If it's Tuesday, it must be time for Virtual Coffee

If we were meeting for coffee this morning I would say "hi" and come on in, I'm spending the morning in the studio.

Last night I was the only taker to walk the dog because it was rainy. The light was so beautiful outside though, it was a bit foggy and just so orange-y; must be the reflection from the leaves on the ground. I had to get my camera and go back outside to try to capture the right shade.

Then I spread out the leaves Riley and I have been picking for a school project. I was thinking how each is so very beautiful in its own way.

Over at Amy's Lucky 13 place, the theme today continues to be Halloween. She's wondering what everyone's favorite Halloween candy is (she says she buys hers at the last minute so they don't eat it all which I say, is the whole point - to get to gorge on your favorite stuff). My favorite is the SweetTart rockets.

Oh my. I usually eat so many of them I get sores in my mouth. My least favorite are those molasses Ste. Catherine ones that I used to throw away even before I got home. So imagine my surprise when iMan said they were one of HIS favorites and he proved it by buying a big bag of them.

Oh now look, I've gone and finished my coffee already, I guess I had better get back to work. Thanks for stopping by.

What I've Learned, Week 8

Simple line drawing on sticky back canvas, inktense pencils, the back is collaged with gel pens.

Techniques this week

It's been a couple of weeks of play for me. I've been watching the Skinny-Mini photoshop videos by Kim Klassen, experimenting with that wonderful program, learning where some useful tools are. Here is a shot of a few mini pinecones I've fiddled with:

And yesterday I made a collage sheet, not my first but my first with butcher paper gifted to me by the Queen of Arts last summer. You end up with a nice flexible sheet, easier for cutting up and the collage pieces lay a little flatter. I was thinking pink yesterday and just had a great time with it.

Friday Haiku

Ode to yoga class:

Downward dog, happy baby,

sun salutations.

Can I be grown up

about the tooters? Errr, just

breathe and smell the feet

A little Canadian humour

My niece first alerted me to this YouTube video on her Facebook page. And since I've recently - ahem - mentioned the Bieber haircut, I couldn't resist posting the video. Maybe it's the cold, the language issues, the geese - I don't know - but it's all "ours".

Wordless Wednesday

Virtual Coffee

I've been reading Virtual Coffee at Lucky 13's place for awhile but I've never poured myself a cup. But today I'm inspired because we are talking Halloween and pumpkins. So if we were meeting for coffee today I would show you some photos I took last weekend from our trip to the pumpkin patch. First I would tell you how this guy scared the crap out of me when I filled the jug to water the houseplants.

Then I'd let you know that as pretty as the orange ones are, there are some ghoulish looking pumpkins as well.

And since it had rained like the dickens the day before, there was plenty of mud to go around whilst climbing the hay bales and lurking through the labyrinth.

There were a few unforgettable animal friends we made

and row upon row of trees to hug.

But right now I'm going to sit back and sip my iced mocha coffee and finish off that last raspberry sablette bought in the market store last Saturday.

Having a little fun

Is it just me, or is the comb-forward look, well...a little ridiculous. It's things like this that make me feel old, out of sync and moving backwards. Of course, it's just an illusion. So we decided to try to be hip and cool. May I introduce, Baby Bieber

and Bodhi Bieber

complete with our best rockstar sneers. Yup, it's our real hair.

What I've Learned, Week 7

Front:

Back:

This was a new technique I had in mind for last week's card before the whole mask idea materialized. It comes from the Cloth, Paper, Scissors May/June issue using tissue paper to create texture. Acrylic, stamps, pens.

P.S. I forgot to mention that the back was done with text over one of Kim Klassen's textures.

Friday Haiku

Hormonal mood swings -

fasten your seatbelt and put

your air mask on first.

This is your pilot.

PMS has nothing on

peri-menopause.

Just in case you think

I'm kidding and are laughing

softly to yourself,

ask any woman

over the age of fifty.

If they don't agree

I will eat my hat.

