Stickers nine ways

A few months back I announced that I had started illustrating for ethical stationery company Boots Paper. We have been steadily adding more greeting card designs to the collection, and there are many other new products in the wings, but the designs that have me the most excited right now are a series of stickers. 

I have been painting these for months, and they're finally here, printed onto clear plastic so they kind of work like decals on just about anything. Here are nine ways I've been using my stickers lately, to brighten up my everyday jobs. 

1. In my garden-jobs diary (I keep a seasonal diary so I don’t forget to mulch or prune or fertilise or sow seeds. This weekend was all about fertilising, pruning and planting) 

2. On notes left on the 'fridge for my husband, because we both work such long hours we can often go hours without seeing each other for anything more than hello-goodbye conversations 

3. On messages in mini-envelopes for children (I sometimes pop these mini-envelopes into the normal-sized envelopes I send to the parents, so the kids get their own letters)

4. On hand-written recipe cards I send to people in the mail 

5. To decorate my planner and bullet journal 

6. On my shopping lists (because that makes the lists look pretty but also because the picture draws my eye to the list when it’s on the ‘fridge, and I’m less likely to forget it on my way to the shops) 

7. Prettying-up gift tags in my snail-mail bundles

8. To decorate #thousandpostcardproject postcards

9. In my notebook 

There are even stickers decorating my Macbook right now, though I haven't taken a photograph of them. That was five-year-old Scout's idea, but I do think it's kind of cute. 

How about you? I'd love to know if you have any ideas! 

---

ps. have you heard about my new letter-writing and mail-art e-course?

Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. Register your place or find out more information right here. 

Natural cold remedies from the pantry

Last month was pretty much the busiest month I've experienced in my life. I was so busy, I was getting up at five and going to bed at one, or two, or three, every night.

Day after day, night after night, I worked, and rubbed my stinging eyes, and coughed up dust from the renovations that were also going on around me. Mr B start a new job so he also was ridiculously busy. We barely saw each other except to sigh and to say "This life is crazy!" as we passed each other, bleary-eyed, in hallways at dark hours when ordinary people should be sleeping. The house became filthy. I can't even begin to tell you how filthy. 

And, not even remotely surprisingly, I caught a cold that I couldn't shake. 

When the symptoms just wouldn't let up, and I was denied the best remedy of all (sleep!) I put out the word on Instagram to see what other people recommended when it came to natural remedies for sore throats, stuffy noses, sinus headaches and general funkiness.

The advice was so helpful (I'm all better now!), and entirely achievable with a handful of ingredients from the pantry, that I thought I'd share some of the remedies with you, and painted some little illustrations to show them some love. There is nothing toxic in here, and no brand names, just nature's own cold-busters and immunity-boosters. 

@michellecrawford suggested a Turmeric Tonic by Meghan Telpner: juice together ¼ cup of fresh ginger root, ¼ cup fresh turmeric root, one peeled orange, and one peeled lemon. Mix 30ml (1oz) of this mixture together with a cup of hot water. (Keep the rest for later). Stir in raw honey, ghee or coconut oil, and sip. Repeat every two hours.

@ohmabeldreams suggested a mixture of honey, lemon, and apple-cider vinegar

@plantivorousrex said sopa de ajo (Spanish garlic soup) was the way to go for a cold-fighting meal. I found this recipe on SBS. 

@plantivorousrex also recommended making an onion poultice to relieve congestion. I found this recipe from Sarah on The Healthy Home Economist: Chop and lightly saute two onions and in a splash of water. The onions should be lightly cooked, but not browned or caramelised. If you want to, add in ¼ cup of grated ginger. Carefully drain the onions (and optional ginger), and spread them out in the middle of a tea-towel. Fold the long sides of the tea-towel over the onions, then fold the ends over that (wrapping it "burrito style," Sarah calls this).

Making sure it is not too hot, place the onion poultice either on your chest, or on the souls of your feet, and leave it there for 20 minutes. Productive coughing should follow. The poultice can be gently reheated in the microwave and reused throughout the day, with a fresh one made every 24 hours or so

@rhibe said to eat raw garlic mixed with honey. "It is rough but always works for me."  Similarly, @justordinaryfolk recommended chopping up a raw garlic clove, then swallowing it down with a drink

@lydiaswildlifeart made hot orange drinks to fight colds: squeeze two oranges in a cup with two teaspoons of honey, then add hot water

@finevandewinkels suggested a mixture of freshly-grated horseradish and honey

Another recipe from @finevandewinkels was a drink made by mixing ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and honey with warm milk 

@beekeep.visitingwildflowers suggested mixing ginger, lemon and honey with a pinch of cayenne pepper. I'm not sure from there how it should be taken, either down in one gulp, or stirred into a hot water drink. Your thoughts? 

