It’s a very quiet, very warm summer morning ~ I’m in my studio, the windows are wide 
open, I feel like I’m on a porch. It’s still dark, insects are cricking and shisking, birds are just now beginning their morning song, I have my tea, Girl’s asleep on the pillow, Jack’s on the ironing board in front of the pantry screen door, peering out into the dark (ever vigilant) . . . foghorns are blowing over the island . . . and in the background, softly wafting from our windows into the breaking morning light . . . MUSICA
Today I get to design advertising for our new book for Victoria and Teatime, two of my favorite magazines. Believe it or not, I’ve never put an ad in a magazine before! It’s exciting to think about how I want the ads to look. It just seems to make sense to have our book in the September annual “British” issue of Victoria, don’t you think? And Teatime? I can’t think of better places for a book about English charm. ♥
I had an idea the other day. When I paint, one of the things that’s always at my right hand is a little square of watercolor paper that I use to try out color — you can see it in the back of this photo . . . the little blotter with wisps of paint color. I couldn’t work without one of these nearby.
I use them to test my pen; I mix colors on them. This one has the stick on it that I picked up in the yard of Norman Rockwell’s studio.
Sometimes I will paint or write something I don’t care for, it’s not quite good enough, or I don’t like the colors I used, so I’ll want to do it over, but I don’t want to waste the paper, so I cut it up and save it and use it to dab my paint on. So that’s how some of the art and words show up on these paint daubers.
On this one I practiced pencil drawings of women’s hair. I tried drawing with pen and filling it in with color — these cards come in very handy.
I’ve done this for years, and when the card is covered in paint and squiggles, I throw it away and get myself a new one.
Until A FINE ROMANCE. About halfway through the painting of our book, I decided maybe I should start saving these squiggles. So I did. I was surprised on how fast they piled up.
And yesterday I cut them all up.
I got quite a handful of them. They look so festive!
They’re all on card stock and every one of them is covered on both sides with all the colors of the English Countryside; the colors of teatime, long walks, cottage gardens, the Yorkshire Dales, Jane Austen’s house, ocean liner sailing . . .
They’re kind of a little story all by themselves. Now I wish I’d never thrown any of them away!
But at least I have these . . . and there’s quite little pile of them. I thought, what good bookmarks these would make.
Not all of them have discernible art on them, but some definitely do, and no matter what, each of them is one of a kind. I never made the same mess twice! So, you know I’ve been setting dates for my book signings? I thought what would be fun . . .
. . . is if I would bring these bits and pieces that helped to make up the original pages of the book and give them away at the signings. ♥ The bookmarks will match the book!
And just in case you can’t get to a signing, or in case I run out before I get to your town (it’s bound to happen, but I promise, only one to a customer!), that big BOOKMARK in the middle is for you. You can print it at home, cut it out, and tuck it in your book when it comes.
I love planning these book events. The people at the bookstores are such hard workers and make me feel wonderful about coming to them. My first two book signings will be 
on Martha’s Vineyard, beginning with Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, on Julia Child’s Birthday ♥ (I just love that), on August 15th. You can keep track of the dates and see where I’ll be going as we begin adding new events this month. On the right side of the blog you’ll see COMING SOON, EVENTS. Scroll down for dates, times, links for directions, etc. I hope to see every single one of you somewhere on our long drive across America. ♥
And just a few more Small Treats: Did you notice that Kellee put up new summer computer wallpaper, stationery, and postcards you can print out? She did! Kellee changes everything for the season; you can always check for her updates if you go to “On-Line Shopping,” and then click on the left on “Free Stuff.”
Oops, I almost forgot to mention. This time, one of our continuous small treats include a giveaway . . . you see that Beatrix Potter Bookmark in the pile below? The little girl with the bunny?
Leave a comment, I will sign it and date it ~ in a few days I’ll send it to the winner of the drawing, to the lucky name that Vanna pulls from our giant top hat. ♥
Skylark. Such a beautiful song choice for your Musica today. Hoagy Carmichael was one of the greats. 🙂
It feels like I am right there on Martha’s Vineyard! I hope to get there someday. Love the bookmarks too! I am a big reader and love reading from a actual book. Thanks so much Susan for all you do.
