Fresh Starts
Deer friends,
It’s been a little while, but I’m back! I got so wildly excited about launching the website, curating weekly newsletters, and making new art that I might have taken on a liiiittle too much, and as someone who is chronically stuck in the all-or-nothing mindset, I completely stopped all upkeep rather than just scaling back a bit. This new year I want to focus on taking my time; doing things slowly, intentionally, and consistently. So this week I wanted to share a recent project that I made just because I wanted to make it, not because I felt like I had to. I compiled my family’s favorite breakfast recipes into a thoughtfully designed cookbook, filled with clippings of hand-written recipes and family photos, as well as illustrations and photos of the ingredients and dishes. And it was a comforting practice, to slow down and sift through photos and recipes with intention, and to curate a book with care. Ending 2023 with that project gave me so much excitement and curiosity for what 2024 has in store. (And fingers crossed that means another book or two.)
In this week’s newsletter, I share a glimpse into the cookbook , a 2024 calendar release, and a curation of art, images, and objects that I find comfort in.
Here’s the 2024 calendar:
Birth Month Flowers 2024 Calendar
8x11.5”
If you’ve been following my work for a while you’ll remember the birth month flower collection that I worked on and released last year as art prints and tote bags. What you may not know is that I created that collection with the intention of putting together a calendar featuring an art print for each month. And now it’s finally time to share it!
I love collections of all kinds, and to have drawn, designed, and now finally pieced together a calendar that features a whole years worth of art prints feels really special. The calendar is the perfect size, at 8x11”, so it fits well in any space. Each month showcases the corresponding birth month flower and the traits that each flower represents, so you’ll have a different art print displayed in your home each month, inspired by vintage botanical drawings.
This is a limited release, so if you’re interested in purchasing a calendar do so before the collection runs out!
You can check them out here.
On to the next…
This week's inspo roundup is an ode to comfort, intentionality, and hygge; all things that I’m trying to cultivate more of in the New Year.
This week’s collection features lots of handmade objects, imperfect pieces, and soft playful colors. I’ve been especially drawn to art and objects that can make a space feel more like home. This also means I’ve been paying extra close attention to functional pieces like handmade bowls and mugs; pieces that are not only beautiful to look at, but useful as well.
Check out the full inspo board here.
This week’s inspo:
This week I’m highlighting:
The Ibarra Family Breakfast Cookbook
A collection of the very best breakfast recipes, curated by yours truly.
Sifting through shoeboxes of family photos and a nearly-falling-apart binder filled to the brim with saved recipes, I curated my family’s favorite tried and true breakfast recipes into a thoughtfully designed cookbook. Everything from the warm, earth-toned color palette to the handwritten-style font was an intentional choice to make the book feel as reminiscent of the home I grew up in as possible. Pages are filled with family photos and recipe clippings in a scrapbook-like style, mixed with nostalgic patterns and illustrated ingredients. This was a labor of love to create, and merged my love for curation and good food with my background in book/production design and illustration. Here’s some snaps of the book!
I wanted to make the cookbook feel like an elevated scrapbook, with playful photos and illustrations to give it a real homey feel, and a variety of page layouts to keep it interesting and engaging, like the aesthetic of my own favorite cookbooks.
This was such a refreshing newsletter to piece together, and I hope it gives you an idea of where Deer Morgan is headed this year. I can’t wait to share more with you.
Wishing you comfort and joy this year,
Morgan