Welcome 2015

2015  I can hardly believe it! 

I am looking forward 

to a hopeful and enlightening year. 

A new chapter, 

a new direction, a new passage.

I am 55 

but still young at heart experiencing

 and

cultivating life stories. 

I feel more prepared to face them head on 

with what I know 

and

 what I have learned.

2015...

The time is right and I am ready to start becoming my most creative self. 

Looking back at some of my art and creations

and 

aspiring to 

     accomplish many more....

2014: Year of the Fairy Tale An On line Class by Carla Sonheim

I wanted to introduce you to Carla Sonheim,
 an illustrator and online art instructor known for using 
innovative exercises and techniques to help students of all levels 
embrace a more playful approach to creating art. 
She is the author of

 "Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 
52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun" 

and 

"The Art of Silliness: 
A Creativity Book for Everyone."

Carla Sonheim

For the last three years 
her focus has been on creating engaging online art classes, 
where she teaches and also presents well-known guest artists.
 She made this Paper Doll tutorial 
in anticipation of her next online class, 

"2014: Year of the Fairy Tale," 
which begins  
January 20th, 2014. 

You can find out more about 

 "2014 Year of the Fairy Tale" Online Class here

 and 

Carla's other art and classes here:

Here is a step by step illustration of the Paper Doll Tutorial:

A quick and fun way to make original paper dolls... a perfect thing to do with your kids or to nurture the kid inside you... because we're never too old to play with paper dolls! Have fun!

Carla Sonheim

P.S. This tutorial was made in anticipation of my next online art class,

2014: Year of the Fairy Tale

paper doll tutorial

1. Gather your supplies.

- a small watercolor set

- #12 round paintbrush (or similar)

- 8"x10" sheet of 140# hot press watercolor paper (or similar)

- a regular pencil

- an eraser (I like kneaded rubber erasers)

- scissors

supplies

2. Lightly sketch 

in an outline of your doll. Keep your hand loose, and try not to worry about exact proportions (sometimes the most charming characters emerge when we let go of perfection!).

3. Using lots of water, 

mix up a color to use as the skin tones. Paint face, arms and feet. When face has had a chance to dry, get some red pigment on your brush and "dot" it into the watercolor quickly. The color should begin to spread out a bit for some nice rosy cheeks.

4. Let dry completely.

5. Paint in some hair; let dry completely.

6. Cut out your paper doll, and...

7. Play!

Craft Fair 2013

Well I will be making it to another craft fair this year!

Started getting ready a bit late (mid September) but I was able to keep a pretty good pace

and not get too discouraged. 

Having the wonderful support from my family and friends helps so much, I really am thankful.

Here are a few pictures of what I will be selling this year.

Last of the Wooden Bird Houses, this is 12 inches high

Who Ville Trees

Printed on Vintage Music Sheets

My wine bags, Bob's wooden tree branch tags

Original Mixed-Media Art

Wooden Bird House 

Crazy Yummy Salad

Well today I thought I'd just make a quick salad before I went out to do some shopping.

Grabbed a whole bunch of stuff out of the fridge and started adding it all to a bowl.

I ended up with a bowl of  

CRAZY YUMMY SALAD

Crazy Yummy Salad

Here's the how to's:

Get out bowl, a bigger size than a cereal bowl

Add a little bit of every veggie you have and like from your fridge

mine were

lettuce (from my garden)

snap peas

red pepper

a hand full of broccoli slaw

cucumber

carrot

Keep adding what ever else you might think 

may be good and use up those left overs.

It is the best and quickest.

I had a little bit of    Fruit Salad   that I dumped in.  

Some   Chic Peas  left over from supper last night. 

I found some  Dates  in the cupboard and added 3 of them cut up into little pieces

Then I ran out to the garden,  picked a little of each herb and dumbed them in.

cilantro

basil

thyme

Ok for the dressing I didn't measure anything so these are approximate measurements. 

2 tsp of grape seed oil

1 tsp of honey

1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp of dijon mustard

sprinkle of salt and pepper

And to top it all off I added some 

Feta Cheese

 I love these kinds of salads. 

They are quick and mindless to make and a chance to use up some of those leftovers.

And Best of all 

"YUM" 

it was really good

 and 

"Good for You!"

Crazy Yummy Salad

Twenty Quilt Contest for Quilt Alliance

About 5 months ago I was reading one of my favourite Magazines "Where Women Cook" and came across an add for a Quilt contest, exhibition and auction.

My "Twenty Wonderful Words" Quilt for the contest

It was put on by a nonprofit organization called Quilt Alliance. The Theme for 2013 was “TWENTY,” a broad theme that celebrates "twenty": the numeral, the concept, the quantity, the word. 

When I saw it the thought of twenty wonderful words just popped into my head. I thought I should really do this. 

Well of course time flies by and I hum and haw. Procrastinate. Then feel guilty because I always have these great plans to do all these wonderful things and then I don't do them. 

But there was something about this that kept nagging at me. 

Ten days left before the entry deadline I headed to the sewing room to 

"JUST START".  

Three days straight I sewed and created. I loved it. Time went by so quickly.  I wouldn't have even eaten if it wasn't for my sweet daughter Megan who looked after all what needed to be looked after:) 

Thanks Sweet Megan

And so after four more days

 I finished my 

"Twenty Wonderful Words" 

Quilt

With Three days to spare I had by quilt packaged, posted and off in the mail. 

I was so happy that I did it. 

I really needed to do this right now. Just for me. 

Yes very happy indeed.

Packaged, Posted and Mailed :)