We’ve Been Quiet, But Not Still

A small update from behind the scenes, and the shape of a new season.

We’ve Been Quiet, But Not Still

If you’ve visited Willow Lane recently, you may have noticed the silence.

The blog has been quiet. The shop has changed. Whole stretches of time passed without a post, a newsletter, or much sign of movement at all. From the outside, it may have looked as though everything had simply paused.

But quiet and stillness are not always the same thing.

Behind the scenes, life has asked a great deal of us over recent months. Some seasons arrive full of energy and open doors. Others ask for patience, rethinking, resilience, and the courage to let old shapes change.

This has been one of those seasons.

We’ve had to make practical decisions, difficult decisions, and sometimes disappointing ones too. Willow Lane shop has now closed, which has brought us much sadness. Yet even in that, something important remained: the desire to keep creating.

So while the public side of things grew quiet, other things continued in softer ways.

There has been new artwork taking shape at the table. Lisa has taken on the challenge of getting to know oil pastels, with her desk slowly coming alive again through sketches, experiments, and the joyful mess of new materials.

Her studio itself closed over the winter — quite simply because it was too cold in the other van. (For those who don’t know, Lisa is currently living in vans with her husband and grown son while they build a house in the wilds of Scotland.)

There has also been steady work continuing behind the pages of future books. Lisa has been deep in the editing of her six-book fantasy series, with the hope of bringing out the first book very soon.

Alongside that, we’ve been having many conversations about what Willow Lane is now — and what it might become next. Though our physical products are no longer available, we’ve been exploring the idea of giving some of them new life as digital downloads for personal use.

And on top of all that, we’ve also begun work on a new colouring book — the third (and we hope not final) title in our 5-Minute Colouring Book Series.

So all in all, there has been a growing sense that perhaps we do not need to return exactly as we were.

Perhaps this next chapter is not about rebuilding everything at once, but about tending what still feels alive.

That may mean sharing more art. It may mean stories from the studio. It may mean new books, new colouring pages, quiet gifts, or simply opening the door again and seeing who still wishes to come in.

Whatever shape it takes, we wanted to begin with something simple:

Hello again.

Thank you for being here, whether you arrived recently or have been with us for years. Thank you, too, for the kindness many of you have shown in quieter seasons.

We are still here. Still making. Still hopeful.

And in the meantime, we have a little gift to share with you. Click here to take a look.

With warmth,
Lisa & Naomi

About the Author: Lisa Saul

Fiction writer · creative guide · lifelong storyteller … Lisa Saul writes in the quiet spaces between words and paint. For more than twenty years she has worked side by side with her sister Naomi — shaping novels, illustrations, notebooks, and the little studio world behind this blog. A lifelong maker, Lisa has moved through journalism, photography, editing, watercolour, and award-nominated fiction, always returning to the same thread: story. Whether she’s writing a novel, illustrating a notebook, or sharing a moment from her creative life, Lisa brings a thoughtful, honest voice shaped by imagination, experience, and a deep love of helping others grow creatively.