Who would have thought those dabber papers could look so dapper? They are fun, colorful, and will make delightful bookmarks!
I hope your book signing tour will take you to the lovely town of Bend, Oregon. It is a gorgeous area with fresh air, big skies, big mountain views and at least one (probably lots and lots ) Susan Branch fan. I am one of your OLD fans! 😉 For years I have checked stores for your products, stickers, anything Susan Branch. I am glad you have your own store online now–much easier. It has been thrilling to watch your influence and art expand and become so well-known and loved, Susan.
Wow! An add in Victoria and TeaTime–I am eager to have it in my home.
Thank you for the free items you offer us, Susan. You are a generous hearted friend.
Happy ad painting!
I have ordered the book and will be checking to see if a book signing trip will work for me! Thank you for the chance to win the sweet bookmark. I am giving my daughter this site. She is beginning a business. She does watercolor art and up until recently just given her work as wedding and baby shower gifts. I think she would love your art as you are so talented and I know would be an inspiration to her. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment day and night!
Love the bookmarks. What a great idea. Can’t wait for the new book.
What a wonderful idea & a special treat for the ladies at the book signings! I’d love to have a bookmark!
You know you are cherished when what you usually throw away would be treasured by those who love you! Love the idea of the bookmarks!
I also can’t wait for my copy of the book to arrive……I just love your artwork…..
Clever idea to save the “mistakes?” I read a quote the other day about art – this is not verbatim – “Art is knowing which mistakes to keep.” I make my own cards for friends and family and I have put cards together from little pieces of this and that.
I love the little bookmarks you made! I think a whole sheet, framed, would be wonderful as well. You could even make FABRIC from some of those designs! Love ’em all!
A really true “light bulb” moment – wonderful idea you have. Also, would like to ask if you will be able to autograph the book (A Fine Romance) that we have preordered from you? Oh, how I would love that. Sure hope to win the special bookmark. Thanks, Susan from Judy C
All the preordered books come signed — I was hoping I would be in California when they come in to the studio, but since I won’t get there until later, and since we want to send the books out right away, I have been signing bookplates!
Susan,
Sometimes I can barely believe that Susan Branch is my friend, and has given me the gift of peering into her life. You make us women feel such value in the things we putter about and do in our daily lives. It makes our house keeping and gardening seem so much more wonderful, when we see you doing the same sort of things. I’ve read a little book this year that you or your other friends may enjoy, “A dare to LIVE FULLY right where you are.” _one_thousand_gifts_ by Ann Voskamp. It has been a New York Times Bestseller by Zondervan.com
Love you!, and thanks for all you share with us.
Jane Alexander
Thank you back Jane!
Yep, I’ve read it, Jane. I’ve started my “thankful list”, have you?
I have read it also…it is a life changer!
Chris
What a great idea turning these into bookmarks!!
I have just recently started receiving your blog but I have collected your books since they were first published. I have always enjoyed your art. Your thrifty use of watercolor paper made me think of my grandmother…she was an artist in both water color and oils. Some of the paintings I have that she did are so tiny. I asked my mother once why bother to paint on such tiny pieces of canvas. She said that during the depression no amount of art material was wasted no matter how small. Two small bluebonnet oil paintings I have fit into “frames” that are wooden drapery rings! The earliest painting I have is dated 1899. She died in 1957.
How lucky you are to have such treasures from your own grandmother!
Susan! You are so generous … and I am so excited to get my book. Thanks for the book mark … I would LOVE the Beatrix one. Fingers crossed!
Love all Susan Branch things and I am always sharing with family and friends to also enjoy and appreciate all she has done………Lori Ragalis
Thank you Lori!
Susan, I love the idea of the bookmarks from blotters! You are always so creative, reading your blog sends me into creative joy! Thanks for the FR bookmark, it is just so hard to wait for the book to arrive. Do you think you would ever do a book signing in/or near South Carolina? I have loved you for years and would love to actually meet you in person. Thanks for sharing with us.
Robin Tinman
I’m going to try Robin!
