Salmon Falls

I painted this back in April, bundled up in a coat sitting by the river’s edge. My observational drawing skills are rusty, so I’ve been trying to do more drawing outdoors. Cocoa helps. So does not knocking your paint water over. But learning to roll with the punches helps most.

Other things:

* I had a wonderful time doing an Anne’s Kindred Spirits event at Print in Portland last week. If you’re local, I signed some extra copies.

* I’m slowly prepping to do a shop update with originals and prints. It’s been a pretty intense year and I feel badly I haven’t been to offer goods with more regularity. So many apologies, it’ll just be a little while longer, scout’s honor.

Kindred Spirits

Anne’s Kindred Spirits, the followup to Anne Arrives, is out in the world! Illustrating Anne Shirley’s continuing adventures was a real treat. And speaking of adventures, I was over the moon to be able to participate in a book launch for Anne in Prince Edward Island, hosted by the wonderful Bookmark Books and coordinated by Anne’s amazing publisher, Tundra Books.

I first visited Prince Edward Island as a twelve-year-old, back in the 90’s. My tween memories of the island were magical and as I sat in Halifax, waiting for my connecting flight to Charlottetown, I kept hoping that my childhood recollections were true.

They were. No doubt about it.

I had a wonderful, whirlwind couple of days in Prince Edward. Charlottetown is a delight of a city and full of some of the friendliest, most genuine people I’ve met. I may have even brought home a magazine with the local real estate listings. A girl can dream, right?

A couple things I loved:

• Victoria Park was beautiful and the Confederation Centre full of good things.

• I visited Receiver Coffee not once, but twice, because it’s that good. I left desperately wishing they’d open a location stateside, because they serve scones and play Bowie.

• I had wanted to visit Province House, but it was closed for renovations. St. Dunstan’s was open, though, and it’s an absolutely stunning basilica.

• And if you’re on Instagram, I have a bunch of photos over there.

Photo Credit: Michele Lawlor

But the real highlight of the visit was getting to meet author Kallie George, who’s adapted L.M. Montgomery’s words so perfectly. Kallie’s The Melancholic Mermaid was one of the first books I illustrated and when I heard she was going to be writing the Anne books, I knew I absolutely wanted to be involved. It was so much fun to be able to connect and in talking to Kallie, I felt like I’d known her forever; to quote Anne Shirley, she’s truly a kindred spirit.

I showed a few people a photo I brought with me, snapped decades ago. In it, my siblings and I are sitting with my sister’s penpal (who’d won an Anne of Green Gables lookalike contest) and her sister, all of us in front of a giant Anne of Green Gables figure in Cavendish. It’s a very Anne-centric photo. And looking at that snapshot, I can’t help but smile at how returning to the island felt like coming full-circle. It’s fascinating the twists and turns life takes, and how the seemingly unrelated bits intersect. So for that, thank you Anne Shirley.

Springing

A quick warmup painting of a radish, from earlier today. In a fit of optimism, I planted French radishes and baby greens a couple weeks back. And despite some pretty cool temperatures, the seeds have managed to germinate and are beginning to poke up through the ground. Jazz hands!

Aside from vegetables?

* If you’re local, I’ll be at the Graves Public Library in Kennebunkport for storytime this Friday, reading Finding Wild (details here).

* I’m almost done reading How To Break Up With Your Phone at the moment. It’s a quick read, with fascinating research and solid advice. Earlier in April, I finished Paddy’s Lament, which was utterly heartbreaking and completely absorbing. On a lighter note, I also read Some Tame Gazelle this month and it was a delight. Someone at the BBC, kindly make a movie of Barbara Pym’s life and I’ll love you forever.

* Emma Carlisle’s sketchbooks are terrific.

Old Newness

Old things that are new to me.

* The heart is something new I embroidered with pearl cotton thread, inspired by Milagros. When we were cleaning out my grandparents’ house, I brought home this salmon colored upholstery fabric (for reasons I can’t fathom now). It’s synthetic and pills like nobody’s business, but looks just like velvet when stitched up. Shortly after being sold, my grandparents’ house, the home that my grandfather built from scratch, was bulldozed. Losing that landmark, the family nerve center, left us all disoriented. But making new things with what was left behind feels like a way of returning home, if not physically, at least in memory.

* The water in the river melted, but if I walk down there early enough in the morning there’s still ice on the side, the cold not quite ready to give up. Today, though, all of the melt upriver has the water whooshing by and I’m typing this listening to the deluge outside my window. Spring comes when you least expect it.

* I don’t poke around Portland as much as I should, because it’s a delightful city. But the last time I did, I spotted this building (that type!) and thoroughly enjoyed Bam Bam Bakery.

March-ness

The past couple weeks, the abbreviated version: snow, deadlines, snow, ice, my 11-year-old computer died (sniff), more snow, a couple of gallons of hot cocoa, more snow. I’m turning in final art for a 2020 picture book in under a week, so that’s been consuming my life lately. Waking up days at 5:00 means quiet, calm, books and coffee while the sky goes from inky black to golden. And when I head home nights, it’s still light out and it feels like maybe, maybe, I can pack up the snow shovel. I’m already looking at gardening books, but realism means I’m sticking with forced quince branches at the moment.

In addition, I loved Strong Poison and binge listened to The Dropout. I’m sewing this favorite dress pattern again. And the ice has finally melted off the sidewalks and the dog and I can walk without the assurance that one (or both) of us will break a leg. Huzzah!

So that’s life in a nutshell, somewhere between winter and spring.

Valentine's Day Printable

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here’s a link to a Valentine printable you can download below:

Download Here

Free for personal, school and library use.

Eloise's Garden

I’ve been dying to sew something with my fabric collection, Eloise’s Garden and over the holidays finally had a chance to do just that. I’ve had the Colette Pattern’s Violet blouse for ages and it seemed high time to give it a go. So, the details:

* I made Version 2 of the blouse (the option with the mid-length sleeves).

* I traced off a size 0 and graded to a size 2 at the hem. Aside from that, I didn’t make any modifications to the pattern and it fits perfectly. When sewing shirts, I typically make a short back waist length adjustment (I’m 5’5) and lower armholes. I didn’t run into any fit issues in these areas, sewing the pattern as is.

*I’m definitely planning to sew this blouse again, probably using the no facing hack. I like plackets in shirt patterns better than facings, so it’s more a matter of personal preference going that route. Here’s the link to that pattern hack if that’s your jam, too.

* I sort of hemmed and hawed about doing the buttonholes by hand, but just went with machine made buttonholes in the end.

And that’s that! I’m trying to figure out what to sew next using Eloise’s Garden. I love the Stars Hollow Quilt Pattern from Suzy Quilts and have that on my to sew list. I’d really like to sew another Archer shirt. And because the collection includes a couple of prints in rayon (!), I’m planning to sew Chantilly from Colette. Decisions, decisions…