Susan Branch's Blog, page 27

First a Little Musica!

First a little MUSICA;

Now, because of our give-away, a little prayer for you …

And now a little kitty ~ Joe and I walked past this scene the other day and both of us said almost at the same time, “I want his life.”

Vanna would like his life too, but noooooo, she is about to be a very busy girl.  But really, I almost hate to do this post ~ I’m still luxuriating in the 4,500  BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL comments you’ve left in the last couple of posts!  I don’t want to paste over them! I don’t want them to disappear.  I want to keep them forever! THANK YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE.♥ You have made

V E R Y   H A P P Y

I have to show you what the people who send out WILLARD provided me with for the first time. You can’t see it all here, but it’s actually a map of the whole world. As each WILLARD is opened, those pins start dropping into different parts of the world ~ and when they do, a window opens for just a moment showing the name of the person who has just opened her Willard, and where she lives. It is so mesmerizing I could barely get anything else done.  I saw names of my friends come down!  I wanted to call them and say, “I know what you’re doing!” I watched and applauded while pins dropped into Paris, Jerusalem, Africa, Hawaii, China, Kansas, Romania, Japan, Portugal, Turkey, New York, Dallas and Toronto, to name a few,  and I felt like we had this great big giant wonderful club.  I just went to look and they’re still coming down, one was just opened in New Brunswick!

Welcome to all the New Girlfriends, so happy to have you here! I have to tell you, you are in such good company because . . . 

Yes, it’s true. You don’t run into this most places you go, but here, it’s a guarantee!  Oops, I hear Vanna upstairs milling about, getting ready to come down and pull names for our Giveaways.  I think she’s about ready to make her grand entrance.  But before she gets here, I just want to make sure you all got your WILLARD?

 If you didn’t, be sure to check your spam folders, sometimes WILLARD takes a detour!  You can also try signing up again and we’ll see what happens for the next one (which I am already plotting) . . . or, get a cup of tea, and take yourself here, to read Willard. ♥

And now, with a little drum roll please, the adorable Queen of the Deep Dive, the wild, the wonderful, the wiry Miss Vanna, this time carrying her little dog “Toto,” which, I think you’ll agree, looks exactly like a lamb. Both are shrouded in the undeniable mist of a Fairy Tale.  Toto, splendid in pink satin ribbon, and Vanna, wearing lizard-green bathing attire and silver glitter ankle boot stilettos. Which she has just kicked off, having handed Toto over to me. SO, the stage, she is set.  Are we ready????

We are so ready.

I just looked up from kissing Toto, and Vanna is GONE, has taken the high dive into the vat filled to the brim with your names, and all I can see now is a deep, whirling-dervish vortex, left behind from the celebrated scissor kick Vanna is famous for. I yell into the black churning whirlpool, “Pull three winners, Vanna, get them from all over, don’t let them be touching each other down there!” (She says she thinks I was born in a barn, but I’m just making sure we do this right.) I see her working her way back up through the ticker tape melee of names. I hear the music …and try to be patient. She’s coming! Her long, shapely lizard arm has just surfaced, and there are three names in her hand. I think we are there Girlfriends. 

OK, this is really it. For our first prize, the lucky winner of a personalized copy of my brand new book, THE FAIRY TALE GIRL, PLUS AUTUMN from the Heart of the Home, PLUS my new 2016 Wall-Calendar, and the adorable handmade Fairy Tale Banner . . . Is . . . close your eyes, cross your fingers, because I hope this is YOU . . .  R A E   L A N G E !!!  

. . . at least for one lucky girl, and yes, better for one than for none!  Means we all still have a chance!  Don’t you agree? YES!!!

Because there is 

The second-prize winner of a delicious evening at home ~ Dinner and a Movie ~ a personalized copy of AUTUMN from the HEART of the HOME, PLUS, the MOST adorable movie IN the world AS we know it TODAY . . . IS . . . . MAMIE VL, who promises to share with her mom!

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S    M A M I E ! !

If you aren’t Mamie, but would like to see this charming, funny, smart, feel-good movie anyway, Hobson’s Choice is available from AMAZON . . . you’ll want to watch it over and over, it’s definitely library material and the perfect item for a cozy fall evening.♥ 

AND STILL , THERE IS

. . .the ART BLOTTER, signed and totally messed up by yours truly in the quest of making art! Here you find terrible examples of penmanship, splotches of watercolor, a list of four-letter words rhyming with “told” to be used in a poem about Autumn, some trouble with my pen, and a fat, leggy purple bird created from a brush stroke.  The “lucky winner” has only a first name, so we’ll start with the letters in part of her email address which are: “BASBLEU” ~ is this you? And her name has two “n’s” in it . . . it’s you, DIANNE!

Hope you Enjoy it!  I know it’s going to a good home. ♥

I’ll be emailing all you lucky winners to ask for your addresses so I can send your prizes.  Prize number one will go out to RAE as soon as THE FAIRY TALE GIRL arrives.

If this was not your lucky day (at least in this one teensy respect which cannot possibly count in the scheme of things) never fear, for we shall strike again another day.  Until then, back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Love you ALL for being here and taking part, in my eyes, you’re a room full of winners.♥

So ~ I thought I’d tell you a little story to cheer you up and hopefully help most of you forget we even had a drawing!  It’s about the town of Barnstable across the water from us on Cape Cod  — I heard this on the local news a couple of days ago ~ it was funny so I wrote it down to tell you. Barnstable residents are trying to close down the sky-diving school at the Barnstable airport. They are unhappy because the newbie skydivers, experiencing their very first dives, are screaming profanities from the moment they leave the plane, all the way down, and the townspeople don’t like it.  I can definitely see both sides of this story. I wouldn’t like it either . . . and I would hate to hear what I would holler on my first sky dive.

Makes my hands clammy just to think of it. Luckily that will never happen in this lifetime so all are safe from me.

Next, fyi, I’ve been asked several times if we have the Prayer for a Little Home in a print, and yes, I’m happy to say, we do, and this is it . . . you can read about it HERE , just scroll down to the middle of the page and you’ll see it there . . . xoxo

Have I taken your mind off it yet?

