2021 is kind of a mushy blur from here. But a couple projects stand out. If I had to pick a favorite it would be this little stove. Something about it. And the runner up is the campsite.
Or maybe that’s tied with imperial cats.

Each was the kind of project that time disappears in. Happy, focused, present.

a few more highlights

There was one new sewing pattern – the crow

And 7 new tutorials:

• sheep
• judgy frogs
• happy cats
• mini tent
• tiny wood stove
• imperial cats
• apple core

For the second time in less than two years I moved. A small move, upstairs in the same building, but still. The place is great, the kind of thing you couldn’t invent and the fit is perfect. It’s a creaky old carriage house with a distinctly 70’s feeling renovation that I’m leaning into.

There is space and light and a generally good spirit to the place. The plants are happy and so am I.
You can check out a couple domestic projects: the sewing room here and the painting room here.

Year 3 of daily paintings was accomplished and year 4 is underway. The daily thing is hard. And, I so recommend it. Committing to a do-able assignment and applying small consistent effort is as close to a magic formula as there is for growing creatively and getting unstuck.

The 100 day project is starting again on February 13th. It’s a great way to test drive the daily situation. If you decide to do it these ideas might help:

* Be realistic about time. The amount of time you commit can be very small and still have lots of benefits.
* Have a plan for the bad days, a minimal but acceptable effort. And accept the bad days. Everybody will have lots of them. I have some very bad days and post some real stinkers.
Also if instagram/social media is not your thing get yourself an accountability partner.

The daily paintings have turned into cards and soon prints. They find their way into everything. Ideas bounce back and forth from the painting to sewing projects and ceramics and back again. The ceramic work boils down gestures, the sewing simplifies shapes, each informs the other.
You can see this most recently in the first diy project for 2022 dancing hares.

the big goal for 2022

efficientize

I did make that word up. But that’s what I want to do – streamline, simplify, systemize. Stop wasting time on clunky processes, redundant tasks and do-overs. Make my irrational enterprise a little more rational, more thoughtful planning and less reacting. Easy to say. It will involve some dismantling and tedious rebuilding. My plan is to chunk it. Give it a little time everyday.

Have you got big plans for the year ahead? Will you try the 100 day project? did you have a favorite project last year? Let us know in the comments.

In the new place (upstairs from the old place) there is a little room in the back with big windows, and a view of sweeping, weeping pines that crows and ravens roost in. Guilford Connecticut has a crazy amount of crows. Also my little garden is right below. It’s the first thing I look at every morning.
The first project after getting basic order shipping capabilities set up was to make that room delightful. It had been laundry/storage. There was indoor outdoor stained carpeting, dingy paint, wire shelves and great potential for charm. You can check out a before below- almost a before – I had already torn the carpet out.

Under the carpet was just a plywood subfloor. I painted a super simple gray and white check. The paint job is light for a worn in feel. Plus that was quick and easy to do and I like the softness of it. The walls are painted bright white (Benjamin Moore Snowfall White). And the curtain fabric is from India via Etsy.

The laundry closet is covered with a textile gift from a friend, a Peruvian (I think) poncho. I stitched the neck opening closed and added inexpensive rings. It is magically exactly the right size with no further alterations.

It’s a place I love to be. The light and breeze are excellent. There is room for a cardboard castle and all the other essential things. This place is for painting and sketching and some photography.

One of the many reasons for making a painting everyday is the wealth of ideas they generate. Most recently the funny little cats that wander through the many little towns in those paintings became a sewing pattern . You can find the free happy cat pattern right here.

Project 2 is the sewing room. Stay tuned for more on that. It is also currently full of potential to be delightful.

onward,

ann

I like to think about ideas and where they come from, how they grow, what sticks and what doesn’t. And I find it hugely satisfying to share what I learn. For the past several weeks I’ve been gathering things for my diorama workshop this June and playing with ideas, experimenting in a gentle, open way, thinking about when to hold onto a narrative and when to let it go, exploring the relationships between things.

And I’ve been working on a way to share some of the experience with people who can’t make it to a workshop or retreat. That idea has been percolating since the makerie workshop last fall. Like the diorama workshop it was very focused on experimenting, thinking and trying stuff. I began the 3 day workshop with a warm up exercise called “a mysterious box”. Students got a small box with a collection of materials and a mini assignment, the assignment was the same for everybody and it is top secret.

I had a blast making the little boxes and the experiment was successful beyond my expectations. I’m working on the correspondence version now. Making little boxes and working out a way for people who participate to come together and share what they make.

What do you think?

And the hunting and gathering : I hit the ephemera jackpot a couple weeks ago. A huge box of old paper stuff (some of it very old), someone else’s memories and treasures. The things that were precious and carefully kept right up until they weren’t. I spend time looking through it everyday and part of me just wants to keep it all (those halloween treat bags are hugely nostalgic for me). I will not.

There are lots of newspapers and magazines from around 1880 with magnificent illustrations. Sweet bundles of letters, maps, elaborate certificates and receipts. Wonderful color, text and imagery to play with (you can see more from the box in on instagram).

There aren’t many photos in the box, I love this one. I think this is the one thing I’ll keep. I love the bare trees in the background, the lonely holiday garland on the window, the mood of it all. Long ago Christmas seen through a smokey, scratched lens, the wistfulness magnified by the medium.

The box is full of that feeling and I can’t get enough of it.