Carole's art challenge: Piggy Bank

It's the day before THE WEEKEND!The weekend of my open studio tour. (North Shore Art Crawl, number 39 on the map, find more into here)I've been busy with my usual art, and, while the song birds never stick around for long before someone claims them, I do have some earlier pieces. I love it because I can see how much my art has changed.Practise and painting every day is like storing up money in my artist piggy bank.When I practice, I usually just play in my sketchbooks. You know I love to try new things which are not my usual watercolour or oil work. You know I'll tackle anything from medieval illuminated lettering to wood carving.So for our art challenge Piggy Bank, thank you so much for hosting Carole, I painted this little happy pig in a new art journal/sketch book, (made from an old atlas), with acrylics and loose, colourful brush strokes.I loved every minute of it.Just like I'll love every minute of my open studio weekend.It's a complete unknown to me. There might be some people visiting and there might not, we shall see, but whatever happens, there will be hot tea, twinkly lights, warmth and soft music, and a lot of fun things to do in my studio this weekend.There are plenty of beautiful pieces of ephemera, watercolours, pens and pencils on hand if anyone would like to try their hand at working with it.And I've got lots of paintings which need to be worked on.So just before I go I thought I'd leave you with this wonderful little 2 minute video summing up how an artist's creative piggy bank works, and remember to pop over to Carole's this weekend for more artistic ideas you can save in your piggy bank.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46OCXFVqRg4Wish me luck!

Hello from Sunday night

Hello from Sunday night everybody and from a very quiet house. :(Yesterday, our little girls came back with balloons; much to Morgan's annoyance, who followed the string around the house without being able to actually get the darn, floaty thing.Zoe, Isla and Ever were tired out of their little brains and so the rare occasion came where they got to sit in front of a screen and watch My Little Pony videos at snack time.Which then turned into Paw Patrol at supper time.But an early night and a good sleep meant lovely Sunday energy for all of us and lovely Sunday morning play time.My mom came over for lunch and we had left-over glazed ham and potato pancakes made from last night's mashed potatoes. Don't you love leftover lunches? I do.Anyway, mom came over and got to see her great granddaughters.Morgan decided to be part of the menagerie.And then, because there was snow on the roads in the mountain passes and because there is school and appointments to keep tomorrow, we reluctantly said good bye to Kerstie and our girls and off they went in the warmth of the day.And now, the house is awfully quiet.Much to Morgan's relief!!! She's more mellow in her old age, but so much energy in the house gets to her.But before Kerstie left, she emailed me some photos she took with her cell phone.Nice memory of a lovely weekend.Hope you've all had a grand weekend and are looking forward to a brilliant week.This week is my last few days to get ready for my open studio tour. It's going to be art, art, art all week. Stay tuned :D

Friday funday

Well, we did it to ourselves and today we are so tired, but yesterday we had too much fun!My daughters Kerstin, Chloe, and I had a whole day and night to ourselves.I asked them what they would like to do, since our three little ones went to visit their other grandmother for an over night stay, and Kerstie said, "Everything!"Everything began with a jaunt across town to Main st. for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, East is East.This little restaurant has everything we love: wonderful, local and organic food, repurposed, locally sourced and sustainable materials for the interior decor, and a warm, friendly, chai-spiced atmosphere.After lunch we hit every secondhand, vintage, lovely boutique, and pop-up shop in that hood.There's the most beautiful little vintage shop there called Woo Vintage.It was just so much fun trying on vintage dresses and accessories.Darn it anyway, girls in the 1940s didn't have a rib cage, did they?Across the street is a little home decoration boutique called Nineteen TenSo many beautiful gift ideas here. I fell in love with the wooden and resin boards; which were so beautiful I would never be able to cut anything on them.Then, a few steps away, we found Fallow, a pop-up shop with everything from flowers to hand-made clothing. Just an amazing little collection from several makers and sellers.We got home about 5-ish, had a rest, got changed, and headed out for the night.At this point, with my two daughters at home, I started my make up in the dining room mirror. :DWe headed back across town to the Kino Cafe for sangria and tapas.Our friends Warren and Taven met us there and we had the most fabulous evening.Chloe and I dropped Kerstie and the boys downtown on our way home in the middle of the night and they stayed to dance the night away.It's a good thing we didn't get our little girls back till the afternoon. Chloe made it to 10am yoga!No idea how she managed that.

