My Beatrix Potter'ings At Carter's Cottage, Book Release, And Splendid Intentions

My dear friends,

Let us have some tea. I am going to make some scones from a receipt that I found. However, I intend on changing it up a bit. A few of the ingredients that I will properly use will be rose water, rose petals and the nut selected will be pistachio. I am naming the scone Merrymaid Scarlette Rose Tea Scones. If however, they are a splendid tasting scone I will add them to the menu when I get my very own tea room {MerryMaid Scarlette Rose's Bakery and Tea Cottage}.

I have nearly completed the manuscript for "The Tale of Sawyer Lamb." I shan't begin to tell you what life in writing this book has placed upon my soul. It has accommodated me a powerful sense of connection. As well as opening the airways to release the breath in my heart. It has been such diverting amusement. I hardly want to finish at all, it's been delicious writing.

I have also decided to launch the release of the book on Sawyer's birthday this year, June 8th 2020, so earmark your calendars, ladies. It shall be a party, indeed. I am going to bake all sorts of savoury recipes for the book party, cookies shaped in lambs, all of Sawyer's favourite confections and a few more surprises. I surely hope you'll purchase a book, as all the proceeds will go to "The Carter Settlement". It's my way of funding small groups/classes for youth to encourage the arts. Dreams do indeed come true. We shall have a splendid time. I am delirious!

Oh, and one more thing I wanted to say to each one of you that have swum to this blog and given me much support and love, I honestly and sincerely thank you. My blog has always been such a supportive environment because of you, ladies. I wake up each day and think, "What shall I show my dear friends today."

Truthfully this blog, along with my painting, has taken me to new places emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally. I am so appreciative of it, I can assure you, you are mostly to blame {smile}. So, again, from the bottom of my twee heart, I love you ever so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

In combination with the release of The Tale of Sawyer Lamb, I am going to have a giveaway. It will be a book, and small painters set with brushes. There is something extra special about the set too. For one, I am making it myself, it will look closely like Beatrix Potters actual paint box, and I am currently making my own set of colour palette paints that Beatrix used herself for her books. If that isn't the grandest idea, I faintly could not tell you of a more brilliant one. A one of a kind paint box!

How I came up with the idea is that as I was studying one of the archival writings in the England library, the thought came to me that when Beatrix painted she used a small limited colour palette in her books. They carry a light notion of allowing for negative space. Have you ever paid attention to her secret? She'd ink the main characters {with sepia ink only, never black}, because she said it was much too harsh} and barely inked the backgrounds. Just a dab of ink here and there. I also only use sepia for a softer approach. Look at Pigling Bland {below}, now look at the environment. If this is old news to you, I apologise, but I find it captivating to learn deeply about my heroes and their processes.      

"The place is changed now, and many familiar faces are gone, but the greatest change is myself. I was a child then, I had no idea what the world would be like. I wished to trust myself on the waters and the sea. Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths, and picked the old fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden."~Beatrix Potter

I musn't keep you, as I know there's much work to do. Farm life does not wait.

Have a lovely day and grandest of a weekend.

Most affably yours til my next swim, Raquelxxx