I realized that of all your books I’ve purchased, I hardly have any of my own. I keep giving them to special people in my life. To remedy this I have decided to buy two from now on. One to give away and one to keep. I have preordered “A Fine Romance” and can barely wait for it to arrive! If you have a book signing in SC, I’ll do my best to be there 🙂
i
I’d love to see you Robin! I’m glad you’re being good to yourself too!
Susan, what a great idea for bookmarks. By the way, I noticed you are reading Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature. I read this book earlier this year. Beatrix Potter was an amazing person! I only knew a little about her from the movie Miss Potter. There was so much more to her.
So much more. A true hero of her times, just by doing what came naturally.
I checked your blog at 4:30 a.m. this morn. thinking you’d be posting today…a wee bit early but glad I checked back this aft. I too love the early morning.
Great idea to save your “scrap paper”. I have a large 10″ x 16″ paper mat on my craft area that I work on and test things out on it too. One time when it was so full and I was about to throw it away – I had to smile as I looked at all the words, shapes, colors – it was so fun I sent it to my friend in CA that I exchange letters with almost every day. She loved it:)
Did you ever get a wall map of the US up with pins pointing to ALL your followers:) AND the path you are taking for your book tour??? What a fun, exciting time planning your little (BIG) adventure. Did Joe get a new car for your trip???? Time never really does slow down and the older you get ….the faster it goes….or is it – the slower I go:)
I used to get Victoria a long time ago and I have never seen Teatime. Am sure it is sweet – the only tea I have now is ICED. However, for Mothers Day my lovely middle daughter got me a subscription to Country Living UK….yippee skippee – looking forward to my first copy coming soon.
Just finished my July birthday/celebrations, etc. cards – 15 of them in the holder by the door with post-its on them reminding me when to mail/give them. Most of them are my immediate FAMILY:) Yes, the birthdays for the “girls of summer” are here:) Always loved having a July birthday. Sweet Sue noticed the magazine cover that reminded us of you was from April . . . the year is a bit early for you however 😉
Anxiously awaiting your itinerary. Sure it will be 2014 if you get down this far…I would make you a tuna casserole with crushed chips on it to make sure you get your starch tho. :))) Would LOVE to get a sweet bookmark. xxxooo
Yes, my starch, always do love my starch, especially when it has potato chips on it! 🙂 Thank you Judi!
Love the bookmark idea. I agree, the colors are wonderful.
Susan…..such a lovely idea to use the art work for bookmarks. I know that everyone will love having one with their book. You are such a clever girl!
I love reading how you create – thanks for sharing!
Hey, I’ve been checking for a new blog. Today is the day! I love your idea about the giveaway blotted spotted bookmarks, I hope that I can get to a book signing, but if not please enter my name to hopefully win the Bea bookmark.
I still marvel at all the kindred spirits out there, I guess like Ann of GG said, “Kindred spirits aren’t so scarce as I once thought.”
Have a lovely summer, girlfriends!
Joanie
No they are not! We are legions. 🙂
We are women!
I have those scraps of watercolour paper on my big antique drafting table that my brother gave me for my birthday one year. He found it at a building site and nabbed it for me before it hit the scrap heap.
The trimmings from art projects make great “try it” scraps and also bookmarks, like artwork themselves.
When does your new book hit the stores?
Generally speaking, I would think a little after the first of September.
Ohh you are such a love to have another give-away!! Would love a chance to win your bookmark. They are so pretty! Hope you are coming to a town near me in Pennsylvania!! If you are…..I’ll be there with rings on my fingers and bells on my toes!
I’d love an original bookmark from you!
What cute bookmarks! I can’t wait until I get my pre-ordered copy of A Fine Romance. I have a feeling it is going to keep me occupied for days just pouring over each page. Thanks for the chance to win your bookmark. I do hope you make it to a book signing in the Nashville, TN or Huntsville, AL area……I’m located in a small town (alas with no bookstore) halfway between these two “big cities”.
Hi Susan~
What a nice idea to cut up your colorful “scrap” paper into bookmarks. Would love to have the Beatrix marker to go in one of my Beatrix Potter (or YOUR) books. Would be wonderful to see you on Martha’s Vineyard at the book signing in August. I must start making some travel plans. Can’t wait for your book! And it would give me another reason to visit the Vineyard which I haven’t seen yet. I’m sure you are counting down the days ’til those first books arrive! How exciting for you (and for all the Girlfriends)!
