Settled in the Maritimes of Canada, surrounded by the forest and Acadian Mountain Chain, I live a simple life of gratitude. This blog is a journal of my art, food, furkids, garden, home, my life and my thoughts. Thanks for reading!
I hope you're all doing well. I am relaxing as best I can, I've started a little bit of therapy too, to help myself cope with stress; and we've started to slowly start working on the house again. Enjoy each day and thanks for dropping by!
I contacted Eva and Kristin from Paint Party Friday, asked them if I could borrow their idea of highlighting an artist each week, they were okay with it! I randomly drew from last week's art date participants, and this week's highlighted artist is Monica from NatureFootstep blog. Monica was testing acrylic swipes on photo paper and came up with this lovely creation!
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link widget below for more "Gates and Fences" creations!
See you soon!!! πππ
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Upcoming Art Dates:
May 6th: May Sweets: Cakes May 13th: May Sweets: Cookies May 20th: May Sweets: Candies May 27th: May Sweets: Cupcakes
Click on the links for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! π¨
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is The Future. What came to mind was the movie Back To The Future starring Michael J. Fox. Bugs and Daffy decided to recreate a scene in the movie. This is a great movie! Although, as usual in my case, the first movie of the trilogy is my favourite! Here is a link to the trailer. I love Michael J. Fox, I was a big fan of him in the tv show Family Ties. He's had quite a turn of events in his life and is holding strong, an inspiration!
It's still pretty chilly here lately, but I've been able to walk all three dogs together every morning on the blueberry fields. The coyotes are very active so I make sure to bring my air horn and pepper spray with me! Marlene has good days and bad, otherwise all of the other five pets are doing well. The trail cam caught Jack giving me a hug. Awwww. π
Here is a ten second or so video of Charlie. I walked her on that 6km nature trail again a few days back and she decided to cool off in the river!
My other pets...the birds: I finally bought alkaline batteries for the "bird cam"...friends, what batteries do you use and how long do they last? Here are some photos from the last week:
The Evening Grosbeaks are back as long as there is a steady supply of black sunflower seeds!
Mourning Dove
New birds to the feeders! Northern Juncos!
A sneaky squirrel on a snowy morning
Northern Junco and Hairy Woodpecker
As the title of this post reads, I need to take a blogging break, I'm burnt out. π I will however be continuing to host Thursday's Art Date, so please do continue to join in! I'm going to try to at least get some Looney Tunes into the weekly post.
Now that spring has arrived, I have a colossal amount of work to do on the house. I had every intention of doing work on the house last year after I moved here, but having all of those unexpected costs (drilling a new well, new engine for the car, new chimney and insulating the basement, the appliances fiasco etc...); I was kind of stuck financially. I'm doing a little bit better this year, so I need to get moving with some projects and start to clean up my acreage and organize my house as frugally as I can. I need the house to be functional and it hasn't been in the last year. It's been overwhelming and really needs to be addressed.
In two weeks I'll be celebrating one year in my new home. My first home. My dream of home ownership came true on May 8th of 2020. Here are some memories...
Goodbye Quebec forever!
Emotional Rain...I was terrified we'd be turned back at the border because of Covid. When we were given the "okay" to drive into New Brunswick, I lost it.
After 15 hours of driving, we arrived home at around midnight on May 8th.
Me and Jack in the Uhaul!
Charlie and Marlene in the car that I was towing behind the Uhaul truck
Can you believe it's nearly been a year since I moved??? I can't!
Wishing you a lovely spring and a very HAPPY EARTH DAY. Let's take care of our planet and ourselves!! That'll be all for now folks! Please check out the link widget below for more "The Future" creations!
Click on the links for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! π¨
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Coils. I had a tough time with this theme...but I took to my Spirograph and started to make some coiled flowers...I thought, well, maybe I could add one (digitally) to my cartoon this week. I came up with the squirting flower gag! Of course, Daffy Duck had to be the one to receive it from Bugs Bunny....what a stinker! π
I surprised myself by coming up with quite a few drawings this week. This one, in ink, is from the movie Rope starring Jimmy Stewart. In the movie poster he's holding a coiled rope...the murder weapon!! I've talked about my favourite Hitchcock movie before, but if you want to watch the trailer, click on this link!
On the subject of thrillers that will knock your socks off, a great Michelle Pfeiffer movie is "What Lies Beneath". I drew her, in ink/graphite, in the bathtub as she recoils in fear from what is going on around her (I won't give it away!!) I watched the movie again last night and boy, it was amazing. It's such a good suspense/thriller, you never know what's coming next!! Also starring Harrison Ford - he was great in this!
Any Little House On The Prairie fans out there? Do you remember the nasty little girl named Nellie Olson? She had the most amazingly perfect coiled curls! She was so horrible to Laura Ingalls and usually got her come-uppance!!! I did a quick doodle of her in ink and graphite. If you were a fan of the show, I'm sure you remember the wheel chair scene...I think I jumped up and clapped when Laura pushed Nellie down that hill!!
I'm a big Three Stooges fan...though Shemp is my favourite, Curly is a close runner up! Those Howard boys...So I asked Curly what he thought of Nellie Olson's hair...that was his response! π Any Stooges fans out there?
Okay enough with the coils!!! Let's eat! I made two, count 'em TWO Pour In The Pan Pizzas this week!!
I had a chocolate craving (sorry Joyce! π), so I made chocolate chocolate chip muffins! Sorry I can't share, they are all gone!
If you eat toast, what do you put on it? I had a hard time deciding between strawberry jam and my Homemade Cheez Whiz!!
Exciting to see my garlic coming up!
I went back to that 6km trail and took Charlie with me. It's so nice to be out. I saw a lovely old tree that looked very wise in her years...do you see her face? π
I passed by the duck pond and saw these lovely creatures. Aren't the colours amazing?
