Hello friend! My idea with this newsletter is to share more details about my current projects, dream projects, and random thoughts. I see this being a once a week thing, unless I run out of things to talk about and need a bigger gap. When I was middle-school age I would my own magazines out of construction paper, so I am feeling good about this format to share my thoughts with you. Hopefully something you see here sparks your imagination for something you’re working on.
Since this is my first newsletter, I'll tell you a little bit about me. I live with my two boys and husband in little house with a big yard. I have many (too many) hobbies and skills, but I call myself an illustrator. I also have a full-time job, but I won’t talk about it in here. I know how to play a few instruments (ukulele, guitar, flute to name a few) and I really enjoy just playing tunes on a recorder while I wander around the house and pretend I’m a faun or something.
In my me time, you can find me watching and rewatching episodes of Call the Midwife or IT Crowd. If I'm listening to music, there is almost always a banjo involved. I enjoy anything science fiction, paranormal, or true crime.
I love sandwiches. Subs, BLTs, and anything melty. I love black coffee. Preferably a light roast. I don't often want sweets, but I do enjoy a homemade banana pudding.
This is probably more information than anyone needs to know about me. On to the main event.
In this section I’ll tell you about my current art projects I have going on and stuff I want to do in the future.
I've been off and on writing and illustrating a picture book about a mama mouse. Will kids want to read a book about the trials of being a busy mama mouse? I don’t know, but I know I do. Here's a little peak.
It’s taking a while (as it should) to work on this. I also had like 3-4 ideas for other books while working on this, so we’ll see if that helps motivate me to move faster so I can do something different. Take a look at my first book that only exists in fabric book form for now.
Here I’ll talk about about what’s going on in the garden.
Butterbeans, sweet corn, tomatoes, radishes, and peppers are all in my raised beds this year. I have Japanese eggplant, mammoth sunflowers, and teddy bear sunflowers in the field. I also have a few beds with just flowers. They are doing their thing and hopefully with the weather warming up, they will start growing a little faster. I built a cold frame at the start of spring to start seeds and house my baby plants until they could be planted outside.
I have an embarrassing number of WIPs, but right now I'm focusing on a few things. I have a top secret dress that I'm pattern testing and I'm working on making more everyday outfits. Stuff like tees, trousers, joggers, and overalls. I have made many dresses and I just don't wear them often enough. With the exception of my two linen “sack” dresses which are perfect for everything.
The past two years (here’s 2020 and 2021) I made a cutesy illustration of the stuff I wanted to make for that year and I didn’t do that this year. I still want to, but my brain is having trouble figuring out what I really want to make and wear. I’ll try to have one ready by the next send.
Here’s a few photos of some treasures I found recently at antique stores.