Middle-aged Artistry

Above all else: go out with a sense of humor.
It is needed armor.
Joy in one's heart and some laughter
on one's lips is a sign
that the person down deep
has a pretty good grasp of life.

~Hugh Sidey

I am a middle aged artist. I am woman. :)

My personal artistry includes the use of paint brushes, very wide paint brushes for I have much area to cover.

My paint brushes look like this;


And this....



During these winter days upon us, my colors of choice are a number 5 (medium brown) mixed with a 4 (chestnut brown) to create a blended version of about 4 1/2 - medium to chestnut brown. This artistic blend has become my natural preference these days for my color palette, my natural colors.


Oh yes, there are no pastel highlights at present, just dark with natural hues gleaming in the light.

I am a messy artist so I am sure to don myself with protective gear, just in case I spill, slop, smear or plop.


I am an artist these days and practice my craft well, more often than I used to. For I've been told *those things* I paint have been acquired through great trials, wisdom moments while in the thick of one's life, the ones a mother's heart knows well, feels deeply, and often finds herself falling on her knees from.

I am woman. I hope. I pray. I am an artist. I like to paint, to feel fresh and new again even if I make a mess at home during winter. :)

Are you an artist like me?

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

~Mark Twain


A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs - jolted by every pebble in the road.

~Henry Ward Beecher

(snicker, snicker, snicker)

Thanks for allowing me to share my silly sense of humor with you. Laughing to me is like a balm for any weary soul. I need a good laugh, and often. How about you?

Why not share some laughs with me. Why not? Let's laugh and giggle like young girls standing round together - be it through private email or comment form on this post.

Wordless Wednesday with a poem...

Snow is falling
From the sky above
Snow is falling
Put on scarf and glove

Snow is falling
Go look outside
Snow is falling
The old landscape it hide

Snow is falling
What a beautiful sight
Snow is falling
It sparkles in the light

Snow is falling
Soft cotton wool flakes
Snow is falling
A white blanket it makes


Snow is falling
Short flowers disappear
Snow is falling
The cold is here

Snow is falling
Its time to play
Snow is falling
Lets make snowmen today :)

Photography Surprises!

Yep, this is me, goofing off!

I've shared before how I've loved taking photos since I was a young child. I used my parents camera, remember the ones where you had to lick the bulb before slipping it into the flash clip area?

Oh yes, those were definitely "Kodak" days, in fact, it was a Kodak camera I used back then. Sweet! I wonder what happened to it anyway? Not sure.

Mimicking my daughter actually!

Anyway, the other day my husband about spilled his coffee all over his shirt and tie when he was reading the "Globe and Mail National newspaper" during a short break in the routine of his office hours. He called to let me know a few of MY photos were in the newspaper!

I was stunned and thrust into a frozen state, not sure what he was talking about...at first.

You see I've been uploading some of my favorite photos onto my "Flickr" site/folders" over the past year or more. I was alerted a few weeks ago about the "Globe and Mail" newspaper search for photographers using a winter scene as the focus for entry photos.

On a dare I submitted a few and thought no more about it, just happy to be able to submit, excited actually. And then, I was alerted to their new "Canadian City Street" theme and entered a few more. It was those photos my husband saw in the newspapers, in full color yet! Woohoo!

He tried to bring home a copy for me to see and keep as a momento of sorts but someone else had stolen it away. So I went online to view the photo entry slide show. Sure enough, there were my photos, twelve of them! You can view the slide show HERE.

And then, I submitted a few photos in their "beach" themed category and was notified all four entries were accepted. What fun this has become for me! No, sorry to say there is no remuneration involved, just credit for the photos featured in the newspaper and on the Flickr group page. It's all good though for me. I'm having a blast just being a part of this!

I love this little hobby of mine! :) It gives me much pleasure to snap photos of the normal to the weird. And I am forever indebted for the invention of the digital camera! I am.

I've come to appreciate how my photos can be used in unlimited and unique ways for gifting purposes, blessing another in both usual and sometimes unusual ways. Over Christmas I made 7 photo albums, 4 collage mugs, a mouse pad for my husband to use at work, and framed a few.

I experimented using both "Snapfish" and "Vista print" both which I've used before but not for making collage mugs and a mouse pad.


The photo album I created for my husband included 490 favorites, a photo portfolio of sorts.