Well, here’s a little show and tell: Remember these Legacy boxes I wrote about sometime back? (If not click on that link and you can read the story). Those are two of them above, I have branched out into four now.

You need to read the story, but I like to save little bits of ephemera, cute things I find along the way, all kinds of things, a champagne cork with the date on it, gift cards, a bottle of wax-covered ink, bookplates, bits of this and that that catch my eye and seem special.

There’s everything from postage stamps to seed packages and even a few vintage things I find in antique stores.  All wrapped in tissue and tucked away for the future. So someday someone will find them, like treasure. Gifts for unknown persons in the future. 

Well, I found something new to put in one of my boxes.  This is the outside of it . . . dated 1906, and written to someone (Miss Augusta Andersson) in Boston from someone in Babylon (if Google is correct) which is (says G.) in Iraq.

When you open the card, this is what you find inside.  They just don’t make ‘em like they used to! See the feet and the hand?  The sender wrote in spidery handwriting all around the face of the scary clown. A little bit of history.

He is missing one of his arms . . . but to think he has survived for 109 years!

I wanted you to see his feet.  So into the “legacy” box he goes.  For future discovery ~ for show and tell in the year 2115.

At the end of this week I send the manuscript for MARTHA’S VINEYARD, ISLE of DREAMS to my copy editor for the official spell check!  Musica I just finished figuring out the chapters.  It’s almost done.  Next, I start painting for it! I love it Girlfriends, I really do. You are going to love Martha’s Vineyard in the 1980s!

And I am having a dinner party on Thursday night!  So the cleaning has continued, only now with a vengeance. Just like starting over.

Everything had to come down and get washed!  Most of my dishes can go into the dishwasher, but things like the hand-painted glasses above, I wash by hand so I don’t loose the cute red stripes.

There is NO BETTER WAY to get your house clean than by inviting your friends to mull around in it for an entire evening! It’s a win-win!

So here’s the hutch, all washed and sparkling . . . v. proud of it. (My dad, aka Blogdaddy, took the doors off these cupboards for me the very first week we moved into this house, maybe even the very first day.)

And the whole time I was working the birds were going wild at the feeders outside my kitchen windows.  I call this our fish tank, because we can just watch these guys for hours!

My tomatoes are ripening, there are flowers from the garden in the vases . . . this is dawn, the porch light was on and I took the picture because liked the way it was illuminating the post outside.

I even made brownies, so you know things are getting back to normal! Now I am on my way to figure out the menu for our party!  Something I can make-ahead, I’ve already decided that much ~ I don’t want to miss a moment with our friends, feels like a long time since I’ve done this!

With l♥ve from me, and Vanna and Toto, and Joe and Jack and Girl Kitty too.  Thank you for EVERYTHING, Girlfriends.  You make life so much fun!  Have a wonderful day, and night, and so forth and so on forever and ever. XOXO

WILLARD EXCITEMENT in SMALLVILLE!

Welcome!  So much excitement here in Smallville!  If you just came from WILLARD, you are going to need another cup of tea and some more MUSICA!  (If you haven’t gotten your Willard yet, don’t worry, it will be going into your mailboxes from 9am eastern time Tuesday Aug 18, through Friday the 21st.) But you should know, our Giveaway has grown, now there are three! If you haven’t time to read the Blog just now, scroll to the bottom of this post where you can sign up for the drawing by clicking on the word “comments” and leaving a message. For the rest of you . . . I can only hope you agree that

I love this quote by one of my favorite authors.  Wonderful things ARE happening. I used this quote in my new book, and asked Kellee if she would make it into computer wallpaper for you . . . and she did! Click HERE ~ it should be up by now, along with some gorgeous new stationery . . . As you’re about to see, things are getting back to normal!  

You really know I have a little more time on my hands when you see this.↑ I’m finally giving my poor Beatrix Potter people a bath . . .

Filthy piglets, hadn’t bathed since Christmas! It was the very first thing I did to gain control over my house again after so many months in book writing mode.

Now they’re back in their places, all sparkling and happy, and the little vases are filled again and I am saying . . .

If I ever missed taking a closeup photo of a rose in the summer, then it just wouldn’t be summer, no matter what else I think I have to do!

There is nothing like roses from the garden, they look and smell like no other roses.

One of the first things Joe and I did when everything was turned into the printer was go to the nursery for these: ↓ Our garden needs help!  Better late than never!

We also decided to celebrate our newly-found freedom with a long leisurely lunch at the restaurant at the golf course ~ “leisurely” is difficult to find here in August, with the Island so packed with vacationers.  But we thought this place was a little bit out of the way so we’d have a chance.  Well, it didn’t work out quite as we expected because we accidentally went on the day that Presidents Obama and Clinton were both there playing golf!!!  We sure know how to pick ‘em!  So much for the quiet lunch.  There were dogs sniffing the FINE ROMANCE VAN, believe it or not, and we were wanded (that’s what the secret service called it) before we could go inside.  But after that, everything was normal until the two presidents became visible on the golf course, then the entire restaurant stampeded outside to watch and take pictures.  All except us, because we had seen them before.  Yeah, we’re so cool ~ it’s old hat to us!  But we did put our flag on the front of the house!  Afterwards we went to the nursery, also my first visit this summer . . . and no presidents were there!  Yay! We’re replanting around the poor neglected bird bath right now . . . Once again, it’s Domesticity City around this place and we are happy as clams.

Out go the fluffy, healthy, quickly reproducing weeds, making room for actual flowers.

We also stopped at the farm stand and got our first corn of the season, hot, buttered, salted and peppered, it just popped off the cob! DELICIOUS! I’m sure you’ve done this ~ now I know it’s really summer!

