I forgot to mention we need your slow cooker recipes — FAST!!! for our newest cookbook. Please go to this link and submit your recipe. Thanks!

http://maryengelbreit.insiteadvice.org/make-takes/recipes/surveys-slow-cooker-recipes/

Of course an event like this just cries out for a poster. At first Barbara and I thought about using “Arts and Crafts Keep You Sane”, a poster I did for a signing for Leisure Arts to show my latest stitching kits that they produce.

I love that drawing and goodness knows truer words were never spoken (or rather, put on a poster), but Barbara and I both felt it didn’t quite express what we hope the workshop will be all about.

Almost always, artists work alone in their studios, whether or not the studio is a completely tricked-out room with an actual closing door or one end of the dining room table. Most people need that quiet and solitude to reach down inside and pull out all those thoughts and ideas that eventually turn into a piece of art. But I’ve always felt, after all the work that goes into the creation (and I’m counting all the pre-art thought and planning), that the piece just isn’t finished until somebody looks at it.  Then the communication begins!

Well, imagine that communication starting right at the beginning of a project for a change.  Coming together with a couple hundred like-minded creative people to talk, plan, share ideas, laugh, and PAR-TAY! Yep, we needed a brand new drawing to illustrate this special weekend. I wanted to show a lot of people working on lots of different projects and having lots of fun doing it.

I started out with this sketch

but decided it was too busy.  I reduced the number of people and this is the final drawing I came up with, although the colors and lettering may change a little by the time the Workshop weekend rolls around.

But the sentiment “Bring A Friend, Make A Friend” will stay the same because that’s what the event is really all about. Making things with friends old and new—- what could be more fun??!  Barbara and I hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it, the poster will be available on this website to remind you that there is no better way to spend a few hours than with a bunch of good friends and a huge pile of art supplies!

Registration for the Home Companion Workshop begins Sept 1st, 2009

I just got back from the Craft and Hobby Show in Orlando, FL where I gave the keynote speech on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and as you can see from the photo above, I had the cutest audience EVER! My good friend Kathy Curotto was there with us as well, (Kathy is the former style/craft editor at the Home Companion) teaching some wonderful craft classes , and for those of you who are kicking yourselves for missing out, Kathy will be one of the instructors at our first ever Home Companion Workshop to be held in St. Louis next April. (More on that next post!!)

As I pointed out in my speech— in a pathetic, desperate attempt to fit in with that crafty crowd—I don’t just illustrate, I make things, too!  Here a couple of things I showed them that I thought you might like to see as well.

A chess set that my son Will and I started to make.  Will made the really good bishop and knight, while I made the blobby, round-headed other people.

I love to find cool old books and completely ruin their value by drawing all over them.

At any rate, it was a fun, inspiring weekend and I loved meeting so many of you. But now it’s work, work, work—– back to the neverending Fairy Tale book that actually is due to end happily ever after by next week.  As soon as it’s finished, let’s talk WORKSHOP!!!

- Mary

Hello and welcome to the new and improved Mary Engelbreit website! There are so many things happening at the Studios that we just had to have a brand new way of showcasing them. Plus it’s always good, especially during tough times, to redecorate a little—it puts everything in a whole new light and brings fresh energy to deal with whatever situation you’re in.

And, as you can see, I’m going to be blogging on this website, talking about my work, what goes on here at the office, and asking to hear your ideas and thoughts about what we do here. Needless to say, I only want to hear about them if they’re positive and glowing. Just kidding. Kind of.

What I’m doing here right now is trying to finish my new Fairy Tales book, the third in a little trilogy—Mother Goose, Nursery Tales and now this one.  It’s been a lot of fun to illustrate these stories I know so well, but that deadline is coming up fast!  Already I’m thinking about the next book, The Nutcracker. Never a dull moment. And I would love a dull moment. That’s my goal after this busy summer—several dull moments in a row.

But I’m not complaining about work, certainly not in this economy. I know it’s a hard time especially for artists. Of course artists create art no matter what, just for the sheer joy of it—maybe you’d like to send in photos of what you’ve been working on and we can share them with the class. There’s nothing so inspiring as seeing other people’s work and knowing everybody’s out there, creating away. Makes you want to run out and buy paper and paint and stimulate the economy and your brain cells at the same time.