Blue sky day

This blue sky day, perfect for a nice hike at my favourite park Lighthouse Park.Thru the trees,Down the path,And paradise.There's nothing like a blue sky day to chase the gloom of winter away.

Channelling my inner garden designer

Today I took a little jaunt to my favourite nursery Southlands for some inspiration.(sigh)I so want my garden to look like this:But the reality is that my garden looks like this:Oh yes, loads of work.I worked on the garden for about four hours yesterday and today.I turned over the soil in the vegetable bed, pruned the roses, and trimmed back some winter damage on an old rosemary. There's never been so much winter damage on my rosemary before.It's been a pretty unusually cold winter for the West Coast, but signs of spring are here.The peppermint has lovely new shoots.I'm not sure what's under the cloche. Looks like weeds to me...lol. But actually there is a dahlia deep in the ground. Hope it's ok.Here come some wayward tulips in the raspberry patch. Oh well, the raspberries don't mind and neither do I.I borrowed one of those saws on an extension pole from my mom so I can cut off some of these suckers from the ornamental plum. Plums shoot up suckers like no other tree!The snow drops are in their glory now and I keep forgetting to bring some into the house. (That's it, I'm postponing this post and grabbing a flashlight and getting some for my bedside table...brb.)The winter aconites have also just come up in the last couple of days. I don't know about you guys, but I love winter blooming flowers. I'm not much of a "bleak days of winter" person and winter blooming flowers bring so much hope and joy to me.There's a ton of work here in my garden, especially if I want to show it this year again in the Art in the Garden weekend.But the good news is that, with the new fences, there's an extra foot of my land on the west side that I never knew was mine!!!Space for more plants, oh yes.So while everything is greening and growing......I'm going to be poking around my favourite nurseries and studying my favourite books and channelling my inner garden designer.Morgan will help of course.And soon the garden will be a thing of beauty.

Garage to art studio project. And we have a studio!

There was a little sun this morning and the day promised to be not so bad, so I decided to do that one last push of work in the studio so I can actually get some work done and paint there.I gathered the last amount of stuff to go down to the thrift store and took it away. Then I carried the acrylic and oils paint carts, the paint brushes, the large vintage lamp, some in-progress canvases and some of my art books down from the loft studio and set things up.For a treat, I brought my computer in and listened to CBC podcasts while I was working.Here are my carts. The oils cart on the left, and the acrylics cart on the right. I really love these practical Ikea carts. So easy to store and move things around.Here is the old, white baker's rack ready to store clean canvases, and the art table.Another shot of the art table so you can see how the brushes and palette sit on it.Here are some of my art books for inspiration. I want to bring more of my books into the studio.Here is an old tool box requisitioned for my brushes. These are all oil and acrylic brushes. The watercolour brushes stayed in the loft studio.This ironware bowl has a massive crack in it (a casualty of a table fall) but still is holding its shape, so perfect for some fruit in the studio.And I think I forgot to tell you that I painted the back of the door with chalkboard paint. Still have to figure out how to temper it...you know, I think you rub chalk all over it and then wipe it off to prevent the first chalk lines from etching themselves in. I'll look it up.Well there we go. The studio is all set up and ready for me to have a lovely painting session...which I think I'll do tomorrow if I can. For today, I've brought down all the old and redundant camera equipment and was just going thru it to take most of it down to the thrift store, when Chloe nixed that idea and decided to claim most of the cameras and lenses! It's like one step forward two steps back round here...lol. :D

