Ink on my fingers

Getting into the spirit

It was so much fun doing the giveaway on Karen's blog and seeing what her readers picked as their favourite prints. Next year I'm going to start selling prints and cards in bricks 'n' mortar shops locally and also in some new places online, so it's been really helpful to know what's popular. The picture above got the most votes, so as a thank you for all your kind words and support this year, i'm giving away an 8"x 8" print of Summer's Light. Just leave a comment on this post and i'll draw the name of the winner on Monday.

I was queuing in the post office for half an hour the other day, and with the Christmas post the way it is, the print definitely won't arrive until after the holidays, but there will be a bit of love on its way from Bath to wherever you are, ready for the new year...

Edited to add: does anyone have any experience of making a podcast? I want to create a few for the e-course (email coming about that before the year's end - provisional start date is Feb 2nd) but am not sure where to begin... thanks!

Oh so quiet

The music that has been making my ears happy this week:

Winter Song  ~ Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

Leave This Town  ~ Butcher the Bar

Songs of the Morning  ~ Late Night Alumni

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The little things*

Joy dove bowl, $24 by Paloma's Nest

Jeane, a Sleep Angel, $16.50 by La Pomme

Letterpress-printed card, $4 from Bread & Butter

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*There's an interview with me over on Chookooloonks today, with a print giveaway and also a 20% discount code for use in my Etsy store  :)

Understanding eternity

People Who Live

People who live by the sea

understand eternity.

They copy the curves of the waves,

their hearts beat with the tides,

& the saltiness of their blood

corresponds with the sea.

They know that the house of the flesh

is only a sandcastle

built on the shore,

that skin breaks

under the waves

like sand under the soles

of the first walker on the beach

when the tide recedes.

Each of us walks there once,

watching the bubbles

rise up through the sand

like ascending souls,

tracing the line of foam,

drawing our index fingers

along the horizon

pointing home.

~ Erica Jong, from Becoming Light

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The ones we love

There's nothing better on a Saturday afternoon than copious mugs of coffee, new music on iTunes and a few hours tinkering with your blog template :)

Be inspired by The Ones We Love

100 Etsy artists you might want to visit

Redecorate your desktop with a little something from here, with work from artists including Jen Causey and Tara Hogan

Easy homemade gift ideas for people like me who aren't very crafty here and here

This blog made me chuckle

and I'm loving this album so much.

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Photographers I admire #2

I find KayLynn Deveney's work incredibly inspiring. Her project-turned-book, The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings, embodies exactly what it is I try to capture in my own photographs: the quiet moments and nuggets of beauty found in the most ordinary places. Deveney is primarily a documentary photographer and she befriended Albert when she was studying for her MA in Wales. Viewed all together in the book, her photographs create a very tender portrait of a man living out his retirement very quietly and thoughtfully, for whom the littlest things bring pleasure and comfort. You can read an interview with Deveney here.

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There's a chill in the air

For December Views

Silent blue

For December Views

I wish I could draw

1. Untitled, 2. Mexicola, 3. bluered2, 4. fire branches

'Imagine a world where love is everywhere, where YES is the conscious answer. That world exists inside us now. It is our love for ourselves and the world that leads us to have creative dreams. Love can be strengthened, leaned on, employed and deployed. Love is the sturdy initiator. Our creative dreams are fueled and fanned by love.' ~ SARK, from Make Your Creative Dreams Real

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Unravelling 2.0

For anyone who is local to me, and might be interested, the new Bristol Folk House programme is out and includes two courses I will be running in the spring term. After the success of the first trial run, Unravelling: Ways of Seeing My Self will now be a ten-week course, starting Tuesday 13th January; I'll also  be holding a one-day workshop entitled Creative Blogging on Saturday 28h February. Obviously if you're reading this you've probably already got a blog :) but this is for those people who like the idea of blogging but don't know where to begin. There's more information about both courses here.

Once the holiday season is out of the way I'll be putting together my Unravelling e-course - thank you to everyone who's expressed an interest. As soon as I have some more inforation I'll send out an email (and if you'd like to be on the mailing list, please do drop me a note: susannah [at] unravelling.co.uk)

Okay, back to the silence of December. I'm finding the ritual of daily inspirational postings to be very calming and peaceful - just what i needed.