We went out at 7 am this morning and have been walking our walk through the woods out to the water every day. This is the place where Joe and I hash everything over . . . from the habits of cormorants, to the unknown idiot who figured out how to move the huge rocks protecting tern nests so he could park his car there, to what’s for dinner and future travel plans/dreams. And we stood at the water and said a prayer for the victims of the terrible fires out west, that they be showered with love from their families, friends, and communities.  My heart breaks when I see the ruin the flames are leaving behind.

We’re ooohing and ahhhing every night, and counting our blessings.

Coming home after a walk to the harbor to our little greeters . . .Jack’s looking at Girl who is waiting out of reach, on the kitchen table . . 

Then back out with the camera because the sky at night has been wonderful, filled with stars. I’m a big believer in ladybug magic and there was one in the bathroom last night. Insert five exclamation marks. Second floor, hot crickety summer night, brushing my teeth, and there she was.  A lucky omen.  Believe me, I look for them every day!

Jack thinks our starry night sky is wonderful too, because it seems like it’s dropping . . .

. . . yellow cat toys!

Joe’s birthday balloons were tied around a bouquet of giant sunflowers that Kellee and Sheri sent from the Studio and within 10 minutes of arrival, Jack’s scissor-like teeth had severed the ribbons and all balloons were floating free. 

Just the way Jack understands life to be. All about him. Which it is.

Yup.  He’s our guy. Aren’t they adorable?

Busiest cat I ever knew.  Floor water is no good anymore, he wants sink water.

Grass, he loves it.  I take him out and sit with him while grazes. He’s really not an outdoor cat at all, I never let him out alone, and he is so good, he never tries to get out the door. He likes me to sit next to him the whole time.

On Cat patrol, sitting on top of the ironing board in the pantry, watching out the screen door for any possible trespassing by anything, bunnies, turkeys, neighborhood cats.

He also watches me working . . .and I watch him watching me. Sometimes I can’t believe he’s real. I don’t get as many photos of Girl Kitty these days, but never doubt that she is still our Queen.  She just likes to keep her throne in the back of the closet most of the time, so she’s hard to get in action shots!

 But they both were with me the whole time I was wearing these pencils down to the nubbins, and now they watch curiously as I reorganize the studio. I’ve been cooking too, filling the fridge with August-type healthy goodies we love, ice cold Gazpacho and . . .

. . . my favorite Coleslaw Recipe ~ stuff to munch on. Look at that apple core in our compost pile!  Isn’t it beautiful? (If you click on the recipe you’ll also see us repainting the kitchen a couple of years ago . . . just scroll down for the Coleslaw recipe, I promise, it’s there).

Nature. Just wow. I realize we are finding wow in the compost pile, but I can’t help it.  I had to dig this guy out and take his picture. I almost put him on Ebay.

I can already feel fall coming and we hear it in the woods, we’ve even seen a couple of bright red leaves out there!  And what’s back to school without book things?  I know there were two Fairy Tale bookmarks in the Willard, but I thought, considering the time of year, some of you might want our wise old owl once more. Just click there, cut around him, and he is yours.♥

And now for the Giveaway(s) to celebrate my new book which I can barely believe is really finished! The first one I mentioned in the new Willard ~ it’s my 2016 Wall Calendar, plus my AUTUMN book, plus my new book, THE FAIRY TALE GIRL, and, for the cherry on the top . . .

 a fairy tale banner! I’ll sign the books ~ and it will all go out to the winner the minute THE FAIRY TALE GIRL gets here, which should be about three weeks at the latest. (But who’s counting?  Me, I am!) All you have to do to enter the drawing is scroll down to the bottom of this post and leave a message ~ just click on the tiny gray word under where I sign off that says, “comments” and leave a comment and that automatically enters you in the drawing. And the good part (or the bad part, depending on how you look at it) is that you have a lot better chance at winning this than you do the lottery!

Also, another surprise! Something else for my Girlfriends, Giveaway #2, because when I think of fall, I think of three things, delicious recipes, books, and old movies ~ and this Giveaway covers them all. My Autumn Book, filled with fall recipes, and a wonderful old movie called Hobson’s Choice. I think you will LOVE this movie! I have it, but I have to keep it, so I bought you a brand new one. It has everything going for it: It’s old, it’s English, and it’s pure charm. And it makes you feel good. What more could anyone ask for? 

And this strange item, for good measure, will be Giveaway Number Three. I was cleaning up my studio (WHAT a mess!) and came across this.  I saved it because I think at one time I was going to cut it up and make bookmarks out of it.  It’s one of the little bits of paper I use to test watercolors and my ink pen before I paint or write something for a book or a calendar.  As you may notice, my pen was giving me all sorts of trouble — I didn’t want it to blob onto the “good” paper, so I kept playing with it, making squiggles until it started behaving. Anyway, I thought one of you might like the results of the squiggles . . . the originalist of the originals, stream of consciousness without the consciousness, no rhyme nor reason for it ~ but I did sign and date it … it’s about 6 ½” by 9″ and would make a fun little piece of kitchen art for your fridge or bulletin board. And it does have fairy magic in it. And you can win it.

And that makes it three Giveaways on this blog today.  Leave a comment, and Vanna will draw three names in a few days and I HOPE SO MUCH that the name she draws is YOURS!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, I will be watching for the UPS man to bring me my first stack of The Fairy Tale Girl. I wait ever so patiently, but I am as excited as Christmas. 

With the new book and the new calendars, Kellee and Sheri have been shaking in their boots about the WILLARD and asking me to make a special request to remind you how tiny their four little hands are.  The phone has been ringing off the hook at the Studio about the calendars and they want me to tell you that they will try their hardest to get everything out as quickly as they can . . . if it takes a couple of extra days to get your things, you can blame it on the dratted calendars, but have faith, they’ll be there very soon. And so will your books!

And then soon, we might be doing this again, sailing out of New York harbor on the Queen Mary 2!!!  We are dreaming big time. Anything could happen between now and then, but we’re going to try.  We took all our travel books with us to our leisurely lunch at the golf course the other day ~  looking for cottages to rent, pouring over maps and plotting our possible course.  Figuring out whether we should go in the summer or in the fall . . . we’ve only ever been in the spring, so there will be new things to see. And we’ll bring the Blog along, so get ready Girlfriends!!!