@dottyteakettle said "I swear by the curative properties of a powerful veggie thai green curry - hot as you can stand - made with lots of garlic, ginger and chilli." Here is a recipe from Jamie Oliver

@ofsimplicity suggested grating fresh ginger into a cup of tea, or just hot water, and adding a squeeze of lemon

@a.little.adventure shared a mixture that she said was disgusting, but helped: Mix cider vinegar, grated ginger, chopped chilli, garlic, and lemon juice together, then drink as shots

@onething_atatime shared her family's traditional recipe for a cold tonic. "My mum is Sri Lankan... this tonic was from her grandfather and best when drunk at that first tickle in the throat," she advised. Into a dry pan put 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, three cloves, and a one-inch piece of fresh ginger. Roast them over medium heat until the oils begin to release and the spices become fragrant, but do not burn. Now add another one-inch piece of ginger, this time finely sliced, and about 300 millilitres (just over one cup) of water, and boil vigorously for a minute or two. Strain the tonic into a cup, and add honey to taste. 

If you make a double batch you can top up the spices with boiling water and let them steep for the next time you need them, refreshing each batch about four times with water. The steam vapours are also good for clearing out the nose. 

@nadaelfaham recommended this practise for a sore throat: squeeze a lemon onto a tablespoon of honey without water. Do not swallow it right away, but try to keep it still for two seconds on your throat to make a fine coating. @nadaelfahm also suggested a ginger-lemon infusion - let it cool before adding honey. 

How about you? What is your go-to natural remedy for colds? 

An announcement

Hello! Are you there? 

I have a couple of announcements to make today, the first of which is that I have a brand new website! The web address is the same - www.naomiloves.com - but what you'll find inside it is quite changed. I really hope you like it. I feel like it better represents who I am and what I love. 

The only problem is that I may well have lost all of my readers along the way. 

You see, this new website wasn't supposed to go live for another two weeks, during which time I was supposed to be able to figure out how to update things so that anyone who subscribed to this blog, or followed it via an RSS feed-reader, would still be able to read it without making any changes. Or, if I failed to sort that out, I'd at least be able to advise people of the new system before the changes were made.

But these things don't always go to plan and I didn't get to make the updates I had hoped for, or let anyone know what was going on. The site went live yesterday, ready or not, so here we all are. And I am writing to you today, dear friends, while wondering if you are out there at all. 

In case you ARE still reading (thank you!), let me tell you a few little things I love about this new website: 

* To go with my lovely new website I have a lovely new logo, which you can see at the top of this email. I drew the pictures but I have to thank Brenner Lowe from Boots Paper for coming up with the concept and doing all the fancy design work. I love it so much! I think she summed me up pretty well with the combination of plants, tea and letters

* If you click on the "Mail hub" link in the website menu, you'll find a collection of all the different snail-mail projects and resources I have going on right now, which makes it a really-fun area to be if you like that sort of thing! 

* Finally, I'm super excited and nervous to announce a new e-course on letter-writing and mail-art that I have created, full of tips, tutorials and a great big stack of new resources. I get asked a lot of questions about making mail, so I designed the course to answer all of the most common questions. I'll share more about that soon - it launches in August

I really hope you like my new website and, if you ARE still reading, I'd love to hear from you! It's no fun writing into the abyss...

Dreams come true

This is one of the most exciting announcements I've been able to make in a very long time. 

Earlier this year, I received an email from the owner of my favourite paper company, Boots Paper (I wrote about them here), inviting me to design my own stationery! I sat there at my computer, reading that little message from one of the most beautiful, high-quality, ethically-produced stationery companies going around, inviting me to put my own stamp on their products, and had to pinch myself. 

I decided to play it cool and act like this was the kind of invitation I received every day, as opposed to what it actually was: a dream come true. Moments later I utterly lost my cool and immediately hit reply with a resounding YES. I think I might even have written "This is a dream come true." 

The original brief was to create two different notebook designs, the type that I would love to use myself if I was to sit and write a lively, personal letter (or write a lively, personal shopping list, for that matter). I got straight to work, and sent in those paintings, and then we started on some more. Swing tags, stickers, greeting cards, postcards, envelopes and more; featuring animals, botanicals, people, retro hobbies, food and hygge. And so much more. 

And today I am proud (SO PROUD) to announce that the very first of my designs are now available for sale on the Boots Paper online shop, as well as in Boots stockists all over the country.

They are the greeting cards you see in this blog post: hand-drawn and then painted by me in watercolour, gouache and ink; printed on 100 percent recycled paper; with matching envelopes that have been printed on the inside; all hand-assembled in Gippsland, Victoria.

Eeep! 

