house wren studio

well, hello, 2018

Wishing you all a happy new year! 

I just updated my sidebar date and cannot believe this is year 12 for the blog! I'm going to try to be more playful and creative this year. But I think my word for the year will be Focus. Really. I want to be more attentive to the hours, to the days. It all goes by so fast.

And I would like to be more present here on the blog. 

With the cold weather, most of us are focused on warmth and comfort. I'm letting the holiday decorations linger because they do help with the deep darkness of Vermont in January. And this is the prettiest and freshest tree I've ever had. 

Snow falls as I write this. So happy to be tucked inside with stitching, tea and twinkling lights. 

Over the holidays, my children and grandbabies were here for a visit. What a great gift to have them filling the house with giggles, stories and activity.

And little adventures!

Wow, it was 5 degrees or something and Vince could not wait to get out into the snowy banks. We walked to the library which is right across the street. Perfect escape. Still, it was intense out there. His dad and I were ready to get right inside again, but Vince loved being out there in it. Yes, he asked if he could drive one of the junkyard lawnmowers. Don't think any of them have moved even an inch in years. First chance he gets, he will probably repair one and drive it off down the street!

Hoping you all are staying warm and keeping busy with all the things that make you happy to begin a new year. So many possibilities! 

That grand old poem called winter.

~ Henry David Thoreau

xoC
 

 

augustwren :: noodle and lou:: two summer weekends in Vermont

Summer is going to be colorful and fun in Vermont!

Meleen and I are hosting a painting workshop with August Wren over the weekend of June 21-24. Jennifer Orkin Lewis is the noted illustrator known as August Wren. Her work is in Anthropologie, Kate Spade and a number of books including those with Chronicle publications. She will teach technique and lessons in painting with gouache and share our getaway weekend with guests. Before I moved to Vermont, Jen and I were neighbors. Recently, I visited her studio where I had a chance to admire her beautiful work with sneak peeks for future projects. We are so excited to have her join us as a guest teacher!

Two weekends. Two Jennifers!

We have added a second weekend with Jenn McGlon of Noodle and Lou. A maker of darling art dolls, she is one of our most favorite teachers. We always have the best time with her and she is coming back the weekend of June 14-17!

With these bathing beauties! 

Join us and make your own whimsical art doll to paint and decorate! 

Both weekends take place at Meleen's two charming, vintage 1850 farmhouses that are side by side in southern Vermont. Meleen and her husband just built an event barn which is now our spacious and lovely classroom.

We spend most of our time at the houses, making art, playing in the dye pots, eating, laughing, catching up, getting to know each other. Lots of time on the covered porches or in front of the fire, weather depending. It's a beautiful time of year with summer just beginning to bloom in village gardens, farmers' fields and the Green mountains. We also look for local adventures and tag sales to scout out. Meleen and I have gotten to know so many artistic friends, artisan farmers, makers and growers nearby. 

 

Each weekend, I will be leading an afternoon of indigo dyeing. From our creations with various textiles, we will be making indigo-pieced zipbags for paintbrushes or sewing things.

 

 

 

 

Meleen and Kana, our friend and assistant, prepare all the home-cooked, locally grown food there at the house and it is amazing and delicious! There are several posts here on my blog about past retreats. (Use the sidebar link for Vermont Getaway.)

 

We have accommodations for single rooms at 1095, double occupancy rooms with twin beds at 950 pp and a loft room (wide stairs) with twin beds at 875 pp. All are shared bathrooms. All prices include class materials, meals, lodgings, goodie bags and art instruction for Thursday at 12:30 to Sunday at 11 am. Flights go in and out of Albany, NY, about an hour away. 

 

On IG you can follow us at #meleenandcharlottesvermontgetaway - and write to us with questions at fallvermontgetaway(at)gmail.com.

 

Registration opens on December 3 at 3pm EST. Send us an email to that address with your room preference if you would like to sign up for either weekend. Spaces are limited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

beautiful days together

Meleen, Kana and I hosted our weekend guests with so much excitement! Meleen and John's barn is up! I wish you could stand inside and smell the pine, feel the Vermont air and imagine all the good times to come. But first, this good time!

