About
Meet the Gillywump Gals!
Life is messy, but celebrating it together makes the ride a whole lot better....especially when googly eyes are involved.
Hello! We're Diana and Amanda. We're a mom and daughter team crafting handmade polymer clay art born from real life experience.
Along with our Gillywump Guys, we've survived our fair share of life's plot twists, potholes, and hard seasons. We now build Gillywumps to spark honest conversations around mental health, emotional healing, nervous system regulation, and stress relief that actually works.
We skip the toxic positivity and perfectionism in favor of real talk, practical hope, and plenty of laughs. Our handmade polymer clay art serves a genuine emotional support purpose, too. We're strong advocates for mental health awareness and strive to bring lighthearted humor and emotional grounding right to your desk.
Diana is a wife, mom of three now adult kids (all with their own special needs), and a trauma informed life coach. She has a passion for guiding and supporting women who've experienced significan relationship trauma and are now ready to break old patterns and rebuild something new. You can learn more about her and what she does over at Grace in the Middle.
Amanda is a disability advocate and amputee. She was in a "minor" accident while on a bike in 2018 that left her with CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome). It's a severe chronic pain condition that eventually led to the loss of her left leg. She shares her journey on YouTube at One Footed Phoenix.
What We Believe
We are meant to be happy and have joy in our lives...even when it's hard.
Laughing is way more fun than crying.
Dark and twisted humor is a perfectly acceptable coping skill.
It's okay not to take life so seriously (even when serious stuff gets thrown at you in spades).
The hard things don't define us. They've made us who we are.
A Bit More About Us
Just for fun, we’ve added a few bits of trivia (many of which are also answers to frequently asked questions) to help you learn even more about us, what we do, and why we do it.
A Few Fun Facts
We love the ocean and the beach, but live in a desert and don't like the heat.
We all work from home and have more offices than bedrooms in our house.
We've never had a dog, but have a pair of Russian tortoises that will likely outlive all of us.
We live in Utah. The answer is yes, and we love all people and Jesus with all our hearts.
About Our Family
We're just regular, ordinary people who are very far from perfect or having it all figured out.
Diana has been married to the Gillywump Dad for well over 30 years, after dating two weeks and a three month engagement. We were blessed with one miracle baby and two who joined us via adoption.
We have a great love for our National Parks and love to visit them when we can.
Our favorite family game is played on a homemade board with plastic dinosaur playing pieces.
Why We Do What We Do
Our family was wildly failed by the mental health system as we were raising our children and dealing with the aftermath of Amanda's accident. We quickly realized how precious few resources there really are, how profoundly trauma changes things, and what it really takes to get through it.
We had to figure it out largely on our own in order to survive, and there were days we weren't sure we would. Now we use what we know to help others find their way through it.
There's way too much darkness, division, rhetoric, and heaviness in the world. It's time to lighten things up and spread smiles instead of sludge.
A big part of healing is learning to play again. The silly monster figures we make out of clay remind us how important playtime is, even for adults.