There's more to come, so please excuse me while I go and paint some more. xo

ps. If you like these or any of the other Boots Paper designs, they ship anywhere in the world, and everything is hand-packaged beautifully. Just take a look at this package sent to me on a recent order! Leave a little note for the lovely owner, Brenner, to tell her I said hi. 

Meals in the Mail (a new idea)

* UPDATE 16 JULY 2017: please note that the official date to send recipes for this project has ended. However, you are still welcome to take part. There are no guarantees that your recipe will make it into the book but the sooner you send it, the more likely it will happen. I will be too busy delivering my Your Beautiful Letter course to start the book at least until the end of August, so any letters that arrive before then will still be part of the project. * 

---

I've had an idea. Shall we write a book together? A recipe book? 

Often I tell people that one of the nicest, easiest (and completely free-of-charge) gifts to enclose with a letter is a recipe. All you need to do is write or type it out neatly, fold it up, and there is something personal, thoughtful, and useful for your pen-friend.

Over the years, I have received some wonderful recipes in the mail, from family, friends, and strangers alike. First, I was thinking I might like to turn them all into a little "meals by mail" recipe book to share with you. But then I had a better idea: what if we were to share all of our recipes with each other? 

Recipes 3

So here is what I propose: 

1. If you want to take part, simply send me a letter. You need to send it by post, not email or in the comments. My address is: 

Naomi Bulger  "Meals in the Mail"  PO Box 469  Carlton North Vic 3054 Australia

So that this project doesn't drag on forever, let's say your letter needs to be postmarked by 1 July, 2017, to be included. 

2. In the letter, you will need to enclose two things: a) a recipe that you love (write it, type it, illustrate it if you like! anything as long as you like the recipe and it's legible); and b) some words telling me what makes your recipe special. They could be a sentence or an essay, or anything in between. Maybe the recipe was given to you by someone you love, maybe it is part of a family tradition, maybe you cooked it for a memorable occasion, maybe it's simply something that is always popular with your friends or family... just share with us the special meaning behind the recipe. 

3. It's not at all required that you decorate your envelope or include anything else, but of course you are welcome to do so and, if appropriate, I'll try and feature some of the more decorative envelopes etc in the book for inspiration. 

4. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this is a good idea (Oh! Lonely me!) BUT if I receive enough recipes, I promise to turn them into a recipe-book or zine (how many recipes do you think I'll need for a book? 20? 30? More?), celebrating the recipes, the letters, and the wonderful way that food links us to people we love and memories we treasure.

Plus, I promise to send a free copy of the book or zine to every contributor. 

Are you in? Let's do this, to celebrate food, nostalgia, hand-written communications and community all in one go. Then we can stir, sizzle, mix and bake each other's recipes, and weave them into our own stories. And I would really appreciate it if you could tell your friends, because maybe they want to share their recipes, too! 

ps. These recipes, from top, are from my great-grandmother (via my mother), Ashwatta (via Ashwatta's Art on Etsy), and Meaghan (via @polaroids_and_snailmail). 

Pie fail

This is an appeal to the people of Florida, to rescue their famous dish from the slander that is about to follow...  

While writing my way through a giant stack of vintage postcards for the thousand postcard project, I came across this wonderfully lurid recipe-card from the 1960s or 70s. The children and I decided we had to give it a try before sending it on (it ultimately went to my cousin in the UK - it was 68 of 1000).

After all, I figured, "Orange meringue pie. I like oranges, I like lemon meringue pie, this is going to be delicious!")

Spoiler alert: it wasn't.

Maybe it's my fault. I'm not much of a baker. Or maybe it's the postcard's fault. The instructions were pretty vague and, never having tasted this pie before, I didn't really know what flavours I was supposed to be going for. 

Whoever or whatever is to blame, this pie tasted like orange-flavoured cough-syrup. Only gelatinous. And nuclear reactive in colour. 

So, dear People Of Florida, how is this pie supposed to taste? What did I do wrong? And do you have a better recipe for me to try? 

::               ::               ::               ::

ps. For anyone not from Florida who is brave enough to try this (WHYYYYY???), the ingredients are on the front of the postcard that you see pictured here. The method, printed on the back, was as follows:

Combine orange juice, sections, grated rind, sugar and cornstarch. Cook on low heat until clear. Add a little hot mixture to beaten egg yolks. Return to hot mixture and cook about 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Blend in lemon juice, butter or margarine. Pour into baked pie shell. Be sure filling and shell are both hot or both cold. Cover filling with meringue. Bake in 350° oven until lightly browned.

There were no instructions for the pastry or meringue, so you'll just have to wing those bits. Tell me how you go!