And there she is ~ our beautiful in-house Queen joins me to say fare thee well for now.  Thank you for your support and friendship.♥ Joe thanks you, Jack thanks you, Girl Kitty thanks you, and . . . 

. . . I thank you . . . ♥  Have a wonderful day Girlfriends!  XOXO

Happy Monday!

HAPPY MONDAY GIRLFRIENDS!  MUSICA

Those are words from my new book, THE FAIRY TALE GIRL ~ I’m designing bookmarks for it now, I think I’ll put this on one of them . . . I am so excited . . . the book is at the printer ~ it won’t be long now!  I just received the color proofs . . . and thought you would like to see.

The printer sent these sample pages so I can check the color and the cut-lines and make sure everything is being printed inside the borders.  They looked pretty good to me!  They wouldn’t let me keep them, wah, I had to okay them and send them back!   Thank goodness for cameras or I might not believe it happened.

I had to paint fairies for the new book, here is one of them, I love her.  We have these tiny blue butterflies here on the Island that come for only a couple of weeks in the spring and float down the dirt road with us in the mornings, two or three at a time.  Like magic. So I modeled my fairies after them, except of course for the hands and feet!  ANYWAY, I just wanted to say . . .

I’m still trying to catch up and get life back to normal.  I just finished designing the covers for the 2017 calendars.  The manufacturer always needs those first, for their catalog.  I have to say, painting “2017” was shocking.  I had to go check, I couldn’t believe I had the right date, but I did!  So they are done, and right now, I am deep in the throes of writing a new WILLARD ~ I figured it was about time!  You have all been so patient.  I checked with the Twitter girls last night and everyone said they wanted a long one, so prepare yourself.  You might have to take the day off.  After that, believe it or not, I will have nothing on my plate.  N O T H I N G, I can empty my trash and it will stay empty!  How do you like the sound of that?  I’m pretty excited.  I even got the title for the cover of book two of this Fairy Tale painted:

That book is all written too, I’m way ahead of myself ~ I can work to finish it with art and photos more slowly and over time.  Right now, it’s time-out for fruits-of-labor enjoying! Already there’s more time for appreciating the little things that make life sweet, taking the camera out on our walk, having naps with old movies, eating lobsters, taking Jack out to the garden so he can munch the grass and I can admire things like this:

The island is frothing over with hydrangeas these days . . . this one is growing under our bird feeders.

We went out to dinner the other night and watched the sun set over the harbor . . . such a gorgeous evening. Now you know why I call it Isle of Dreams. 

Hard to believe you can sit right there and have all that just for the price of a glass of wine and a plate of deep fried oysters.  Wow. Right?

We went out for a walk after dinner last night, just as it was getting dark . . . middle of August and quiet, summer nights in our neighborhood, crickets cricketing.  You should hear what I hear right now, at 6 a.m. . . . . Not a sound from my studio window but birds singing, cool air flowing in and just the barest light in the blue sky beginning to show outside. My favorite time of day.♥

That’s what I’m doing! There’s one of my blessings drinking out of the sink!↓ ♥ 

It takes me about four days to write and design a WILLARD, then I send it to Kellee so she can work her magic on it, which means we plan to have it all ready to go by August 18th.  Once we push the “send button” it takes about three days for the whole thing to go, it has to be sent in batches (so we don’t destroy the Internets), so if you know anyone who would like to have a WILLARD, they’re free of course, and all you have to do is sign them up and boom, it will show up in their email box (if you don’t see yours, always check your spam folder because some computers might (rudely) block it).  And FYI, there will be a mighty fine Giveaway involved in this WILLARD ~ and all kinds of other surprises too. I’ve warned Vanna she might actually have to work when it comes out so she should plan for it! I’m a real tyrant with that girl.

Blog Daddy had so much fun with all your comments and best wishes for his birthday.  Thank you for letting him feel how special he is. ♥ You are a power for good. You can take pride in having totally MADE someone’s day. ‘Course you do that for me all the time!  So, there you go.  Spreading sunshine.♥ Love you ~ have a wonderful day!  XOXO 

BLOG DADDY’S BIRTHDAY CARD

Tomorrow is a big day, the day Blog Daddy turns 92 years young and this is his Birthday Card!  Happy Birthday Dad! Here’s some MUSICA just for you.♥

And here he was at the very beginning. John Patrick Stewart Jr.  Cutest little baby in the world. ♥ I love his outfit! Such a sturdy little sitter!

See those itchy fingers? He can’t wait to get out of that contraption and into the garage where all the good stuff is kept!  I can just imagine how blue those eyes were.

These photos are from a page in my dad’s baby book, and that’s his dad’s handwriting at the top where it says, “Our darling baby.” 

That’s Blog Daddy in Hawaii during the war . . . bottom row, second in from right side.  Looking like Frank Sinatra.  It’s still two years before he meets my mom. And I don’t get introduced to him until a couple of years after that.  

Fireworks for you dad!

Here he is with the first four of his eight children in the backyard of “Smallville” on his 32nd birthday.

I hope you have a wonderful day, Dad, wishing you the very best Birthday . . . and here’s one last little thing, something I know you’ll want to sing along with . . . MUSICA

Love you dearly Dad!  Wish I was with you . . . but see you soon! XOXO

It’s a Miracle!

Well, it’s a miracle, I still remember how to do this! Including even MUSICA!  I still got it!

I just wanted to say hello to you all, send a thousand kisses, and tell you how sorry I am for being away for so long.  But most especially I wanted to thank everyone who’s been sending me  positive messages via the blog and email. You will never know how much they’ve meant to me. They’re like verbal backbone strengtheners! And I’ve needed every one of them!

Especially on the days when the blank page just stares back at me.  If you wonder where I’ve been, I drew you a picture ⇑ . . . I’ve been doing this and this and this and this for all these weeks and months.  And I am so close now.  And when I get done, I will do my best to make up for lost time.  I know you wonder why I don’t just put up a little something to say hello, but it’s the concentration thing that I really need to write book, and almost everything breaks it.

