Art download: Home takes time

And a special welcome to new subscribers!

Hello there! And welcome to Dandelion Seeds, an illustrated newsletter from my desk to yours. 

For many of you reading this, there’s a good chance that this is the first post you’re receiving from me, so I’m especially happy to welcome you here today.

This past Saturday was a beautiful whirlwind. My nearly-one-year-old daughter Elena Rose was baptized, before Jose and I whisked her off to her birthday party, to officially celebrate her first year with family and friends.

Elena with three of her four grandparents, who flew in from two different continents to be with us on her big day.

Somewhere between picking up the birthday cake and leaving for the church on Saturday morning, I happened to look down at my phone — and saw a notification that stopped me in my tracks: Substack mentioned your publication in Substack Reads, thanks to the recommendation of my good friend Mike, who writes the newsletter Everything Is Amazing.

I immediately ran into our narrow galley kitchen, where Jose was ironing his shirt for the day. I squeezed my way between the countertop and ironing board, held out my phone, and read the post to him — honored, humbled, heart racing:

Since then, the number of people who subscribe to Dandelion Seeds has almost doubled, and my heart has still yet to settle down. It’s only been two months since I began sharing this newsletter with the world, so a big part of me finds this sudden jump in subscribers rather intimidating. 

But it’s also incredibly inspiring to have so many new faces around here — hi! 👋 — and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. 

Last week, I shared the final installment of “Home is a Cup of Tea.” Next week, I’ll begin sharing the first chapter of a brand-new illustrated essay (here’s a sneak peek of one of the illustrations, in case you missed it on Friday).

And so my original idea for today’s post was for it to be a kind of pause between the two stories. Instead of diving right into the next essay, I thought it could be fun to share some artwork from “Home is a Cup of Tea” that you can download and enjoy in your day-to-day life.

This month, I’ve created two iPhone wallpapers — one with the featured illustration from the essay, and another with the closing line hand-lettered over the artwork. All you need to do is click on the button below each image to download it for free.

After Saturday’s exciting news, I’m now even more grateful for the chance to pause before launching the next essay. And I’m especially grateful to the Substack team for featuring my new creative endeavor in Substack Reads , as well as to all of you who have subscribed over the past few days. 

It’s such a joy to have you here, and I can’t wait to begin journeying through a new illustrated essay with you next week.

With love,
Candace