Latte's Garden of Life + a Year of the Rabbit Garden Portrait

january 2023

Window to The Bay #34

Happy Year of the Rabbit! It’s the last day of January and the new year is in full force at Laura Ann Studio with new projects and goals! January here saw three long weekends, 5 sick days home from school due to COVID (thankfully mild!), and lots of studying and sketching for a new year theme of “Latte and Lactation.” In case you’ve missed the occasional post through the years, “Latte” (she/her) is my adventure loving-entrepreneurial Dalmatian picture book character - more exciting book announcements to come! My lactation interest stems from a maternal child-health nutrition advocacy passion, and this spring marks the five year renewal of my Certified Lactation Educator certificate! I’m excited to give a bigger platform on Laura Ann Studio to my “North Star” mission for a world where every mom can provide for her kids’ needs, and every child can grow confidently in the direction of their dreams! Learn more and follow the growing Latte the Dalmatian picture book series on Laura Ann Studio Instagram!

latte’s garden of life

Some exciting news here is that Laura Ann Studio is growing! In celebration of the growing baby in my belly comes the birth of the watercolor series Latte’s Garden of Life! With the first two kiddos I enjoyed using The Bump “Pregnancy Week by Week” tracker to follow baby’s growth and development and celebrate and share with family what size fruit or vegetable baby was in any given week - this time I’m painting it! I’m creating my own Laura Ann Studio watercolor Canva template a week at time and photographing the growing bump in my new favorite Ingrid + Isabel denim overalls as my belly transforms. From 20 weeks onward I’ll be photographing and posting a weekly “bump” photo and will be making the watercolor template available for others to use and enjoy when complete - follow along! My “big kids” are sketching their own weekly “garden of life” fruit and vegetable booklets alongside me, and asking some great questions as we read the weekly update. The Latte’s Garden of Life picture book story is brewing - stay tuned!

a Watercolor backyard garden portrait

Speaking of gardens, the celebration of the Lunar New Year “Year of the Rabbit” seemed to be an appropriate time to share a Window to The Bay custom watercolor home portrait of a beautiful backyard vegetable garden in Louisville, Kentucky, framed by Simply Framed. Painted over the summer during our family’s last bout with COVID, I loved painting this garden portrait during my summer studio time in Vermont, where I was tending my own vegetable garden. It’s hard but gratifying work, which made me appreciate all the more the green thumb of these homeowners who have cultivated an annual vegetable garden for many years. They commissioned this portrait as a 45th wedding anniversary gift to each other! I especially loved painting the sunflowers blooming at the compost bin, and at their request, the pesky rabbits and squirrels that love to invade their garden. I’ve been reading a lot of Peter Rabbit picture books with my children since then! This couple has spent much of their lives moving and settling into new places around the world, carrying with them the attitude in each place to “bloom where you’re planted.” I’ve loved that phrase since I heard it, and it was so fun to capture this feeling of home for them in a watercolor garden portrait!

With love for the every day and special days,
Laura Ann Trimble Elbogen

P.S. Do you have any expecting friends who would enjoy using the “Latte’s Garden of Life” bump photo template? Forward this post and e-mail to connect us!