Counting the moments now! Hope to see you here Christine!
Two of my favorite words; summer and morning. As always, thanks……. sister from another mister.
I love reading your posts. The bookmarks are such a wonderful idea. I hope I will be so lucky to get my book signed. Any chance you will be near Seattle? Thanks for the chance at the giveaway.
Your artwork and colors are an inspiration to me in my needlework. I will be delighted, if I am chosen for the Beatrix Potter bunny bookmark. Thanks for the opportunity to have an original artwork from you.
What a fun idea! I printed off one of the sheep bookmarks and gave it to my sister to announce her gift of your book that will be coming out; this would be fun to give to her to keep her place in more than one spot, as I’m sure there will be MANY pages she will want to mark. Thanks, Susan!
Fun way to tell her about her gift Heather!
Loved this colorful post! Bright as a garden on a Summer Day. I love seeing the artist at work and what it takes to do what you do. You are an inspiration, thank you Susan.
I would surely like that little lady. Even if I don’t get her, I thank you for sharing this little piece of sunshine today.
Hi Susan, Would love to win a bookmark ! Are you coming to MI ? Have you ever thought about making more holiday books? When I decorate for holidays or seasons I use your books. Thanks for always making me smile and making me feel good.
Dear Susan,
7 years ago today I lost my best friend, my mother. Her name was Betty Jane. In her honor, I have been redecorating my grown daughter’s bedroom in the style of your Beatrix Potter room with vintage photos of my mother’s life. I have a little Beatrix Potter village, and some of the old books. I would be honored to frame the bookmark and include it in my mother’s Beatrix Potter room! I miss her and your bookmark post couldn’t have been more timely! Thank you, Susan! ~Leslie J. Andrews, Medina, Ohio
I bet your room is wonderful and charming and such a nice reflection of your mom. xoxo
Hi Leslie,
You are a neighbor in my former life…..Bath, Ohio! So pleased to meet you, so many miles from home!
Chris
Oh, I’d love to win this original treasure!!
Thanks for the opportunity, Susan, and thanks for Skylark. Such a great song.
Love your idea of bookmarks made from your beautiful ‘squiggle pieces.’
Perhaps one will be in the pre-ordered books you will sign?
I am giving three of the books away to very special friends and, of course, I’m keeping one for myself. Who knows how many of us will map out trips to England after we enjoy all you have written – and painted.
I enjoy lingering with you on your blog but seldom do I comment.
Happy to hear from you Gail!
Susan,
I love your idea of making bookmarkers from your painted scraps! What a wonderful way to recycle and how blessed so many of your admirers will be!
Have a wonderful summer day!
Brilliant idea!!! Thanks for the chance, Susan. Someone will have a true treasure!!
Thanks Susan for the bookmark…I have been doing that for years with my “old” paintings and test papers…I laminate the strips and then use them or give away with books. I always thought maybe I was being too “thrifty”…but happy to see that we are on the same page…again….I hope that you will be coming to a book store near me…
xoxo
Susan, I love those paint squiggle bookmarks, I hope you bring some to California this fall at the” Remnants of the Past” antique show. I pre-ordered A Fine Romance; and I’m looking forward to receiving it in the mail. I so enjoy reading each of your post, I find myself reading them several times over and taking in every detail down to each little flower or birdie painted. Have a wonderful day, Oh by the way you’ve made me a “moon watcher” this month’s Strawberry Moon was awesome!
Awesome!
What a wonderful idea! I love new ideas for things we throw away. Here is hoping Vanna picks me!
What a wonderful idea for recycling your “scribbles.” I wish mine were as lovely! 🙂 Can’t wait to get “A Fine Romance” and enjoy the trip all over again!
All this time you were throwing those squiggles away? Holy crap! Am so glad you ‘smartened’ up. lol They are colorful and lovely little works of art all by themselves. I’m into art journaling and we use every ‘scrap’ in something else. Nothing as lovely as yours, though. Even your scraps are beautiful. xxoo
That’s almost word for word what Joe said! 🙂
Susan….What a great idea for your paper. I love the idea of bookmarks. My son and his family just returned from a trip to Virginia and DC to show their children (ages 6-11) many historical places. My gift from my son was a beautiful wooden bookmark that has a quote from Thomas Jefferson which says, “I cannot live without books.” It fits all of our family perfectly and I know it fits you as well. Happy summer!
