From Flowers to Rosary Beads: Flowers and Faith with Cecilia Gardner

What happens when Catholic faith meets creativity, entrepreneurship, and a really good pair of socks? In this episode of The Creative Catholics, Alex sits down with Scott and Elisabeth Williams, founders of Sock Religious, to talk about building a business that brings the joy, beauty, and personality of the Catholic faith into everyday life. From saints and feast days to socks, storytelling, and unexpected encounters, Scott and Elisabeth share how creativity can become a powerful form of evangelization—and how a simple idea born as a side project grew into a mission-driven business. They also open up about building a company together as husband and wife, discerning when to take a leap of faith, protecting family life from the demands of entrepreneurship, and discovering where business, creativity, culture, and the Great Commission meet. It’s a conversation about saying yes, finding your unique way to share the faith, and discovering that evangelization doesn’t always look the way you expect. Connect with Sock Religious On Instagram: @sockreligious Website: https://sockreligious.com/ Connect with The Creative Catholics If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another creative. Follow @TheCreativeCatholics on Instagram to share your creations and join the community. Sponsors/Links A huge thank you to Alto and Ascension Press for sponsoring this episode. Check out Alto - Ascension Press’ New Daily Prayer Companion and use discount code CREATIVE10 for 10% off your subscription Intro/outro music by Marie Miller If you’re interested in recording/editing audio files, please check out Riverside

What does creativity have to do with the way we pray? In this episode of Creative Catholics, Alex Cahill sits down with Hadleigh Thomas from Ascension to explore the creative process behind Alto, Ascension’s new daily prayer companion designed to help Catholics make prayer a simple, beautiful part of everyday life. Alex and Hadleigh talk about why Alto was created, the inspiration behind its name, and how Ascension brought together many of its resources into one easy-to-use print companion. Alto includes the daily Mass readings, Morning and Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, daily reflections, saint features, novenas, Bible studies, liturgical living ideas, and more. They also discuss the value of stepping away from our phones and returning to something tangible, especially when life is busy or we're travelling. At its heart, Alto is about removing the friction from daily prayer so that we can simply open it and pray. And behind it all is a beautiful invitation: to pursue the heights of holiness, one day at a time. If you're looking for ways to deepen your prayer life, reconnect with the beauty of Catholic tradition, or simply make more space for God in the midst of a busy day, this episode is for you. Plus: Learn more about Alto HERE and use code CREATIVE10 for 10% off your subscription. Stay creative, and keep making what matters most. Connect with Ascension Press On Instagram: @ascensionpress Alto Website: https://ascension-press.linkjolt.io/l/the-creative-catholics-podcast Use CREATIVE10 for 10% off your subscription! Connect with The Creative Catholics If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another creative. Follow @TheCreativeCatholics on Instagram to share your creations and join the community. Sponsors/Links Check out Alto, Ascension Press’ New Daily Prayer Companion and use CREATIVE10 for 10% off your subscription Intro/outro music by Marie Miller If you’re interested in recording/editing audio files, please check out Riverside

What happens to our creativity, our prayer, and even our humanity when we let AI do too much for us? In this episode of Creative Catholics, Alex Cahill explores the temptation of AI from a distinctly Christian perspective. Rather than asking simply whether AI is good or bad, she asks a deeper question: What is using AI doing to us? AI can write, compose, create images, answer questions, and make our lives remarkably efficient. But what happens when convenience begins to replace the difficult, beautiful work of being human? What happens when we stop thinking, creating, praying, learning, or communicating because a machine can do it faster? Drawing on Magnifica Humanitas, the Tower of Babel, Genesis, the saints, and the Christian understanding of creativity, Alex reflects on why our struggles and limitations may be more important than we realise. Creativity isn't simply about producing something impressive—it is about participating in God's creation with the particular gifts, experiences, memories, and perspective He has given us. The question isn't simply, Should I use AI? It's: What am I using it for? What am I allowing it to replace? And what kind of person am I becoming because of the way I use it? Because we're not machines. We're human beings, made in the image of God, called to create, love, work, pray, and ultimately become saints. Sponsors/Links Marie Miller Music: mariemillermusic.com Sponsored by Riverside Connect with The Creative Catholics! Our Website: creativecatholicspodcast.com On Instagram: @thecreativecatholics

What happens when God puts a creative desire on your heart—and asks you to say yes? In this episode, Alex sits down with Catholic artist Hannah Golonka-Flores to talk about following God’s call into a life of creativity. Hannah shares the story of how a conversation with a nun in Poland gave her the courage to pursue art full-time, and what it looks like to trust God when the path forward isn’t always clear. Hannah also talks about her unique style of Catholic art, including religious imagery inspired by tattoo art, finding God through the beauty of creation, and the unexpected inspiration she found while visiting an aquarium. Together, Alex and Hannah explore what it means to create with faith, work through creative blocks, and recognize that inspiration can be found in the most ordinary places. They also discuss creating through seasons of chronic migraines, learning to receive rest rather than seeing it as wasted time, and discovering how suffering can be united with Christ. Whether you’re an artist, someone who feels creatively stuck, or simply someone wondering what God might be asking you to create, this episode is an invitation to look for beauty, trust the process, and—most importantly—never stop creating. Connect with The Creative Catholics Website: thecreativecatholicspodcast.com Instagram: @thecreativecatholics Connect with Hannah Golonka-Flores Website: https://hannahgolonka.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hg_ur/ Sponsors Riverside Marie Miller Music

What if God had bigger plans for your creative interests? Sometimes we work on creative projects that we think will never go anywhere. They don’t become a side hustle but they do bring us an internal sense of peace and understanding. But what if God had bigger plans for our creative interests? Something beyond money and recognition. In this episode, I sit down with my husband Tom to discuss how God used each of our creative interests to bring us together. We discuss how God inspired our creative interests, kept those interests alive through the years, and how certain opportunities led to our meeting. If you’re wondering about how your creative interests might play out in God’s plan for your life…or if you’re just a bit of a romantic, hopefully you’ll enjoy this personal episode of The Creative Catholics. Connect with The Creative Catholics Follow along for future episodes, guest interviews, and reflections on faith, creativity, craftsmanship, beauty, and the hidden life. Instagram: @thecreativecatholicsWebsite: thecreativecatholics.com Sponsors/Links Intro/outro music by Marie MillerThis episode is sponsored by Riverside