SharkCafe

My family and I live along the lovely shores of the Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, a.k.a. the PNW. When Yoto launched their first Audio Maker Competition, I was inspired by the beauty of the PNW to make a painting tutorial for my own child.

At that time, I had never even recorded a voice memo on my phone! So it’s been a very interesting journey to learn how this all is done. Let’s just say I have even more respect for Jake now!

The area in which we live lends itself to being quite outdoorsy; we spend a lot of time hiking, camping, and stargazing. We’ve even been lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights while camped on the shores of the Puget Sound.

A while ago, we traveled to a remote part of Idaho, for a stargazing party at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and the whole time, I thought to myself, “This would make a great Yoto card.”

I love to imagine that families and people of all ages will try this card together. Even when they’re technically painting the same thing, it’s a joy to see all the different ways it can turn out.

It can be fun to see how you learn something new about the process each time you try the tutorial. So there's so much replay value. Maybe it's a different medium, or different colors, or a different approach, but you'll never paint the exact same thing twice.

Making visual-based cards as audio presents its own challenges; I wanted to make sure it was a full listening experience as opposed to just immediately launching into a rote ‘OK, now paint your paper.’ I hope families enjoy listening to these extra bits and maybe even get inspired to go on a stargazing trip of their own.

Not to get too sentimental, but we honestly wouldn’t have made it through the last few years without a Yoto. Our Yoto Mini is a part of our life. We’re not by any means screen-free, but it’s a priority for our family to spend a lot of quality, focused time together without the distractions of a screen.

During the pandemic when everything was shut down, we spent a lot of weekends exploring the natural wonders of the PNW - which meant we spent a lot of time in the car, driving around. We had so much fun listening to the Yoto Mini together out loud on the long rides. It’s just such a wonderful, portable (and perhaps most importantly, durable!) device.

I won’t lie, though - with a preschooler we often spent hours listening to one song over and over! In fact, this spring I may have driven about 9 hours, listening to one song on repeat. I have an almost Pavlovian response now to driving down certain roads, where it’ll make me think of certain Yoto cards. Ah, parenting.

Jokes aside, it's really tied together some beautiful core memories. I really do think that years down the road, my child will think of their Yoto fondly.

For those of us old enough to remember, I think the Make Your Own cards have also brought back the joy and thoughtfulness of making a playlist or mixtape. And the agony of choosing which music to bring with you when you left the house. (Or in this case, which cards.)

I remember listening to audiobook cassettes when I was very little (Strega Nona) and audiobook CDs when I was a teenager (Harry Potter), and I’m so happy Yoto has allowed regular folks to recreate this magic for their families.

I have a lot of great Yoto ideas and works-in-progress that I would love to see come to life. I’ve unfortunately developed double-hearing this year, which can cause me to hear echos in each ear at different speeds and pitches - just a tiny little annoyance when tidying up audio!

If you’d like to give me a follow for updates, you can visit me online on at SharkCafeArt.com or on Instagram under SharkCafeArt (instagram.com/sharkcafeart).