But not before I've swung it

at your head. (bugger)

Wordless Wednesday

All NZ, all the time

I've mentioned my friend Sally here a few times. A dear friend who used to be my neighbour, we have boys the same age who went to the same school. She left last July to move back home to New Zealand, literally the other side of the world. So far we're managing to hold onto our friendship through technology and the good old fashioned post (thanks to her lone efforts). She recently sent me this astonishing koru for my birthday. It is made out of rose quartz and together with the Maori meaning of the koru is my current talisman for new life, growth, strength and peace. I am so very grateful for the people who bring these things into my life.

We also had this little e-discussion over the word, "bugger" which, apparently, is quite a popular expression in NZ. I grew up with not being able to utter the word (of course the adults in my childhood imagined a slightly different spelling of the word) for fear of dire punishment, whereas it is commonly said where Sally lives. She sent me this video that had me howling and convinced me that I had to experience this place for myself.

What I've Learned, Week 6

I started this week's card off intending to use a new technique from the May/June issue of Cloth, Paper Scissors but instead this came through with a life of its own. Collage on black gessoed card. The back is photoshopped text on a texture from Kim Klassen that reads, "How often I wear this mask that everything is alright when deep down inside it doesn't feel alright, none of it is alright. "Fake it until you make it, " is an adage that sometimes gets me through. And sometimes it doesn't. Aging isn't mellowing me the way I expected it might, instead it is making me more defiant to live as I believe."

Friday Haiku

Cutting back the mint

is more significant than

than simply chopping.

Garden fall clean up

means saying good-bye to warmth,

sun and lazy days.

So now that my mint

has finally invaded

the territory,

I'm finding it hard

to take the final blows that

will leave it but sticks

poking through the ground.

In my heart I know, no one

needs to remind me.

Wordless Wednesday

What I've Learned, Week 5

Front:

Back:

Acrylics, collage and embellishments on sticky back canvas. No real new technique this week but I found that I was working bolder (for me) with the chosen materials.

Friday Haiku, the Friday Edition

Ate a falafel

for lunch yesterday. 'Nuf said,

my pipes are clean now.

Friday Haiku (early)

So much freakin' rain

I'm quite over it all now.

Sump pump is pumping,

my fingers are crossed

for there are rivers running

swiftly down the streets.

I'm timing the pump,

switching on every minute.

Should I sleep downstairs

with a bucket or

maybe a bunch of sandbags?

Hello fall, you're here.

Wordless Wednesday

Give me a "P"!

I've been pants shopping lately, having worn through the knee of both of my favorite pairs of jeans and, it's time folks to replace the stretched out, fuzzballed other pants in my closet. Am I asking too much for the following credentials in a pair of pants?

1) be low rise enough so that my belly can comfortably flop over the top while still accommodating my underpants

2) can do something to make my ever-flattening butt a little more shapely (I mean, they've invented the tummy-tuck jean, why not the butt-tuck jean?)

3) have enough room in the leg without making me look like two sausages stuffed into casings

What I've Learned, Week 4

Front:

Back:

Confession: I have always loved seer sucker. So there. The only new technique I tried this week with this particular card was working text in Photoshop. I eventually got the hang of it, at least the straightforward kind of text but good grief it is time consuming.

Friday Haiku

Oh, give me a break.

It's September twenty-fourth -

you can't go just yet.

It's still kind of nice

here in the north. Turn around

and stop your honking.

Wordless Wednesday

Fashionista

My clothes should come with an expiry date. I rarely know when to let them go. I have clothes older than...certainly older than the little person in my house. I think the oldest thing I have is a pair of Patagonia sweat pants that were navy blue when I bought them. I can't bear to throw them away even though they are faded and stretched out of shape and have few moth holes. I can date them back twenty five years, minimum. It's my other, everyday clothes I wish had "best before" labels on them. I would probably still wear them for a while after that date as I still eat the yogurt and eggs that are only "slightly" expired but at least I would have an idea of just how long those clothes have been hanging around. I usually shop for comfort, easy care and durability over aesthetics. I try to not look like a shlub but I probably do most of the time. I did a clothing purge not too long ago but I think I need to go back in again and toss all the long and short sleeve t-shirts that have shrunk in length and the ones that have lost all sense of shape. I am afraid I'll have nothing left to wear though. I will spare the photos this time. What is the oldest piece of clothing in your closet/drawers?

And while we're talking fashion, I can't decide if my new slippers are old lady ones or if they're cool.

