Fruit Gone Wild

Wild cherries, steps away from our patio!

Dunno who was more excited,

me or the NanoBot!

Although she did ask, "Are they edible?"

I'm more comfy eating wild cherries

than store-bought ones, 

so we washed them, and ate them!

They weren't as sweet as farm cherries,

but they were organic.

And they did spurt out lots of

intensely colored juice!

And in any case they were way too fun to pick.

It was worth it!

 

 

She picked the flowers

for 'decoration'.

Looks like I may have a food stylist 

in the making!

We haven't done our usual cherry-picking

at a local farm yet this season,

but our wild foray was great!

 

 

Simple pleasures

I find it amazing that the most ordinary things can inspire us

to pause and reflect, and marvel. 

I was trying to sort out some of my photographs into anything

that might resemble a sane grouping

of a crazy variety of images

(probably an impossible task not worth the attempt)

 and found these....

Taken at night in yellow light...

A mellow light...

Our old chandelier and a vase from WalMart

with a plastic orchid stuck in it...

(I told you about the ordinary things!)

But I remember it was wonderful to take these pictures.

Hope you find some extraordinary

in your ordinary today!

January

Eeek!  Where did this month go???

I have lazed around, and lazed around, and...you get the picture. 

 Lots of Agatha Christie, tea by the bucketfuls  (bucketsfull?),

and a LOT of Star Trek after the LittleOne's beddy-bye. 

 Oh yes, good times.

But now I have a new computer, and well,

I guess I can't hide behind any excuses any more.

Just to give you an idea of HOW lazy I've been,

here's a picture I took in NOVEMBER - that's right.

I know.  So last year.  But here it is:

A luscious book about the birth of an orange in sunny climes,

and its long journey to a very cold place (looks very much like Canada). 

And how it is then shared by a bunch of kids playing in the snow.  We were enjoying some juicy watermelon that day which had doubtless undertaken a similar journey to get to our table, and I thought it made a cool pic. 

 Which I forgot to upload, of course.  Until now.

Weirdly appropriate, don't you think, since it's now January?

Or will be, for a few hours more :)

Manga and Mystery

Chilling out and taking a two-day break with some graphic novels...

Not sure I like Agatha Christie in such an abridged fashion.

The Tatsumi is fascinating, though. 

It's also very long - more than 800 pages worth,

but a manga eye-opener for sure!

Watching the leaves turn

"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."

- Elizabeth Lawrence

Making (Dubious) Connections

I suddenly have five books to illustrate.  Yes, FIVE. 

Party!!!...not :)

So to get me warmed up to the task, I must play with something else altogether, of course, hee hee.

This is a lamp post down the street we used to live on. 

Black and white, and one wild color.

Got your creative juices flowing too?



Art Is A Refuge...

The sordid mess of the oil spill, the G20 fiasco, the senseless brutality at a local animal park - enough!  As if it's not hard enough trying to just live a simple, clean life.  Try avoiding plasitc, or eliminating foods containing soy, for instance.  Each of these is a post in itself, but they are not what this post is about.  This post is about the hope that keeps us going, and allows us to do things that redeem us again and again. 

Random acts of kindness, a new baby, a smile from a stranger

- thank God for these things.

And art.

Art is the result of creativity, and creativity is a connection with the universe and it's Creator.  No matter how small or sporadic, it is still a vital connection.  I know everytime I make something I am recharged and refreshed, even if I have dry spells when nothing materializes.

We are in between homes - our cute little condo now belongs to someone else, and we have not yet found our next dwelling - so most of my time is being spent house-hunting!  Meanwhile I still have two books to illustrate.  Which means I haven't painted, and haven't made any fabric art, or jewelry.  But about a month ago I made these (and more stuff that I've yet to take pictures of), and yesterday I took some quick (and not so good) pics.  Ah - just looking at them charged me up again!  Yay for handmade!

These are all defintely Nature-inspired!

Pink and orange and green - tropical yumminess for a forest princess.

A fuzzy moss-inspired cuff in woodsy colors...

  This one has it all - fabric, fused, recycled plastic, metal, ribbon, sequins, 

and lots and lots of beads...

Fusing the colored part of the scrap plastic was an experiment, but it was worth the idea

- I got a swirly, textured look I could not have contrived!

I fused some red plastic (from a clothing store bag) and hand-shaped it

to make this huge flower ring. 

It has a weathered, leathery look that came out great.

Layers of fused plastic, beads and a shred of gold melted in for shabby/industrial chic.

