ILLUSTRATION
“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it, if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass, the same hips and haws on the autumn hedgerows, the same redbreasts that we used to call ‘God’s birds’ because they did no harm to the precious crops.
What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known and loved because it is known?”
Lost & Found
—MARY ANN EVANS, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS
Lost & Found is a deck of illustrated cards for adults hoping to reconjure that feeling of being small in a big, curious world. The feeling that everything felt like it might be enchanted if you looked at it long enough… noticed.
Lost & Found is made up of gentle, reflective prompts meant to help you tap back into the curiosity, creativity, and general wonderment that came so naturally when you were a kid. It’s not therapy. It’s not homework. Just little nudges back toward imagination and the kind of inner aliveness that tends to get buried under emails and episodes of mild existential dread.
This whole thing came from me trying to reconnect with a version of nostalgia that didn’t feel sad or heavy or like I was mourning something. I wanted something softer. Something encouraging. I didn’t want to sit around longing for the past—I wanted to play in it.
So I drew the cards myself. I wanted them to feel a little wobbly, a little magical, like the storybooks I grew up with—where everything felt quietly alive. The front of each card holds art that can live on your wall, your desk, your fridge—anywhere you need a small, beautiful reminder. On the back, space to reflect. Journal if you want. Or don’t. They work both ways.
The cards urge their users to remember that we are all doing life for the first time. Just because you’re an adult does not mean you have to have it figured out. We will spend our whole lives learning. Grant yourself some of that generosity we receive as children.
At the very least, Lost & Found can serve as something cute to put on your vision board, but I hope that they may also guide you back to your childhood spirit as well as help you become more observant and forgiving.
©2025