A pattern inspired by afternoon walks on a nearby trail, the sides of which are lined with Queen Anne's Lace. It's a path I've never explored until this year and wish I had far sooner. Ten minutes down the trail and I can't hear cars, trains or planes, just perfectly blissful silence.
And speaking of patterns, I've added a bunch of new designs to my Spoonflower shop
.
Some bits of summer, right now. The past few weeks have been full. I turned in final art for Fort Building Time (I'll post more about that as the months go by). Aside from work, most weekends I've been helping to clean and pack up my grandparent's home of sixty plus years. Add in a badly wrenched neck and a mini-blogging hiatus made reasonable sense.
But aside from all that:
*I'm just finishing up this Tommy and Tuppence mystery. The opening is a bit uneven, but if you stick with it, the pace picks up brilliantly and makes for a fun summer read. Speaking of which, any summer book recomendations?
*A trip to Tandem Coffee for my birthday was splendid.
*And I'm getting ready for a shop update, mostly small watercolor originals (like the above), a few tea towels and an embroidery. I'll post here once that's all ready to go. I've also just sent off for a proof of some new designs and will have those available in my Spoonflower shop next month.
Happy weekend!
Currently:
*I've developed a hobby an obsession with ice cream making. Mint chocolate has been my favorite so far, using this recipe and substituting 1/2 cup of maple syrup for the sugar. Of course this begs the question, fellow ice cream-ophiles: what's your favorite recipe?
* Lots of good news for Finding Wild! I'm tickled pink that the book is a part of Scholastic Teacher's 50 Sensational Books of Summer, on the SCBWI Summer Reading List and has received a starred review from Shelf Awareness. Jazz hands!
I needed a break from the drafting table this afternoon, so took a couple minutes to mess about with a pattern.
I haven't had a chance to sew much this year, which I miss. But if I did, I'm pretty sure I'd turn the above into a sundress, pronto.
My grandfather passed away last week. While he'd been in declining health, nothing was expected so soon and the news was a shock. Over the past few months, I'd been able to spend more time with my grandparents, giving me a wealth of memories and joy. I feel so very, very lucky to have had him in my life then and still.
As we've been taking care of things, I've been able to collect a few of his work tools. My grandfather was a civilian design engineer for the Navy, close to 30 years. I swear by his Eagle pencils and a small, homemade T-Square is quickly becoming my go-to for measuring.
And while I miss him profoundly, there's a joy and a connection that comes in giving his tools a new life.
It's release day for
!
Written by Megan Wagner Lloyd, published by Knopf Books for Young Readers and illustrated by me, it was a joy to illustrate. Thanks so much also to editor Julia Maguire and Nicole Gastonguay for the terrific art direction.