Hello from Sunday night

I hope you've all had a lovely Sunday.It's been an interesting one round here.Each morning in Feb. I've been painting a little something in a sketch book. (I know, white paper instead of 100 yr old ephemera! Well, it's only once in a while.)This is because I love to support the Feb. Opus Art Supply challenge to practice every day. I took part last year and had such a good time, and I'm loving it this year as well. If you'd like to see all the sketches, they're all on my Instagram at the bottom of this page or here: my Instagram If you have Instagram tell me so I can follow you.Today the prompt was imagination and Dr Seuss and so I drew the phoenix again. This year he's a bit more relaxed than last year, (evidence at the bottom or Insta), but still wary of everyone trying to pluck his feathers so only ruffles them in thickets.Then, about midday, Chloe and I drove to one of our favourite little spots, Deep Cove.The plan was to see an art exhibit at the Seymour Gallery of a new FB friend of mine Sarah Ronald. I met her thru a mutual FB friend and loved her paintings of foxes. And then we thought maybe we'd have a cup of tea, walk around and have a look at the little boutiques...you know, a lazy Sunday.We got there and popped into the gallery and had a good look, then went to have a walk down the street to The Sunny Side for a cup of tea. The Sunny Side was closed for a few minutes, so we went into a new shop next door called Paper Label.It's a little pop up shop which will be there for the next two years and is completely charming.In it we found these beautiful, locally made candles and we fell in love with the linden blossom scented one. They are cotton wicked and coconut wax and made by Hollow Tree.Then off to the Sunny Side. Now we haven't been there for a year while Chloe's been in Japan, and the plan was to sit there and have a cup of tea like we did before. But when we got to the shop, their little bench and table were gone and the shop smelled too strongly for me of something which I couldn't handle and I had to get out into the fresh air.So we went (in the pouring rain without an umbrella) across the street to a small cafe, but Chloe didn't like the vibe of it. She said we passed a third cafe driving down and could we walk there...two block away...without an umbrella...in the pouring rain? Oh what I won't do for my daughter.We got to the third cafe and I told C to find us a spot while I get us some tea. She came back a few minutes later saying, "mom, that woman over there looks like Kate Winslet." She went to sit down, came back a couple minutes later saying, "I think that is Kate Winslet!" Turns out it was...and Idris Elba. They were very deep into a conversation over their script.Aaand that's how we spent the rest of the afternoon in a small coffee shop drinking tea, very slowly, so my star-struck daughter could eavesdrop and glance at her favourite star. CorporateCoffeeSystems give you a chance to enjoy your drink to the fullest.I took a couple photos with my cell for C when no one was looking so she could have a tangible memory from today.When our tea was done, we left the cafe and walked back to the car stopping at a couple of the boutiques on the way.We got home to this look from Morgan who was already tapping her little claws waiting for her supper!This was a lovely Sunday. Tomorrow begins a new week of painting and working and possibly the first painting session I will have in my new studio. So very excited for that. At least this week will not be as crazy busy as the last couple weeks, but still have a ton of things on the to-do list. Also must remember to enter the Art in the Garden calls for my garden and for my art this week!Hope you've all had amazing weekends and hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you. :D

Ariane's Art Challenge: Tropics

I'm feeling a little on top of my work load and am so happy to be able to take a day to draw a little piece for our art challenge which Ariane called for this weekend. Thank you so much Ariane. :DThe challenge is Tropic and I was looking around my home and decided there's a tropical feel here.The warm country plants are still inside and some orchids, like this cymbidium, are just about to bloom.While some orchids, like this phalaenopsis have been blooming for weeks.I like growing orchids in the house. I put them outside completely ignoring them from May to September and then take them inside and they bloom for me each year.So you all know about my garage/studio conversion and my quick trips to thrift stores to pick up a thing or two, and, on one trip, I found this huge pot for $7 and instantly had an idea.I decided to plant up a large tropical planter for the studio, (which has to stay in the house for now).Here it is.It's planted up with a $20 majestic palm from IKEA, and four $10 plants; two peace lilies and two kangaroo ferns. (They all like the high humidity that the palm does)I love the planter in the living room for now, but am looking forward to having this greenness in the studio.But wait, since this is an art challenge, I decided to paint a pair of colourful European bee eaters on a 101 yr old Chopin study.I like these little guys. They sometimes venture into the UK but are such tropical little flowers that they tend to stay further south.Thank you so much for hosting Ariane. Please pop over to out Rose's place for more tropical inspiration. I'll be by to visit everyone as soon as I can. :D

Garage to art studio project. Almost there.