They say every picture tells a story, and for him when viewing it, every photo did in fact tell a story recollected with deep inner emotion. You could say - he liked it! :) He actually loved it! So did I!


When one of the albums from "Snapfish" was due to arrive very late due to that severe storm in the North Carolina area, I was offered apologies and granted a surprise 50 reprint gratias offer.

Smiling to myself, I had a light bulb idea. I decided right there and then I would use the reprint offer to have a wonderful assortment of my favorite photos printed and I would use them in my craft room in a huge collage on one wall, to be deemed my "Happy Wall".


I just received them in the mail and can't wait to begin my project. Aren't they just so colorful and tell me, does looking at them even begin to make YOU smile?

I would like to encourage everyone to tuck their camera deep inside your purse, handbag, knapsack or keep it nearby at the very least. Grab it when life presents something that makes you smile, anything is fare game because it becomes a very deep and personal thing.

Take photos not only of people or animals, but of scenes before you, things, personal pleasures and allow those photos to stand the test of time when the next generation sifts through your personal belongings and says; "I wonder what she was thinking when she snapped this photo? I love the angle or I love the photo in general". It's your photo memory legacy folks.

So go ahead, check your batteries. Dump your memory card onto a disk to save what is already there. Buy an additional memory card to keep with your camera.

Snap away!

Take gazillions of photos. Savor the moments when something touches your heart. Delete the rest that aren't worthy of keeping. Oh the joy of a digital camera!

Least of all, please!

I would love to encourage you to just go ahead and - USE IT! Or... Lose it! Lose the memories. Lose the moment. Lose the precious personal thoughts as they disappear into thin air and no Kodak moment was sought, or savored for good.

Just for fun, I would like to share my newest photo creation with y'all, a very personal item that offers me continuous and repeated smiles.

Making our mark!

Making our mark!

Okay, so now it's after the fact I previously tooted the Olympics, the Olympians and the entire nation's children/teens at large.

Now it's my turn. We the parents try hard too, ya know? Yep, I know you know...snicker

Two years ago my hubby gifted me with a brand new pair of ice skates. I used to own a pair, for many years in fact, ones that were so nice and worn in, offering a cozy and perfect sculpting of my feet while wearing them but after our move east, something happened to them.

They simply vanished. Off the face of the earth for sure.

So, feeling sorry for me when we were eventually realized we ourselves owned a lovely property with a natural forming ice rink out back, I became the proud new owner of another new pair.

The skate box is now awaiting pickup in the recycling bin

Question; Ever try to wear a brand new pair of leather ice skates the first time?

The second time?

The third time?

Yep, they all feel the same to your feet - PAIN!

I LOVE my toe picks!

Being the good sport that I tend to be as I age, the younger children and I headed out on a wee adventure last Friday afternoon. The sun was high in the sky, perfect for a skating session on a local outdoor arena.

This is what happens when you have older brothers

in ice hockey.

Girls get boy's skates without toe picks and they fall often at first.

Arriving, we realized we had the entire ice to ourselves.

Perfect.

Just prior we made a coffee and hot chocolate run. I've not shared the fact our coffee pot is on the fritz, standing there and hitting the on button about nine times just to afford myself one cup of the hot cuppa stuff, now becoming very frustrating! Note to self - new coffee pot and soon.

I was trying to be frugal, keep on using it because we could. My patience level is running LOW. So, with a gift card in hand, we hit a Tim Hortons for some JAVA for MOM!

Olympian wanna be! NOT!

With camera in hand, I couldn't resist snapping a few pics, encouraging the children to get their sea legs and becoming confident enough alone out there before tying up my own skates.

And besides, I did mention I had a hot cup of coffee with me, right? And oh, it was sippy cup scrumptious to me to savor the flavor right there and then.

Savor the java bean why don't I? Oh yeah....

Okay, after my skates were on, I was off, a bit unsteady at first as it had been a while. When I was young, my parents drove us ice skating every Sunday afternoon for years and years both on a frozen lake or at the local ice arena.

I grew up listening to the "Everly Brothers" and their big hit wonder; "Dream, Dream, Dream" resounded inside those arenas every Sunday.

So here now, I am attempting to break in my new skates.....still! Dream, Dream, Dream fills my head and determination visits. I will wear them in until they are actually comfortable.


Skating outdoors in the fine sun fast became wonderful and totally exhilarating!

It was COLD and my nose was ROSY Rudolph RED.

Overall in summation - it was so beautiful outside and the fresh air was refreshing.