We made the most adorable art dolls with Jenn McGlon from noodle and lou! Jenn is an amazing and generous teacher and so much fun to be with. We love her!

Meleen and Kana whipped up delicious meals and treats to enjoy throughout. One magical evening we enjoyed dinner and a chat afterwards with Liz Putnam, the founder of the Student Conservation Association - the very first national service organization - and recipient of the Citizens Medal from President Obama. Her story is incredibly fascinating and inspired each of us to volunteer, to persevere and accept the small and large challenges we all encounter. Her greatest message is to get our children outside as much as possible so that they learn to love the world and nature. 

In the craft room and on the porches, we made pet portrait pillows with folk art adaptations of the critters we love.

We visited Studio Hill Farm and the darling family that is regenerating the land with a tradition of nourishing the earth without chemicals.

We laughed and shared our own stories, gifts, skills, friendships. 

Our friends, Lori and Julie, surprised us with a sweet project all kitted up and ready to make. Tiny travel suitcases to decoupage and fill! 

It was the loveliest weekend. Perfect weather. New adventures, new friends. Thank you everyone for all the happiness you brought to the event. It was just delightful. Wishing you all blue skies, buckets of love and a super sweet summer to come! xoxox 

Shoot us an email at fallvermontgetaway(at)gmail.com if you'd like to join us in September. The prettiest time of year in New England!

 

rainbows and redbuds

We're seeing spring in fits and spurts. Super warm, then blustery cold. But it is of course, very exciting and beautiful to see everything greening up. 

This is an inspired time of year. I know why folks clean house in spring. So many cobwebs. Open the windows, let the breezes blow them aside. (Or at least into the corner again.)

I've spent the winter playing with paint, but mostly making a big dent in the couch, stitching. Lately, it's stitching up these little cottages for my Etsy shop and doing some commissions. Fun matching my materials and vision to real houses. 

Working with the children at school in the art room stirs my creative spirit too. So inspired by the beauty of these big paper puffy birds the 4 year olds made. Loved watching them come together and now floating in the gallery space. (When I took out the box of feathers, poms poms and bottles of glue, the ta-da's took flight!)

They were easy to make. I cut out two bird shapes at once from newsprint. Stapled the edges all around and like a pillow, left an opening at the top or bottom. I stuffed them ever so lightly with crumpled paper. Doesn't take much to give it a form. Then I stapled it shut. The children painted them with tempera paints, careful not to oversoak the paper and let it break down. When they were dry, wing cut-outs (again from from folded newsprint) were painted and stapled to the top of the body. Tail feathers were literally torn strips of construction paper, bundled and stapled too. Decorate with feathers, pom poms or whatever you have handy. Suspend with clear thread. 

So, to the title of this post.

Last night there was a quick storm and then this amazing double rainbow appeared out the front door (first ever). Outside my window today, there is a pair of bluebirds making a home and nest in the birch tree. For a girl who never sees anything on that list of special things, seeing the bluebirds (first ever) and the rainbow is a big deal. 

The redbud.

My mom and I loved redbuds, loved the early flowering trees deep in the Missouri woods in the spring. The girls love them too because we planted one in our backyard in Chicago when they were little. They grew up together. After Mom passed, Maggie and James were gifted a tree of their choice to plant in the yard as a memorial to Mom. They chose a redbud. Redbuds are fussy. They like the forest and less so suburban yards, but this one is thriving. It burst into bloom a week or so ago. Maggie sent a photo with the caption, Grammy's here! 

It will be a year tomorrow. We miss her. So very much. 

Yeah, Mom! Ta-da! 

 

eastering and bunny lumps

It's a gorgeous spring day here. My art classes today were clay-based. We made pinch pots, trays with embedded figures, owls, boxes with lids, wild critters with donut eyes, and slab tiles with texture. It was so much fun to watch the children build.

