A Fanciful Twist

These Winter Days...

Hello friends!

I hope you are keeping warm and cozy on these winter days.

Winter in Arizona is exquisitely beautiful, with cool air and sunny skies.

Pink sunsets with snow on the mountain tops and dreaming of spring on the horizon.

The ground cover is green as can be and baking days ensue.

Doodling with tea and decorating for Valentine's day is just the thing.

Miles gave us a huge scare week before last.

He stopped eating much and took a huge turn for the worst, we all thought he was succumbing to his cancer.

In a moment of despair I whipped up some dog friendly cookies and he started eating them slowly.

We had previously tried everything we could think of that he loves, from rotisserie chicken to seared salmon, and he'd just spit it out.

After about 2 -3 days of eating a few cookies and some high end treats he slowly started to miraculously bounce back.

The vet increased his pain meds and told us we might have a couple weeks left at best.

But he truly has been more like himself, save for this soccer ball tumor he's carry around, and another smaller (grapefruit size) one hidden on his hip. But he's really doing so much better, acting more like himself and going outside to enjoy the weather.

He even jumped up on my country house bed again.

Yawwwwwwn.

Love seeing him out sniffing around his gardens.

We are truly just enjoying and living in the moment completely.

There are roses, if you can believe that.

Roses and naps, and fairy lights for good measure.

The winter sun is always filtered, beautiful.

I sit with my boy doodling away.

Taking breaks to go and see what I can see.

Lovely sunsets, golden hours and the delicate veins of the last faded bougainvillea petals.

Dancing in the winter light...

Giving us something to look forward to.

Green covered ground.

Fresh beautiful air.

Brothers together.

They are very independent of each other, but there are moments where you know they are close.

Like when the mail truck pulls up and Miles runs out and stops, waiting until Matty comes running down the driveway to take charge. He always looks back, searching for Matty to lead the way in so many things.

And so here we are...

Drinking in every morsel of time.

Living in the moment, minute by minute.

Just loving and living in these days.

I post lots of videos in stories on Instagram, the boys and their shenanigans.

I feel lucky to be awash in the feeling that nothing matters except these moments.

Drawing, hugging, baking, cuddling, repeat.

A little cold front is coming through the next couple of days.

We seem to always get a couple days of snow in February - let's see if this is that time.

Forced to cuddle up and draw and crochet and just be.

I love it.

<3 <3 <3

 

Wishing you all good things, 

 

Love, Vanessa

 

 

 

 

Free Printable Valentine Round-Up!

Hello there!

Valentine's Day is nearly upon us again.

Can you believe it?

Here we go with a round-up of all my free printables.

Make sure to follow the links associated with each style to get the printable version.

These are printable Valentine's I have made over the years.

They are free for personal use.

Click on the links that will take you to the printable files.

Then give them a minute or so to open.

 Here we go!

 

Love Birds, Elephants and Teacups ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

You can mix and match faves of different styles as well.

They are especially fun printed on card stock and cut out with scalloped scissors.

Silly kitty!

 Here is the printable PDF for the two above...

Cupcake and Kitty Valentine's 2015 PDF

 

 Print as many as you'd like.

Have a blast!!

Happy Valentine's day friends!!!

 (Please give the PDF's a little time to open, they are large files so that they print nicely)

 

Owlie Valentine ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

 

 Fun Fungi Valentine's ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

 

 

 

Sweet LOVE ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

Bake Sew Sweet ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

 

Love so Sweet ♥

Click here for printable PDF

 

I hope you will print some and enjoy.

They are fun, easy and bonus, free.

Scalloped scissors make them extra lovely me thinks.

Little gifts from me to you.

Enjoy!!

 

It's a little rainy today.

Spring is in the air.

I've been pruning roses like mad.

I just love Valentine's day.

As I've said before, I like to use it as an I love me day.

Then I do nice things for myself.

Like go to the bookstore, buy gobs of flowers I love, get a pedicure etc.

Sending lots of goodness your way!

 

Hope you are doing extra lovely!!

Love,

Vanessa

 

 

 

 

 

ps:  Make sure you give the pdf's a little while to open.  The files are high quality which makes them large, so you have to wait a minute or two for them to load :-)

Of Pencil and Petal

Hello helooooo!

Hi friends!

I am still in my drawing tunnel.

I am in the last crunch time of my illustration deadline, but I wanted to pop in and say heloooo!