So stay in touch—let me know what you’d like to read about on the Mary Engelblog and I’ll try to oblige. Just know that we’re glad you’re here and hope you’ll come again soon!

Thank you for your interest in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. We sincerely appreciate your support over the last 11 years! We hope the note from Mary and subscriber information below address any questions you may have.

A Note From Mary
Well, friends, by now most of you have heard that Home Companion magazine is not being published. It was a business decision by our licensed publishing partner based purely on the lack of advertising income, certainly not on circulation or subscriber numbers, both of which remained very strong thanks to all of you!

You may have heard of other home magazines closing – Cottage Living, Domino, O at Home, Home, and Country Home, among others. The sad fact is that home magazines are being hit harder than others because of the dismal housing industry – people aren’t able to sell or buy homes, so fewer people are buying flooring, wallpaper, furniture, etc., so those companies don’t feel they can afford to advertise. It’s a vicious circle!

Since we were not a typical shelter magazine anyway, I hope we’ll find a way to offer the exact right kind of ads so that we can revive our beautiful magazine eventually. It hurts me to see so many wonderful houses out there and meet so many great artists and not have a place to showcase them! We WILL find a way!

We WILL find a way – this miserable economy can’t last forever. Anyway, even if times are tough, we still need to see magical things, right? We still need to know there are people out there producing fantastic things, creating warm and cozy places to live and providing us with the inspiration we need to keep going, for crying out loud! I mean, I love House Beautiful, but I can’t make one magazine last all month – we need more! We need variety! We need Home Companion!

We sincerely appreciate all the emails and notes you’ve been sending to let us know how much you love the magazine. I am sorry that because of the sheer quantity we can’t respond to each of them individually, but please know that we are holding on to all of them as testimonials to show to potential publishers what a great audience we have!

If things don’t work out the way I hope, let me say thank you to all of you supporting us so faithfully for 11 wonderful years. And of course, I can’t say enough about Barbara Martin and our amazing staff at MEHC – they’re the ones who scouted, wrote, photographed, planned, traveled, glued, sewed, and designed so you and I could curl up in a chair for an hour and dream.

I’ll miss them and you – let’s not let too much time go by before we get together again!

PS – PLEASE know that although my job definitely won’t be the same without the magazine, I still have a LOT of other exciting projects coming up – books, cards, calendars, fabric, new gift lines, scrapbooking, crafts and more have me very busy. I can’t wait to share them with you – stay tuned to this website to see all the new tricks I have up my sleeve!

Subscriber Information

We have created this page to help you with any questions or issues you may have about your subscription. Please see this press release for more details.

What will happen to my subscription or the gift subscriptions I’ve given?

If you have paid for a subscription for yourself or as a gift and the payment has been processed, it will be replaced with Martha Stewart Living. You should begin to receive it in February. If you have any questions about your subscriptions, an address change, or would like to cancel the subscription and receive a refund, please contact Martha Stewart Living at 1-800-999-6518. If you had subscribed but not yet paid for a subscription, it was not processed, and therefore did not transfer to Martha Stewart Living. We truly apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

Can I still contact Home Companion?
Home Companion’s customer service and editorial phone numbers and email addresses are no longer active, and all subscriber information, so please only contact Martha Stewart Living for questions about your subscription.

Will Home Companion ever be published again?
Mary Engelbreit does retain ownership of the Home Companion name and brand, so we do hope that at some point in the future we are able to secure a new publishing partner to continue to deliver Mary’s inspiring style!

What does this mean for Mary?
Just to nip any rumors in the bud, this definitely does NOT mean Mary is retiring! Since its inception, Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion has operated as a separate business from Mary’s art licensing company, Mary Engelbreit Studios. She will continue her active schedule of illustrating greeting cards, calendars and books and her company will continue developing licensed products based on her illustrations. The publication of MEHC is near and dear to Mary Engelbreit Studios, but this change will not have a financial or operational impact on the company.

We hope you’ll keep up with us! Mary’s e-newsletter is definitely the best way to get the latest news on events, new products, ideas and free recipes, desktop backgrounds and more. You can sign up to receive the newsletter or update your subscription information on our website.

We also hope to have a brand new website and blog up and running in 2009 to keep you even more informed!