November 2024

As I sit here looking out over the Appalachian Mountains, I wish I had more words for the past month as it was filled to the brim with beautiful places and people. My head is fuzzy courtesy of a lingering illness so my prose is going to be short but hopefully, the photographs will make up for what I cannot muster the energy to compose.

from the archives

Shuffling through my flat files earlier this month I made a (re)discovery. A series of landscape watercolors I painted back in 2022.

At the time I was only painting tightly rendered botanicals and I remembered thinking that these pieces, with their gentle washes and hazy scenes, felt out of sync with that work.

Now however, they seem to fit perfectly with the gauzy paintings I’ve been creating and so I’ve decided it’s time to share them with the world. I’ll be releasing the “Whispered Landscapes” collection Saturday, November 30th to my newsletter subscribers.

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We’re spending Thanksgiving in Kenny’s family cabin in the Georgia mountains. I’ve known this home for almost 20 years as my family would come vacation here with him and his brothers throughout the years.

All around this place are not just precious memories but collections of folk art, ceramics, enamelware, and copper my Mother-In-Law has amassed over the years. I often find fresh inspiration looking at the handmade rugs that look like something out of a Grimm’s fairytale covered in goats, bears, bees, acorns, and oak leaves.

In late October I took a girl’s trip to Southport, North Carolina with my two younger sisters and my mom. I fell in love with all of the old homes, each sporting a plaque with it’s erection date. We spent three glorious days just walking around the adorable little town, eating delicious food (Fizzy Janes was a fabulous brunch spot), taking naps, and chatting.

This was probably the first time the four of us had been alone together since we were kids and it was incredibly special, especially since my youngest sister is soon due with her first child.

Mid-November Kenny and I flew up to Pennsylvania to help throw my baby sister Alex’s baby shower. She’s the first of us three girls to have a little one and we couldn’t be more thrilled for her.

Rather than buying party supplies I covered the gift table in a cotton gauze that can be used to made baby swaddles, ordered linen star garland that will go in the nursery along with star and moon bookends to hold all the gifted books.

The Holiday Shop officially opened early November.

It’s full of modern heirlooms like hand painted ornaments, evergreen tree Petit Paintings, and winter flower prints.

At dusk in recent evenings I’ve been hearing the back and forth banter of Great Horned Owls. Just as the sun begins to go down the begin their hooting from two different pine trees down by the water. There is something beautifully haunting about their song, almost a lullaby for the day as it reaches its end.