So there you are - makes you forget about horrible things, doesn't it?

Until next time, Peace!

Bye, Bye Old House!

Only a couple of days left for us to move out of our little condo.

We blew bubbles in the patio for the last time...

Bye, bye little patio!

Mmmm....Roses!

I don't know what color roses I like better than white ones.  Actually I love all flowers in white.  DaddyBoy surprised me with six lovely white stems yesterday!  I guess better than white roses is getting white roses for no reason at all! 

YUM!

So I took a bunch of pics, and then I had to do something with them,

of course.

Here's one:

And another:

Wonder if I should list all the 'play' pics in my shop at all...

In any case, what a sweet way to take a break!

Knock, knock!!

Oooh, I'm still here - just totally neglecting my blog lately.  And my shop.

  Life is full, though! 

Between getting our house ready for sale, I illustrated one of the two books I had to work on, finished a large fabric necklace for a custom order, and started work on two ENORMOUS canvases (at 6 feet by 4 feet, these beauties dwarf me completely :)) for another custom order!

Some quick pics:

After a good coat of gesso, I painted on a mix of red, green and yellow that yielded a brown so choclaty that it even smelled like chocolate!!  Then I drew a rough sketch of the Toronto skyline using plain chalk.

The client wants the CN tower (of course) on one,

and more buildings on the other.

The sky roughed in.

This is the other canvas, also with the sky done so far.

And here's the fabric necklace I was working on as well...

This custom piece, already delivered, is based on my earlier piece called "My Favorite Playground", which I sold at the WhoKnew show in April

to a very sweet girl. 

And drawings from the latest book I illustrated...

need to start working on the other one soon,

since the publisher sent me two at once!

I love being busy!

While I Work...

...The LittleOne works too...

exploring

learning

painting

being

And then she comes...

Bearing magical gifts...

For ME!

First Day Of Spring...

...first crocus!

For one thing...

...does ANYBODY read this blog?

For another, tonight the Nanobot fell asleep ON HER OWN!!!

It's night time.

But is it also the eve of a new beginning, or the dawn of a new era, or whatever it is they say?

You know what I mean.

Yes, you.

Meanwhile, I'm so taken aback by this strange occurence I'm not sure if I should stay up and celebrate in some way (although of course, it had to happen on a night when DaddyBoy is out helping a friend with a leaky faucet, so I have to forget about curling up and finally watching a movie) or just quietly go to bed, coz I really need to.

Hmm.

Lunch

Kookaburra Sits On An Old Gum Tree (almost)

Know that song about the kookaburra?  We saw one.  Almost.  Sometimes people go to Australia to see one.  Sometimes they go to Niagara Falls.

Australia was a little far, so we chose the latter. 

OK, so we visited the Bird Kingdom there, one of the Fall's attractions that I have studiuosly avoided.  Tropical birds in a cold country can only mean one thing - cages.  But when I looked up the info it said the place was the biggest free-flying aviary in the world - 400 specimens of 80 species frolicked there, it said.  So we went.  I was still dubious, but we went. 

There was a caged parrot right at the entrance.  That's about when DaddyBoy had to start shushing me.  Anyway, we kept going.  Well, that poor kookaburra was in a cage.  No wonder he wasn't laughing.

They did have a large aviary where the birds were free, but how does an aviary compare with a tropical forest?  Are there really any educational merits to something like this?  I'm not really sure.  The LittleBug loved petting the lizards and the alligator (he was two feet long - a baby) and the snake, and she enjoyed the birds, all of which the lady assured me had never seen anything but captivity, so they couldn't possibly miss the freedom of well, being free.  But what about their instincts, I thought.  Why would a snake enjoy being handled the whole day?  Why was the poor baby alligator in a plastic tote box that wasn't any bigger than itself?

The NanoBot, free of such conflicts, had a good time. 

A few pics:

We couldn't help marveling at the birds.  Don't they look hand-painted?

This is a zebra finch.

And this is some sort of waxbill, I think.

I can't remember looking up this guy, but he was an amazing combination of colors.

And this big guy, called a Victoria Crwon Pigeon, is actually the largest of the pigeons - he was huge. 

So pretty!

They had some Javanese architectural elements replicated to give the place a more authentic rainforest feel.  I somehow managed to botch all those pics.

I spotted this lovely tree, so of course I had to take pictures of its leaves.

And the kookaburra?  Yes, I did take a couple of pics, but the cage bars are showing.  I just couldn't post it.