Sweet gift Joan!
Love the idea of saving your paint papers for bookmarks. How many would you have if you had saved them? Loads I’m sure. Would love to have one. Another request for the Mpls. area.
My husband passed away on June 11th after a long bout with cancer. We were married 49 1/2 years. Quiet more so now, so now I am playing catch up on my computer as I had to give it up for some time.
That was just from half the book — I would have zillions if I’d saved them from every book. I think I should have — I’m sure they’d almost be a kind of diary. I am so sorry about your husband Joyce. I am happy he is safe now and free from pain and sickness, but I am sure you miss him very much. xoxo sending love to you and yours.
On your book signing tour I hope you are coming to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) area.
I love the bookmark. Please enter my name thank you so much for the
little extras you send our way. So sweet!!
I would love anything from you, that little girl with the bunny would be really special since my hubby and I rescue bunnies! We just love them so and I wish I could keep them all.
Thank you for the chance for the bunny with girl pic.
Lynnie
You rescue bunnies. How wonderful.
I was thinking bookmarks after the first photo of your squiggle paper. I’d love to win that one. I have the perfect little tassle I could put on the end too. Remember, Where in the World is Waldo? We’ll have to play Where in the World is SB? once you get on the road. I’m starting my countdown for our train trip cross country. Two weeks and counting!!! Yeaaaaaaaaa……hugs from NJ
I should have a chip installed so we can follow it via satellite on a map! 🙂
I love that you are saving your blotters for bookmarks! I can’t imagine a nicer way to make your book more personal than to include one of these bookmarks with it! I will be hoping to win the one you are giving away!
Before you said “bookmarks” I was thinking those would make wonderful bookmarks! 🙂 It would be a treat to have one.
Thanks for the one we can print for our eagerly awaited copy of your book.
Love that you thought to make bookmarks from your trials and mistakes. Would love to have the delightful little lady gazing up at me from my book.
Thanks for making homemaking feel so good.
Susan! I collect bookmarks and love all of the ones you showed. I probably won’t make it to a book signing, but sure would love one.
Oh Susan, the bookmarks are small treasures! What a great idea to bring them along to the book signings. I love the special Beatrix Potter bookmark! I printed out copies of your Summer Afternoon bookmark to share with friends at my tea party this afternoon. Can’t wait to see your ad in Teatime! It’s one of my favorite magazines.
Happy summer days!
Dawn
♡♡
As inspiring as your beautiful “bookmarks”, I am also inspired by your paints, seeing how worn the tiny cups are where you have dipped your brushes into them. Nothing sadder than a nice set of paints that haven’t had the drops of water and a brush stirred in them to bring the colors to life! I came across a picture that Annie Leibovitz took of Georgia O’Keefee’s box of pastels, expressed under the picture “lovingly used and worn”. I keep pinned up at work for inspiration. An artist I’m not, but, I think it’s deep inside of us all, was there when we were young, anything we painted or colored was hung on the fridge as a “work of art”! We just need a little coaxing, inspiration to bring that artist back out. Thank you, Susan for many years of enjoyment to encourage us to pause and enjoy the beauty around us.
Brenda Vaughan
I didn’t paint my first picture until I was 30 and that was really quite by accident. I didn’t try earlier, just assumed I couldn’t. What a nice surprise. We don’t know until we try.
Love reading your blogs!! You’re the best. My books would welcome a new bookmark.
How colorful all your blotters are! I would love to win! I always print out your bookmarks, I think some have been left in books I have sent back to the library, regifting! My computer was acting up during your last two posts, so couldn’t comment. 🙁
Did you know there’s a site called bookmarks.com showing things that people have left in books over the years? Really fun to see them, some sad, some funny, all awesome! Site is run by a used book seller and he has giveaways every week!
So exciting about the signing tour, sure hope you’re coming south, I LOVE road trips!
