Oh, guys, it's been a wild and wooly week! First and most sincerely, THANK YOU so, so much for all of your orders of the new kits! In spite of the chaos that ensued almost immediately after I posted my last blog post (basically, Typepad went down and went down hard, for many days, without much information, causing panic; I am so sorry if you were trying to get here and couldn't). Eventually the blogs all came back online and hopefully everyone is able to see the photos now. I'm so thrilled with the orders and have gotten everything out except for everything that has come in since yesterday morning (and I'm hoping to do those today, or definitely tomorrow). I am so grateful for you and how many return customers that I have. I also just loved reading all of your special skating and winter activity memories. Gosh. I needed all of that. If you have more, please share. I really want to hear them. Thank you!
It's a gorgeous, gorgeous morning here, cold and clear and sunny and soggy. After a weekend of copious amounts of rain and dark clouds, it is so nice to see the sunshine, I must say. The house feels happy and bright (if messy). This picture of Agatha just waking up makes me laugh so hard. She sat like that for a full ten minutes, just blinking into the light. My photo is not great because I was rushing to get it, not realizing that she wasn't going anywhere. (Often when I run to grab my big camera to get a picture of her doing something cute I never get the shot because she normally doesn't linger.) But she looked so much like a grumpy little girl who just got woken up in a cold house. (She is very grumpy about it being cold out.)
I was lucky enough to get to spend last Friday morning with Amanda when she was here last week. We got to sit around in my living room and drink chai and catch up and I just wanted her to stay for hours and hours. I love her. And then Andy was home all weekend and he made stuffed shells for me on Sunday, which was so nice. The amount of stuff I sweep up off the floors after he goes back to work after a weekend is stunning. I think it's a hard time of year for the floors — lots of muddy boots banging around and spilled popcorn everywhere. But I mean, look at his view! The photo of the city from above was taken by Andy, and that is his view at work. He sends me photos of it every few days and it never ceases to fill me with joy and wonder. So beautiful. (Though I totally missed the lunar eclipse this morning and I'm so mad! I was up and everything, just forgot to look!)
Anyway, yes. I'm home alone this morning and missing both of them terribly. I frequently experience the fervent desire to have some time to myself only to fall into absolute gales of loneliness once I have it. It's the most bizarre thing. Nevertheless, I'm working on learning Adobe Illustrator and also painting a lot of watercolors lately. This is my latest thing. I absolutely love it. Amelia and I have been doing Skillshare painting classes together (here is a link to a free trial if you are interested) and it's really fun. I've been painting a lot on my own when she is done. I don't really know what I am doing but I am enjoying it more than I can even say. I've been meaning to tell you that, yes, I totally dropped the ball on my "Tender Year" series after June. I have to confess I was already struggling to do the embroidery patterns every month and then when mid-summer hit I knew I had to get my fall and winter cross stitch designs done and I just could not get it all done. It was too much, especially with no school. I instead started to paint all of the little things I had drawn and embroidered so far. I don't know why. I played around with maybe making a calendar out of them. I'm not sure where it is all going, but I'm riding this wave. I'm learning to just go with these things are do my best. I am hoping to get back to Tender Year next year. It will be Tender Years, apparently. Well, they are. So I guess I should've seen it coming.
It's soup season. I need to go hunt down my favorite recipes. And bake some bread. That's what November is for.
I really love your watercolours. I am so impressed that you have only recently taken this up. You were already an artist though. I think a calendar would be lovely. Or a series small prints. How lovely that you and Amanda caught up. I can imagine all the creative and fast growing kids chatter you were doing.
I love your watercolors! You are so very talented. Yes, a calendar would be lovely. I don't paint, but I did try to recreate something like this with an individual picture that represented each month, of my most loved objects and made my own calendar, it was actually pretty good (in my humble opinion)!
As I look at your bedroom picture, I get a touch nostalgic of seeing your land-line phone. We just gave up ours when we moved back to our home State last year, I actually do miss having one! Your curtains are just so wonderful also!
Thank you for sharing.
You could TOTALLY sell those calendars!!!
I have come to your site because I decided I need to order the ornament kits too. I hope there are still some left. My favorite winter memories are playing outside with the family across the street from me. We would snowmobile quite young, without helmets, and unsupervised. Looking back it seems not that safe but we had blast. We also would make paths for our sleds in the snow in their hilly and tree filled front yard. The the paths would get hard and icy. We would fly down them.
I love your watercolors! Have you thought about making them into note cards?
How lucky that you know Amanda. I had read her blog for years as I have yours. Is she going to blog again?
When I first switched from full-time crafting to drawing and painting, the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" changed my life. You might love it.
Love all those Fall leaves! We are in complete Winter here, it's gray, black and white all around! The kitten looks so royal, I think that she thinks that she is the queen of your house. What a cutie!! Love the idea of calendars.
Happy Thanksgiving, babes!!! Grandma loves it! Smooch and hugs all around!!
The soup's on heavy rotation. Mirepoix. Always. Tody I'm changing up the flavor profile to include ginger and garlic, black and white pepper, and I always do the white wine. Throw the noodles in. Leftover turkey at the last minute. It doesn't matter what you do. It's magic. With love from Cashmere, WA.
Love your watercolours and looking forward to some soup recipes, I must try baking some simple Soda bread. Looking forward to your Christmas entries.
I don't know what happened, but I used to keep up with your blog through feedly, and then I stopped seeing you and assumed you had just stopped blogging because everyone seems to have moved on to Instagram. And now I'm here and you're creating pretty paintings and I'm crying because I've missed all your pretty things. We need beauty in our lives and you're just so good at it. ❤️
And I'm so sorry about your Clover Meadow's passing. I'm really sorry for your loss.