The various colours of Wild Maine Blueberries

As you can see they're not just blue -at least not to start with - they go through a variety of delightful, mellowed shades from green and almost white through red, lilac and purple to finally end up that beautiful bloomed blue.

As you can also see in the picture above there's a reason why they used to be called Starberries - a name I think should be revived for it's romantic ring.

Blueberry barrens only bear fruit every other year - here's a link to the UMaine information on our wonderful wild berry and click on the name to visit one of our state's growers in Blue Hill, Maine: GM Allen and Son

Even navy blue and magenta...the one below I took at dusk and couldn't quite get the focus but the camera did capture the glow of these berries in the evening light:

I will have a new Blueberry recipe coming as soon as the crop is in probably around August 1st.

 I just recently created this logo for the Etsy Maine Team using a blueberry painting I did some years ago and I created a watercolour painting of the state bird, the Chickadee, especially for the logo:

This the Facebook cover above and the profile picture below:

 and a t-shirt design for the teamies to wear with pride!

And now there's an Etsy Maine Team CafePress shop too - hooray - click HERE! for t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and so much more

 This is the original blueberry painting I scanned and used for the background - I will be making an allover print of it soon for my Spoonflower shop.

and my best shot so far of wild Maine blueberries - available as a print in my Etsy shop HERE

These cool blue delphiniums are also blooming right now - their colour always amazes me - such a pure and glistening sky blue with a hint of lavender - so very pretty

Isn't this colour palette just breathtaking with the wild daylilies:

 

This post is part of the Rurality Blog Hop - click the picture link to visit the other participants:

'Join this site' is going bye bye - Bloglovin is the new way to follow Pattern Patisserie

I just learned that the "Join this site" widget by Google is becoming defunct on July 1st so at the suggestion of Everyday is a Holiday I have signed up with Bloglovin and now you can follow me there along with all your favourite blogs, assuming they have signed up also, and find new ones to follow too.

Thank you, Patricia

Ayuh - it's Christmas time in Maine!

Ayuh!! Merry Christmas from Maine!

..and what does Ayuh mean? Well - here's a couple of definitions from the Urban Dictionary:

1. A word used to end a statement; in a Maine accent.
2. A word used to confirm a statement; in a Maine accent.

 Let's go ta the faya, ayuh.
 

I'm a Mainuh, ayuh.
 
Wanna go ta the faya?

Answer: Ayuh

I'll admit to be a tad tardy creating my new Maine snowman but I'll have him all set to go next year, won't I? I originally created the little guy as a greeting card for a company in Maine but as a Cape Cod card for the Christmas Tree shops who were based in Cape Cod and at the time I was living there too. It originally had a border of cranberries and recently methought - "he also looks like a Maine snowman with his lobster trap, so'wester and the little lighthouse so why don't I change out the cranberries for blueberries" and so I did using elements from this design, which was created to be on t-shirts printed by Seastreet Graphics in Rockland, Maine, for the border motifs.

Whereas I used to live near cranberry bogs in Cape Cod I now live next to a blueberry barren in Maine so my botanical subjects are gratefully close at hand.

My snowman is awfully small compared to "Olympia Snowe" - the largest, thusfar, snowperson in the World - isn't she cute? With skis for eyelashes and fir trees as arms she stood a proud feet tall in Bethel Maine in 2008 - click HERE for more fetching images of our grand old snow lady.

 Here's my snowman from a couple of years ago - not quite fir trees for arms but small branches from the spruce in the front yard.

Snow is thin on the ground in Midcoast Maine at the moment - it's blowin' a gale and raining right now - and a white Christmas is not looking so promising but it'll always be beautiful here anyways :) 

You can purchase my Maine snowman as greetings cards HERE and a mini poster HERE.

Thanks and have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Carrington Lane Bakery is open for Business!!

A few short weeks ago my friend Anne got in touch with me and asked me to design a logo for her for her new Etsy online shop "Carrington Lane Bakery" - I was so excited as I have been an ardent admirer of Anne's baked goods since the day I first tasted them about three years ago. Anne wanted a cosy, charming feel for her shop with a bit of European flair as she decided to skew the theme of the shop towards international delights - baked goods from countries near and far made in Maine with wholesome ingredients and as many local ones as possible - sounds just fine to me.

So I got started by creating three different quick sketches to establish a look and colour pallette:

Obviously, as evidenced by the top picture, Anne chose to go with the lower image but decided to go with a red gingham instead of the blue - bless her little cotton socks - she chose one and stuck to it and it was so easy for me to translate her wishes into my happy command, especially so as she plied me with samples of her goods and also baked up some Milanos for me to photograph and illustrate for the 'biscuit' on the saucer. Here is the banner and profile picture for Carrington Lane Bakery on Facebook:

Next I designed a banner for Anne's shop on Etsy:

 ...which co-ordinates and complements her Facebook banner - the Etsy banner is hard to do as it is so shallow and wide - quite the design challenge I'd say!!

