Why don’t you?
Hello friends,
When I lived in London, not so long ago, after a hard day at work in DFID I would spend hours in the evenings slumped in front of the gogglebox and then I would wonder why I didn’t get around to doing the things that I loved to do! A distant memory of that old children‘s programme I used to watch in the 1980s called “Why Don’t you?” prodded at my conscience. Each episode began with “Why don’t you switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead?” I felt guilty. Even ashamed. But I just could not break the habit back then.
Finding my way back
Fast forward five years and my life is completely different. I now live with my husband Brett in a tiny house set within five acres of majestic, towering, coastal forest on the sunny south side of Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. My husband and I built our house in just three weeks last autumn. We live simply, yet fully each day. We don’t have a TV in our tiny house so we don’t watch it. I am grateful for this change in my life, because the absence of TV (and other distractions) coupled with our incredibly wild and wonderful surroundings have enabled me to create space for the things I love to do, which I had previously pushed aside to focus on my humanitarian career. I am gradually finding my way back to playing music and writing songs and, in the last few weeks, I have begun to draw again.
Drawing and painting were favourite pastimes of mine when I was growing up. I was passionate about creating new pictures and I would sit for hours on end, churning out sketch after sketch or a painting or two. I remember my Dad coming home from work and plonking a ream of scrap paper on the table for me to play with. He had the patience of Job and taught me how to sketch and how to paint with watercolours. The secret was in observing. Really seeing every detail and inhabiting every moment. My dad was a talented watercolour painter and I look forward to the day when I can unpack all of his paintings and hang them in our eco-home, which we will build in the next few months.
A kraken picture
My first creative endeavour since taking up my pencils, pens and sketch pad again came to me as the mysterious kraken. I replicated this chap from a painting of a kraken that I did on the wall of our companionway in Theros last summer, before we left Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. I am drawn to mythology and I love reading stories and legends from different cultures and eras.
Do you like my boobies?
My second offering is a fine pair of boobies! Yes, you read that correctly. It is an aspiration of mine to sail into the Galapagos Islands one day and see these magnificent blue-footed boobies face to face. Their latin name is Sula nebouxii. I am inspired by the old vintage illustrations of botanical and zoological specimens that were collected in the golden age of exploration that you often see in Natural History Museums around the world.
I am still trying to work out how I can have good quality art prints made as several friends have expressed an interest in buying them. I would like to promote my art work through this blog, in person at art and craft fairs and also on Etsy.
For now, I have produced a few downloadable and printable designs for greetings cards, which can be found in my new Etsy shop called Wayfaring Sarah Design. I would be interested in receiving your feedback and ideas if you have time. In the meantime, I had better get ‘kraken’ on some new drawings!
If you are creative and love art, design and crafts and would like to sell your pieces online, why not consider opening your own Etsy store? It is easy and free to set up shop. If you are interested, please feel free to accept my invitation using the link below to claim your first 40 free listings when you open your store. If you so, I will also benefit from 40 free listings and that way, we help each other out.
REFERRAL LINK TO ETSY
Thanks for reading!
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If you enjoyed reading this blog post about my art work then you might enjoy these as well:
A kraken collection by Wayfaring Sarah Design
Peace, love and light,
Sarah xxx
Wayfaring Sarah 
Sarah, Sally showed me your Boobies (uh-hmm!) a couple of days ago, guessing on FB, I was impressed, can understand why prints are in favour. A clever skill to have, I always wanted to be able to do those pencil/charcol type sketches but I do nothing about it so don’t cry about it either. But you are an inspiration.
Which brings me to your lifestyle change, which is fantastic hence the following you have and the great comments you both get as you are doing something that many would be envious of.
Keep it up
Mx
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Ha ha! I am glad they didn’t disappoint… ahem. Thanks for your continued encouragement. Your comments mean a lot. We hope one day to see you and Sally again soon.
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