photo: new book, new pages - made a start on a small book of black and white winter sketches
Hello again, I hope everyone is keeping well. Yesterday was the first time I looked out from our attic windows and saw frosty roof tiles, frost-etched moss. I would be fibbing if I denied my slight excitement at this. And also yes I am looking forward to the possibility of snow. Just so long as it lingers for less than a day and causes zero disruption (unlikely). Yes I do like to take good wintry photograph and have spent the past several years haunting the woods and park in search of such a thing. Here in town, though nesting in the rooftops and close to everything, I am also close to many green spaces (including same park) and the place has a more village-y than urban feel. So I am fortunate to have such variety for inspiration. I doubt my artwork will ever reflect the gritty urban details of modern living - for I don’t really live in this time, as we may all know…. I am the time traveller who enjoys the timelessness of woods and trees, the luxury of a bakery across the road (have cake and eat it, a bit).
Here we are in this autumn looking into winter. The shops are brimming with Christmas glitter. I am quietly enjoying November, rainy dark days and all, each day as it comes. I look forward to Christmas as one of my favourite things to do is decorating my home, spending time with family. But I am not there yet.
Having said that - I recognise the need to offer people things they might want for the festive season. At this time of year it is a case of: blink three times if want Christmas yet. Can I offer you Christmas cards? If I wait it will be too late for many to buy and send on. So here I am in this betwixt season with Christmas cards to show you!
This year I have two designs to offer. There is an angel in a landscape just becoming a little wintry - as Christmas and Winter Solstice marks the beginning of winter in my mind. I also have birds in winter because of course - birds. I love to paint and draw, and stitch birds. They were on the top of my list for Christmas card artwork this year, with requests from several kind people.
photo: Christmas cards designs for 2023
The cards are blank inside so you don’t have to use them for Christmas, of course. I only have limited stock of these cards but will order more as necessary. They will be offered singly but I will always combine postage.
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I’ve been painting a great deal lately and am grateful indeed for all your tiny painting orders, especially lucky dips. Thank you for keeping me busy.
photo: a small embroidery piece from 2010 - I would like to make a new house shaped piece some time.
Stitching and creating embroidery portraits is something I always enjoy - the intricate work is a challenge but one I relish. However, in recent times I have felt a slight need to slow down in the stitching department - feeling the pressure to produce is not good. I cannot stitch on demand or take special orders, it really has to be as it always has been: inspiration as it finds me. This can be fleeting. I understand many people are interested in my embroidery and I have recently seen a growing interest which I am humbled by. But when I add x number of brooches to my shop and not everyone can purchase the one they want, well this leads to disappointment. I brace myself for messages asking for a brooch, asking why I can’t just make them one etc… It can feel very overwhelming.
So I am taking a small step back and allowing myself time to work in the way that makes the most sense to me. I am certainly not stopping - I will continue to stitch. Just at my own pace. Therefore I will not be offering embroidery for a week or two. I will let you know when new pieces are available. I’m also contemplating a special subscriber update, working out how that might happen. Again, I will let you know and thanks always for your interest and understanding.
Shop News
I am adding new tiny paintings and Christmas cards to my shop later today (Sunday 12th) at 7pm UK time.
My next update after today will be Sunday again - Sunday 19th at 7pm UK time.
Thanks always
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Thank you for all your comments re: finding things in books. Dawn McIntyre wrote to me via email to tell me about a book discovery and I asked her if I might share it here:
I found this sprig of heather in July 2020 when I was looking through my bookcase. We were in lockdown and I thought it a good time to peruse some very old tomes I seldom look at. It was in Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley dated 1899. I rescued it and keep it in a small brown envelope in my own pressed flowers collection.
I often wonder if the heather was picked in Devon where the book is written about?
Photo: Thank you Dawn for sharing this photo of book and pressed heather
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A few small stories
In a secondhand furniture shop a man and a woman are having a lively conversation about house buying and recognising each other but not knowing quite where/how. Oh, the woman says, I think I know you. She is dressed in a last hurrah of summer dress with a bulky jacket for warmth. She makes a halfhearted attempt at eyeing up a dining table. I am doing my second of several laps around the dining tables. Yes, you probably do, the man says. Probably because of the goats. Oh? Goats? Well, the older man in a tight leather jacket explains, my wife is forty years younger than myself and decided we might have a child. So we had one. Most parents of course buy their child a cat or a dog but I didn’t want that. Too obvious. So I bought two pygmy goats. You may have seen them on the corner or our property. Yes. They are mostly well behaved. Except he isn’t. We let the girl into the house. She sits with my daughter watching the television. When it starts making a fuss my daughter feeds it jaffa cakes and that shuts it up.
There are only so many laps around unwanted dining tables I am prepared to give my time to, so I leave reluctantly this conversation. I imagine the small child and the goat watching some bright and cheerful show for children, both eating jaffa cakes, contentedly.
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Crows are getting noisier, or is it the trees are two-thirds naked? There’s a lot of activity when it comes to warm spots on roofs and food to be found. In the church yard a group of crows sit about in the sun, almost basking it seems - if crows can bask this is it, spreading their wings over headstones and lolling in the bright warmth.
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There’s a tiny wren, or maybe more. I step out of our downstairs door into the courtyard and there it is flitting about beneath a buddleia bush. It never stays for long but I know it now - it’s tiny size and quick habits. One day I will see it for longer than a moment. Perhaps it is time to fill the bird feeder on the wall. Do wrens like town life? Perhaps they prefer it because I never spied a single one in my old place. My wish is that more smaller birds made the flight to attic level so I might see them from my window. But that’s being a little greedy, perhaps. One small, ground level sighting of a wren most days is enough.
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Thanks always for reading here, for your kind comments and likes. If you would like to support my writing by buying me a coffee that is greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone who has supported me in this way.
Your stories and musings always cheer me up and bring me to another place and time. I suffer from profound depression and your weekly newsletters are a precious light in my lyfe.
Good afternoon Cathy and family.
Thank you, as always, for your lovely Studio Notes.
The little Wren is my totem bird...December Capricorn, and I love her so much. I once had the delightful pleasure of being serenaded by her on a cold, drizzly November day. Such a big voice from one so tiny.
Your Elderberry Cottage tiny painting is up on the wall of our camper van, witnessing all our adventures as we adapt to van living ☺️
Hope you have a lovely week, with birds flying up to your attic window to say hello.