Catching Up and Citizenship!

Time keeps flying by, as it does. I wanted to do a little update to let you know what I’ve been busy with over winter and now spring. First, since I already gave it away in the title, I got my British Citizenship in March! I can’t believe how fast the years have gone by, I’ve been living here in the UK for 12 years. Time flies when you’re having fun (happy) or just really busy!

I applied for citizenship by submitting lots of paperwork and a substantial fee. No freebies here! Then I got the email saying it was accepted and the date of the ceremony. We bought three flags online, so I could bring them to the ceremony for pictures. We had planned to go to a special site for a photo opp but the weather just didn’t cooperate! Yes, in the photo below, those are all my flags!

It was really nice, there were 11 or 12 other people receiving citizenship, two were also Americans! This took place where I live in the Scottish Borders. We were called up one at a time to give our pledge, repeating it as read by the bursar. Then Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair, presented each of us with a medallion, that was a nice surprise.

Lady Catherine Maxwell Stuart, of Traquair House, was really down to earth and friendly to chat to. After the ceremony we talked about how Gary and I had visited Traquair house years ago and about goats. She has goats and I had a variety of goats when I lived in New York. Here’s a link to the Traquair House website and I think we’ll have to have another visit so I can share a blog post about it!

We each gave the pledge to the crown while standing next to a photo of the King. Just to be clear, the reason I had a US flag with me is because I now have a dual citizenship. I would never give up my US citizenship, of which I’m very proud. But I’m also proud to be a Brit now as I love this country. I won’t talk about politics here, Gary and I talk enough about things, we’ll just say I feel more settled and a part of where I live now with a proper citizenship.

Now a change of scenery, below this is Gary and I sitting in the back garden in our favorite spot, looking down the valley to the west. I took this about two weeks ago, it was really cold but we still took a break in the sun with our coffee. We’re getting things ready in the garden for a new growing season.

Then Gary talked me into hiking up a local hill to look for some ancient stones marked on the map. I love being on top of high hills because the views make the climb worth the effort. But, I have been suffering from some awful nerve related hip pain. I was so happy the hike up was ok, no pain or leg giving out, but the walk down was painful. I guess I did too much.

The kind of scenes I get to see living in the Scottish Borders, inspires me all the time. I take pictures and say, “oh this would be a beautiful painting!” But it’s also hard to capture the vastness of it all. I have not been painting for months (and it’s killing me!) because I’m focused on updating my website. I’ll be changing the layout and uploading much better images of my work. All winter I’ve been printing greeting cards and prints of my work. I have a new printer so have to re-print all to make sure I have the correct colors and layout.

Then I take pictures of the cards that I’ll be able to use on this website, in a brand new SHOP I’m putting together! YAYYY!! I’m so excited about it, to be able to share more of my work with you all. I’ll be offering images that have never been seen before, new illustrations and some older landscapes from field sketchbooks that I did in Northumberland. Below shows some new designs and paintings never shared before! I will have lots of cards and prints for Christmas, Birthdays, Easter and more.

I’m also having a play with creating hand cut stickers! I love playing with my images to create new things.

I’ve also created really special gift tags that match each greeting card. So you could send a gift with a special tag and have a matching card to go with it. Also chunky gorgeous bookmarks that match every card, you can write something on the back and send with a card as a special little gift. Some of them will have a fantastic glitter or sparkle clear vinyl layer on top, I can’t get enough of how cool these look!

Well there you have it, a busy winter hopefully will lead to the wonderful new shop I’m creating. I’m working hard on it and will keep you updated here.

Happy Spring everyone! Please leave me a comment to let me know you’ve dropped by.