It's hard to believe, but 2011 is coming to a close which means this is the last desktop calendar in my Modern Homesteading series. I hope you've enjoyed them and that they've brightened your workspace throughout the year! Many thanks to Willi Galloway from Digginfood for collaborating with me on this project and for sharing my illustrations on her blog. Be sure to pick up a copy of her beautiful book, Grow. Cook. Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening that is coming out in February 2012.

In case you miss having my illustrations at your fingertips, don't worry! You can find all twelve illustrations available as a note card set that you can find on my Etsy site. They even come with stickers and in a cute little drawstring bag. Perfect for hostess gifts or stocking stuffers!

Have fun and save money by crafting up your holiday decorations with things found in your garden. Here is a pic of one of the wreaths I made last year with things found around my yard and neighborhood. 

As always there are three sizes of the desktop calendar to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. I hope you have a peaceful and warm holiday season! 

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It's that time of year when I switch from my outdoor hobbies to indoor hobbies. Luckily our winters in the Northwest usually don't get too bad until late November or December, so I am still able to get out and do some gardening projects. Last weekend I harvested the potatoes and put in a new flower bed. Hopefully I will get around to planting some bulbs for spring blossoms.

Once I put away my gardening tools for the seaon, I will be whipping out my knitting needles and get cranking on some cozy projects. I picked up several books from the library to try to learn some new stitches—so far all I've ever knitted are pretty simple scarves, but maybe I will get more ambitious.

Here's a pic of my dog Murray modeling a scarf I knitted a couple of years ago. The needles I used are huge and I love how fast it knits up with the LionBrand 'thick & quick' yarn.

Below are the links for the three sizes of the desktop calendar. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file, then set it as your desktop image.

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Fall has officially arrived in the Northwest—crisp nights, golden leaves and my garden is starting to fade a bit. There's still a lot hanging on, showing off their colors like the purple asters, yellow dogwood and golden hops that grow up a trellis at the back door. The golden hops are actually more of a brilliant bright green, and right now they are putting all of their energy into making the cute little flowers that hang like lanterns in clusters. 

In my little neighborhood I have two neighbors that brew their own beer (I know, lucky right??) so I offered some of the hop flowers to see how they would brew. Today I picked a colander full and put them in the freezer as I was instructed—hopefully they make for a flavorful batch of beer.

As always there are three sizes of the desktop calendar to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. Cheers!

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It's September and time for a new calendar! The weather lately has definitely been feeling more fall-like with cooler days and crisp nights. In the garden, I pulled out all of my summer lettuces that were going to seed and planted some fall veggies: broccoli, bok choy, lettuces, collard greens, spinach and more. Hopefully we'll get some more tomatoes before it gets too cold.

In the Northwest a lot of people go foraging for mushrooms in the fall. The forests here are a perfect growing place for many varieties. Last year my husband went with some friends and came home with a bunch of matsutakes and chanterelles—yum! The Puget Sound Mycological Society even has a Wild Mushroom show in October that is really interesting. 

As always there are three sizes to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. 

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One of the highlights of my summer was taking a two day class at Pacific Northwest College of Art taught by designer/quilter Denyse Schmidt. I've followed Denyse's career ever since I saw an article on her in Martha Stewart's magazine about 10 years ago. While I love fabric and quilts, I've never actually made one—I do sew, but consider myself a novice and generally use a 'figure it out as I go approach'. The class was a great opportunity to learn not only from Denyse, but other talented women—there were about 16 people in the class in all—some from the Northwest, but others from all over.

The first day we spent making three improvised blocks by drawing pieces of fabric from the three different bags—small, medium and large. We had to use whatever random piece you pulled which produces unexpected results and happy accidents. After we did those three blocks, Denyse talked about the components to design and things to think about as we sketched ideas for a series of blocks that would make up a whole quilt. 

At the end of the second day we all put our blocks up on the wall and talked about the process, what we liked, didn't like, what suprised us and where we'd take them next. Some people did a ton of blocks, I'm a little slower and got three done but look forward to doing more. It definitely made the idea of making a whole quilt less intimidating.

