I’ve been working hard on the new calligraphic drawing collections and thought you might like to see a few of them…

Do you have ideas for images you’d like to see me do next? I’d love to hear from you.

I’m probably the only one in my entire extended family who’s not a rabid, passionate fisherman. Right this very minute, my husband has the contents of his tackle box spread across the table for inventory before another jaunt. Their harrowing tales include the usual stories… how five year old Stephen caught a fish on his first cast when he used a green marshmallow, how Russell’s dad turned over their fishing boat in San Diego, the legendary job my mom did landing a huge sailfish in Florida…

But this time it’s me talking about the ones that got away.

Friday a delivery man left four large cartons at the studio door. Friday night we all sat around chatting while I unpacked the product samples that were dropped from Demdaco’s giftware lines before they reached the market.

I have to admit to a few pangs of sincere regret as I looked over some items I really liked. A whole spring line, chock full of bunnies and birds and children at play… Reindeer dancing in the snow… There were cookie jars and platters, snow globes and pitchers. How I wish they’d made it! Some of these items I really loved.

So here’s a peek at a couple of the ones that got away… There are dozens! So I’ll try to add more photos soon…

I often wonder who’s reading my blog, and wish we could share friendly cups of tea and trade plants and seeds and recipes for our favorite soups and pies.

So I asked you if you’d write me a little hello.

And some of you did. New friends!

I want to thank you ever so much, and to ask those of you who still haven’t written if you’d be willing to send me a note, just share a little about yourself.
Mary wrote a lovely poem and sent it to me. Mary’s obviously has a great talent and I’m humbled and touched by her kindness and so appreciative that she’s allowed me to place her gift of words here.

Dear Sharyn,

I’ve written you a poem.

Snip -
A faery garden
Where rabbits listen
And bluebells grow.
Snip -
A winter wood
Where reindeer prance
In flakes of snow.
Snip -
A loving home
Where chandeliers shine
On a table laid neat.
Snip -
A dove of peace
A lilac branch
All things that make life sweet.

With your scissor and paper
And the skill in your art
You’ve cut out a place
In your readers’ hearts.

So never stop snipping
Your two hands give wings
To the joy and the beauty
Of life’s simplest things.

With gratitude for all you do,

Mary

I have been dying to ask a favor.

Then today my friend tells me that lots of Victoria readers are enjoying my blog so it’s time to hitch up my courage and ASK!

If you read my blog, would you be willing to send me an email? I’d so love to hear from you.
Just go back to the main page or the contact page and you’ll see the email address… I’d put it here but I’ve been warned not to because the trolls will find the address and spam me half to death. But please, pretty please! Send me a nice little message and I’ll write you back.

Thanks bunches, from the bottom of my heart…

I’m delighted to report I’m almost finished with the last bits to put my next book to bed. Hurrah, rejoicing and all around high fives! This one will be out in early 2009, and it’s a how-to book published by Lark Books / Sterling Publishing, which is affiliated with Barnes & Noble. It’s Silhouette Decor, a guide to silhouettes for stylish and clever crafty

Until I had actually written an entire full length hardcover book I had no idea what a monumental task it is. Trust me, dear friend, this is not a task for the faint of heart.
This book began a year and a half ago with an outline. Then a revised outline. Another one. And another. No kidding, I submitted  seven or eight - I lost count! - before a contract was offered to me. The contract was signed last year in June and I’ve been working steadily ever since.

And today at last I can report without a trace of smugness, the battle is almost won! My delightfully patient editorial partners at Lark Books have sent me the final copy to go over with a fine-toothed comb, to weed out any stray naughty mistakes. I have made pillows and curtains, bouquet holders and doggie placemats, trays and clocks and all manner of clever delights. Each and every one is accompanied by patterns and easy to follow instructions all verified by my trusty friends Anne and Lisa.

So here are a few peeks at the projects!