Hi everyone,It all feels like it might be coming together after all!Here is the progress over these last three days.Chloe gave me a few hours on Wednesday, I drove my sports car out of the space and we put everything not needed into the rafters of the garage roof. That one afternoon made the biggest difference to the coming together of this studio.Then yesterday I spent the afternoon organising. A few weeks ago I went on the search for an art table and found one in two pieces at the SPCA thrift store for not too much money. What I like about it is that it's heavy and made from solid wood, stands waist high so I don't have to bend down to my paints, and it would take a very hard knock to tip it over. There was a criss cross of duct tape under the top and I figured that might be holding the screws to pull the table back together again. I was right!This art table was by far the easiest build in this project...lol.I bought myself a very inexpensive Rapunzel ivy plant. It cost $12, about the price of a small bouquet of lilies but much longer lasting, and hung it on a convenient ring in the ceiling. It's too far from where I want it, (which will be closer to the window so it can entangle itself in my light), but have to go find the stud in the ceiling and drill into it for a new hook, so for now it stays there.That Value Village trip also resulted in these large and heavy cotton pillow shams which fit my father's old cane chair and brighten up the space. Oh also, when I moved my car out, I moved it into a downpour and so gave it a good wash before moving it inside again and drying it off. Isn't it beautifully shiny? I love this car.And then I took an hour or so moving decorative pieces around and trying to work out the best visually pleasing decorations to have around me.So there we are.The studio is almost ready for me and for all of you to come visit.Now to move the canvases back, make a book shelf for some books, bring in a radio for some CBC and some tunes, and maybe a tea kettle.Yesterday I committed to the first nail in my freshly painted walls for these butterflies.Now to bring back the canvases.Thank you for sticking with me during this garage to art studio project.

Garage to art studio project update...still a big mess

Oh boy.I really thought I would have all of it sorted by the end of this long weekend, but it would seem that my project is a bigger mess than I thought.The good news is that the painting's done. All the walls are painted, and all the wood that I wanted to paint has two coats on it too. I've managed to buy exactly the correct amount of paint for this project, but over the years, and renovations, (as well as inherited paints form the previous owners), I have a whole lot of paint pots to take down to the recycling depot tomorrow. That will clear up this floor space. But when you make your garage weatherproof and soundproof, it makes a whole different level of difference, I learned.Oh boy do those windows need cleaning!Looking at the space from the back, you can see just how much stuff needs to be put away. A good majority of the stuff is stored in the garage rafters. Things like the Christmas boxes, wreath, silver trees, pressure washer, canning pot, giant roaster for turkeys, crutches...all occasional use things. The only trouble is that my car is in the way.Driving the car out is probably going to have to wait another day or two because the back lane is an ice rink at the moment.Before I could paint the West wall, (the one with my canoe), I had to take down two large peg boards. I had to do that because, well, they're ugly, and had no practical purpose for me, (I don't really need to hang tools), and the boards were proud of the wall, which meant that a great big house spider lived behind them and there was no way to evict him! Eventually, and about 2 hours and 50 2" screws later, those peg boards and supporting framework were down and the house spider evicted. The room could always do with some Gable Louvers to make it less dingy and make the air around more salubrious.This long-winded story I'm telling you is just to show you this next picture. I put the white metal shelves at a right angle to the wood shelves on the East wall and zip tied the peg boards to the back.I did that so I could make a space for the ladders and garbage cans and hide them from sight.What do you think? Waste not, want not? I thought that for now it might be a practical sort of solution. The ideal would be to build an area outside the garage for the garbage cans, but the practical solution, since the garbage is picked up from my back lane and since I have to keep the garbage locked away from raccoons, coyotes and even bears, is to keep the cans in the garage.But never mind the mess, slowly the space is coming together. I hung dad's Chloe's vintage bike up against the old doors. I think it looks great there and is nicely out of the way.Under that work top on the West wall, I put an old trunk......and in it I stored all the nails, nuts, bolts, bits and pieces you never know if you need until you need them, in old cedar wine bottle boxes.And beside it is a wooden box Chloe painted and stamped. It's just perfect for all the varnish and paint spray cans, car oils, and butane fluids for my silversmithing torch (plus proper breathing masks).And one more thing I did was clean out the old barn cupboard. it's always been full of vintage clay pots. I love them so much and use them even if they're not that practical. I had all my gardening supplies in baskets along the West wall and now that this is also going to be studio space, I have to find another solution.So while the small gardening tools and supplies look great here and there is room for my galvanised pots full of seed started soil,The big and practical tools will not fit.But there is space between the cupboard and the wall. A sort of square shaped space where I might be able to put a small square shaped table and a big basket and store all the larger tools there.So there you go. Almost there...even if it may not look like it! I still have 17 days left! Open studio for the North Shore Art Crawl here I come!Whew, suddenly feeling very tired!