Hugs to you Susan, Joe of course, and Girl kitty and Jack! Oh! That reminded me about your Fathers Day post! So special! So glad you never had to use the bomb shelter! I remember the drills in grade school of getting under our desks and covering our heads, our school was right on the coast in Laguna (El Moro).
Tweet tweet!
Jeannie
What a charming idea, and I hope you make it to the San Francisco area! Can’t wait for your book, which I pre-ordered. 🙂
Hi, Susan!! I cannot wait until my book comes in the mail! Would love the bookmark — please, Vanna choose me this time! 🙂 Thanks, and Happy Independence Day!
And to think I just subscribed to Victoria and Tea Time! I’ll be able to see your ad! 😀 Can’t wait to see who wins the giveaway! -Merry
Before I got to the bottom of the post I was thinking how wonderful it would be to have a slice of one of those for a bookmark! You’re so clever Miss Susan, and we are all so lucky that you share with us this way!
Happy summer!
Peggy in Texas
What a creative and thoughtful use of your dauber papers. I would love to win the bunny blog bookmark, but I have to also mention, I love that tiny chicken on the lawn! Totally looking forward to A Fine Romance! PS. Thanks for the freebie.
Vanna, please be good to me!
Susan,
Love your art work, it always takes me back to my childhood. I would love to win the girl and bunny. thank you so much for all that you share.
So enjoy your paintings and would like, very much, the bookmark.
Love the idea of owning something original that you made with your own little dibbles and dabbles!
Those bookmarks are gorgeous and if Vanna doesn’t
Pick me, can I buy the Cotswald Cottage one next to it?
Looking forward to my Book in September! Good Luck
on the Book Tour!
Keep those Blogs coming…makes me Happy!
You’ll get that Cotswold cottage in your book! 🙂
Thank you for the lovely bookmark, Susan. I think it is a fantastic idea that you are using your homemade bookmarks at your book signings. I sure would love to see you come to the Atlanta, GA area to sign your books. Thank you for such an inspiring blog–I check it everyday!
Hugs from Cumming, GA
Barbara S.
Happy to have you here Barbara!
A simple comment from an avid collector of everything Susan Branch! What a wonderful way to share with us your way of living the quote: “Reduce, Recycle and Reuse” ~meaningless scraps of test pages for you- special ‘one-of-a-kind’ works of heart for all of us. I like that they’re original and touched by your hand-that you cut them into bookmarks and who doesnt need yet another bookmark! Each time your blog arrives in my email box, I excitedly can’t wait to ‘eddy’ out somewhere-wherever I am to listen and read~and be inspired and to daydream of Nantucket (my respite) right next door to you! Love all you stand for, how you cherish the old-fashioned and how unique you are. Your calendars, stationery, books and trinkets fill my home with delight~ykjrs are the best gifts I can receive! Thanks for that Father’s Day tribute too- I cried at the love you have for your dad and for your relationship-it was so heartfelt
xoxo And this is heartfelt too Vicki — thank you so very much!
I love bookmarks and would love to win this one!! It is so whimsical!
Thanks for entering me.
OH I love those doodles and I can’t wait for the book and I do hope you are coming to New York, I do so want to meet you! I am so looking forward to that. My kids know when I say oh I read that online and they look at me and say oh right Susan Branch said that right? lol.. thanks
LOL! Hi to your kids!
Your bookmark idea giveaway is terrific! I’m looking forward to your book!
I am giving 2 of my girlfriends your new book for their birthdays this year, so the March gal received a card with the bookmark in it saying she will be getting the book in the mail from your store and the other one lives nearby so I can deliver it with the bookmark! Of course I ordered one for myself and made a bookmark in preparation for it 🙂 . I would love your blotter bookmark too! Thank you for your createtivity!
Even the splotches seem to have your signature style! 🙂
Please join us in the Twin Cities!
I love your art Susan, thank you for being you. I am reading a book that takes place on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1660’s so thinking of you. It is by Geraldine Brooks and is called Caleb’s Crossing, it is historical fiction and a good read.
Soooo cute!! I also love the one to the left of the little girl, with the cottage on it and the chicken!!
YOU are such an artist … in every manner!!! I just love it!!
I love all your blogs. They certainly do help to refresh daily life.
Thank you.
