Posts in joy
Savoring Summer and Embracing Creative Play
Savoring Summer and Embracing Creative Play

Hello my friend!

Summer has arrived in full force and my garden continues to enchant me every day.

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art, joy, life, seasons, sketchbooksAnne Buterasavor summer, garden joy, sketchbooks, summer sketchbooks, summer sketchbook class, flower pounding, butterflies, black swallowtail butterflies, Substack, Anne Butera, botanical art, botanical watercolor, artist gardener, creative play, the joy of creative play, sketchbook experiments, Sketchbooks, why I love sketchbooks, childlike joy Comments
Hope, Patience, Joy: Lessons from the Garden for Art and Life
Hope, Patience, Joy: Lessons from the Garden for Art and Life

My peach and cherry trees are filled with flowers. Daffodils are blooming and everywhere I look outside, spring is progressing.

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art, business, creativity, garden, joyAnne Buteragarden, spring, lessons from my garden, notice beauty, notice joy, patience, practicing patience, learning new things, trying again, trying something new, trying new things, houseplants, iris, streptocarpus, spring flowers, spring garden, Joy Collecting, gratitude practice, gratitude journal, joy journal, Joy Lists Comments
Seasonal Cycles, Sharing Indoor Gardening Inspiration and Why I Grow Houseplants
Seasonal Cycles, Sharing Indoor Gardening Inspiration and Why I Grow Houseplants

Every time I went into the kitchen this week, I visited spring.

My baby* Hoya lacunosa is blooming on a shelf above the sink.

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joy, studio, books, life, houseplantsAnne Buterahouseplants, botanical artist, artist gardener, artist studios, plant filled studio, seasonal cycles, Hoya lacunosa, growing houseplants, growing plants indoors, a studio filled with plants, poinsettia painting, watercolor poinsettia, painting process, art inspiration, painting inspiration, gardening inspiration, gardening books, garden books, houseplant books, spider plants, Thanksgiving cactus, Anne Butera, my development as an artist, my development as a gardener, my favorite garden books, Tovah Martin, Elvin McDonald, James Underwood Crockett, night-blooming cereus, plant stories, connections to plants, sharing plants, growing plants from cuttings, rooting cuttings in water, fiddle leaf figs, pothos, pothos cuttings, impatiens, growing impatiens inside, scented geraniums, growing scented geraniums inside Comments
June 2023 In the Garden: Nostalgia, Growth and Letting Plants Have Their Way
June 2023 In the Garden: Nostalgia, Growth and Letting Plants Have Their Way

Ah, June in the garden. What a beautiful month.

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life, joy, gardenAnne Buteragarden, growing a garden, developing a garden, creating a garden, gardening, joy in the garden, David Austin Roses, The Poet's Wife Rose, The Poet's Wife David Austin Rose, scented geraniums, black and blue salvia, plants as memory conjurers, memories from the garden, connections with plants, progress of the garden, Feverfew Comments
Reminders About Life and Art and Recommitting to Noticing and Savoring Joy
Reminders About Life and Art and Recommitting to Noticing and Savoring Joy

Today on my blog, I planned to share about the Winding Roads Art Tour, but as I was driving home on Sunday evening I realized I hadn’t taken a single photo all weekend.

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art, garden, joy, lifeAnne ButeraWinding Roads Art Tour, garden studio, gardening, savoring my garden, savoring each day, art process, joy, Joy Letter, Savoring life's joys, pausing for reflection, noticing beauty, noticing joy, being present, joy is a choice, creating beauty, mixing colors, mixing watercolor paint, sketching, garden sketching, slowing down, art practice Comments
The Winding Roads Art Tour and Another Reader Conversation
The Winding Roads Art Tour and Another Reader Conversation

Last weekend was the Winding Roads Art Tour.

I keep trying to write about it, but nothing I write truly captures the experience.