This one is a rather shamelessly giant wall hanging. Don’t you love it? I can hardly wait to hang this hot pink chair on my living room wall…

I admit this is a very nasty photo. But can you see it anyway? They are raw silk pillows with simple iron ons I cut from raw silk. I love the juxtaposition of old, old images and bold contemporary colors and fabrics. And trust me, they look fabulous- this view is simply the result of my lack of photography skills!

Did you think I’d abandoned everything but fuchsia and pink? No, no, no!
I was thinking of my Scandinavian grandparents when I found this cunning little clock in IKEA. It whispered “buy me!” (Actually, I think it SHOUTED!) So of course I could not resist. And look at the wonderful results. You can try your hand at one when the book is out if you like.

This one might be my favorite of all the projects I did. It’s a thin gauzy curtain with pockets of tulle in the back where you can’t see them. You tuck little silhouettes of leaves (or the actual leaf itself!) or any other fetching goodies you can think of… hearts or words of love or anything else that catches your fancy. I have to confess (ahem) I tried to photoshop out the arm of my trusty assistant, Glenda, with less-than-satisfying results. Sorry, Glenda! The pics in the book will be ever so much better.

This is all so exciting but duty calls. Now I have had my pleasant chat with you, drunk my tea, eaten my cookie and exhausted every opportunity to shirk the task at hand.

Back to work!

The studio looks out over the garden, and at this time of year the view through the windows captivates me. The veggie bed and strawberry patch, daisies waving in the wind… I love the garden even when it’s half weeds, as it is today.

A bird lit on top of the hollyhocks and peeped down toward me. Just a common little sparrow, but what a charmer.

Imagination took over, and here’s the result. Why the daisy, you ask, instead of the hollyhock? Ha! Creative license!

Late afternoon found me doing my usual daily exercise, a rapid walk punctuated with Kodak moments here and there.

I was perking along at a nice fast pace until I happened along two fields of wheat, back to back and there I stood, suddenly stopped in my tracks.

Just yesterday I was singing “O, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,” and now here I was, right in the middle of the song.

I know it sounds unbearably corny, but honestly, I felt such a stirring of patriotism and hope… I stood alone at the edge of that wheat field and asked God to shed his grace on our nation. Sometimes I look at us and think we are the most self-centered and ungrateful people… it would be impossible. But maybe part of God’s grace would be bringing us back to the appreciation of simple things, to purity and wholesomeness. To contentment with things like the spacious skies and the majesty of mountains, the love of family and friends.

Gazing across the amber waves of grain I renew my own commitment to enjoying all those daily miracles, to living without regrets. If integrity and patriotism and gratitude sound corny, so be it. That’s how I want to live, here in this beautiful little valley, surrounded by the amber waves of grain, alongside the majesty of mountains that really are purple on a summer evening.

I jogged on into the sunset filled with renewed hope and inspiration.

Oh, glory! Look what came out of my kitchen. Lemon banana cupcakes with lemon cream frosting.

I can’t seem to manage a photogenic layer cake but cupcakes are pure joy, aren’t they? Tiny canvases simple enough for me to manage!

We picnicked with friends and they were a success. Not a morsel left. Every crumb licked from our fingers. Summery goodness in a small package.

Finger licking yumminess.

Clothworks Textiles has just come out with their new catalog and it includes my Love Letters collection of fabrics. The people at Clothworks are really wonderful to work with and their fabrics are soft and lush… I can hardly wait to make a quilt for the guest room from these romantic prints! I couldn’t resist sharing the catalog pages. Go to www.clothworkstextiles.com/designer_bio.asp?ID=27 to see more.

If you want to find the fabric or are a store wanting to carry it, you can look on their website or phone 800-874-0541. I promise you’ll love the quality.

Spotted on a boat, one remarkably bright & articulate girl who was drawing in a journal I designed for Michael’s… a new friend!

After hiking Deer Mountain, we were on our way back to town when we encountered this bear cub trying to get into a garbage can. We couldn’t see Mama nearby, and thank goodness we never did. The baby bear gave up on the garbage can and ambled off…

Hiking in the rain forest I found one wonder after another, and marveled at miracles large and small. Even looking at the photos I can almost smell the moss, the scent of moist fern and cedar…

The curves and curls will find their way into my work, the petals and stems, the beaks and bills and paws and flippers as well…

Is there a place more pristine, more inspiring than Alaska’s forests and waterways?