I'm linking up with these wonderful bloggers today, or at least trying (!!), please visit them for some really interesting posts! And why not join in on the link parties? You can meet some really nice people!! π
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link gadget below to see more "Coils" artwork!
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I took this photo back in 2008. These sweeties had quite a lovely future ahead of them!
April 15th: Next Thursday's theme is The Future. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! π¨
Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Evening. Tweety Bird and Sylvester are enjoying a cozy evening by the fire as the spring peepers serenade them through the open window.
Spring peepers are the very first sign of spring in my opinion. When I hear them chirping away in the swamp nearby in the evening, I know spring has sprung!
I have an interesting parallel for the Evening theme. I chose the word "evening" from a movie and from a song. Firstly I love Jim Carey! Especially his dramatic work. In the movie The Truman Show, one of his catch phrases is "Good morning! Oh, in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight!" This movie is so well done and very moving! (ink/graphite drawing)
On with the "Evening" theme! One of my favourite songs from the 80's is Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69". One of the lyrics in the song is "Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in...and that's when I met you, yeah!"...so I thought I'd draw a drive-in scene as two young lovers watched Jim Carey's movie The Mask.
Bryan Adams...a genuine Canadian rocker! π Here he is in charcoals from his 1984 album release. I had such a crush on him 30-ish years ago! My how time flies!!
Dinners have been of the Italian cuisine lately...I'm hooked on that way of cooking!!! Above I have Spaghetti, 4-cheese pizza and lemon curd cheesecake.
I had a gallon of 2% milk that needed to be used so I made Ricotta cheese with it. Then I used it for my "Ricotta Night"! Shells stuffed with Ricotta and spinach, Ricotta bread and "Castagnoles" - sweet dough balls made with Ricotta. Loved Ricotta night!
I'm currently going through a bit of a transformation! I've been working very deeply on healing, self-care and self-love. It's a challenge. One of the things I do for self-care is be out in nature. I found a 6km hiking trail and I hiked it yesterday with Charlie my husky-gal...it was raining, but we didn't care. It was therapeutic!
Geese formation: more signs of spring! I found a small (9-page) book called The 7 Day Mental Diet. (I'll share the PDF here). It challenges you not to be negative for 7 days...of course, we all have negative thoughts, but the exercise is not to vocalize them or allow them to attach themselves to your thinking process. It's supposed to recondition your thought processes to more positive ones. When you notice a negative thought popping up, just notice it...observe it and replace it with a positive thought. This goes for complaining and judging as well. It's very hard to do! I had to restart a bunch of times! It's a little unsettling how many negative thoughts, ideas and patterns just pop right into my head and I run with them without thinking. Anyone else up for that challenge?
I'm linking up with these wonderful bloggers today, or at least trying (!!), please visit them for some really interesting posts! And why not join in on the link parties? You can meet some really nice people!! π
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link gadget below to see more "Evening" artwork!
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April 15th: Next Thursday's theme is Coils. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! π¨
Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Doorways and Alleys. Sorry I haven't been around lately...my life is very slowly starting to balance out so I will catch up with you this weekend! I will also answer blog comments this weekend too if you asked me a question! (And Cathy I can't wait to check out your Looney Tunes this month!) π
I recently watched a tv movie version of Jack the Ripper. 1840's London is a great muse for this theme! Here is Bugs Bunny playing the roll of a Whitechapel-district "prossie". Bugs is sweet-talking someone in that alley...I hope it's not Jack the Ripper! π²
The version of the story I watched was starring Michael Caine (here he is in charcoals). This was by far the BEST version of the story I've ever seen. If you can find it, it's worth the 3 hours. I love Michael Caine!
Here is the trailer - warning - it's realistic and creepy...so be forewarned!
If you're a Michael Caine fan and want a chuckle, these two comedians do impressive impersonations of him! (it's less than 2 minutes and really funny! Here's the link.)
A favourite movie of mine starring Michael Caine is The Prestige, set in the 19th century, also starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johanssen with a cameo by David Bowie. It's about magicians, illusion, rivalry and revenge. Oh it's good, I just watched it last night. It'll have you scratching your head and guessing until the very end! Here's the trailer.
I re-watched Hitchcock's Psycho recently and one of the scariest moments for me wasn't the actual shower scene...it was the few moments as the killer enters the doorway of the bathroom and you can see his/her shadow behind the shower curtain! I did this one of Janet Leigh in ink and graphite. Did you know that Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis? Lots of talent in that family! This was a quick doodle, as was this one:
Anthony Perkins was excellent in this. Did you know that he did Psycho 2, Psycho 3 and Psycho 4 as well? They were all pretty good, but nothing like the first one!
Here's the official trailer of Hitchcock's masterpiece! Still gives me the chills when I watch it!
I spent some time this week canning salsa, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce.
Some meals this week were baked Alfredo spaghetti with asparagus and garlic bread; and all-dressed pizza.
Marlene is doing much better, though it seems she has permanently lost her appetite! π I still have to force-feed her twice a day with blended kidney formula food. It's challenging, she spits it out...otherwise, she seems almost back to normal.
Jack getting a tummy rub. It's extra special when Jack lies on his back. When we adopted him in 2015, he was fear-aggressive and it took us years to show him he could trust us without him trying to bite us. He still growls at me when I rub his tummy, but I know he won't bite me and he never does because as soon as I stop rubbing his tummy, he stops growling and looks at me as though to say "why did you stop???". He's my little angel! π
The squirrels have finally found the bird feeder area!
I guess this is what's considered a short post for me! That's all for now folks! Please check out the link gadget below to see more "Doorways and Alleys" artwork!
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April 8th: Next Thursday's theme is Evening. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! π¨
Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
