Good morning, Maine

We moved into our new house about 6 weeks ago. It's another colonial era farmhouse - built in the 1780's, expanded and converted over time into a rambling, Greek Revival mess of fun. So it's our new-old house, I suppose. 

We're beginning the renovation now, and more will come on that. Probably a lot more. Because this house may have been the template for the 1986 Tom Hanks home-reno romp, 'The Money Pit'.  

But in the morning, with the first real snowfall on the ground, it is lovely, isn't it? 

As a bonus, the house came with several sculptures on the grounds, legacy of the association of the previous owners with the University of Southern Maine's art department. 

This dress form is our favorite. 

Snow already. 

This may be a very long winter... 

I left out Texas. It wasn't an accident.

I occasionally get the time to sit down and doodle. Sometimes with purpose.

I think the last time I took art as a class was 6th grade, but I spent plenty of time doodling in the edges of my notebooks. Mostly, I still use pen & ink. 

In keeping with my resolution to try and give more handmade things, I thought a lot about what I could do for our anniversary.  In the 20 years we've been together (19 married), we've had the chance to travel a lot, and live in several parts of the world. We were recently talking about how silly the pheasants were that would run out in front of  cars on the little country lane we lived at the end of in England. 

That gave me an idea.  

I picked something representative of each of the places we've lived for long periods of time in our marriage. Georgia. California. Cheshire. New England.  

Dogwood. The Golden Gate Bridge. That silly pheasant. The windsor chairs we love.  

I'm not the most accomplished of artists, and these are fairly simple sketches. But each one of these has meaning, and represents a place that's a part of our story, and a part of the home that we've built. 

Plus, they look pretty good on the bathroom wall.