Saturday 18 January 2014

Celebrating Home 2014 :: part 2

Hello lovelies,
 I work part time but I'm so grateful it's not full time. I  love being home, having the time to spend with my family, time to do something creative and to notice the little things that make me happy.

This week those little things have included........

Sunlight illuminating the lovely dainty daffodils I'm enjoying on my kitchen windowsill. They have a gorgeous scent .....like spring.....and they are in just the right place for me to get a waft of it as I stand at the sink.....


Watching middle son hiding under the trampoline with my camera to get some more bird shots in the garden. 
This time he captured a LBJ  which I eventually managed to identify as a Dunnock.




New on my mantle are a couple of tiny thrifted houses. I do have a soft spot for these cute cottages. When I see them in the charity shop for a pound or so it's hard to resist........

Their  actual size is a bit smaller than this photo. I think all the tiny details are fabulous, look there is a jacket draped over that teeny wheelbarrow outside the thatched cottage.

I am making the time to prepare homemade food for my growing boys. Yesterday it was Meatloaf followed by some Oaty Apple crumble which I made and froze back in October..........

Yummy


I enjoyed reading all your comments on my first "Celebrating Home" post so much...thank you.

When I can I like to pay a visit to your blogs and I've discovered many wonderful creative types this way.
A lovely comment from Miss Holly lead me to her "Seaview cottage" blog, which was a treat to read.

THIS post on her site then held a link to a famous blogger and published Author I was previously unfamiliar with............. Susan Branch.
Do you lovelies know her work ? 
She does wonderful watercolour illustrations and LOVES Beatrix Potter.

Her two posts ( part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE)  about her visit to Hill Top , the Lakeland farm owned by Beatrix, are so beautifully written and moving...this American  ladies joy a finally getting to visit a place she has dreamed of for many years is contagious .
 It's a wonderful, feel good read and made me rush to gather together the small amount of  books I have by and about this interesting and talented lady..........

A couple of battered story books Mum saved from my childhood....I used to have a lot more and remember "Mrs Tiggy winkle" was a favourite.  And a gorgeous book about Beatrix Potters life that  I picked up in a charity bookshop a couple of years ago.

Beatrix loved her home in the Lake District and often included it in the beautiful illustrations she painted for her beloved children's books. In this picture from "Jemima Puddle-Duck" you can clearly see part of her garden and her front door........

It's been lovely to enjoy these books again after many years.

The wonderful hand painted lettering on Susan's blog also inspired me to try something similar for my own blog. 
One dark evening last week  I drew out my design. First in pencil , then in fine coloured pens.........


Then I coloured it in using my usual coloured pencils.........



I don't think it's as charming a Susan's paintings or as accomplished as Beatrix's, but I'm still rather happy with it. It's pretty and  home made and it's got hearts and flowers. I think it will look nice as a header for this series of posts.

"Where we love is home - home our feet may leave, but not our hearts" Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Jacquie x

30 comments:

  1. What a great week you have had, glad the birds are still visiting the garden so your son can take photos.

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  2. Just beautiful , I love Beatrix Potter, her illustrations are adorable.xx

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  3. I have been following your blog for ages, just never commented! I love your drawings, they remind me of a series of birthday cards that used to be on sale in our local Post Office by Racey Helps. I love to see your crochet and also have used several of your tutorials. I even have been inspired to do my own 52 weeks of happy in scrap book form after reading your entries last year. There now, that's a whole years worth of comments in one!

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  4. I have been following your blog for ages, just never commented! I love your drawings, they remind me of a series of birthday cards that used to be on sale in our local Post Office by Racey Helps. I love to see your crochet and also have used several of your tutorials. I even have been inspired to do my own 52 weeks of happy in scrap book form after reading your entries last year. There now, that's a whole years worth of comments in one!

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  6. Your home looks lovely and cosy! I enjoyed reading your '52 Weeks of Happy' posts so these posts are similar but different, if you know what I mean?! I love the header too!

    http://thisdaytodaylife.blogspot.co.uk/

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  7. I like your celebrating home pic as much as Susan's work - I have been visiting her blog for a while now and yes it is lovely over there. Off to visit the other blog you mentioned.
    L.x.

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  8. As ever a lovely post - I must get round to treating myself to a few posts of mini daffs - love the promise of springtime they bring.

    Seeing the pic from Jemima Puddleduck - reminded me of a pic of little son I took at Hilltop in that very spot many years ago :)

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  9. I've followed you for awhile now & discovered your blog through Attic 24. I just wanted to comment on your son's picture - what fun to catch him taking those pics. I love that.

    I also love Susan Branch. I've read her blog for quite awhile now & her love of Beatrix Potter is very contagious. Last summer I decided to make a Peter Rabbit scarecrow for my garden just like the one in the book. I've thought about setting up a Beatrix Potter shelf at least.

    Love your celebrating Home series & I really love your artwork! I like how you show the stages of your drawings too. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Thank you for sharing more lovely, warm photos of your home :-) Your cottages are just adorable; I love all the little details.
    Blessings :-)

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  11. Jacquie ... as an admirer of all your drawings, I think this will be an excellent header for your blog! As an admirer of Susan Branch for MANY years, I'm happy that you have 'discovered' her as well. I have a collection of her books and other artwork, and met her at a book signing in 2000. Her 2012 visit to England was such fun for us 'girlfriends,' (as she refers to us) as she encouraged us to imagine being along for the ride. She blogged and tweeted throughout the trip, and then created her wonderful book, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside. Now there's a whole bunch of us Yanks smitten with Beatrix and all things British! Thanks always for sharing with us; I so enjoy checking in with you.

