It’s been a wonderfully busy start to this year … it’s zipping by!

house of appleton is delighted to announce three new chapbooks, from the “Three M’s”

Marlene Dean, MJ Burrows and Mary Ann Moore have done it again, encouraged one another to put together a chapbook, and house of appleton is so thrilled to get to publish them. 

The offical launch is April 27th, at Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo with special guest,
Neil Surkan, Nanaimo’s Poet Laureate. 

If you can’t make it but would love to have one or more of these lovely books for your own collection,
you can order it HERE

Working with these three poets is a joy. Each of them brought their “A” game to their new books. Each book as individual as the writer.

Marlene Dean was inspired by drawings her sister-in-law Christine had done over the years. Simple line drawings of animals, each with a distinct personality. Menagerie is filled with Marlene’s observations of animals she has encountered, or mused about, or read about in the news. The result is a rich, funny and poignant read.

MJ Burrows pays tribute to her mother Evelyn, who passed away in 2023. Through memory, grief and old cookbooks, MJ let the reader get to know her exceptional mother.  With a bit of a twist, The Things You Left Behind blends poetry with images, which gives the reader such a full and connected experience.

Mary Ann Moore’s modern words for beauty honours being a poet and some of the poets who have inspired her. She looks back to see where her poet was born. “The Creator thought; We’ll make her an only child, place her in her grandpartents’ care, give her time on her own to become a “poet,”  from Goddess of the Mountains.

Each of these chapbooks are a wonderful reminder of why we need to share our life experiences with one another, because they are rich and funny and they connect us so beautifully to one another.

I am so very grateful to work with such amazing women, it is an honour!

71 noted days to celebrate life!

YES! the 2025 Calendar is printed and ready to roll. This one was fun in a lot of ways. I have worked in some new “days” to celebrate, based on my own ideas … so these are not generally known in the bigger world. Only those who get the calendar will be able to celebrate things like: “Trust Your Inner Wisdom” day, or “Creativity Unlimited” day. And of course, you don’t want to miss “Brilliant Intuition” day.

All in all, this is a beautiful, inspiring and very useful calendar to keep you on track for the whole year!

You can order it HERE

THE LATEST FROM THE STUDIO … three things are coming together …

Over the summer, while I was taking time to ponder, play and experiment with my creative work, I discovered a couple of things that really intrigued me. Mosaics (on paper), and Mono Printing.

I am now playing with how to combine those two things with my mandala work. Here are a couple of things that have come about so far.

From the quiet and slowness of summer to the busyness and “get-to-it” of September!

Here we are, steaming toward the last quarter of the year, and all the things that it brings.

I am enjoying the shift that happened for me over the summer, I feel much more open to new directions in my creative life.

I am making more time for play and experimenting, and sometimes the surprises are so delightful, other times things just look like mush. That’s okay, I am rolling with it all.

It is in the first while of trying something new that you think you will never get it. I watch lots of videos on technique, and then I go into the studio and do it my way, based on that knowledge.

This is the best of the creative life, I have to say. Seeing where you mind takes you. Playing. Exploring! I highly recommend being lousy at something for awhile, but sticking to it until you start to see the shift. I just keep showing up. 

Wishing you oodles of creative energy and play.

in case anyone wants to have a new desktop image … this is my gift to you!

Oh dear, I really have become a sporatic blogger, haven’t I?

Yes, months of busyness and then of a sudden slowdown. Being in yet another stretch of change … or between where I am and where I might end up. 
This is the life of a creative being. And then there’s summer! Or as I have referred to it in the past,
Chaos Season. 

Summer, since I have been a self-employed person (a long time!), has always been a time of uncertainty for me. Schedules evaporate for everyone as they shuffle off on holidays. Meanwhile, I am still working, which I love, but there is so much less work to be had in the summer months. 

This year I switched my outlook completely. I decided to embrace the slowdown of work, to let me mind empty and rest. To make mental room for something new. 

I was meant to be part of a fabulous show this past weekend, and I had to step out of it a few weeks back. I had nothing. No new work to show, no stamina to be in the presence of people for three days. I was done. 

This showed me where I was really at. The only answer was to stop thinking I was meant to produce anything, and instead just putter and muse. 

Well, I have to say, the change has served me well. And although I still don’t know what the change is for my work and art, I do know that I have opened myself up to something, and that feels GOOD!

A new mandala, from an old mandala. 

The base of this mandala has been in the studio for months. It was all gold lines on a black background.
A Flower of Life design. 
The design appealed to me, since part of the challenge was to get it as perfect as possible …
which looks easy, but isn’t as simple as all that. 

The other day, I had this idea about the layers of life. The generational and the ancestral, and friendships of all kinds. 

I was thinking about those who are in my life and those who have left this life. 

Then I picked up the canvas and just started to explore how to represent that in layers. 

This is what I eneded up with … and I must say, it’s not like anything I have done before, and I love it. 

THE LATEST FROM THE STUDIO … Get Ready to Write!

I have been dancing around the idea of printed note cards for a very long time, but nothing seemed just right … until now.

Another of those “quiet moment” brainwaves …. to combine mandala designs with words in a different way.

I have created 6 so far, each with a different mandala and words. They are blank inside.

After the design came the printing, and a choice of stock to put them on. I was inspired to use a premium stock with a “felt” finish …. which is smooth to the touch, soft and quite luxurious! The stock took the whole concept of the cards up several notches.

The cards are 5.25″ square and come with the envelope.

The stock is 30% recycled content and is made using 100% windpower! I love that.

They are now vailable through my shop in a set of 6,
and will be avaiable shortly in Nanaimo and Bowser, BC as single cards.

GO TO SHOP

More than halfway through the year and all I can say is, there have been some really signigicant highs and lows. 
My ability to adapt to them seems to be pretty good right now, and for that I am so very, very thankful. 

house of appleton continues on in a quieter way right now … see my earlier notes on summer 😉
However, it will roar back in the fall, I am sure. 

It has also been my great pleasure to do book design work for my friend and fellow publisher, Diana Hayes at Raven Chapbooks, Salt Spring Island, BC  www.ravenchapbooks.ca 
Diana and I share a reverence for book publishing, so when we work together it feels so lovely and seamless, as though we have been doing it for YEARS! I love that and cherish the connection we have. 

There are other things that are bubbling up on my creative/art side … but much too soon to share. I am still in the experimental/development stage with it all. 

So, for August, as I continue to embrace this “forced” slow down/quiet time, I am going to tend to things that I don’t get to when life/work get busy. One of those things will be to upgrade my computer (scary) and get all things electronic and paper organzied. Hmmmm a month won’t be long enough, but it will be a really good start!

Wishing you joy in all ways possible.