Just when I begin to wonder what Susan Branch is up to, one of her fun little blog posts pops into my inbox. My, who would have thought mere pieces of scrap paper could turn into beautiful and creative little treasures. I would be so happy to have one, I am not even picky as to which, though the Beatrix Potter one is just gorgeous!
Thank you for reminding us of the simple things in our lives that give us pleasure! Reading your blog always lifts my spirits. Looking forward to getting my book.
Susan, that is such a sweet idea for your bookmarks. And it IS a treat for all of us who adore you. I loved reading of you sitting with your windows wide open in your studio with your little fur family close by. I feel that way about our master bedroom…it has 3 lovely windows opened wide this time of year, and when I go up in the evening I perch up in bed and look outside. We are blessed to be surrounded by beautiful views of trees and mountains (in the distance…I can see about half of the mountains/tops of them) and I have always told ppl that I feel that I am in my own treehouse! lol. Summertime is wonderful, isnt it? My daughter just graduated from High School and we have been having a wonderful time together before she heads off to college in the fall….which I am half sad , half happy about! Our flowers are doing wonderfully and we just planted some California Lilac bushes …they are so lovely and they bring in the bees, which I think is a good thing after reading about them recently! Congratulations on everything!!!! This is a banner year for you with the magazines and your new book and I am so happy for you. I think about receiving my copy in September…it will be just the tonic I will need after sending my daughter off! 🙂 I hope my posts arent too long…I tend to write as I am thinking and talking….which is a lot! xoxoxo
What a wonderful idea.
Thanks so much, Sue, for letting us see the “creative you” at work. I love having all these little private peeks into your studio. The squiggle strips are so, so beautiful–anyone who gets one will love it. (I sometimes cut up old greeting cards for bookmarks.) Your description of the pre-dawn time was so lovely.
What a great idea!! and i would love to have a signed bookmark! i’m a big library reader and i always want to put up a big sign that says DON’T FOLD THE PAGES OVER!! USE A BOOKMARK!! so thanks for your wonderful suggestion! mb
What a great idea!!! Being a bookmark junkie (I’ve printed out all of your freebies) I will pray to the Vanna gods that she picks me! A reader can never have too many bookmarks!!! A real reader who still reads real books that is.
I don’t want to wish the summer away, but September can’t get here fast enough. When I get my book and sit down to look through it, I’ll be imagining all the other girlfriends doing exactly the same thing! Hoping to win the bookmark, but I’ll be happy for whoever the lucky gal turns out to be!
I love your idea for the bookmarks. They look very festive and fun to use . I am hoping that you will be in Connecticut for a book signing sometime soon.
What a lovely (and thrifty) idea to use your painty squiggles as bookmarks. Can always use a colourful bookmark, especially from you Susan. That would be a treat. Have a wonderful day!
Looking forward to your next Willard!! Of course I could use a new bookmark.
I live in Sonoma County and hope you will be near by to sign my book. We recently visited Martha’s Vineyard and enjoyed our time there. Now I have a good idea about MV when you talk about it.
I love Sebastopol … we’ll try to get up there Jen!
Hello and Happy summer! I’m hoping I will this so I can tuck it in my book when
It arrives in the fall!!! I’m on vacation working off my I-phone. I hope this ismy lucky
time to win! You’ve been busy updating books on Goodreads.
:))) Ann
Can’t wait for the books to be ready:-) I’ll throw my wish in the hat for that precious bookmark! What fun it is to have something to wish for. My heart is full of anticipation and inspiration all because of you:-) Love!
Did my comment post?
Yes, I hope you’re coming to San Luis Obispo to visit us.
That is a no-brainer, big YES, to SLO!
Absolutely love these cards – what a great way to recycle!! I am so excited as we get closer to the book release – I can’t wait to get mine. And, a British Victoria and Teatime advertisement; then Yankee Magazine – my cup runneth over. Thank you dear Susan for brightening up my day! I recently lost my brother and reading your blog just makes the day better.
So very sorry Ruth for your recent loss. Sending love, xoxo.
Great idea! Hope to come to a signing with my mom in California.
Thank you, Susan, for adding my name to your lovely giveaway! Am very excited about your new book! Katalin