I’ve been resting, working on a wildflower collection and spending time in quiet contemplation here in the wilds of Alaska.

Up close with dainty ferns and flowers, observing ravens, puffins, and otters. Hiking in rain forests and being splashed by humpback whales breaching in the Kenai Fjords.

It’s what I call feeding my eyes and my mind. One of the essentials for an artist is the rest and inspiration that comes out later in one’s work, sometimes in ways seemingly unrelated. Without this time I’d go dry, bone dry. This is one of the wellsprings for creativity for me.

Trusty camera tucked into one pocket and sketchbook and pencil in the other, I tried to capture some of what I saw. Here’s a sampling, in the hopes that it inspires your own creative muse. In the next few days I hope to share more…

What’s the dividing line between flowers and weeds?

Friends have gifted me, with only the kindest of intentions, with starts of Chinese lantern, mint, and morning glories, along with a host of more welcome garden guests from columbine to alpine strawberries, heirloom snowdrops and climbing pink roses and even a gorgeous pink peony that’s the exact color of strawberry ice cream. Some of my most treasured flowers came this way, freely given and admired more with every passing year.

I adore my friends but if you asked, I’d nominate Chinese lantern and mint for the Weed Hall of Fame, along with the morning glory that turned out to be field bindweed instead. If you don’t know what field bindweed is you can thank your lucky stars. It may well be listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most tenacious of all the weeds known to mankind.

Then again the wild roses that deckle the edges of the riverbank just down the road, which pop back even when mowed flat to the ground, are so lovely you can’t help but admire them. Hardly a weed! They rank right up there with Melba’s grandpa’s heirloom roses, the ones that bloom profusely, staunchly refuse disease and have a scent worthy of the finest French perfume.

Think of foxgloves, Queen Anne’s Lace, rhododendron… Not exactly something you’d want to exterminate but they all grow wild along the roadsides. Native lilacs. Dogwood. Our country roads teem with these effortless glories.

Running past fields of buttercup spangled meadows, I muse over the difference between weeds and flowers, and decide to spend this year’s vacation in Alaska creating a new wildflower collection. So I’m snapping reference photos like mad, weeds and flowers alike. If it’s pretty, I’m open to it. Maybe not in our own garden but definitely for borders and patterns emerging from my scissors and pots of ink this summer.

Summer is the perfect season for snipping flowers and wildflowers… or weeds masquerading as flowers. I’m a pushover for anything that blooms.

If there’s anything nicer than a rainy afternoon with friends in the studio, I don’t know what it could be. So when Connie, Sarah and Linda showed up Monday at noon with salad, French chocolate bars and big baskets full of craft supplies I opened the door grinning like a fool.

We slurped tortellini soup and raced out to the studio for an afternoon of paper play, making glass necklaces and other little works of art. Linda had invented a new product for Clearsnap and you can imagine my surprise when she shared it with us… I was drooling over that sparkle in New York’s Pearl Paint store a few weeks ago! Look for her Sparkle Fibers in a store near you or visit www.clearsnap.com I am so proud of my ingenious friend.

Sarah enjoyed the vintage cutters and crimpers clamped to an old ironing board behind the front door… and we have promised one another to get together again soon for another rollicking afternoon of laughter among the scissors and glue… a grownup play date!

Did you have that snuggly kind of grandma that left you with memories of a soft lap and encouraging words of wisdom? I did.

I remember her telling me, as I was trying to learn to read, the old Aesop’s proverb: Slow and steady wins the prize.

Today when I am trying to complete another book, at the same time attempting to cross a hundred things off my to-do list, her words come back to encourage me again.
Just take one  little step, she almost whispers in my ear. Just do one tiny bit for now, then another, then yet another.

You don’t have to attack the whole task at once.

