February Favorites
plus What I Read and New Art :)
Hello again and thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed to Primrose Pages! I am so excited to start sharing more in this new space. This newsletter will be acting as my February Wrapped style post and will include some favorites from last month, the books I read and what I thought about them, new art and some updates on what’s been going on behind the scenes.
Up First!
February Favorites ❤️
I had three favorites in February that really stood out to me.
First, is the Quirky Cup Collective Reading Journal. These are made by a small business in Australia and she has many reading journal designs. I purchased the Sugar & Spice version (it is so beautiful) and have been using it as my only reading journal this year. So far so good. I love having all of my book notes in one place and it’s pretty enough it sits out on my desk in a permanent spot making it easily accessible. The only downside is there is a little too much room, I don’t need to record THAT much about what I’m reading, haha.
Second, is the Tom’s Studio Lumos Duo pen. I bought this for myself as a Christmas Gift. I’d seen a ton of ads for it and absolutely LOVED the idea of one pen to rule then all - haha. Basically a pen that is supposed to replace all other pens, be forever refillable and prevent empty pen bodies from finding their way to a landfill. I actually recorded an unboxing video and first look review on Youtube. You can find it here. This is me updating to say, Yes. I love it, I use it almost exclusively at this point. It’s a great pen and I still haven’t had to refill the ink!
Third, is the mini iPad. My husband purchased one for me for Valentine’s Day which was so sweet of him. Now that we are living in Europe we are traveling A LOT. Trying to get the most out of our time while we are here and the goal is to see EVERYTHING and there is a lot to see. Traveling with my work iPad and even my MacBook gives me a TON of anxiety. I’m constantly worrying that I’m going to lose it, break it or it will be stolen. But I do really value being able to access my files and being able to do my digital art when we’re on the go. Enter the mini iPad. Honestly I’ve almost fallen more in love with the mini version. I’ve been using it to read books that are photograph heavy, to do my morning workout routines, to play cozy little games and to animate sweet little illustrated reels for instagram. It’s perfect to grab to play one while we’re watching TV in the morning. I absolutely have fallen in love with the mini.
Side note: The cute little wallpaper on my iPad mini is hand drawn by me! and available as a download on my patreon (for phone, tablet and desktop). I love the cute little bunnies! 🐰
What I Read in February 📕
I started the month off great with this lovely graphic novel Sheets by Brenna Thummler. Honestly, this was the first graphic novel I’ve ever really read. I was drawn to it because it features a ghost and I’m all about the cute ghosties! The illustrations were so fun and I liked the story. I felt like the ending was a little too rushed but I especially enjoyed the “white space” in the store where you could really take a minute to absorb the atmosphere and feel what was going on. 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Next up was Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. This was campy with a capitol C! However, it didn’t take itself too seriously which made the campiness of it fun instead of cringe. That being said I will be picking up book 2. Three and a half stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Third up with this genre bending Fantasy - Murder Mystery, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet. Told from the point of view of Din (the Watson) who is assistant to investigator Ana (the Sherlock). Din has been altered to have a perfect memory. Ana is a genius recluse who stays inside most of the time and keeps herself blindfolded to avoid overstimulation and heighten her other senses. The stakes were believable, the world was really interesting but the character building was a little weak. I hope this is approved in the next book. Four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Garlic the Vampire by Bree Paulson was such a delight to read. Just a cute little story about an anthropomorphized garlic who is tasked to confront the new resident vampire. Cute story, cute illustration! I’m starting to get the popularity of the graphic novel. There’s so much story you can share with the illustrations that aren’t in the text. This one does a fantastic job. It definitely felt like an all ages type of story which is always nice to find. 5 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson was ooookay. This was her debut adult novel. I have loved Pearson’s other YA works but this one fell a little short. I was really enjoying it for the most part until we got to the ending which was just….a choice. Three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare was a pleasant surprise. I did not have high hopes heading into Clare’s debut adult novel. I felt like the world building and character building were on point! The plot however felt very slow considering the length of this book but my understanding is that this book was setting us up for the rest of the series so I do have high hopes for book two! 4 and a quarter stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I also picked up three children’s picture books this month. I LOVE children’s books. They are small easily digestible ART books with a cute story as a bonus! (in my opinion haha) A Perfectly Messed Up Story by Patrick McDonnel is an adorable story about not letting the messiness that is life ruin your day. On a more meta level it felt like a commentary on Self Worth.
The Bakery Dragon has gorgeous illustration and the little dragon sitting on his hoard of golden bread was just adorable. I really enjoyed the story of finding your own way of doing things and building community. So sweet.
Oak the Littlest Leaf Girl was so cute! I love the illustrations of Lucy Fleming and this book by her did not disappoint. The story is about a little girl who is resistant to change and learns to embrace it.
New Art
I only finished one big art piece since the last update. This cottage-core vibes illustration of a bunny obsessed little girl taking a nap in her room. She’s looking forward to something exciting after her rest!
The reason this was the only piece I have to update you with is because I have officially started the process of querying literary agents with my children’s book that I’ve written and will illustrate. This is such an exciting and scary step!
Coming up this week I will be working on the March Patreon Illustration downloads and new sticker collections for the month of March. I will be sharing more about these projects on social media! I’m also in the midst of filming a new studio vlog which I hope to have up of for patrons at the end of next week and up for YouTube at large at the end of next weekend.
Thank you so much for reading. Chat soon!
🤍 Amber
The Primrose Corner