I know that everyone has a lot to do to prepare for Easter, but if you are looking for a simple project, this is it. You could make these bunny lumps out of so many things. I used paper mache pulp but air dry clay would be fine too. All the directions are here in this former post. You could make toothpick flags with names for placecards. 

Wishing you a joyful celebration of spring this weekend. xoxoC

february loves

I had a chat with a new friend yesterday about social media and its place in our lives. There are so many platforms available now and it's increasingly easier to just point, click, post and move on. This blog was my first online home. Ten years ago! I used words mostly. I wasn't a photographer and words were my best tool. Over time, I sharpened my basic skills with photos and increasingly leaned toward images. I'm a visual person. Words are harder to come by, images are everywhere for the taking. 

That said, I miss writing words and the larger story. That's my new challenge. Write. Craft. Teach.

This has been a transitional time for me. I'm really happy in this new home and love the time I get to just be here. I'm inspired to make things, push furniture around, hang art on the walls, cook, bake, entertain old and new friends. After a long hiatus, I pulled out my wool stash and rug-hooking tools for the winter. There's that enormous rug in progress that I've been dragging around for years. Still have a long way to go, but I am working on it. Never knew where it would go, but I have a spot picked out now.

When I packed and moved the wool stash, I got the idea to use it for more projects. It will be incorporated into the spring retreat with Jen from Noodle and Lou (sold out) as pet portraits, but I'm also using it to make tiny houses in hoops to hang on the wall. Loving the use of small pieces of wool and embroidery. There are a few in my Etsy shop. 

But the biggest source of joy has been joining up with an arts organization and teaching art to children at the village school. They are so much fun! The excited buzz in the art room, the adventure of art-making without brakes or self consciousness. Wow. So inspiring!

{Next post is about the making of this fantastic Emperor Penguin.}

It's the season of valentines and home-made art. Remembering the valentine boxes we made in school long ago. That was my favorite part. Decorating that shoe box, watching classmates drop messages into the tiny opening. Looking forward to making valentines with the children at school this week. Who doesn't love a paper heart? Scissors? And a glue stick?

And a length of yarn?

Sending love to you and hoping you find moments of heartwarming joy to cheer the spirit. xoxoC

blue spring

 

For quite awhile it seems like everything here is blue now. But it's such a good time to be in love with that color. Go shopping for spring clothes, it's all blue. Open the dish cupboard for painting inspiration, it's blue (and white). Make a doll for Vince, the fabric basket is full of blue scraps. Look up at the neighbor's clothesline on Wednesday, it's blue jeans. (Thursday is whites.)

I've been trying to paint or make or design or draw every day. At the suggestion of a friend, I joined Daily Paintworks and have a gallery set up there. Everything is for sale, but no one really knows it yet. Now you do. We'll see. Not sure it's the right place for me. Also working on a fabric collection to share through Spoonflower. Having fun with that process though still sampling scale and color. The cool thing about Spoonflower is that you can print on demand. You could print my designs - or a million others including your own - on wallpaper or giftwrap or canvas. 

A peak spring day here. Flowering pinks, reds, yellows, lavenders, whites and unfurling greens everywhere. All of it under a vast and brilliant blue sky.

 

 

summertime

Maggie and I have been taking little Vince to the town pool now and then. It reminds me so much of the days when I did that with the girls in Chicago. The sounds of splashing, children calling, moms visiting with each other. The wet, hot pavement, warm towels, ice cream from the snack window, his skin so cool and soft just dried off, floppy summer hats. Such a sweet time to share with them.

He likes the water and I love to watch Maggie show him yet another new experience. So much love.

Can't believe how fast he's growing up! 

I have a new sampler called West End. (That's Vince in the upstairs window.) It's in my Etsy shop now. The roof was so much fun to stitch. Reminded me of the bargello needlepoints my mom used to make. And the colors are right from those dresses she wore in the 60's. Will forever adore those! Have to keep going and finish it up.

