Reflections Archives - PaolaPrints

Spring is here!

March 20, 2024

Spring is here! I’ve been at hard at work creating new artwork for my fabric designs. Here’s a black and white look (with fake lilac blooms) at some wrapping fabric that should be interesting. I’ve always got some scarves to sew. I just signed up for a collection of fairs in nearby locations and am searching for options nearing the holidays. I like to try new places every couple years. Sharon’s annual juried craft fair offers the magic combination of beauty, shade, great food and SALES that exceed much more impressively billed locations. Visit me at fair this year if you’re
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Valentine’s Day 2024

February 8, 2024

Valentine’s Day 2024 Valentine’s Day has always been a high holy day for me. For some reason, I’ve looked forward to it since I was a child, buying all kinds of cards and annually baking all kinds of red desserts for my kids. So, of course, I chose red roses for my new crepe de chine shawl-26” x72”. Carmen is a sultry wrap for an evening out. I have one in stock. Red happens to be my favorite color. What’s yours? People say your chosen color paints a certain picture of the person behind the color. I agree with SOME of
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Holidays Are Here!

December 10, 2023

Holidays Are Here! December has ushered in a quiet garden and a new holiday season. I love this time of year as thoughts turn to gifts and scheming over festive cooking recipes for family. And, of course, creating new artwork. As an artist, my interest in every season stays focussed on color – a driving force behind the need to create. I’m not sure if flowers will always be at the center of my artwork. Flowers are a means to my end of celebrating color. The image at top, is a shirt I made many years ago. Not floral. I
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Autumn Begins

September 25, 2023

Autumn Begins. Once again, it’s taken me too long to reach out and stay in touch. This could become a seasonal blog, which means only posting maybe 4x annually. There’s a thought. Like all of us, I will try to do better- until life once again gets in the way. Yes! Fall is here, and with it, torrential rains in Connecticut. We’re busy sewing and cleaning up per usual-with one caveat. My left foot remains encased in a walking boot for another two weeks to round out EIGHT WEEKS- due a stupid foot fracture. It’s really a quite simple practice to remember-
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Spring Into Summer

May 19, 2023

Spring Into Summer …ouch, I’m pretty sure that’s been said before. Spring is motoring ahead into summer- which officially starts June 21. Featured today is a new scarf I call Savannah-homage to a recent visit to that beautiful Georgian city. I was inspired by the city sidewalk grates. Beautiful and functional too. Beauty is something that’s too often lacking in our everyday lives. Mulch is in. Three yards of mulch arrived this week. These last many days I’ve been doing azalea bloom prep work like pruning and checking for winter damage. That includes placing Hollytone, cultivating winter-hardened soil and watering
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Let The Show Begin!

March 14, 2023

Let the Show Begin! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Did you know the shamrock was considered a sacred plant in ancient Ireland? It symbolized the rebirth of spring. This week was my first sales event for 2023. It was a single person trunk show at a very well appointed life care facility in Bloomfield, Connecticut- Duncaster. Lovely people, enjoyable time. I enjoyed sitting with my friend Janet, a recurring partner, who makes for a very pleasant few hours. Equally pleasant, sales were hotter than my Christmas event. We shall do it again! The Guardians of Early Spring- Skunk Cabbage Call it a
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Let it Snow

December 16, 2022

Let it Snow. Bring on hibernation then- even though Fall was waaay too short. Let’s slow time down, just a bit please. Toward the end of September, Larry snagged an opportunity to switch houses for a month in Seattle, Washington, starting just before Halloween. Happily, we changed houses with my brother and sister-in-law, so not so scary, just labor-intensive. Fortunately, we didn’t realize that prepping the house for such a gambit, in addition to fall garden and lawn processing was INSANE. Did I mention I was also committed to labeling and packaging scarf and pillow products for a fair, happening just
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Holding Onto Green

August 24, 2022

Impossibly, today is a little cooler following a long dry summer here in Connecticut. It’s nice to not be constantly worrying about the last time I watered my garden residents. And it’s wonderful to look out and see the dark soil, nicely saturated. Mother Nature does such a better job than I. This is the first year that almost all the hostas, day lilies and phlox were chewed away pre -bloom. Mysterious nocturnal marauders assaulted my little garden. I started spraying a Bonide product called “Repels All,” after the fact. It holds some hope for next year and I’ll begin spraying
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Complementary Colors

March 2, 2022

It was quite by coincidence that I found myself looking at two new scarves that just came back from printing and discovered that together, they resemble colors of the Ukrainian flag. Go Ukraine! Variants of blue and orange are complementary colors, that is, colors opposite one another on the color wheel. Did you know that the national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower? Coincidence! It’s easy to look out at the world during this time of war and feel alternately confused and angry. I think it’s best never to look at anything important, complacently. I urge you to do the same.
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Color, Color, Color!

February 1, 2022

I really can’t get enough. Especially in winter. It’s white everywhere! Color rich experiences have been an integral part of my life from, well, forever. As children, before we bought bags of Valentine cards at the drug store, we were charged with creating mad quantities of pink, red and lace cards for classmates on the kitchen table. For Christmas, we hand cut linoleum block prints that we printed and made into holiday cards that we’d then trot out to neighbors to sell. Colored paper, colored inks, textures and glue. Craft heaven! I’m waiting on the return of a test print
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