April
April in a nutshell:
*Tea to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday, complete with fancy hats, delectables and the host's delightful collection of royal memorabilia.
*More stitching/painting in between deadlines. I'm planning a shop update next month (more, later).
* A trip to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with friends. Despite the relative proximity, I never make it down to Boston (confession: I'm terrified of city driving). But thanks to the commuter rail out of Newburyport, the Green Line and traveling companions with a better navigational sense than my own, the trip was all smooth sailing.
* New episodes of Grantchester!
* And a visit from a brand new nephew. Which makes all in all for a pretty solid thirty days.
For the Love of Mother Earth
Out Like a Lamb
The month flew by so fast I think I have jet lag. What, what?
* I've been working on sketches for Fort-Building Time this winter. Written by Megan Wagner Lloyd (the author of Finding Wild), it comes out Fall 2017. It's been a delight working on the sketches (getting to relive childhood fort-building memories has been pretty terrific).
* Eclectic Bambino makes the sweetest clothing for littles, and I was tickled pink to see her using one of my prints on this baby playsuit.
* If you're an Uppercase Magazine reader, keep your eyes peeled! A bookmark with one of my illustrations will be randomly inserted into copies of the next issue. And if you're not a reader, may I suggest picking up a copy, immediately? Uppercase is hands down my favorite creative publication and I can't recommend it highly enough.
* And I knit myself a pair of TARDIS mittens. The pattern is by SpillyJane and I don't care if it's nigh on April, I will wear these until the temperature makes it unbearable to do so.
March-ing Onward
A quick painting of the red barn I drive by almost daily.
And if you're local, be sure to take in the Illuminating Tarbell show in Portsmouth. It's a phenomenal look at the American impressionist painter, Edmund Tarbell. Also included is a selection of work by contemporary artists inspired by Tarbell's legacy. Allons-y!
Winter Necessities
Fleece lined leggings are all that and a bag of chips. Seriously. I got some as a Christmas gift this year and let me tell you, they've made this winter 99.9% more tolerable.
Also, coffee. Always, coffee.
Diary
February so far, in a pictorial nutshell.
My first diary was a Peter Rabbit journal with a lock and key that I kept in first grade. I think I only managed to fill up about 15 pages of the 365 available. Flipping through it a few months ago I was appalled at my, shall we say, "creative spelling." But entries about the Tooth Fairy and staying the night at my grandparents still hold up.
As a teenager, I became a more regimented diarist, detailing each day's events in cramped, school-girl script. When I went away to college, I shifted from keeping a diary to writing daily emails home, a way to combat homesickness. And then there was the first awkward attempt at blogging my senior year, a Microsoft Frontpage document (cringe) that I updated daily and is mercifully no longer available on the internet. I remember vaguely writing about miniature marshmallows in cocoa and CD purchases that I will not now publicly admit.
It seems on a weekly basis that articles about
THE DEATH OF BLOGGING
pop up -- insert disaster sound effects. And while wonderful alternate forms of communication do rise to the surface, there's something about blogging that still seems comforting. I guess in a way, it doesn't feel so very different from that Peter Rabbit diary at the end of the day. Except I'm not reviewing episodes of "Jem and the Holograms."
Or should I?
Just kidding. Sort of. Anyhow, February has included book sketches, a trip to Flight Coffee, watching episodes of Mr. and Mrs. Murder, sewing a baby quilt for a brand new nephew and reading The Thing With Feathers. And snow.
Valentine Printable