Pay no attention to me . . . I have these little guys on my side now, one of them sits on my paintbrush just like in the picture below . . . and I’m almost done!  

It’s turning out so good, I want to set it free and let it fly all by itself and very soon, I’ll be able to do that.  I just underestimated how much time it would take.  But you know I couldn’t turn it in until I felt like I’d done my best on each page.  You scrapbookers know what I mean!  Also, I’m VERY boring these days, you would have been sick of me by now anyway because it’s all this, all the time.  I’m a broken record living in Groundhog Day.  Yes, you’ve heard this song before! But soon, I will get interesting again. There will be food and gardens and walks and ocean pictures, maybe even a train ride and a Willard! Lots more Jack and much more Girl Kitty, and maybe even a little Joe.

One of the big excitements this week was when I remembered my baby book and thought how cute the pages would look as end papers for the book.  That’s one of them up there.  With my baby hair still on it!  (What I ought to do is take that hair in and see if they can make a clone of me from my baby hair and have the clone finish The Fairy Tale Girl!)  Remembering those pages put me in a good mood for two full days!  On one of them my mom writes about my birthday and says I received squirrel slippers for a gift! She is going to LOVE this book!  BTW, she is healthy and happy and so is my dad!  I spoke to him this morning and he says, Hello Girlfriends!

And even though this is short, and just a hello and big thank you, I know you would maybe never forgive me if I didn’t include a photo of my sidekick who is always right here beside me, just like you, through thick and thin ~ Jack will also be glad when I’m done working, he’s ready for MUCH more playing.

But he still loves me.

And again, I promise I’ll be back soon.  Your generous words of encouragement, here and on Facebook and Twitter too ~ they’re what I’ve been leaning on to get through this. XOXO and see you soon! Back to work I go . . . I’m writing the words for the copyright page now!  P.S. don’t ever get me wrong, this is a labor of love. xoxo

Susan Branch Private Recipe-Box Stash Zucchini Nut Bread

Direct from my private recipe-box stash . . .

Delicious with tea, with breakfast, lunch, and of course, dinner; with an old movie, and after your walk.  And while the baby naps.

And here’s the rest of the story, where your kitchen starts to smell really good!

And when you pull this from the oven, remember me, a person with good handwriting and bad handwriting, but with a really good recipe for Zucchini Nut Bread, the luckiest girl because, besides this to-die-for recipe, she has a LOT of wonderful, poetic, expressive, heart-in-hand girlfriends, YOU.   Loving to learn, everyday, more and more, we are not alone!!!  Happy Baking!  Baby take a bow. ♥

New News!

Hello Darling people, I have new news for you, but  . . . first off, delicious MUSICA!♥  Every once in a while, everything starts to happen at once, and June seems to be the month, for more reasons than one . . . 

. . . the roses are finally blooming on the Island, something we wait for all year, making today a total red-letter day, despite the fact that we’ve been FREEZING here all week!  But, even the strawberries in our garden are ripe and juicy!

I love them because they come back every year all by themselves and I don’t have to do a thing!  Even after a winter like the one we just had.  And, in the vein of everything happening at once, some of the work I did over the winter is starting to come in . . . like this:

Oh yes, the 2016 wall and mini calendars have arrived at the Studio!  Kellee called to tell me a couple of days ago, and, because she wants to announce it to everyone on Facebook, she told me that if I want you to know first, I better hurry up!  Luckily we are three hours ahead of California, time-wise! Ha!

You’ve seen some of the artwork for this calendar already . . .

Laundry baskets and aprons!

And most important . . . Mr. Jack himself, complete with pony tail band.

Here’s the cheery April page . . .

But, I think this is my favorite page of all the calendars I’ve ever done . . . kitties and pink pumpkins!  Who could ask for anything more?  I want October to last all year!  (This photo is a little dark because it’s still not full light outside, but you get the idea.)

Jack gets the idea too. You want to photograph the calendar?  Here, let me help.  

Bo-bo baby.  My shadow.

FYI: The blotter calendar is still on the way, supposed to arrive at the end of the month.

And another surprise in the mode of everything happening at once . . . Remember these?  Our Secret Notes?  We have them again! These are tiny matchbook-size cards, in fact, the box IS a matchbox, the drawer slides open and inside are thirty-two, 1¾”x 2″ love-notes you can tuck into suitcases, lunches, cards and letters, jean pockets and under pillows.

And now, back to my regularly scheduled programming . . . checking diary reminders for the new book! My dining table has all my photo albums laid out, the book is coming together and more fun than I can tell you.

And Painting, painting, painting . . . And exciting news!  I’ve never tried for much publicity in my career, mostly everything so far has been through word of mouth, which I have always loved, because obviously, what’s better than something your best friend, or your mom or your sister tells you about? ♥ Nothing. But one of our Girlfriends wrote to tell me she has her own publicity agency, and guess what?  I hired her yesterday! I talked to her on the phone and she was a total kindred spirit who had read A FINE ROMANCE three times! So now we’ll see if she can figure out ways to tell new people The Fairy Tale Girl is about to exist!  I’m excited. I’ve never hired a publicist before.  It feels like I have a “team” — besides Joe and Jack and Girl Kitty!  And Kellee and Sheri and Alfredo ~ and YOU! Actually, I have a pretty wonderful team! ♥ But I’m working so hard on this book, I don’t want it to just go Bang, then disappear the next year.  I want people to find it.  So I’m putting my best effort into helping that happen. I’ll let you know how it goes . . . because it’s all new to me too!

Until then, don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers . . . I promise, I won’t forget either!  XOXO P.S. If you need a little laugh, Google “youtube baby lambs” ~ or watch THIS ONE. Too adorable for words! ♥ 

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER . . .

Hi Everyone!  Here I am, better late than never!  But first, yes, MUSICA. . .  “. . . Starts you asking a daisy, what to do, what to do . . .”

