Celebrating Lupus Awareness Month + a New Lupus Coffee Mug.

There’s a few more weeks until Lupus Awareness Month starts and I always look forward to sharing articles, stories, and photos about my life with lupus. This year I’m celebrating lupus awareness in a new way by sharing a product that I created: the lupus strong coffee mug.

I’m posting ahead of time so that you can add one to your cupboard (or win one!) if you’d like to use it for spreading lupus awareness in May.

This coffee cup represents so many things to me. It proclaims the strength of someone with lupus and features an explosion of hearts to represent our passion in the fight to stay strong despite lupus. For chronically ill people, our strength manifests in many different ways, from overcoming obstacles to fighting for quality care to choosing rest when we’re fighting a flare. I’m excited to share it with you.

The design on this mug was created by a friend of mine; you can find her at Pieces by Britt.

Since late 2019 I’ve been dreaming of creating beautiful products that can help raise lupus awareness. My inspiration began after a long and unsuccessful search for an appealing lupus t-shirt. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find something that looked beautifully positive to me. So I started doodling ideas and, two and a half years later, I have my first product.

Of course, when you have lupus, two young children, and an incredibly medically complex family, it takes a long time to accomplish things. While I’m still longing to create a t-shirt, reusable grocery bags, and other products, I’m starting with this cup. I hope it’s the first of many attractive and useful lupus items.

I’d love to hear what kind of products you would like to have to help spread lupus awareness. I want to incorporate bold lupus purple into my next few pieces (and, of course, a lot of hearts) as well as different phrases like lupus warrior and lupus thriver. Please leave a comment with what words or phrases you feel represent your lupus journey the best.

You can purchase the lupus strong coffee cup on Redbubble. Please note that it’s on the small side for a coffee cup. (Also, if you work in this kind of creative space please let me know if you have any recommendations for shops that work well for small volume creators.)

And perhaps the best part: I’m giving away a coffee mug! The giveaway is going to run for two weeks and there are several ways to enter on the giveaway form below (please note this is only for people who live in the United States):

(Closed) Congratulations to Allison M. for winning the giveaway!

Ultimately, the point of creating this coffee cup is to raise awareness for lupus. Therefore, I’m going to list a few of my most read blog posts and freelance pieces about diagnosis, awareness, and advocacy. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful lupus awareness month!