wax paper packages tied up with... stickers.

Now that I have reached a hiatus in my studying I am really pleased to announce that I am reopening my etsy shop. It is fully stocked with sets of note cards featuring both French and Hebridean photographs, the two different landscapes that have whispered to and soothed my soul in the last few years. 

I spend a lot of time doubting that I know what it is I'm supposed to do with my life but making things - actual things that people can hold and feel and treasure - is the touchstone that I always come back to. The world is messy and overwhelming and worrying and bringing together something, anything, into a small physical form that makes sense and brings calm and shares an idea or a thought or a feeling that can be held in someone's hands... that brings me unspeakable, if fleeting, peace. 

Note cards probably won't change the world (I mean they might, I feel like there's potential for a note card-based revolution. Ideas on a... note card) but they can probably change the course of someone's day. Frame them, gift them, write some words of love onto that deliciously lush card and pop them in a parcel to a friend who needs to know that you care. Also, they're just really pretty. You probably can't get yourself physically to a Hebridean island or to the south of France terribly easily but I hope that these sets will bring a little of those places to you. 

Details - each set contains five different photographs, taken be me, and printed onto the heaviest, most delicious matt card I've ever seen. They're packaged in wax paper envelopes and sealed with a kiss a nice shiny sticker. 

They are for sale in my etsy shop and will be dispatched on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, in keeping with island postal services. 

A Christmas Sale

The season is upon us. May your festive spirit be more intact than mine. 

I've been feeling distinctly absent of said spirit this year, it was starting to creep tentatively into my soul but then was thoroughly scared off by the upheaval and change and uncertainty (all those things I love so much) of sudden and unplanned unemployment which crashed noisily into our lives a fortnight ago. Fun times! 

Anyway, as the dust settled I discovered this huge pile of christmas cards left over from last year and sets of cards that I spent months working on at the beginning of the year and then sort of forgot about when we moved house in April and then thoroughly forgot about when we moved house again in July. In the interests of not wasting all of that effort (and making enough money to pay for christmas dinner), I have posted them all on etsy. 

There are the same snowy roadtrip Christmas cards (although I prefer to call them holiday cards, because they don't mention Christmas and so are totes non-denominational) I sold last year - five images from the scenic motorway between Glasgow and Inverness - and also four different sets of art cards printed with images from our time in the south of France. 

Each set is five images on a theme - food, flowers, market, and architecture - all très français. They are printed on beautiful heavy card stock and are perfect for displaying as a set, framing individually, sending as thank you cards or giving as a set to your favourite francophile, photophile or friend who just doesn't write to you enough (passive-aggressive gifting FTW). They are flat cards, blank on the back, except for a discreet labeling with my real and actual name (*shock face emoji*) and come with lusciously thick envelopes.

They will be ready to post on Monday and should reach the USA, Canada and most of Europe in plenty of time for Christmas.

Oh and there is also my Society6 print shop, my poor neglected print shop - with a variety of my older work from France, Scotland and New York available as canvases and prints, framed and unframed, on metal or the more traditional paper. Today there is 20% off canvases and metal prints, so it's a good day to get in there. 

Thank you in advance for your custom and endless support over the years. And sorry for ditching the blog. Did I ever mention that I went back to college? I went back to college. It's intense. I'm not done with P&P though, lest you were worried/noticed I was gone/are still a weirdo who reads blogs.

Peonies and Polaroids - the Etsy Shop

Peonies and Polaroids - the Society6 Shop

Peonies and Polaroids Holiday Cards

Peonies and Polaroids Holiday cards are now for sale on etsy. 

Five different cards printed on recycled paper in each pack, with recycled kraft paper envelopes -£10. 

Order by December 14th at the very latest for International shipping and December 19th for UK shipping. 

Get them here. 

(apologies for the distinctly commercial, non-chatty posting, I'm completely, utterly, desperately trying to GET SHIT DONE before the girls get home from school. School that I'd swear they just left for five damn minutes ago.) 

A New Print Shop and A Mother's Day Discount

Villeneuvette

(A quick link to the new shop is on the right hand sidebar on the blog. Or here.) 

