A Sweet Saturday

This past weekend was full of pleasant surprises. I received a couple of orders on Saturday morning which is always nice. One was particularly touching: an order from someone in Europe to be sent to Manitoba, my birth province, for her mother's birthday. It feels special when customers share the reasons behind their purchases. It makes things feel personal. She asked me to write in a card for her. I actually had the shivers when I read the order. Maybe that sounds strange, but it feels like a privilege to have my art chosen as a gift for a family member, especially someone who lives so far away.

I also had a customer contact me about the possibility of doing her wedding invitations. Her favourite flower is the iris. I was able to tell her that I had a couple of completed iris paintings in my painting drawer. We're just in the initial stages of talking but the fact that she contacted me saying that she loved my work and thought of me for her invitations is really lovely. It made my day.

I've always loved irises and can't wait to see mine bloom in my garden again. Well actually, I can't wait to see anything bloom in my garden at this point! Yes, that iris photo at the top was taken against a backdrop of  snow. I think the snow might melt this week, but I really don't want to hope too much.

On Saturday morning, I opened a parcel that had arrived the day before. I purchased two fabric pouches from Sonia. She mailed them from France on Tuesday. I received them here in Canada on Friday. The postal elves were working extra fast last week! The pouches are so beautiful. I am going to use them in my studio. I've put a jar in the base of one of them and am using it to store paintbrushes.

On Saturday afternoon, I worked on some exercises for a watercolour lettering course I'm taking. It was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. The course lasts for ten weeks and I'm sure that I am going to benefit in all sorts of ways. I incorporate text in my paintings sometimes and I just want to feel more confident about it. One of the exercises was to choose one letter of the alphabet and to do as many variations as you could think of within pebble shapes. When Emma saw the photo of my 't' exercise, she said "You did that? I thought it was Geninne's work." (She hadn't seen me working on it.) Do you think she could have given me a nicer compliment? :) Without a doubt, this course is going to be good for me.

This morning, I took some time to write a 'to do' list. I had so many things swirling in my head that I thought it would reduce some brain congestion to have them down on paper. It kind of worked. I can't quite believe that we are at the end of March. Both this week and next week are short because of the holiday weekend. March felt short already because of the girls' school breaks. I have so many new prints that I want to introduce to my shop; I have new paintings to paint, I'm thinking of creating my own website...do you see what I mean? So many thoughts swirling.