my mood, and there's another that I prefer for tea. They each have a different feel in the hand and everyone in our family has their personal favorite. We really love food and I make us all kinds of dishes for specific meals, like big low bowls for handmade pasta, giant salads, and roasted veggies, or tiny little bowls that hold just the right amount for Dodge's yogurt and granola. I'm a very practical person, so each piece needs to have an intended functionality and then I go from there."

"I try really hard not to take inspiration from anything that's currently being produced, especially pottery, but with social media and its inherent image bombardment, it can be challenging to not subconsciously recreate trends, so I spend a lot of time digging up art references from non-ceramic sources. Many of my color combos come from photography or paintings. I was on a big Milton Avery kick for a couple years and lately I find myself pouring over photos of the quilts from Gee's Bend and coming back to all the illustrative embroidery I saw at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. Translating those colors into glazes can be tricky, so I'm constantly testing new glazes and combinations in search of the next color combination that speaks to me."

"Maintaining motivation has been the biggest challenge throughout this last year. The pandemic wall has felt very real and present for me as well as the creative block that comes with it and my ability to push through it has definitely waxed and waned. Like most folks, I just feel too tired most days to do more than the minimum to keep things afloat, but the fact that my business exists and can support us as a family is the ultimate silver lining. It's provided more flexibility and stability than I ever thought we would have and I'm so grateful to each person who has proactively chosen to support us and other small businesses during this time."

"I've always worked in the service industry as an adult and tended bar in addition to making pottery for the majority of the time I've been running this business. I made the leap to just focusing on pottery when Dodge turned two and am so grateful for the push his existence and Drew's support gave me to make the jump. The fear of fully committing and failing had always held me back and I don't think I would have done it without them."

"I went to college in Bellingham at Western Washington University with a focus on Women's Studies, but dropped out after my sophomore year to move to Portland where I worked at the Portland People's Crisis Line, delivered pizza, waited tables, worked as a stripper for a few years, and tended bar, followed by more restaurant work in North Carolina and a stint at Spoonflower fabrics on their production team. It was during that time in North Carolina that I really began focusing on pottery and started selling my work thanks to Instagram and the support of a few small boutiques."

Martina wears a James Street Co sweater, vintage Wranglers from Mister Sister, and Blundstone boots.

"Prior to the pandemic, Drew was working in coffee production, Dodge was in preschool 3 days a week, and my schedule worked around theirs. Lockdown happened, Drew got laid off, and we shifted the entire business back to my old home studio. I usually offer my Okay Cups by pre-order, so I released 3 months worth of them in one big go in March and spent the next few months slowly picking away at orders while we quarantined hard and tried to navigate this new normal. In September, I went back to working in the larger studio and Drew took on the majority of childcare, as well as helping me with production and shipping. We podded up with our neighbors who also have an only child around the same age as Dodge, which has been a lifesaver for both of our families. It's way different than the routine we had in place before, and maybe not ideal for the long term, but it's kept us stable and safe and provided an opportunity for us to really think about our life priorities."

"When I was first starting out, my friend Jenn from Takara Design told me that the best part of owning your own business is that you get to define what it looks like and the speed it grows at. That advice always really stuck with me and has helped me course correct over the years to stay true to my values. We live in such a dominant culture of constant, never-ending growth and expansion and I find myself getting sucked into that trap time after time. I try to move slowly. Decisions take me a long time and I don't want to grow into a large business that has a ton of employees or outsources production, even if that could have big financial rewards for us. There's always a flip side to embracing expansion and I feel really content with where we are at now."

Tools of the trade.

"I love the ceramic work of Ginny Sims and have been finding a lot of inspiration lately in the textile work of La Reunion and the paintings of Hilary Pecis."

Hand-dipped vessels in the prettiest of palettes.

"Balance doesn't really exist in the way we conceive it. Some days you're good at one thing, other days you're good at the others. Occasionally you'll manage them all. It's just about keeping the important balls in the air and knowing which ones you can let hit the ground from time to time. Also I can't stress the importance of what Drew and I call our 'state of the union' conversation enough. Pretty regularly we make a point of really checking in with each other to see if we're on the same path, getting our needs met, or what adjustments need to be made and I think it's why our relationship has lasted 20 years already."

"I think every parent deals with it in some way or another, I just try to acknowledge the feeling and not let it overwhelm me. I'm doing the best that I can and I'll continue to do that and hope that down the line my relationship with Dodge will be healthy enough that he can talk to me about the impact the mistakes I've made had on him and we can both grow from the experience."

"While I feel some shame about the apathy I had fallen into over the past few years, I'm grateful that this year snapped me out of the trance. I feel more intellectually and socially engaged than I have in a long time and have been putting a lot of effort into recognizing and breaking down the ways I perpetuate harmful behaviors and internalized isms that I didn't even recognize in myself before. It's been a humbling and healing experience personally, but more importantly it's helped me really identify and name my values and areas where my intention and impact are at odds. As a family we've really shifted our focus onto mutual aid as a tool for political and social change and it's been a tangible and impactful way for us to have many of these important discussions with Dodge in a way that feels applicable to his lived experience as a small being in the world."

"Silver linings, rolling with the punches, and being willing to change my mind when presented with new information."

Keep following along with Martina and her family over at @martinathornhill on Instagram and shop her goods at MartinaThornhill.com.