• daybook,  link love

    Bits and bobs…

    I am trying to remember to come over to the blog and post the recent ruminations from Instagram, as I know many are leaving the service. (I myself left Facebook, yet again, last week.) I don’t think I really have a grasp on how I want to use social media anymore. I know parts of it just leave me feeling absolutely awful. I have been trying to be more intentional in whatever I post, returning to the things that really brought me joy waaaay back when in blogging dinosaur time, which means books, beautiful things, thoughtful words, and art.

    The above quote, which I illustrated last week, really hit home that week. I had been wrestling with a ton of miscommunication and unkindness directed my way, and I needed to unpack it and let it go. It has ever struck me, when it comes to forgiveness, that is a life long journey. Christ was quite serious when He said “seventy times seven”- there have been incidences and people in my life that I very much thought I had healed from and had forgiven, and then something twinges, pain in the wound, and I find myself having to work through the process again, and again, and again.

    As to the recent reads, I’ll just copy my Instagram post here. I do very much feel a deep post coming on about disability. I think I’ve been dancing around it for a long time, and I think I’m going to work on it privately and then bring what’s fruitful here to the blog.

    From Insta:

    A small library stack this week. I just finished Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig (@sitting_pretty ) yesterday and tucked my thoughts into Stories. I saved it as a Highlight under Disability. I feel a blog post marinating in my brain lately. There’s stuff that I’ve been wrestling with ever since my first child got diagnosed with a life-long disease, (and then, and then!) and it’s only recently that I’ve begun to understand why it was so difficult to begin with and why there has been so much wrestling. When I read writers who are disabled or are exploring disability, there’s been a lot of “you too?!” moments that have granted a lot of clarity. Anyways, far too much for a little IG caption to explore.

    I haven’t started the Austen Years by Rachel Cohen, but I think it’s going to be good. Part of the fly leaf blurb reads “Through Austen’s works, she reckoned with difficult questions about mourning, memorializing, living in a household, attending to the world, reading, writing, and imagining.” Definitely something I can relate to at the moment.

    We tend to use the summer to test run new recipes for the family to tuck into the routines for the school year, and so far we haven’t hit a bad one from Instant Family Meals. There’s one for Italian Wedding Soup that is blissfully easy and oh so good.

    Around the web:

    I have really been enjoying Rebecca Green’s monthly newsletters, and her last two are just chock full of good stuff for creatives and artists. Check them out here and here. I’ve also been greatly enjoying Aimee Kollmansberger’s substack, Homely. Just quiet little notes each day about what’s on her heart: home keeping, homeschooling, rhythms, routines, what she’s learning. They are just little balm bouquets every day and they’ve been really encouraging and inspiring to me.

  • link love

    Wordfull Wednesday, Insta Edition

    Life has been pretty on-the-go the last few days. How does August always manage to do that? I miss doing Wordfull Wednesday posts, but I’ve got some lovelies to share from Instagram instead. Go check out these wonderful artists and accounts!

    A post shared by brandi (@brandi_kincaid) on

    A post shared by brandi (@brandi_kincaid) on

  • link love,  WIP Fridays

    Art Friday: Coming Soon!

    plumfieldlaunch

    I’ve been receiving a lot of questions, and I am excited and a bit scared to announce that I will be selling prints of some of my recent artwork. The Plumfield Collection will launch next Friday, October 15th, and there will be a fun giveaway next week, so stay tuned!

    I am so pleased with this collection. Sketching and painting these brought me such happiness and peace, and I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I did making them. As I am working to prepare these for print, I am filled with wonder. I had no idea that these were all tucked away in my soul, waiting for a ray of sunshine. The path to this launch may seem very straightforward to the rest of you, but to me, I would not have imagined that I would be offering this. I had no idea! I am as pleased and excited as you are. The name, of course, is pulled from the delightful Little Men, which we were listening to on audio book during many of my painting sessions. It just seemed fitting to name the collection so. I think Aunt Jo would enjoy these small offerings.

    Speaking of wonder, Kort has a wonderful series going this month called The Wonder Project. I was so inspired by her fall leaf mandala the other day that I think I want to try something similar in paint, soon!

  • link love,  WIP Fridays

    Art Friday: The Sketchbook

    katieflowerssketch katieflowers prayergirl poppyrough

    Works in progress from the sketchbook this week. I’ve been on quite a wildflower bender lately. Some I have been sketching, then painting. Some are left as sketches. I have a feeling some of these are going to get some mixed media work, maybe some stitching. There is a prayer girl of Emily Croft’s that has been haunting me (in a good way) and that page of the sketchbook is going a completely different direction. Right now I am literally in the wildly wonderful and woolly position of having so many ideas and things I want to do that I can’t quite paint fast enough. Needless to say, I am not complaining.

    Sometimes you write something more for yourself than anything else, and then this lovely thing happens where somebody else says, me too. Those are the writing moments I live for, and what Amy had to say in response to my post last Friday was just such a moment.

    “Creating something is an act of hope. It means you are imagining a future where the thing you create will still be looked at or used or read, that it might inspire someone else. “- Amy Sorensen

    John’s Take, Strike, and Speak has been the poem tucked into my pocket the last few days.  It’s such a hard lesson to learn, this. And he reminds me.

  • link love,  WIP Fridays

    One thing leads to another…

    starryskyprogress

    It appears I’m struck by all things celestial these days. After finishing the stars, I immediately knew what the next layer of the canvas was. I was painting this while catching up on Doctor Who, so I’m pretty sure the TARDIS had something to say about the color. Don’t get me started on this season. BLEH. Thank goodness there are nearly fifty years of re-runs to enjoy. I have no idea where this canvas is going- I never do. It’s the journey to the finished project that I’m interested in.

    It was definitely inspired by Annie’s sky that she shared on Instagram a few weeks back, but it seems I’ve been collecting a lot celestial inspirations, period. Something about light in the darkness has become quite a theme for me.

    Two other artist crushes these days:

    Heather Slightholm (Audrey Eclectic)

    audreyeclectic

    Jeanne Oliver

    jeanneoliver