Birthday and Christmas, rolled into one!

I love it when I hear the postman stopping at the mailbox at the end of our drive.

It means there’s something there. Mostly, of course, it’s bills, or junk mail, or for the Husband. More recently, though, it’s been for ME!  Here’s what came this morning.

The kind and incredibly talented Cath from Wombat Quilts has send me the most beautiful cushion cover, done in gorgeous Essex linen and Liberty prints. I saw it when she posted it on her blog, here, and fell deeply in love with it. And now it’s MINE! She has also sent a generous pile of indigo and red scraps and larger pieces for Worldwide Friends, which is just what I need to give a bit of pizzazz to the top strip of the front. Cath really has the most enviable stash, and I’m very, very grateful to be the beneficiary of it!

The other bit of glory I received was this, an exquisite little sketchbook from Anne Lawson, a Melbourne-based artist who specialises in botanical illustration. Her feather illustrations are also remarkable, and I’ve acquired a couple of them! The sketchbook is made up of odds and ends from her own sketchbooks, with scribbled notes, sketches and little nature studies on many of the pieces. I’m greatly looking forward to trying to do justice to it with some calligraphy and maybe some sketches of my own.

Do go over to her blog and take a look at her beautiful work – she has an Etsy shop as well, which is well worth browsing in for more of her wonderful detailed and delicate drawings and paintings.

Please remember that the works depicted in these images are © Anne Lawson and you should contact her for permission to copy, Pin or use them in any way.

Surrounded by all this loveliness, I’m once again feeling excited and motivated to carry on. I’ll have a Worldwide Friends post ready soon.