Detail of one of my 'garden' blocks

During this time my friend Tara Bliven from Ephemera Press had this cool idea for a project she called The Elevated Envelope. The idea was to create something fun that you could send in the mail to 10 other people and the theme was 'Summertime'. Following on the heels of my quilting class, I thought it would be fun to take the same techniques but use paper—randomly pulling pieces out of the box and then working with what I had. Again, it was so surprising to see these combinations and juxtapositions appear that were way more interesting than anything you could ever plan. Here are some photos of the envelopes I made. Because of the somewhat fragile nature of the finished envelopes, I mailed them in glassine envelopes for protection.

Stitching the paper quilts

Fronts of the 'quilt' envelopes
Backs of the 'quilt' envelopesDetail of envelope front

Detail of envelope backDetail of envelope front

It's August which means you probably have a lot of bounty from your garden and want to hold on to it for those long winter days. Canning and preserving are a great way to enjoy those summer flavors through out the year.

You can pop over to Willi Galloway's blog, Digginfood for a great recipe for Refrigerator Pickles. I hope I get some cucumbers sometime soon so I can try it out!

As always there are three sizes to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. Happy canning!

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Here in Seattle summer weather usually doesn't arrive until after the fourth of July. This spring and summer have been no exception, but it's finally starting to heat up thankfully. Even with the cooler, wet weather our garden has been exploding, especially the leafy veggies like lettuces, kale and chard. The peas have been pretty happy too. I'm already on my second crop of spinach after the first one came early, then bolted.

At our house we have a veggie garden and herb garden in our back yard, just steps outside our back door which is awesome. Last summer we put a raised bed in our alley which is great for plants that like full sun and hotter temperatures. We've got some green tomatoes, beets, carrots, squash and brussel sprouts which are crazy looking if you've never seen them outside of the market. Here is a little tour of our garden for you.

I hope you enjoy the July calendar and the bounty in your own backyard. I'd love to hear what's growing in your own gardens! As always there are three sizes to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. And be sure to visit my friend Willi Galloway's blog Digginfood for great gardening tips, recipes and other fun stuff—you can also find my calendars for download there.

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There are a lot of backyard chicken coops here in Seattle—I know of at least four in my neighborhood and there are probably more. In fact, there is even a coop tour on July 9th. If we had a good spot for one I'm sure we'd have one too, but for now, we enjoy visiting the neighbor's coops. This month's calendar is one of my favorite from my note card set and I hope you enjoy it too.

As always there are three sizes to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. And be sure to visit my friend Willi Galloway's blog Digginfood for great gardening and food tips—you can also find my calendars for download there.

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Lisa, who wrote: Beautiful work, I love the bees! and the canning jars! and the goats! and and and

and 

Emily, who wrote: I'm loving your calendars that you do for Willi's blog site. They have been on my computer desktop since January! I'm glad to have found your website through digginfood.com. Thanks for sharing!

Lisa and Emily, please email to hello (at) annebryantcreative.com with a mailing address so I send the cards your way. 

I'll continue to have a new calendar for download each month for the rest of the 2011. If you didn't win and would like a set of note cards, you can always purchase them from my Etsy shop.

I love goats! They're so bouncy and cute. When I was a little girl my uncle's nanny goat had three babies and I wanted to take them home with me so badly. Here in Seattle you can rent goats to clear blackberry or other rampant growth in your garden which I think is awesome—definitely a win-win deal!

May is coming up fast, so I thought I'd post my desktop calendar for download. I hope you enjoy it! As always there are three sizes to choose from. Just select which one fits your monitor and click on the link to automatically download the file. And be sure to visit my friend Willi Galloway's blog Digginfood for great gardening and food tips—you can also find my calendars for download there.

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One more thing! I'm giving away two sets of my Modern Homesteading note card sets which have all 12 of my calendar illustrations, plus stickers and envelopes in a cute little drawstring bag. Just leave a comment on this post and on Friday May 13th, I will randomly select two winners and announce them here on the blog. I'll request the winner email me with their contact info so I can drop their card set in the mail. That's it! :)