When I came across those little boxes of prints that I hadn't sold and put them on etsy I was reminded of how nice it is to send my photographs out into the world, to see my pictures as physical objects, to hear that people like them enough to exchange them for money and to know that they will be enjoyed for more than the 15 seconds it takes to skim a blog post. I was also reminded however of what a total pain in the tits wrapping, packaging, labeling and posting things is, and that was with ordering them from the printers taken out of the equation. The logistics of doing that for a mere 12 sets of prints had me quivering on the edge of boredom and frustration induced tears more than once. I'm not big on repetitive tasks, feats of organisation or going to the post office. 

Leaves. 

So when I heard about Society6 (thanks to my friend Laura, check out her shop, she's awesome) and that I could upload my images and they'd do the rest and maybe I'd make some money out of it, I was really pleased. Sure, it's a little sad not to actually see my photos as prints and not to feel them in my hands before sending them off, sure it's a little less personal than etsy or suchlike, but it is also just that much easier, especuially now that I live on a mountainside, on the edge of a village where the mail comes occasionally and the post office is open for three hours a day. 

Scottish Landscape, I

My shop is here, and everything is for sale in a number of sizes. For now the images are mainly from the last few years and are divided into loose categories of France, Scotland, New York, Gardens (you can see the various 'collections' here.) I'm hoping to add more of France over the next few months, or maybe even to start a separate shop with only French images. 

Cyclone

I would love your feedback. If there are any of my images that you would particularly like to see listed please let me know. 

Just for today Society6 is offering a $5 discount and free shipping (maybe just to the US? I'm not sure) on everything as Mother's Day is coming up (again. We already did it in the UK back in March but who am I to argue with American timekeeping) but it is just for today, Tuesday April 28th, so hop to it. 

the littlest update...

Thank you so much everyone who's bought a box set from my little shop or who has posted about said box sets on their blogs, I loves you.



I just wanted to let you know that they are almost all gone. There are two Palace of Illusions, two Sepias and one Island Green left. After that no more until the new year, when I hope to get some brand new sets of images printed up as well as the ones that have been for sale over the last few weeks.

And the winner is.....

number 98

aka emily b

as picked by random.org

Yay for Emily!

Thank you for all of your comments, I can't believe so many of you entered! And thank you to you lovely soles who didn't enter but just skipped straight to etsy and gave me your money, I love you muchly. As of today there are only two blossom sets left so if you have your eye on one of them you had better skedaddle. I will be getting more made but what with the ordering of more boxes and prints and the giant nap I'm planning on taking over the weekend it might take a while. So...

Roll up, roll up and get 'em while they're hot!

Next week is hopefully going to be New York week on P&P. I need your help American chicens, New York chickens and New York loving chickens. Help with planning and dreaming and searching and finding. It depends how long that nap is though.

. letters and numbers by dailypoetics. I searched for a 98, there isn't one.

miniatures and giveaways

Boxed sets of miniature prints are for sale here.
(finally)

You all are too sweet with your kind words about these little boxes, I loves you. As a thank you (and kind of as an apology for being a shitty blogger recently and hardly ever returning your comments which I love and which make my day, every day) I would like to offer one of these sets to one of you readers.

Just leave a comment below, maybe tell me which of the five sets is your favourite and someone will be picked at random on Friday.

projects in miniature

Dearest ones, thank you so very much for your comments on my projects and dreams post, I can't tell you how hugely overwhelmed I was by your wisdom and your sense of humour. (If you didn't read the comments {why don't you read the comments? The comments are the best bit} please go and read them right now. Especially if you're battling with your own projects and dreams)


You kill me. Even more than weddings with ostriches.

I'm planning on sharing some of those projects and dreams with you, big projects, big dreams. But it turns out that it's kind of hard to write about that stuff (who knew?) so it might take me a little while. In the meantime here is a little project I've been working on. Well I say little, but it's been a while coming together. Let's call it relatively little, like relative to trying to rebuild a house or start a business.

These five different sets of mini prints will be on sale here from next week and here (holyshitmypicturesareinaREALshop!) from whenever they arrive in Los Alamos. There will be a pink one and a green one and a sea one and a sepia one and my very very favourite Coney Island one.

Four prints, wrapped in glassine bags, nestled in boxes made from recycled card, curled up with silk ribbon and provided with four tiny clothes pegs for doing this with (but prettier, what with the lack of bulldog clips and the prints that match).

Come back next week for a wee giveaway of one of these sets and just maybe, some dreams and projects shared.


I never say this but have a lovely weekend my chickens.