Well, shall we get right to it?  I think we should.  Because we have so many names to choose!  Vanna isn’t fooling around today; she’s wearing a chartreuse leotard diving outfit, she’s covered from head to toe.  (LOL)  On her it looks good (that LOL would be if I was wearing it).  There’s also a thin matching cape, of course, being the fashion icon that she is, a cape would  be de rigueur.  Plus her green bathing cap is covered with daisies and she’s barefooted with green polished toes. I love her.  She looks like a luna moth. So here we go, the very dramatic moment when the human moth dives high and makes the perfect  jack knife ~~~ which has JUST turned into a corkscrew before my very eyes (she’s wrapped in her CAPE ~~~) and she’s DOWN!  Scissor-kicking to the bottom!  Applause! Applause!  OK, give her a second, she has some gathering to do.  She’s never had to get ten names all at once before!!!  Aaaaa-nd!  Here We GO!  Thank you Miss V . . . Our Number One Winner IS ~ from Scotland!  Well, That narrows it down a bit doesn’t it Girlfriends?  Her name is PENNY!  Yay for you Penny!  #2 Winner is CAROLINE, of “Tuesday Tea” fame! Vanna keeps going back down, grabbing slips of paper, and handing them to me . . . Aaaa-nd, Our number Three Winner is . . . CARRIE, of Northwoods Scrapbook!  Oh LOOK! Our number Four Winner is also from across the sea, from the Netherlands!  Her name is JESSE! Hi Jesse!

 We are the world, we are the children . . .

This is so exciting!  Almost like traveling!  Our Number Five Winner is much closer to home ~ ALICE IN WISCONSIN~LAND!  YOU GO GIRL!  AND, WINNER Number SIX is DONNA BRADLEY!  Hooray for Donna!  Oh MY, I can barely catch my breath from watching Vanna work so hard! Winner Number Seven is . . .  SNAP!  From Twistylane! (That’s the name she gave, so I assume that’s her name :-)).  Only three more to go Girlfriends ~ fingers crossed one of them will be YOU.   Winner Number Eight is . . . a Farmer’s Daughter by the name of CHERYL!  Our winner Number NINE lives in a House in a Thicket and her name is KRISTI JALICS!  And . . . last but not least, get ready for our Lucky Number Ten.  Ohhh, It’s one of our darling Dawns! The one with margowski in her email address! Hooray for Dawn!    

Well, I sure do hope one of these lucky people was you, this is always the hardest part, because you are all so wonderful . . . But, I guess that’s it, Gir. . .

Wait a minute . . . that good-hearted Vanna! You might know she’d try to sneak in another name.  She just handed me a slip of paper with one more Girlfriend on it!

  Well, she went to all that trouble, I guess we can give away one more book! ♥ Let’s see, our very, VERY Lucky Number Eleven is probably out in her garden, it’s “MISS JEAN!”

All of you Lucky Winners will be receiving, hot off the press, signed copies of THE FAIRY TALE GIRL, the very moment they arrive, sometime toward the end of August.  Watch for an email from me tomorrow ~ I’ll write each of you so you can send me your mailing addresses so we’ll know where to send the books when the time comes!

And I should also add, because I read every one of your comments, WOW.  Plain and simple. I am so lucky because I have YOU on my “Go-Girl Team,” you are the best cheerleaders in the world!!! With the emphasis on the cheer! ♥ I love writing books for you! You warm the cockles of my heart.  Thank you so much for all of your kind words.  You’ll never know how much they mean to me. I feel like we’re in this together!

 So here’s another tiny clue in the unfolding of The Fairy Tale Girl:  Remember Diana in A FINE ROMANCE?  Remember how cute and funny she was over the phone?  Making me go on a date with Joe, telling me the bathrobes were like armor?  I don’t think you’ve ever really met her ~ so here she is, my dearest darling best friend, Diana . . . .Mas Musica

That’s her on the right, with short hair, which she NEVER has, her hair is always long ~ but it’s so cute!  I’m going to write her and tell her she’s on the blog today so she can see how cute she is.  She’s a big character in my new book.  One of the funnest funniest people I know.  I thought I should introduce you!  You’re going to love her.♥

So, one more little thing before I go . . . can you BELIEVE this weather we’re having now?  Wasn’t it just yesterday I posted this photo?

Remember the little red cardinal in the wisteria?

The house buried in the snow . . . the 14º days and the -10º nights?  Wasn’t that just yesterday?

Well, Baby, look at us now! The next time we see all that snow, it will be Downton Abbey time again!

But now, we’re watering the garden . . .

And, eating fresh juicy fruit salads . . .

Walking our dirt road through the trees to the water in the morning! My very favorite thing to do.

This wild thing growing out there, subject of Morning Science, same old answer, we don’t know.  We’ve seen “Sleepy Catch-Eye,” but we don’t think this is it.

Wild thing, you make my heart sing . . .

More wild things . . . these are Lady Slippers . . . related to Orchids.  Rather amazing that they sleep under the snow, just waiting for a little sun. Too much.

Here she is . . . on the endangered list because people collect them (not us, heaven forbid!) and they take a long time to grow.  We leave them right where they are. They are so dusty-rose colored, they are hard to see, we think they camouflage themselves on purpose, for protection.  (Morning Science in action.)

This, we can pick all we want!  Spirea.  My new favorite bush, great in vases.

It grows even bigger than this, and has red leaves in the fall!  How could we not love it!

 And this photo, just because.  My book has me reviewing so many years and times of my life, I’m reminded of this sunset on the beach with the boys, Blog Daddy and Joe.  The Fairy Tale Guys.  (I’m sure they would love to hear themselves called that!)  I know my dad will love seeing this.  Look at his skinny legs!  Ha ha ha ha ~ Oh, the power.  Love you all, thank you for everything, Happy Week! xoxo Moi.

Only Five Minutes More . . .

For starters, you need some . . . Frank!  MUSICA  Only Five Minutes more . . . or maybe we’ll take the whole weekend!