Slow and steady wins the prize.

Does your mountain look too big to handle? One step at a time we can do it. Together.  Slowly but surely the leaves unfurl. Slowly but surely.

Digging the garden a shovel at a time. Moving along inch by inch. Writing a book word upon word.

Grandma’s advice was seldom fancy but always reliable.

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern- it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that… one stitch at a time, taken patiently. Oliver Wendell Holmes

I stepped into the Javits Convention Center in New York and looked at the floor sign announcing the big trade show about to open.

“SURTEX, selling and licensing art & design,” in bold red letters.

Oh. My. Goodness. How on earth did I end up here? I wondered. Just as I do every year, I could hardly believe it. Here I was, in the company of the best designers in the nation, showing my art to manufacturers from every corner of the globe. Once again I am in the land of “can real life be this great?” I have been so blessed, I feel like kissing that sign on the floor. An ordinary person like me, thriving in this setting. Living my dreams. How wonderful.

So there I was, back in New York again. How can you not love New York? It’s the city of amazement. Anything can happen. And probably will.

I took the photo above from the Rainbow Room at the top of Rockefeller Plaza during the National Stationery Show opening night party, where the food and the chatter were as stellar as the view. To the accompaniment of clinking wine glasses and a live jazz band, we marveled at the Chrysler Building and the Hudson River, admired (and greedily consumed, it must be admitted!) the glorious foods- prime ribs of beef, fresh beet salad, tiramisu and chocolate mousse torte and lemon tarts… and then danced and visited with old friends and generally enjoyed ourselves to the nines. Hurrah. I love New York.

My licensing partners from all over the globe sat down for meetings to evaluate how we can work together even better. Manufacturers of tableware, wallpaper, party goods, stationery, craft items, clothing… the list goes on. Can you see the inner glow? When your business is creativity, the meetings are brainstorming sessions for the most amazing projects you can dream up together. No wonder we look happy!

After the work was done, booths closed down, and luggage all packed away, I spent a morning wandering through Central Park, then rattled down the subway to Union Square and Soho and Chinatown before heading back to the airport.

Now it’s back to the studio to implement the plans that were made in the Big Apple. Watch for new product in the market place soon… I’ll post on the website the closer these new ideas come to appearing in a store near you. I am back in the studio, scissors in hand and inks and papers waiting… Life is so sweet and I am so thankful for the wonderful week in New York.

Russell loves the soft sound my pointed pen makes when I’m doing an upstroke and the way I always have an ink stain at a certain place on my middle right finger right after I’ve been in the ink pots again.

Calligraphy. It’s been in my blood a very long time.

Finally, sixteen years after my love affair with the pen began, I’m going public with it. This weekend Surtex, the big New York design show, opens, and along with my signature silhouettes I’ll be bringing a few word pictures along.

Words matter. Don’t you believe that? Words have power to wound or to heal, to beat us up or encourage, to make you weep or laugh or sing. Words matter.

Because I love words so much I’ve married them with pictures. Never had the courage to pull them out of the drawers until now. Shall I tell you a secret? It’s a little scary to show a whole new look like this! I’ll quake in my boots just a wee bit, but show them anyway, fingers crossed, and heart full of hope as usual.

Wish me luck! And tell me what you think of my new image collection. Send me an email and tell me how I could do them better or if they’re okay as is.

And now back to my pot of ink and that nice scratchy ink sound, and the snip snip snip of the scissors!

It’s a soggy spring afternoon. The air is full of birdsong and the perfume of the woods.

I am with Brian, our son who knows all about the woods and we are doing my favorite thing: hiking in the forest right near our home, Brian pointing out nests and lairs, elderberries unfolding, owl pellets under the trees. All my favorite things.

He knows this is my idea of the ultimate luxury, and has invited me for a brisk hike.