X.

sets

A little preview of a little something I'm working on...

Dahlias and Delights

I've never seen one of my pictures in someone else's home before (someone else who is not related to me), so when I came across this picture on Flora's lovely blog of one of my prints nestled amongst such objets of prettiness the feeling of delight was quite dizzy making. My picture! I took that! One cold, blustery spring day in the park. The Boy was there, I was wearing a pink scarf, he scowled at me when I tried to take his picture so instead I turned to the cherry tree, a much more agreeable subject, and took this picture. And now it sits in Floras house (Flora's gorgeous house where puppies live and flowers flourish and car boot sale flotsam and jetsom finds a forever home.) under the dahlias and next to a funny little pretty little bug....

Do hop on over to Some Moments of Pleasure, if not for the puppies and the flowers and the flotsam and the jetsom at the very least for the dahlias. Oh the dahlias, how I love them.

. photograph by Flora, at Some Moments of Pleasure.

Poise and Elegance

I didn't love orchids until recently, until I started photographing them. Once upon a time I thought that they were showy, aggressive, a little vulgar (like lillies) if pretty nonetheless. Now I see them as sculptural, confident, purposeful and a little grown up. I find comfort in their poise and elegance and the orchid house at our city's botanical gardens is becoming my new ikea.

I have just uploaded these prints and a few others to peonies and polaroids: the shop. Peonies and polaroids: the shop has been a little neglected this month, truth be told I forgot it existed for a while there (bad photographer, bad) but hopefully it will forgive me and start sending me lovely little emails again telling me people want to send me money. I like those emails.

. photos by me

I like little things....

Dearest lovelies, this week I listed some tiny prints in the shop.

Little, diddy, wee, small, diminutive, petite, teeny tiny pictures.

Pick any four (I know that the photo shows three. The Boy says that's confusing. I say that my readers and customers are quite clever enough to figure it out) to have printed at an itsy bitsy three inches tall.

Do with them what you will - peg them to a string, hang them from a ribbon, decorate a tiny space, buy a bijou frame. Put one in an envelope and post it to someone special, pin them to a notice board, buy lots and use them to play snap. The possibilities are mind boggling and any ideas you might have (nice ideas please. thank you) would be most welcome in the comments!

One more day.....

Just a wee post to remind you that there is one day left to leave a comment on The Great Print Giveaway to be in with a chance of winning a print from Peonies and Polaroids: The Shop. 

And to let you know that I have added a new print today....

Meet Persephone....



I love her knobbles, they're so pretty. It turns out that pomegranates are much nicer to look at than to eat.  Food shouldn't be hard work and getting those pretty, sparkly little whatsits out of that gorgeous pink elephant hide makes me want to take a nap.

I was going to add a whole lot more prints today but my darling Boy tried to update my photo editing stuff today and well, he broke it.

I should know by now that when he says 'can we swap puters and I'll update your software?' half an hour later I'll hear a rather pathetic 'Oops.  I made it worse... Um... no you can't use it, I killed it.'

It's a good job he's cute. Very cute.

Peonies for you.....

*** The Giveaway is now closed***

Peonies and Polaroids: The Shop goes live today, one year exactly after Peonies and Polaroids: The Blog hit the airwaves (cyberwaves? News stands? Blogosphere? My sanity? Delete as appropriate) The Shop will sell prints of my photography, maybe postcards in the future and calenders come calender time. Bog stanadard photographer-fare in other words. For finally, two years after fleeing art school, I might just be feeling ready to call myself a photographer again.


There will be no crafty crap. Being engaged warped my brain. Married Me (much like pre-engaged me) sees hand sewing tiny little silk birds, designing fabric bunnies or hand pouring soya candles as something fun in theory but Just Not Worth It. 'It' being The Insanity. So you can stop emailing me and asking for custom made cake toppers. It's not going to happen.


However! As a birthday present from me to you and to start Peonies and Polaroids: The Shop with the sort of altruistic, hippy happy karma that one should launch into these ventures (and to say thank you for encouraging me to do this) I'm giving away a print of your choice.


Just leave a comment on this post, any comment. I'm not asking for something witty or clever or appreciative. 'Oi, gimme the print' will do. Although witty, clever and appreciative are always appreciated and while I might say I'm picking a comment at random... well, just sayin'.

A Preview...

Peonies and Polaroids : The Shop

A Preview

All images by me.