How are you?  Everything is good here . . . this music makes me so happy!  I’m still chugging away on the new book.  The first one goes to the printer on June 15 ~ we’ll see if I make it!  I’m still painting and adding photos and art to the pages. I decided yesterday it’s a very good sign that when I find the perfect quote for the perfect spot, I get tears in my eyes (sort of like I do at the end of a really good movie).  I can’t wait to show it to you!  ♥

But in the meantime, I thought we’d let our drawing for the giveaway go for a few more days . . . we have lots of books to give away!  I just want to make sure everyone’s had a chance to sign up.  So, if you haven’t, be sure to leave a comment, we’re giving away 10 of my new book, coming in August called THE FAIRY TALE GIRL ~ you can read all about it in the post just below this one.  By the way, did you catch it ~ on the edge of the new cover?  That the flowers are all missing a petal?  “He loves me, he loves me not . . .”  It’s a little clue.♥

In the meantime, I thought I’d share somemore Vineyard spring.  Birds are frolicking in our birdbath.  So fun to watch.  Only one out of three of those is real ~ the one surrounding himself in water drops.

 Joe’s favorite flower is in bloom, the Lily of the Valley . . . thank you again to Mrs. Bowditch, the woman who owned our house from 1949 to 1980 ~ she left such a treasure for us. Funny how you can get to know a person like I’ve gotten to know the Bowditches, from the things they’ve left behind.

I always have to bring in a little bouquet for the kitchen table . . . so we can bury our noses in them every so often.

Like little bells . . .

Yes, when I get a good subject, I take a zillion photos!

Today is the official start of summer here on the Island, no matter what the calendar says.  It’s Memorial Day Weekend, and literally overnight our town turns from a quiet little country outback into Vacation Central . . . people come from everywhere . . .

Boat after boat arrives . . .

We like it . . . it’s a wonderful change from the quiet winter.  Plus we know it isn’t a year-round thing, so it’s always fun to see them come, and it’s always nice to see them go!  The best of all worlds. We have a weekend guest of our own to welcome off the boat today! The guest room is ready with Lily of the Valley as a welcome greeting.

And this is the event that happens every year on the Friday before Memorial Day ~ today!  A wonderful old tradition called The Children’s Walk to the Sea ~ it’s been going on here since the 1870s.  The Vineyard Haven Grammar School is just up the street from our house, so we get a birds-eye view of the parade every year as it passes by our house.  Isn’t it adorable? First comes the kindergarteners, followed by the 1st grade, on up to the 8th graders, and all their teachers too.

And it comes complete with a marching band and George M. Cohan musica!

And, adorable children, carrying flags and bouquets of flowers.  They march through town, down to the water, where they throw their flowers into the sea in memory of those who have fought and died for our country.

Girl Kitty keeps an eye out for the kids!

And here’s our kitchen garden . . . Joe’s been raking and getting it ready while I’m inside “directing”  from my studio window! We’ll have strawberries soon if the catbirds leave us some! Time to plant tomatoes and lettuce and lemon thyme . . .

Our garden, though small, always makes us happy ~ it’s just enough to give us that “thank goodness it’s spring” feeling.  You can read more about it HERE:   Here are the basic elements that made it happen:

And look at this perky little goldfinch outside our kitchen window.  Hmm, he says, I taut I taw a puddy cat.

Oh yeah. No doubt about it.

Jackie keeps a watch.

So a little reminder for the holiday weekend, be spontaneous and keep it simple and have a WONDERFUL time.  Here’s a delicious potato salad recipe made with roasted potatoes you might like to try . . .

I’m going back to work in Fairy Tale Land ~  and guess what’s coming on TCM in about 10 minutes?  Pride and Prejudice!  The old one with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier!  Perfection!  So lucky!  Have a great day Girlfriends.  Don’t forget, if you haven’t signed up for the drawing, be sure to leave a comment . . . we’ll do it next week.  Let Vanna frolic for the weekend!  You too!  XOXO Bye for now!

YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD FOR FAIRY TALES

My dad says I should blame it all on Vanna. It’s her fault I’ve been away so long!  I love the way that sounds.  But first thing’s first . . . we need MUSICA to go with our Fairy Tale.

 Don’t be mad at us ~ we come bearing gifts . . . I’m sorry I’ve been away so long.  I hope I didn’t worry you, I missed you just as much as you missed me!  Everyone is happy and healthy around here and keeping out of trouble the best we can.  You can see we are surrounded with mini-miracles, Girl and Jack in the same photo!!  Yesterday! (Look at his cute folded paws!)

‘Course the whole world is a miracle now that the lilacs are in bloom . . . this is my view out the window from my art table.

Here’s up close and personal, a bee’s-eye view.

  Here’s the sky view, lilacs are everywhere on the Island right now ~ it smells wonderful outside!

  So here’s more of what’s been happening around here. Besides the fact that we have two new baby squirrels coming to the feeders ~ who won’t hold still for six seconds so I can take their picture, but they are adorable! The tiniest ears in the world.

Our tulips and daffodils bloomed, so perky after that cold winter. You have to call that a miracle!

And then there’s this . . . our ornamental pear tree.  I’m very big on spring flowers, I like the shock of it!  This does it for me!

We still have a few of these Angelique tulips in bloom . . .

My birthday was perfection, thank you all so much for your well wishes!  My dad and his wife Jeanie sent me this darling birdhouse!

And the dogwood did its part by blooming soon after . . .

Heres another photo of the dogwood . . .

When Joe was digging the hole to plant the dogwood, he found that little blue bottle in it.  I celebrate that little bottle all the time. Buried treasure! Kind of a fairy tale, don’t you think?

Here’s another picture of the pear . . . I can’t get enough of it. I could live there.

Here it is again, showing off with the weeping cherry and forsythia . . .

And more forsythia, not to be outdone . . .

When we bought this house in 1989, there was a wonderful magnolia in the garden that bloomed every year and made the perfect spring picture for all passers by. In fact, long before I bought this house, I used to drive past it in the spring, just to see all the wonderful flowering trees in bloom.  The woman who owned the house before me, Mrs. Bowditch, was a garden lover.

