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Words of Expectancy

August 25, 2013February 22, 2014 ~ bryanajoy

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2 thoughts on “Words of Expectancy”

Grace @ Cultural Life says:

August 26, 2013 at 7:13 am

Yes! That quote certainly rings true.

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I've had so much fun this week packing up the first batch of the #LettersFromTheSeaTower -- and some of them are going to lucky giveaway winners from the contest right here on instagram! 😊 I've been collecting some fabulous vintage postage stamps for this project and just got these delightful Shakespeare stamps in the mail this afternoon from @vintagepostageshop. You'll be able to sign up for a subscription so, so soon, and (who knows?) you might even get one of these Shakespeare stamps on your first letter! #vintagestamps #postagestamps #shakespeare #stampcollection #bookishart #subscriptionmail #letters #happymail #snailmail #snailmailrevolution #literatureandart #literaryart

This afternoon I had time for coffee and an entire slim volume of e.e. cummings in the bookstore. These poems are like so many little windows into heartache and the dark universal fear of inevitable loss and the desperate urge to relish the vibrant, passing, puddle-wonderful spring. But also, I found in the book some startling gems that catch the light, and this one in particular touched me in my own vulnerable places and has been on my mind all evening. I love the tenderness of this poem and how sadly cummings evokes the separation of death and how gently he holds out hope for love even after the severing, forevering snow. #eecummings #coffeeandbooks #modernpoetry #cummings #loss #death #resurrection #hope #courage #spring #poetry #AlsoThenIsUntil #age #literature #bookstagram #bookish

[UPDATE: Tuesday, Nov 6. The giveaway is now closed and I have decided to pick SIX additional winners, for a grand total of 16, mostly just because I received so many messages expressing such enthusiasm, interest, and support for the project and I wanted to include as many people as I possibly could!! 🎉 So congratulations to the following people: @surprisedbysehnsucht @taknthelonghway @battle.swan @dendryad @jeaneenlenn @jasmine__sauceda @living_simply_abundant @julie_4110 @hopeanchoredart @medieval_monday @_jeff.a.walker_ @little.panda9 @ytteh19 @teadrinkingfool @notyouraverageread and @therealgqquintero! Your letters should be in the mail by next week. Thanks for entering the giveaway, and thank you to everyone who has expressed support for the project. I so appreciate you all. 😊] So did you hear that I'm going to be producing a handmade monthly subscription letter celebrating literature and the arts and what they mean for the Great Battle of Our Time? It'll be a handwritten letter with copies printed on beautiful cotton paper and complete with watercolor sketches, calligraphy, and courage-giving pieces of classic poetry and the Great Books. And you have until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to enter to win a free copy of the first letter! I'm giving away ten of them right here on Instagram and the way to enter is sooo simple. All you have to do is DM me your mailing address. Yep. That's it. International addresses are fine as well. Then tomorrow night I'll select ten random winners and put this absolutely gorgeous letter in the post for them. (Here's a sneak peek of some of my packaging material, lit by a lovely Earl Grey candle. 😊) If this interests you, you can read more about the project in my post from Saturday. If you want to subscribe, a link will be available by the end of the week! #snailmailrevival #snailmail #happymail #TheGreatBooks #LettersFromTheSeaTower #literature #literatureandart #literaryart #snailmaillove #bookishart #CharlotteMason #thebeautifulandthegood #theclassics #JRRTolkien #Beowulf #mailart #artletters #commonplacebook #courage #livingbooks #handwritten #giveaway #artgiveaway #handmadelettera #letters #letterwriting #sendmoreletters