Wild dogtooth violets, forget me not, trillium, and Oregon grapes  bloom in secret corners. Ferns  are unfurling and the misty drips moisten clumps of moss and downed trees. Little holes dot the mountainside, home to shy forest creatures. There is much to see, and Brian knows the clues that speak like a code to him, revealing marvels I would never find alone. A feather here, a mushroom there. My patient guide points them out quietly. We watch for deer, for mice, for all the secrets of the forest. He knows where the bees have a hive, where the deer lie in the evening.

But too soon the hike ends; duty calls.

And now I am  home sipping from a steaming cup, immensely satisfied.

Last night I worked until 2am, then rose at 6 to begin again. I was so tired, but the hike has given me a jolt of refreshment and rest and I am ready to work.

New York is just a week away! Can it be true? There are so many jobs to complete before then, so much to organize and accomplish. But nothing more important or valuable in the long run than this hour of simply being. Being in the woods with Brian. Priceless.

“Where do you get your ideas?”
It’s the most-asked question when people look at my work. I almost never give an honest answer.

The honest answer would be, “Are you SERIOUS??? How do you NOT have ideas?”

We’re so surrounded by ideas! The whole world is simply teeming with them.

Today is a case in point. Look at these adorable ducklings! I spotted them while on my daily jog. They were playing behind a wire fence, an adorable vintage wire fence just like mine, with curved loops across the top and just the right amount of rust. But I digress. Again as usual. See what I mean? That fence is another idea- what a great border that would be!

These little darlings were playing follow the leader in the watery spring sunshine. After one look I was in love, I knew I’d have to snip ducklings for at least part of the evening! How could I not?

Also spotted on the walk were yellow dogwood against a barn and a beautiful yellow magnolia just beginning to blossom. Then there are the apple blossoms, cherry trees in bloom, and the tufts of grass blowing in the wind. A grumpy but charming toad who lives under the step. A farm house, abandoned, but with a cheery lace curtain still hanging in the window, like a hopeful sign that someone will soon come in, love it back to life and cool a freshly baked pie on that windowsill.

Ideas are sprouting faster than the weeds, and I can promise you that in our fertile valley right now, that’s fast. Life provides more ideas than I could use if I lived to a hundred. We are truly surrounded by miracles, each one an idea. Or two. Or three.

Spring’s always a juicy fix for color addicts like me. If you’re a visual junkie, too, you know what I mean. Just when winter’s grays and browns seem never-ending, suddenly spring bursts on the scene and suddenly you’re awash in inspiration again.

Have you noticed I’m always gushing about the glories of nature, often discovered on my afternoon exercise runs? Today was no exception. Down the country road again, around the corner, huffing and puffing past the tulip fields… A gaggle of cyclists on a bike tour of the valley’s tulips and daffodils waved as they passed, and horses nodded at me from the other side of the fence.

Altogether a friendly afternoon outdoors. And then I noticed the plum trees and all else vanished for me. Just blue sky and blossoms and a whole new palette I’m dying to try out. Can’t resist sharing it with you. It’s springtime at its best. I’d almost decided my red tulips with their showy shades of crimson, hints of yellow and black offered the best colors of the season, now I’m completely smitten with these blues and greens and creamy creamy whites. Wouldn’t they make a gorgeous color palette for a greeting card? I’m going to try it tomorrow.

Creamy whites, set off by vibrant touches of azure and peridot and hints (just barely there) of rosy pink… irresistibly brisk and bracing, fresh as the breeze blowing the petals in the breeze.

Afternoon light is the most splendid, almost liquid gold sometimes. Magic.

I often see miracles. This afternoon I jogged down the road; it was one of those hours when the very air seemed gilded.

Fields with mama horses and their foals. Sprouting seedlings in Steve’s fields. He has announced there will be no farm stand this afternoon but the neighbors walk past and eye his neat rows, hopeful Steve may have had a change of heart. The trees are leafing out in that amazing shade seen only at this season.

It’s springtime. And the golden air is ripe with hope.

I jog back to the studio, breathless. No wonder I never run out of ideas, living in a place where miracles like this happen on ordinary afternoons. Ordinary, ha. There is no such thing anywhere in the world, is there, really?