We three made a vow to improve our fitness levels in 2010 with one another. One item on our list is to hit the rink three times each week from now on until such time as the winter outdoor rink season is over.

Today was supposed to be our day. Can you believe it's raining?

The rink was closed.

Lest you feel we did nothing instead today, I have a huge surprise coming for you in another post!

Are your menus ready for this week?

No worries, mine aren't fully tweaked yet either, though they will be by tomorrow.

I just love when I get a telephone call from my friendly library lady, the one where she announces a book I've reserved is awaiting pickup.

The past few days I've been nose to nose between the pages of a good book, not a usual kind of wonderful type of storybook, but a recipe book.

Of interest to me has always been recipe books for using my crockpot. The first one I purchased was over 32 years ago now, the first of its kind at that time.

Actually I was one of those silly young girls because I collected several cookbooks even before I married and had a family, just because.

Many years later I've noticed cookbooks keep on getting better and better, and depending on one's specific category interests, anything is possible for kitchen dinner fixings these days.

I already own "Fix it and Forget it", a gold ribbon winner in my eye, but as I perused bookstores online a few weeks ago, I came across the newer version I'd forgotten about, the "Fix it and Forget it Light" book seemingly caught my eye in the book stack aisle at Costco before Christmas, the very book I felt drawn to handle and run my hand over it's super tempting cover, restraining myself all the while not to slip it into my shopping cart - just because it was a non-necessity and I was thinking "budget", "simplicity" and all those things during that time period.


When the withdrawal emotions over not purchasing that book for real finally dissipated into thin air, just like that (snapping my fingers), my fairy library lady called to announce (with shrill fairy library lady voice sounds) that my reserved copy was ready to borrow from her.

I like those types of telephone calls. I get all tingly inside and I end up having to contain myself because the temptation to jump up and dance my boogie off right there on the spot becomes uncontrollable! I do that sometimes you know, dance on the spot to get my 20 minutes of break-out-in-a-sweat-cardio-boogie in during the day. It's a great stress reliever. You oughta try it sometime. Just make sure no one is watching so you can really jiggle and jump well! Great too for calming down hormones .... (wink)

Was it any coincidence then this book was featured on top of one of the library bookshelves right near the entrance last week? Nope. As we are currently following this year's show, ah, why not borrow and read this one too. (Gosh, hankie alert on every episode though, sheesh!)


I love my library, old fashioned wish list centered and all!

Yes, the old crockpot has been calling my name out loud once more, unused for a wee while now.

Armed with several new and "light" recipes to try out, I'll be revving up my crockpot and looking toward one other new (mine, ohh, la,la) cookbook on "Eating Clean" by Tosca Reno, both offering "easy" and "light" dinners for my kitchen cooking duties in the upcoming week. Menu tweaking here I come!


First though, there was no use in even attempting to try anything, that is until;

• a) - the refrigerator had a good washing - inside!

• b) - the weekend entailed the to-do list errand for purchasing fresh produce at our local vegetable market.

Just look at all that color! Don't these just make you want a veggie platter right now? Or a yummy rabbit type of wonderful salad?

First, before refilling the produce drawers in my fridge, I'll take some of those tortilla chips, with some spicy hot salsa to dip them in. Oh heavenly....

As our oldest daughter would say; "Any time is nacho time". Yum!

Oh, I'm happy to report my husband offered his assistance this weekend. He was the one who rolled up his sleeves and performed the grand feat of refrigerator wash out. And he was the one who also rolled up his sleeves and donned his new apron to make this dinner entree tonight, his own creation!


Jasmine rice under a hot steamy mix of Indonesian curried chicken, chick pea and spinach, a few pepper/vinegar cucumber slices and a dollop of mango chutney. He's learning to steam instead of fry in butter. And besides, let's just forget all of that love lipsync from Julia Child when it comes to the Parisian cooking with plenty of butter included. Let's face it; in the real world - THAT type of cooking is just NOT "light" eating at all.


So how is your week ahead looking for you?

• Is your sink scrubbed and shiny (Flylady)?

• Is your fridge all squeaky clean and ready for fresh produce stashes?

• Is your menu drawn up?

• Is your crockpot all dusted off?

As Shania Twain might burst out in song about now...

• Let's Go Girls! Feel like a woman?

Best of all, do share if YOU got a call from your wonderful fairy library lady this past week like I did.

snicker..