It’s that time! 😊 The time has come to finally share the project I’ve been working on launching for the past two months. And oh my goodness am I delighted about it. It’s been so hard to keep this one a secret! So here it is: I’m going to produce a handmade monthly subscription letter that celebrates art and literature and how it matters for the Great Battle of Our Time. I’ll fill these letters with watercolor paintings and sketches, field notes from nature or history or my travels, and illustrated poetry or quotes from my commonplace book. My dream for this project is to produce a letter that fills people with courage and creativity. And I want to make gorgeous, high-quality copies of them and personalize each one and mail them out all over the world. ✉🌍Because I know: the world isn’t always a glad place. What’s around us is sometimes so dark. And I want to do some little thing to bring the wisdom and the beauty of the ages right down into mailboxes and homes in a tangible form: fresh artwork on paper you can hold and hang up on the fridge and carry around in your pocket. I want to revive beautiful, meaningful, and unique hard-copy mail. I want to help promote courage, because goodness only knows we NEED it. I need it every day. Over the past two months, I’ve spent many hours getting this project ready to launch and producing the first letter. It’s printed right here in my own home on thick, 100% cotton paper and packaged in the most epic envelopes and I want to start sending it out right away because I’m just that excited for it. 😀 The subscription link will be available sometime next week, but in the meantime, I’m going to send it out absolutely free to TEN people who request it right here on IG. So if this project sounds like something you want to be involved in, send me your mailing address in a DM (international too!). On Tuesday after 5 I’ll select ten random entrants to receive the first letter at no cost! The project is called Letters From The Sea Tower and if you want to find out why, you can read all about it in the first letter. But I’ll give you a little hint: it has to do with Tolkien and Beowulf and it’s every bit as wonderful as that sounds. 😉

You might remember that back in September, I said I was working on a large-scale project involving snail mail and art and books and such and that it would be something that involves everyone. Well, I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow is the big day: I'll be posting an announcement about it tomorrow and several people will be getting a lovely prize as part of the kick-off, so stick around and don't miss out! 😉 #snailmail #artgiveaway #giveaway #bookishart #literaryary #mailboxart #surprise #announcement #thebeautifulandthegood #mailart #LettersFromTheSeaTower

Here's a commissioned miniature I finished up last week, celebrating the living power of literature and the strong tug of story on our souls. Doesn't my client have the most impeccable taste in this choice of quote? 😊 #GeorgeMacDonald #livingbooks #literature #fantasy #art #artcommission #imagination #calligraphy #traditionalcalligraphy #dippencalligraphy #atthebackofthenorthwind #thelightprincess #phantastes #sirgibbie #illumination #watercolorart #bookishart #literaryart #watercolorminiature

I love thee with the passion put to use / In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. / I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death. [Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 43] ________________________________________ Thanks for being my comforter and companion and giving me courage when things don't go like I want them to. Also, thanks for marrying me 5 months and 4 days ago. 😊 #elizabethbarrettbrowning #HowDoILoveThee #sonnet43 #caprockcanyon #marriage #victorianpoetry

Detail shot from a larger commissioned piece that I just finished after many many hours. (I definitely got inspiration for this part of the design from @tri.shiba's FAR superior example from earlier this week.) I just love how the shadows and gold highlights turned out, so I wanted to share this photo even though the artificial indoor lighting isn't the greatest. (We're having so much rain here in Abilene that I don't know when there will be enough sunlight to take photos of gilt letters again!) #calligraphy #illuminatedletters #art #customart #artcommission #etsyseller #lombardic #psalm23 #traditionalcalligraphy

"There is a place called 'heaven' where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten and the hopes unfulfilled are continued. We may laugh together yet." (J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter to Michael Tolkien) ________________________________________ I have pages of Tolkien's letters to his sons copied down in my commonplace books and have found much solace in them over the years. Tolkien wrote to Christopher and Michael through the global chaos and uncertainty of WWII and into his declining years of old age. These letters feel like snippets of transparent vision into his life, eccentricities, frailty, dreams, and wisdom. Most importantly, perhaps, they disclose a man persistent in hope despite the ugly realities of doubt and warfare and monotony. I made this little Tolkien sketch this morning -- and yes, it is part of the secret project. 😉 #JRRTolkien #tolkien #tolkienart #tolkiensketches #tolkienquotes #tolkienletters #hope #sketches #pencilportraits #britishliterature #thelordoftherings #lotr #snailmail #art #etsyseller #literaryart #bookishart

Concept draft for a piece that's part of my latest project (which is still a surprise 🤐). Still need to do some work on my mountains and rocks. But ahhhhhh, I'm so excited for this and can't wait to tell you all about it! Also, I got to use a Micron 003 pen for the first time and where has this been all my life?! I didn't even know Micron made a pen this small until a couple weeks ago but this tiny tip is just what I've been wishing for. Ink drawing just got twice as much fun. 😊 #ink #micronpens #pendrawing #towerdrawing #pensketch #sketches #etsyseller #workinprogress #castledrawing #illustration

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