New greeting card design release - just in time for the holidays!

Don’t you love to receive a unique card in the mail - maybe a unique design with a personal touch?

Saint-Amand holiday card front & back — L'église Saint-Amand front & back

Today I share my 2021 holiday card available for purchase.

Saint-Amand is a village over the hill not far from my house. It is a short bike ride away, and offers the nearest café to where I live.

The church in Saint-Amand is nestled within the community, on a small square and near the Chez La Marcelle café and along a walking path.

Mixing the colors and choosing just the right ones

I hope you like this design! I so enjoy sharing my French communities with you.

Details:⁠

-Minimum order: one pack of 10

1 pack of 10: $35

Extra packs: $30 each

-original watercolor painting printed on smooth cardstock

-card size: 4.13" x 5.83" ⁠delivered with a white envelope

-custom printed in groups of ten⁠

-blank interior allows for your personalized message⁠

-the back of the card says simply "Saint-Amand, La Creuse"

with the artist’s signature or website

-printed in the USA (for orders outside of the US, the cards are printed in the UK)

-allow two to three weeks from order date for delivery

Water color set with mixed colors on lid — Water color set in action!

Click here to order your cards!

Greeting card with church and village — The final card - ready for you!

St Amand has a very narrow roadway passing through it - every time I drive between these two buildings I hold my breath!

Another view of the *clocher-mur*: an extended wall with openings for the church bells. The yellow sign below is the map for the hiking paths,

Ever since I was in art school, I've been making my own holiday cards. In the beginning, they were all made by hand: printed or drawn; possibly painted or silkscreened.

A few years ago, thinking of all the people I wanted to send cards to who were not receiving one of the few hand created ones, I began printing them with my favoirte Moo card printer (who prints my business cards, too - they’re stunning!).

Saint Amand is a village over a hill, near my house. I can get to it one of four ways (excluding car travel). I can ride my bike to Croix de la Fortune and downhill all the way to Saint Amand, past cows, fields, farms and stone houses. This is very thrilling, because I feel like I can go so fast! The countryside is beautiful and the traffic very light.

The other way I can go is through the village of St Maixant, past the castle, the city hall, the school and the community center (all that makes St Maixant sound way bigger than it is! It is petite, also). Then ride the bike up the hill and over the top, past the grazing cows where one has a beautiful view of the Plateau Millevaches way off in the distance. Green pastures, blue sky, and communities sprinkled from here to the horizon.

The church in Saint Amand is nestled within the community, on a small square and near the Chez La Marcelle restaurant which recently re-opened, reimagined by the two grand daughters of the original Marcelle who had the café in the bottom of her house there for many years. I’ve heard it was a welcoming afterschool hangout for he local children back in the 50’s. The café faces the street that goes through the village named, aptly, "Le Petit Café".

Purchase your holiday cards now

More Photos of My Neighborhood

This week I'm using pictures rather than words to share my everyday experiences with you!

Beautiful blue skies, walking paths, flowers and old cars; cinema in the sky, barns, 13th century church and bicycle rides.

If you like more words, you can read more about it here.

If you’d like to hear more about my adventures, and see my paintings and process, you can sign up for my newsletter. I’d be happy to see you there! Have a lovely week, wherever you are.

A quick tour to Paris

*Vierzon train station, Cher, Centre-Val de Loire*

Harvey and I took a last-minute trip up to Paris last week.

Riding the train is so much fun, so relaxing, and the railroad cars give such a smooth ride! I loved every minute of the trip, even when I ended up walking 4.5 km at midnight in sandal heels—remind me not to do that again!⁠

*Montparnasse Tower, Paris, 14th arrondissement*

Did I say that we arrived at Gare d'Austerlitz after midnight and walked to our hotel in Montparnasse? ⁠

The weather was perfect, we had only backpacks, and the hotel was open all night. We even tried to go by Café Daguerre to celebrate our arrival, but they had closed only a few minutes earlier—at 1 a.m.⁠

That was sad—we thought they would be open until at least 2 a.m! But we were more than halfway to the hotel, so we carried on (and returned to the Café for tea the next morning).⁠

*Luxembourg Garden, Paris, 6th arrondisement*

The Luxembourg Garden was in full bloom. The experience of sitting there watching the world go by is fabulously relaxing. We took a picnic and sat by the pond, watching all of the people live their lives in quiet beauty.⁠

In Paris, I encountered this lovely urban street art that was more like a tunnel wall you could walk through. Absolutely stunning and a real gift to the senses. Merci, Paris.⁠

*Ode to Love and Creation", Paris, 14th arrondissement*

Here is the proper credit for this mosaic art; it was a such a thrill to find it by happenstance!

Génie du lieu: Ode à l’amour et a la création (Genius of the place: Ode to love and to creation) is the title of the piece. Created by Nacarat Color Design, it is located near the Pernety metro stop in the 14th arrondissement.

I’m glad that I can share our trip properly and give more information about the urban art there. I love walking on the streets of Paris and taking in the sights, the sounds, the people and the activity.

Paris, je t'aime.

*L'Église Saint-Merri, Paris. 4th arrondissement. Painting on silk, 13" x13"*

Welcome a little piece of Paris into your home! I have three offerings for you today. This 10"x10" silk painting, in a lovely deep red color includes a blond wooden frame (13"x13"x 1.5"). L'Église Saint-Merri, Paris, 4th arrondissement, describes a wicker chair discovered in the 16th century church that is located between the Seine River and the Pompidou Center on the Right Bank.

*La Caféothèque de Paris, Paris, 4th arrondissement*

Printed on on luxurious Fine Art Velvet paper, these two black and white designs both describe the personality and experience of each café I visited in Paris, and would make a lovely set for your kitchen, dining room or breakfast nook.

*Café Daguerre, Paris, 14th arrondissement*

Both would look very good together!

Rene Shoemaker black and white drawings of Paris café scenes

I thank my lucky stars that I live so close to Paris now. Do you love taking trips, too?

Reading in the Garden

Our house welcomed us with open arms, warming us with heated stone walls as the snow fell upon our arrival. The weather changes often, and when the sun shines here it is breathtakingly beautiful, then I am sitting in the sunlight, soaking up as much vitamin D as I can before the grey skies return. I stand basking in the sunlight, grateful that I have this opportunity to participate in a different culture, discover a sense of history different from that of my home country, and explore Roman roads, hiking trails, tractor paths and foot paths that lead me to unknown locales.

I feel a sense of freedom here that I don’t have in the States. I used to think it came from not knowing the language, but now I think it may be due to the lifestyle. My daily routines that I do are the same here—shop for food, go for walks, talk with my neighbors—but somehow it is also different. There is less sense of stress here. Certainly people still have problems, but as a community they seem to work together to solve those problems.