Mini mail-art

Hello, dear friends. This is just a little something I've been working on, to give to the subscribers I write to via this blog: mini mail-art. I've made a series of 12 water-colour botanical stickers that people can use to decorate their next mail; and another 12 "return address" stickers for them to personalise with their own addresses, and then colour if they want to.

On self doubt

Oh hey. I have illustrated a children's book! It's called Grandad and the Baby Dolphin, and was written by the very talented Wendy Milner. The book will come out in November this year, and you can find out more (or pre-order a copy) here.

I am simultaneously proud and embarrassed to share these pictures with you.

Self doubt is a funny thing, isn't it. You do your very best and at some level (an important level!) you are proud of what you have done. And then on the other hand you look at your own work and then you look at what everyone else is doing and suddenly you feel like a complete fraud. Not to mention a failure.

Sound familiar? I feel like maybe crippling self-doubt is the default position of creatives. And by "creatives" I mean anyone who steps out into the public with something they have made: writers, artists, entrepreneurs, researchers... you name it. We all question ourselves, our abilities, our capacity, all the time but especially at the eleventh hour.

I have to fight my self-deprecating instincts as I share these illustrations with you. I hold myself up against the pantheon of talented, experienced illustrators in the children's book-publishing world and frankly I feel absurd.

Last week when Wendy said "We are finished!" and sent me a digital proof of the book, I vibrated with pride all evening. I kept looking through the images and reading them alongside her wonderful story and I felt as though together, we had created something really special.

That lasted for several hours, until I went to bed.

Then I closed my eyes and, immediately in my imagination, the whole world sat in a stadium, me alone and spotlit on a field way below, and everybody bellowed "WHO ARE YOU to think you could illustrate ANYTHING?" I am a writer, not an artist, and my sleepy self knew it. So did everybody else. "DERIVATIVE," the World shouted from the stands, "NAIVE." And "BORING" and "UNIMAGINATIVE" and "AMATEUR."

But do you know what? Get thee behind me, Naomi's Imagination World. I, like so many creative people before me and so many more to come, am going to own what I have made, and own it with pride. Wendy's prose is flawless. Her story is beautiful, and engaging, and entertaining, in all the right parts. I told it to my children for the first time a little while ago, holding up my paintings as I went along, and their simple response at the end was, "Again?"

And I am an illustrator. There, I will say it. I am a children's book illustrator, and I am lucky enough that my first book illustration project was for something as special as this beautifully-written tale of love and family and caring and joy.

I bet you are creative, too. Do you struggle to own it, trust it, believe in it? What should you be proud of today?

All your thoughtful words

During the past month or so I have been chipping away at the photography for my new book (which is going by the working title Snail Mail Revolution, by the way, but that might change). I want the book to be really beautiful, something that you will want to hold and touch and browse through slowly. It is really important to me to avoid having something that looks like a glorified stationery catalogue.

When I put a call out to you guys to tell me what you loved about snail-mail, what you felt made it so very special, your responses were absolutely amazing. Thank you!

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you!

So many of you encapsulated PERFECTLY how I felt about this ancient and evergreen way of staying in touch (take a look at this wonderful quote from Selise, for example). People loved snail-mail because it was so intensely personal, a direct conversation between two people, thoughts written by hand, their rethinking exposed in crossed-out words and margin notes. And because it was slow, a return to mindfulness and patience and the art of waiting for something worth waiting for. Many people loved that letters were tangible, something they could touch and smell and see. There was more said, so much more, and it was beautiful. But you will have to wait for the book to read it all!

All your thoughtful words really helped me when it came to planning the photography, and I was really keen to capture the essence of what you were saying. To my mind, the photographs needed to evoke some kind of emotion, to tell a story. The sense of occasion that comes, for example, with opening and reading a letter from someone you love. Or the thoughtfulness that goes along with sitting down to write a letter. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Is this making sense?

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen the images on this post popping up during the past couple of weeks. They are outtakes and behind-the-scenes shots of what I've been trying to create. I hope you like them. I'm really happy with how this book is all coming together!

9 Valentine's Day projects to try

Is it love? Or is it just like? Does it matter? Why not use the notorious Jour de V as an excuse to make something for someone you love/like/admire, just to make them happy? Here are some last-minute ideas to get you thinking and inspired:

* I'm nuts about you * Biscuits that look like matchsticks? This is so much better than my matchbox art * So cute! Valentine animal envelopes * Homemade bath bombs to luxuriate your lover * Bad puns on printable gift-tags (for food-related gifts) * "You have a pizza my heart" (get it?). Seven printable Valentines * Pencil-flag Valentine notes. These would make great party favours or gift tags too * Paper fortune cookies * The most romantic ice-cream you've ever seen

Photo credit: Jenelle Ball, licensed for unlimited use under Creative Commons