How are you?

What's going on out there?

It finally got crrrrrazy Arizona hot here.

So hot that blooming roses get torched just as they try to bloom.

Poor things.

They are still so pretty though aren't they?

Here's a peek at some of my little faces.

I have stacks and stacks of illustrations and lots of scanning I am doing down.

The dinner plate dahlias are blooming and bobbing with their heavy weight.

The heat is making vines twist and twirl.

It's really happening.

Summer is just in time for itself.

I love the fluffers.

Coral pink goodness.

I wish I had photographed the roses below as they changed...

They start out bright canary yellow, then they turn neon orange.

Then all of a sudden they turn almost white with red edges.

And so many clusters too.

They were a gift so I have no idea what their name is, but they sure do go through lots of color changes.

Fun fun!

So, I best get back to work.

I brought some blooms in and am making tea.

I've been up the hills before 6 a.m. & tended my gardens.

Phhhew!

:-)

Time to work, wish me luck.

I am feeling like I might be beginning to fight a cold or something.

Noooooooo!

Haha!

I am not good at colds so I hope the massive amounts of vitamin C does the trick and I avoid the whole thing.

For now I am back to work and loving the poor fresh bloomed dried roses.

I still keep them because they are so lovely.

June is slipping right by isn't it?

My room is in disarray as a pipe in the kitchen wall burst and flooded my room on the other side.

Hello things under the bed floating around, aaaaack!

It's all dry now, and although it's still a bit torn up and walls are cut open, it's dry.

Today pipes will get cut open and on we'll go.

If nothing else my floor is sure clllllleeeean!

I've been through this before at the city house a few years ago.

The whole house had to be ripped open then, every single room.

Good thing that's not the case here in the country.

Knock on wood.

So, when I walked into my room yesterday and it looked like a room in the Titanic I just stared blankly.

Just looked at it, shrugged my shoulders and said, I best get some towels.

Hahaha!

That's the good part about getting older.

Things just don't throw you over the edge like they used to.

You just say, oh great.

And then you just go with the flow like Eeyore.

So, I guess that's good about being older and wiser etc.

 

It's still a beautiful day.

No biggie in the grand scheme of life at all.

It's shiny and hot out with lots of garden growing going on.

I hope your day is fabulous!!

Love, V

 

 

 

 

Of Hollyhock & Pencil

It's been a gorgeous spring, as the sun gets stronger and stronger.

Slowly petals droop and fall.

Another season is on the horizon in the desert.

Which includes mad tea party season, so it's exciting too.

I've been working on some drawings to share.

Some for fun, some for a freebie coming up.

I take lots of walks & runs through the garden everyday.

The little cottage sits in the back garden to the west.

So I loop around garden paths, enjoying the sights and sounds.

I planted nothing this year.

The annuals self seeded and the roses are just doing their thing.

It has been a huge luxury.

First year in 14 years that I am not working on something feverishly in the garden.

The wonderful news is that hollyhock season is fully here.

Such a lovely time.

And I'll tell you, I had to work to save all these babies.

You've heard about the gophers digging tunnels and deep caverns under all the hollyhocks.

Eating roots until they would just fall over, all over the garden.

Finally I fought back in the nicest way possible.

Just pushing the dirt back down around my plants and reinforcing them.

Hoping the gophers would get the idea and leave.

And, so far, they have.

Knock on wood.

Alas, they are attacking my plants somewhere else.

We have a true gopher epidemic, so it's just par for the course.

The good thing is, these are saved for now.

It's worth every tissue paper thin petal glowing in the sun.

Today I sat in the garden and watched the light dance through the hollyhocks.

There is a video at my instagram if you'd like to peek.

They grow taller and taller every minute.

While I draw...

In pencil and ink.

Getting some treats ready for you all.

Cozy as can be in my little cottage that hides in the garden.

Sweet little escape.

I'll wrap my drawings up, paint them and be back with some goodies very soon.

How are you out there in your neck of the woods?

 

Love, Vanessa

 

 

 

ps:  On Friday a little storm came in with cold rain and cool winds.

And then the most crazy thing happened.

Not crazy for cold states.

But crrrrazy for the desert.

It snowed on the mountain, at the end of April!

Yep, snow.

Crazy bizarre Arizona.

Don't worry, it was 82' the next day with full sun at my house, hahaha!

Probably still cold on the mountain though, as I spied a little snow lingering up there today.