    Sharon in Alabama

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  12. I love the celebrating home idea. It really is what I feel we do here. The little world we create around us is so important. Your banner is lovely! Heather x

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  13. Your celebrating home banner is wonderful and a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. Making home cosy, welcoming and nourishing for my family is so important to me.

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  14. Well done to your young man for snapping a photo of a dunnock, they are so tiny and can be rather shy...and your Beatrix Potter musings speak to my heart, I was an avid fan when I was small, I was always the smallest one in my class, and her tiny books made me feel like she wrote them just for me, so special, every one! And now my youngest is absolutely in love with all things Beatrix Potter, how I love reading all the books to her, her fave at the moment is 'Two Bad Mice' - she's memorised most of it! Ah, a lovely post, your drawings are wonderful and absolutely radiate the comforts and love of home! Chrissie x

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  15. Another wonderful drawing I do love to see them. I'm a bit of a fan of Beautrix Potter too and I also remember some books called Brambly Hedge which were my favourite as a child they had gorgeous illustrations. I've just started doing some art again as a new year resolution and have just posted my first drawing on my blog eek
    Clare xx

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  16. I love the Beatrix Potter books and I am collecting a full set of them gradually. I also love your drawings, and I think that although they are different from the BP drawings, they are just perfect, because they are yours!! Great photography by your son, he is doing really well with his camera work. xx

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  17. Lovely picture as always Jacquie. Nicola x

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  18. Beautifully drawn, it's wonderful. I'm enjoying Beatrix Potter as well at the moment, my littlest boy really likes animals and loves having the stories read to him.

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  19. I love Beatrix Potter and her beautiful work, as well as Susan Branch´s blog! "Miss Potter" is one of my favorite movies.
    I´ve just posted my "Sail Away Crochet" version inspired by yours. Hope you like it: http://linhasimaginarias.blogspot.com.br/2014/01/sail-away.html

    Claudia xx

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  20. Lovely post I think I am lucky too being able to work part time and enjoy various craft hobbies and some exercise! I feel really spoilt reading about Beatrix potter as we only live about 30 mins away .We visited hill top for the first time with our children last year and it was magical.

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  21. I share a love of Beatrix Potter, especially her pictures. We have decorated the spare bedroom with a bunny theme for when my granddaughter comes to stay and have some lovely Beatrix potter pictures on the walls as well as a few Peter Rabbit stuffed toys and some Peter rabbit ceramics. My eldest daughter a through and through Goth since she was aged 16 (Now 27) collected beatrix potter figurines when she was young and despite her inherent gothiness (Including the decor in her home) still has her figurines on proud display in her sitting room. xxx

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  22. Oh Jacquie this was such a lovely post, brought a tear to my eye. Like you I am a huge fan of Beatrix Potter and have visited her home many times and each time I find something new to discover about her. Your artwork is just beautiful and I hope one day you will sell so that we can all enjoy your talents. Have a fabulous Sunday Jacquie, big hugs to you
    Dorothy
    :-)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  23. I wish blogs had a "like" or "agree" button because I would like to hit it for all of the above comments! Beatrix Potter is a favourite in our home too. My son would recite Appley Dappley off by heart when he was barely three years of age. Even now, when we see "a little brown mouse" visiting the compost heap in the garden, we will refer to it as "Appley Dappley" except this one does not "visit the cupboard in somebody's house" (not our house anyway) thank goodness!
    Another storey book whose illustrations of animal characters are in a similar detailed vein as Beatrix Potter, and equally loved by my children is "The Foxwood Treasury" by Cynthia & Brian Paterson (Hutchinson, London 1997) I think you would like it too.

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  24. I adore Beatrix Potter, and can not wait to introduce our daughter to her when she is a little older :) I love your artwork! I can not draw, but I do wish I could draw like you, your illustrations are the type I love :) Happy Sunday x

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  25. Beatrix Potter was such an inspirational character and a woman in her own right. I have so much respect for her and even more so when I watched the film about her life. Have you thought of making your beautiful banner into a blog badge so others can also join in with this series and share this on their blogs? xx

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  26. Thanks so much for making me discover Susan Branch work. I love her blog and her drawings which I have just discovered thanks to you. I'm going to look for her book about her visit to Beatrix Potter farm. I love Beatrix Potter books, my mum used to read us her books when we were a few years old.

    Thanks again

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  27. Love the 'Celebrating Home' banner Jacquie. Especially the red jug which I think is the same as the one on your windowsill? You have such an eye for detail :)
    Jones x

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  28. Inspiring post. I to get my inspiration regarding my home from Tina a lot. And now here, from you. Thanks for telling me about Susan Branch, loved her blog. By the way; I think your banner looks fab. I actually would say that about all the drawings you post here. :-) I think they're really sweet and playfull.
    Have a wonderful week!
    Miepie

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  29. Gorgeous photos! You made me think of My fair lady, believe? "I would never brudge till spring crept over my window sill...all I want is a room somewhere far away from the cold night air..." A hug from distant (and hot) São Paulo, Brazil.

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