10 Happy Things: The Floral Edition
Painted flowers, embroidered flowers, flower sculptures, and more.
It’s spring! Flowers are busting out all over the place here in Asheville. I guess we’ll be driving back through winter later this week when we head for Oregon. That means I’ll get two springs this year! Bonus!
This week is an example of one of the newer newsletter types I’ll be sending out - a list of 10 Happy Things. 🙂
The Behind the Scenes and PS are always the most popular bits of my newsletter. (Those are where I link to books, recipes, television shows, other artists - all the things I find inspiring.) They’re the links that get the most clicks, and they’re the one thing almost everyone asked me to be sure to keep when I talked about reimagining my newsletter a bit at the beginning of the year.
I’m not just keeping them - I’m expanding them to this! An occasional whole newsletter that’s nothing but inspiring links.
So this week I bring you. . . 10 Happy Things: The Floral Edition.
Spring is all about fresh starts, so the first thing I thought of was this fun embroidery + felt applique pattern from Betz White. If the flowers aren’t blooming yet where you are, you can make them yourself!
A beautiful message and a lovely explosion of flowers from Snippets of Whimsy. Her work always makes me smile. 😊
If you’re interested in drawing flowers, I highly recommend 100 Flower Doodles - an e-book from Stephanie Fizer Coleman. She goes through 15 different flower families, showing you several different ways to draw those flowers - all broken down in a really easy doodle style. Working my way through this is the treat I’ve promised myself for the move - low-pressure drawing I can do in in the hotel rooms during the drive - and in our new place while we wait for our furniture to arrive.
I ADORE the way Rebecca Jane Woolbright draws flowers! They’re so clean and fresh and modern - and I love her color palettes. These, these and these are particular favorites. Follow her on Instagram here, and she has a shop here. I especially love her pretty washi tape.
Polina Oshu’s sketchbooks are an explosion of color! She does terrific videos where she pages through a finished sketchbook (here, here, and here) and also shows work in progress (here, here, and here). Her Instagram feed is always inspiring. Literally. She makes me want to buy a set of Posca markers and a tiny notebook. 🥰 She also does beautiful embroidery!
Want to see some gorgeous paper flowers? (You will not believe they’re made of paper.) Check out Ann Wood! I think I shared her mushrooms recently - but her flowers are also AMAZING. I follow her on Instagram and her posts always stop me in my tracks.
Is embroidery more your thing? Anne Oliver of Lolli & Grace has GORGEOUS floral embroidery patterns (like this, and this and this) - and an Instagram feed that’s full of color and joy.
Check out this gorgeous embroidered book cover! Not an image of embroidery printed on the cover. It’s someone embroidering an actual book cover. I love it!
I loved this post from Elin Petronella - Why Bother about Creativity? She opens with an image of beautiful (simple shapes - stunning color) floral embroidery around the front pocket of a pair of jeans and asks, “Why embroider on your clothes when you can buy it ready (for cheaper!) in the store?” It’s a great read! (And a reminder that I need to embroider on more of my clothes!)
I wish everyone’s homes looked like this. Wouldn’t that be amazing? (I think I’m going to paint flowers on every interior door in my new house - the closest I can get to this vibe right now.)
If you know someone who’d like to read this, please share! 🥰
Have a fabulous week! I hope you see (or make!) some beautiful flowers!
Best,
Wendi
PS - You can find all my flower designs (quilt patterns, embroidery patterns, printables, crochet patterns, etc.) here.