What I've Learned, Week 3

Front:

Back:

My new technique this week was taken from the May/June issue of Cloth Paper Scissors using Photoshop to create lettering. I don't feel like I was very successful but it was an interesting experiment. The front was done on Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas with acrylics, collage, inktense and watercolor pencils. The back is also collaged with acrylics and some homemade stamps gifted to my by the Queen of Arts.

Friday Haiku

I'd like you to meet

Gustave. Indeed, he's a rat.

Yet, a real joy. Hmmmm...

you may screech, "a rat!!!!???"

And normally I'd screech too.

But he's a sweetie.

We met him today

Riley and I. My friend, "T"

had adopted him.

She was still mourning

her first rat she named, "Zelda",

who passed a year now.

Gotta love Gussie.

My goodness he makes me think

I could love one too.

My apologies -

the photos were taken with

my cheapie cell phone.

Wordless Wednesday

What I've Learned, Week 2

Front:

Back:

Distress inks with collage technique inspired by the book, "Artist Trading Card Workshop" by Bernie Berlin which was gifted to me by the sweet and generous Queen of Arts last July.

Back to School

Are you tired of that subject yet? All this summer I have done little art but I have been cogitating. And at times when I'm not making any art it is frustrating and I am frequently short of temper, but not this summer.

I have just started my own school year too. I'm signed up for a photo a day for 365 days (day 15 today). It's a challenge - not so much right now while it's fresh but when it's around - oh, say, day 127? I'm guessing. But the intent is to improve my skills. I am trying to do at least one shot on manual. Taking photos is like eating chips - you can't take just one. I have already found that picking up the camera with intent, and not just to capture a moment, is waking up part of my brain, my heart and my spirit.

Another year-long project I've signed myself up for was inspired by Caroline Myss' suggestion that on our birthdays we ask ourselves, "what can I do this year to learn more about myself?" I've tweaked that to asking, "what am I learning (about myself) this week?" I'm on week 2 now and in being aware of that ever-present question I'm discovering a lot about myself and my world. This week I had a hard time narrowing down from my list which image I want to work with. In the spirit of the 52 questions I participated in in 2009 created by Emily Falconbridge, I've picked up a pack of flash cards and am going to make art on one side, journalling on the other over this next year. In my cogitation this summer I also wanted to try one new technique a week for an undetermined time. Here is my card for week 1, using Kim Klassen's free Friday photoshop textures. On the front I blended a simple photo with her mustard seed texture and used some distress inks, the back I used her Break Free and Fly texture with simple text on top.

Thursdays

Oh but I love Thursdays! My work week is done and my real work can start. In the spirit of kind over matter, and in the hope I am not infringing on any copyrights, I wanted to share a couple of the cards I received recently.

The bottom one says, We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success. Yowza!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday

to me! I found this a few weeks ago, have been itching to shout about it. Odd, I thought, with my own reachings for this milestone birthday.

The video is short, but wonderful. For the entire essay, go to Katherine Center's site here. Wheeeee!

Friday Haiku

Once again I will

be incommunicado.

Last summer escape.

First Day of School (a few days late)

Wordless Wednesday

Calling All Animal Lovers

I was gifted this incredibly beautiful book recently. Have you see this?

It came to my attention that a Spanish edition of Eckhart Tolle and Patrick McDonnell's stellar book, "Guardians of Being" had just come out. I couldn't believe that I had missed the original English publication in 2009 even though I am a big Tolle fan. So under the rubric of "ask and ye shall receive", I came home to a copy of the book in my mail box about two weeks ago. The collaboration of Tolle's teachings and McDonnell's drawings is a magical match. I laughed at many of the illustrations, so close to my heart they hit. The pages are filled with Tolle's ideas and observations on what function our pets and nature fill in our human lives. McDonnell takes these ideas and boils them down to their essential essence with stunning lines and vibrant washes of colour. Am I gushing? I was trying to choose my favorite line in the book, there are so many that resonate with me, but I think this is it:

"The vital function that pets fulfill in this world hasn't been fully recognized. They keep millions of people sane."

I highly recommend it if you are looking to treat yourself or looking for a gift for someone. I can already think of two people who will be finding it under the Christmas tree this year (indeed, I have already started my shopping, but that's another story).