This was her tree, and the legacy she left for us.  But one day, this beautiful tree up and died, and I’ve mourned it ever since.  I know Mrs. Bowditch was looking down from heaven saying, “Susan, Put it back. It’s your job.”  It took three years to find the right kind here on the island to replace it with.  I wanted the exact same variety.  But they didn’t seem to carry it in our nurseries ~ only other varieties, with different flowers.  In addition, I find it hard to trust the name tags on the trees, I trust them more if there is a flower I can see.

There was exactly one flower on this one when we found it last year at Vineyard Gardens, but it looked like the right kind!!!  So excited, we took a chance and brought it home.

And prayed that it wasn’t some sort of trick. I waited for it to bloom this year, and we got lucky, because it was the right kind! It still has a way to go before it reaches the glory of the original tree, but I am so happy to have this view back! A pure pleasure. Happy Mother’s Day, Mrs. Bowditch.♥ Thank you for the inspiration!

And here we are in the way back . . . enjoying more . . .  

Oh yes, we’ve been celebrating by walking through the woods out to the pond and the ocean every day . . . 

The leaves are back!  We watch seagulls, terns, finches and osprey flit, dive and prey and we do “Morning Science” which always starts with the words, “I wonder why” . . .  Big breaths of this air soothes the winter soul. A blessing.

Speaking of blessings, here’s one of the things I missed ~ well, I missed sharing it with you ~ was Princess Charlotte’s Birth Day!  Weren’t you thrilled they had a girl?  How perfect! And isn’t Kate’s dress adorable?  

 William and Kate must wake up and pinch themselves every day!   Now Kate can shop for baby dresses!  Of course we non-royalty types celebrate in our own way, by drinking tea from our new Emma mugs!  Not a bad way to go!  Too cute! I hope everyone got one . . . Kellee announced their arrival on Facebook . . . I know they’ll sell out from Emma soon, if not already.  They always have a limited supply of these special event mugs which is the good news and the bad news!  

Another thing I missed with you was . . .

So, Happy Mother’s Day to all of my soul-nurturing Girlfriends.  The world wouldn’t be fit to live in without you!  You are kind of IT. ♥  I just saw a wonderful movie that I think would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift for you.  It’s not new, it came out in 2011, so it’s available on Netflix and all kinds of places, even on YouTube. I know you’ll love it.  It’s called The Well Digger’s Daughter.  It’s French, you have to read subtitles, but it’s easy to get used to and the cinematography is heaven with lovely views of the French countryside. I loved the musica too.  And the dad in this movie is wonderful too.  Also, the clothes on his five daughters!  It’s set just as WWI is beginning.  So happy Belated Mother’s Day dearest ones!♥   

So where have I been?  What is my pitiful excuse?  You aren’t buying the Vanna excuse?  I didn’t think so.

I’ve been doing this ↑.  I’ve been writing our book. I made you a promise to try to have it before Christmas do I decided to put my shoulder into it and make it actually happen. The Musica for today was a hint.  I’ve been playing it for inspiration and strength.   I think anyone who must march to a finish line would be helped by playing this music.

And this is where I am now.  Deep into my watercolors, making new art for our new book, which finally has a name.  You’ll be the first to know . . . ready?  I’m scared . . . OK, here we go . . . 

Here’s the first time I wrote it . . . trying it on for size . . . to be or not to be, that is was the question.

And I liked it! So here’s where I got serious.

And here’s where I started to mean business.

 And here’s where there’s no turning back.  Yesterday, Kellee posted THE FAIRY TALE GIRL in the web store for presale (everytime I type presale, my auto fix changes it to “resale” and now it’s changing autofix to “outfox.”  Stop helping me outfox!)

Anyway, this is the book I’ve been trying to write since about 2006 and would not have been happy in life if I didn’t. I had to, even though it’s a completely new thing for me and I had to practice by writing A FINE ROMANCE first.  Which was not only fun, but very helpful as far as learning is concerned.

THE FAIRY TALE GIRL began as just one book, but when I added the art and photos and recipes, it was too big, so I had to make it two books ~ The Fairy Tale Girl comes complete with a cliff hanger ~ so very soon we’ll also have the sequel called MARTHA’S VINEYARD, ISLE of DREAMS. And guess what else?  They are novels! Based on my diaries.

I know, but it’s true.  And this isn’t even all of them!  So, of course I’m scared to death!  But counting on the fact that

I’m plowing forward despite trepidation.  I think you will like it, it’s sort of like the blog only more and longer. For the next month, before it goes to print, I will be digging through old 

photographs like this one, laying out my pages in the book with them so you can see what I’m writing about ~ and painting the art so you can go on a little virtual journey with me back to the 1900s.  What do you think? A novel with pictures!

For those of you interested in preordering The Fairy Tale Girl, yours will be signed copies and shipped to you first before anyone else ~  as soon after August 15th as possible, on a first-come first-serve basis (because we really never know how many to print of these things). The actual “Publication Date,” when you should be able to find it in stores, is October. That’s so we have time to send books to reviewers.

And now, because I’ve been away so long, and because that was bad, I want to make it up to you by GIVING AWAY the first ten copies of THE FAIRY TALE GIRL to ten of YOU!  So leave a comment and we’ll have a drawing, and wear poor Vanna out with all the work to choose ten winners!  It’s good for her!  They’ll ship out the moment they arrive.  And BTW, if my Blog is delivered your email address, you need to come here to www.susanbranch.com in order to leave a comment ~ at the very bottom of this post, where you see a row of tiny words, look for “comment,” click there, and voila, leave a comment, and you’ll be entered.

for your support ~ love you Girls.♥  Everyday I’ve thought the same thing as I’ve been writing, “What would the Girlfriends like me to tell them about?”  This time it’s a fairy tale, complete with a Prince Charming, a bite of poison apple, and lessons learned!  We all have a bit of that fairy tale in us, right? ~ but I’m not telling anymore! Until maybe next time.  Previews are only fair. ♥

Have a wonderful day! XOXO