 Here are pictures of the first three delicious International Delights Anne is offering from her newly opened store:

Cheerio! Caramelly, oaty Flapjacks from the UK

CIAO!! Delightful Milanos from Italy

Ooh la la - Espresso Hazelnut Macarons from France

As you can see on the cup in the logo I also created a monogram for CLB and I reworked this into a round label for Anne's packages thus:

Best of luck with Carrington Lane Bakery! Friends do visit the shop HERE!

Happy Earth Day 2012!

Happy Earth Day one and all!!

Here are links to some organizations I think are doing a wonderful job to help our lovely planet. Who would you add to this list?

SLOW FOOD

EARTH HOUR

MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS and GARDENERS ASSOCIATION

PRINCE CHARLES - yes he's been an avid environmentalist since the early 70's - this link is to just one of his projects.

Happy Easter - it's snowing in Maine!!

 

It's only snowing a teeny tiny bit and there are breaks of almost sun in between. Our daffodils are not out yet so I thought you might enjoy the daffodil painting above and the two Easter lily designs below. Happy Easter.

"Gilding the Lily"

"Serape" - a pencil drawing rug design

 Enjoy your day, don't eat too much chocolate - Patricia

April is Autism Awareness Month.

In honour of my good buddy Kristofer I am joining with the CafePress community in donating 10% of the retail profits from specially tagged items in my shop from today, April 1st, until April 30th. The monies will go to two Autism charities as chosen by the CafePress community.

THIS HAS BEEN UPDATED FOR AUTISM AWARENESS 2013 - the Monarch, anything Pink Cupcake, The Angel of Belfast and also Kaleidoscope HERE

have all been tagged for April 2013

All items in my shop carrying any variation of the following images have been tagged to be part of this effort. Thanks for shopping and helping make a difference - sincerely, Patricia

Available here

This design is available in a number of variations so please just go the main store HERE

Available here

Available here

Available here

Available here

Available here - near the bottom.

Thank you!!

Designing a logo for Farmetta Farm, Morrill, Maine

Here is the finished Farmetta Farm logo which I recently designed at the behest of proprietors Rose Rapp and Wes Soper.

As Rose says of the farm:

"We should have named the farm the happy critter farm. We strive to build this farm from the soil up. Having healthy thick dark soil will feed the animals, keeping them content to be who they are. Sheep being sheep. Chickens scratching up a storm. Ducks marching out on bug patrol. You just can't beat it!"

As I usually do with a logo design project and after ascertaining some important motifs to be included in the logo - specifically a sunflower and 'farmstead' - I created 2 or 3 loose coloured pencil layouts on tracing paper to present to the client for review and help pinpoint a direction in which to hone the design.

 The 3 above helped me realize that Rose and I had very different ideas of what farmstead meant and Rose asked specifically that it should evoke the farmstead - in my mind I was thinking of the farm buildings and homestead so I conjured a farmhouse - Rose was thinking of the fields and pastures and their moto is "From our PASTURES to your PLATE" - so here are some of the second go around sketches.

 As you can see I also played with type/fonts and colours in these last 2, and a half and full sunflower motif. The one above became the chosen design and we tweaked it in colour and layout for the final layout which I painted up in watercolour on paper and then scanned, cleaned and finalized in wonderful Photoshop. 

Next in the order of things we needed to translate the image into black and white for use on Farmetta's labels and order forms as 4 colour printing is expensive for a small operation and a throw away item. 

 

 Then onto Facebook:

Yes this was before the new timeline pages - little did I know they would be coming so soon - the one on the left didn't translate well into a profile pic so I redesigned the masthead to that on the right in order to show the whole name of the farm in the smaller profile picture that goes with each Facebook post. 

Then a new masthead and profile pic for the new Facebook timeline - where now the cover images are big and dynamic and wonderful - yea!!!! 

The new timeline cover - and profile pic below which actually sits on top of the cover on the live Facebook page. 

 

My partner, James Strickland, created the website based upon the logo I designed and the colour pallette I established and a wonderful job he did - don't you agree - click on the name to be whisked off there and take a look yourselves - Farmetta Farm 

Farmetta Farm eggs are fantastic and I always use them now in my recipes for this blog, James enjoys their excellent grass fed beef which is part of their CSA programme and I love visiting the donkeys, chickens, sheep etc when Rose and I enjoy a cuppa and a hearty laugh together at the farm. 

An Acadian chicken says "What?"

Donkey Mother and son - Holly and Jack

Bull eating apples - kept my fingers away from those eager teeth!!

Let me know what you think of my logo and be in touch with Farmetta if you want to buy any of their wonderful products.