Thanks for all the interest in the giveaway. Congratulations to the winner - Ann Clawson! 

Happy summer, friends! It's flying by, isn't it?

spring in vermont and what's next

This has been a busy spring and summer for me. Our house sold, I downsized and moved after an enormous tag sale a few weeks ago. (!!!) But in the midst of that, my friend Meleen and I hosted back to back weekend art retreats in southern Vermont.

The first weekend, we welcomed our sweet friend, Rebecca Sower as the featured artist. Such an inspiration to all of us, Rebecca led a stitching sampler workshop which we all loved.

photo above by Jana Perenchio

Rebecca gifted each guest with a pretty handmade sewing kit, each one a unique collage of her fabric stash and stitching!

The big porch at the main house became an open air workshop and gallery of beautiful work.

One day of each weekend we experimented with indigo dyeing and shibori folding, wrapping and bindings. So much fun!

Early one morning each weekend, we made our way to Tammy's fiber farm where the baby goats were scampering around their mamas. Tammy and her daughters invited us inside for a wonderful demonstration of pie making. And her friend, Matt, a local woodworker talked to us about his handmade rolling pins from reclaimed woods.

Tammy and Char made a strawberry-rhubarb pie for us.

SJ showed us her method of fluting the edges of a crust.

 

Back at the houses, we enjoyed Meleen's home-cooking and spent the afternoons leisurely stitching and visiting. 

We built upcycled journals in the art room.

And lingered at the table or on the porch with delicious meals and goodies from the kitchens. One of the best parts of these weekends is seeing the great friendships kindled here. Every time! 

photos above by Jana Perenchio

With a little bit of a break in between, the next weekend brought new guests and that week's featured artist, Mary Engelbreit. 

Mary and I have been friends for 40 years and worked together creating the Home Companion books and then the magazine. It was a rare treat to listen to her talk about her process and then watch her color her pen and ink drawings, so loved as book, calendar and card illustrations. 

She even made darling coloring kits (each one an original drawing!) for everyone and shared her new coloring books too!

And as tradition has it now, there were Saturday tag sale adventures, fresh pies, eggs and scones from Tammy, syrup from our friend Greer, walks to town and many evenings on the porch or in the craft room as we all got to know each other.

Great big thanks to Meleen, Tammy and their local Vermont friends who sponsored the event (a post about that to come still), and to all the guests who came from all parts of the country.

It was a perfectly fantastic string of days making art and friendship in southern Vermont!

*** We are hosting two more art weekends this fall. The first (Sep 17-20) features Kaari Meng from French General. We will be working with her fabrics and stitch techniques. The following weekend (Sep 24-27), we have Jenn McGlon of Noodle and Lou coming to share her much-loved paint techniques with us.

Both weekends, I will be leading my shadow box workshop repurposing cigar boxes and trinkets.

Would you like to join us! Need more info? Click here for the post about our weekends last fall.

 

Write to us at fallvermontgetaway(at)gmail.com for information. We have a limited number of single 725., double 650. and loft 620. rooms available for each weekend. (All with shared baths.) That covers everything except your travel costs and personal expenses. Pretty great deal for 3 fun-filled days/nights in New England during the peak autumn season! 

Looking forward to hearing from you!  

xo Meleen and Charlotte

new home

I'm moved in. I can't really believe it's been a week.

Tonight was the first night I cooked here.

I have found places for things.

And things for places.

Made makeshift curtains that will probably stay the duration.

Made the bed as I always do.

Dropped my bag on the same table as before.

But it's all changed. New noises, light from different angles. 

I walked through my house and cherry-picked the things I cared most about. Not always the ones I thought I loved. Now it's the pieces I need for storage and utility. Then the little things that just asked to come with me. Kind of surprises me. Somehow it fits together. Perfectly.

Exciting and sweet. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement. 

Tomorrow morning, I'll update everyone on Vermont and the latest news for this session to come and the next in September. We have two guest artists scheduled for the fall. Come back and see. Very exciting and so honored to have these two join us. 

Next.