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joy, inspiration, Reader ConversationsAnne Buterareader conversations, Winding Roads Art Tour, 2022 Winding Roads Art Tour, making connections through blogging, Kathleen Aaker, Deborah Conlon, making connections, bringing people together, bringing people together around beauty and joy Comments
Surviving Winter: 11 Ways I Bring More Joy and Warmth into Cold Days
Surviving Winter: 11 Ways I Bring More Joy and Warmth into Cold Days

Wednesday morning I woke up and checked the temperature. Negative 19 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of negative thirty-two. It was our second day in a row of bitter cold.

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joy, life, seasons, booksAnne Buterawinter, making it through winter, how to get through winter, how to bring more joys into my days, surviving winter, books, garden planning, garden dreaming, gardening inside, indoor garden, growing an indoor garden, crochet, winter garden, seed catalogs, growing herbs, reading, book recommendations, dogs, cats, making soup, finding joy in winter, warming up in winter Comments
How to Discover Joy in Subtle Colors: Lessons from the Winter Garden
How to Discover Joy in Subtle Colors: Lessons from the Winter Garden

The sun is shining, warm and bright. The garden is humming with bees and I catch the scent of roses, mint and spicy tulsi. I step among the blooms with my scissors at the ready,

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art, garden, inspiration, joyAnne Buteragarden, garden colors, watercolor, watercolor paintings, watercolor paint swatches, mixing colors, mixing watercolor paint, color mixing, Anne Butera, A Year in Color Online Summit, Creative U, winter garden colors, winter garden watercolor paintings, inspired by winter, inspired by subtle colors, subtle winter colors, subtle beauties, lessons from my garden, lessons from a winter garden, in my studio, in my garden, what's happening in the garden, what, what's happening in my studio, what's happening in my garden, garden inspiration, painting series, watercolor painting series, winter garden painting series Comments
10 Ways to Invite More Ease into Your Days and Why it Matters
10 Ways to Invite More Ease into Your Days and Why it Matters

When I think about the word EASE, I imagine serenity and calm. I picture being able to do hard things with confidence. I see myself flowing through my days with lightness, finesse, grace.

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inspiration, joy, lifeAnne Buterainviting more ease into your days, why it matters to invite ease into our days, what does it mean to live with ease?, how can we invite ease into our lives, 10 ways to invite more easy into your days, 10 Ways to Invite More Ease into Your Life, changing our perspectives, choosing a mindset, what does it mean to choose a word for the year?, setting intentions, letting go of anxiety, release yourself from busyness, free yourself from anxiety, how to free yourself from anxiety Comments
Granting Yourself Permission to be Quiet in a Noisy World
Granting Yourself Permission to be Quiet in a Noisy World

“Thanksgiving is not just a day, it’s a lifestyle.”

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joy, inspiration, lifeAnne Buteragratitude, gratitude practice, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, thanksgiving as a lifestyle, giving ourselves permission, being quiet in a noisy world, following your own path, following your own rules, following your own guiding star, being true to yourself, lean in to your quirks, joy, alternatives to black friday, alternatives to cyber weekend Comments
November 2021 in the Garden and an Invitation to a Joyful Seed Exchange
November 2021 in the Garden and an Invitation to a Joyful Seed Exchange

In Wisconsin by the time November rolls around, we’ve usually had our first frost. Sometimes we’ve already had our first snow, too.

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garden, gratitude, joyAnne Buteragarden, garden dogs, autumn in the garden, autumn cleanup, saving seeds, snow on the garden, dahlia seeds, dahlia tubers, saving dahlia seeds, digging dahlia tubers, saving dahlia tubers, garden as inspiration, harvesting carrots, snapdragons, violas, messy gardens, imperfect gardens, my imperfect garden, joy in the garden, why i garden, seed exchange, exchanging seeds, planting spring bulbs, letting go, roses in the garden, The Poet's Wife Rose, The Poet's Wife David Austin Rose, battling Japanese bettles, gratitude, beauty in imperfection, garden tours, garden tour Comments