lisa vollrath - christmas countdown

Lisa has done it again...check out her countdown to Christmas for some fabulous free goodies!

another zentangle

Here is another zentangle I have been playing with...again, the image just kind of worked its way out.

circle craft goodies

I recently attended the annual Circle Craft Christmas Market. I really enjoy wandering through the booths. There are several booths that I always visit. Kama Soap (fabulous!) and becki rose, and her wonderful primitive patties, among others. This year I was thrilled to come home with this Laura Gibson piece.

"Tea in the Afternoon"

Her art always makes me smile. I love her tongue-in-cheek style. If you go to her website, do check out "Tippi's Making Some Friends"...and you should have seen "Well Hello, Benjamin", a tribute to Mrs. Robinson. It's a great piece. Unfortunately, it isn't on her site...must be a newer piece.

I also acquired another Mud Puppy Clayworks piece. Michelle Wilson creates, what I call, wonderfully Seussian type pottery houses, amongst other things. I still haven't gone all the way and purchased one of her high rises, but my little house is a good start...maybe next year.

teesha inspiration

Teesha Moore has recently produced some great YouTube videos on her journaling techniques, with her fabulous hubby Tracy working the camera.

Having had the opportunity to learn from her first-hand last year at Play [can't wait for next January...it's and awesome way to spend four days...I highly recommend it], it was great to be able to watch each step in her process again. I have watched each one at least twice already and can't wait for more.


So, after watching the videos last weekend, I pulled out my journal and painted a few pages. Then I added some collage borders.




This is one of the pages I have a bit further along. I have also incorporated a bit of what I learned from Anahata.


Thanks for the continued inspiration, Teesha!

seredipity of doodles

I have always doodled...for as long as I can remember.

When we received our registration confirmation for Journalfest (which I attending in late October - more to come on that in the future, if I can get my act together) we were given a small journal and a bunch of images from the teachers, as well as Teesha and Tracy. One one of the journal pages I airbrushed a grey background with Copic marker and attached one of Tracy's images to the middle of the page. The intention was that if I couldn't think of anything else to work on, during our evenings around the dining room table, I would continue his doodles. Part of our goodie bag, when we arrived at the Fort, was a (0.1) Copic black multi liner marker. I knew how to put that to use. I ended up working exclusively on this page for the first two evenings at Journalfest and the first picture is the end result.

Then in Ingrid Dijker's class (Octopus's Garden), she had some doodled images in her journal and called them "Zentangles". I hadn't heard that term before. I have recently been googling them to get some additional inspiration for my doodles. These ARE really relaxing to do. Guess that is the "zen" part of the title. Who knew? I just thought it was doodling. :)

I started a new page with some random shapes and began doodling around and in them. Last evening, as I was working on it, I looked down at the page and saw an distinct image that had evolved inside the doodles, totally on its own. I decided to stop and take a picture (the second one attached).

The last picture was the additional work I did to enhance the image. I loved the serendipity of the whole thing. I call the piece "balancing act".

Give it a try sometime.

mushrooms, anyone?

Well, first of all I guess it is a good thing that I "blog without obligation" otherwise the guilt for not posting for seven months (to the day, I might add) would be immense!

Last week we made our weekly trek to a local farmer's market that we have been going to all summer. I was talking to Cyrus, our 'Mushroom Guy' and asked where I could get my mushrooms after the market closed for the season. He told me about the winter market, which is a great start, and then told me as we were regular customers, he gave me one of the mounds of dirt (?) he had under his table. He said, "Take this home and find a spot that gets indirect light and is between 18-20 degrees celsius. The shitake mushrooms will start to grow and when they do, remove the plastic and put a large plastic bag over the mound like a tent.

We thought, how well can this work...

Well, it appears we found the perfect spot. One week later, this is what we have! It's crazy...the mushrooms seem to double in size every day.

We took our pictures back to the market yesterday to show Cyrus and he said we had indeed found the right spot with the right temperature and most importantly, the right amount of light, which is why they are growing so big.

He told us what a mature mushroom should look like and that we could harvest them at any time. We are curious as to how big they will get, so we are going to give them a bit more time before we harvest, but it's pretty cool...don't you think?

happy 90th birthday, nana!

Today is my Nana Anne's 90th birthday and I was fortunate enough to be able to take the day off and travel to Vancouver Island to share in her celebration.


The sun was shining and best of all, it was one of her good days.


She recognized just about everyone who attended, and those she didn't immediately recognize, mentioned their name and then you could see the twinkle in her eye as that was all the prompt that was required.


I saw relatives and old family friends...some whom I hadn't seen in many, many years.


By the time the party was over, Nana was pretty pooped, so we gathered all the wonderful flowers and cards she had received and took her back to her room for a well deserved nap.


My mom and Auntie Fern, along with our friend Missy, put together a terrific gathering.



Happy Birthday, Nana!! I love you very much. Your first born grandchild, Deb.

journal pages

I scanned most of the pages from my first journal (much better than trying to take pictures of the pages). There is still work to be done, but some of them are pretty much finished...for now.

play

I have been longing for an opportunity to learn howTeesha Moore creates her fabulous journal pages for a few years now.


At the end of January, I finally got my chance by attending Teesha and Tracey's journaling retreat 'Play' at Fort Worden in Port Townsend , WA. I was one of 45 artists who gathered for three and a half days of solid journaling . It was absolute heaven.


We spent the days in a large common room and were provided opportunities to watch several demos on a variety of journaling techniques. Being able to put out all of our supplies and not have to pack up each day was wonderful. At night, the Canadian gang from 6E (Janice, Mo, Ty, Marcia and myself) would gather a few supplies and head back to the house for dinner and evenings of wine, laughter and continued journaling into the early hours of the next morning.


The first night/early morning, I was awoke by an earthquake. It didn't last more than a couple of seconds, but was strong enough to make my heart race. I ran to my bedroom door to see if anyone else had felt it, but nothing but crickets...no one else stirred. I called my hubby back home, apologizing for waking him up at 5:30am to ask if he felt anything. He hadn't, but did call me back at 7:30 to tell me I wasn't crazy and there had been a 4.6(ish) earthquake approx. 35 km north of Seattle (pretty much right where we were located).


So I can honestly say that this retreat rocked my world!


I did have an art epiphany on the last full day. I was looking at what I had created and was so proud of what I had accomplished on my pages that I got a bit weepy (in a good way). I found myself an artistic outlet that allows me to create art on a daily basis...I think I may actually use some of the wonderful journals I have been making for all these years; although I do like the (16) page journals we made at the retreat (using one sheet of fabriano artistico watercolour paper).

I can't wait for next year! But up next, ArtFest at the beginning of April and the first reunion of the 2007 6W gang.


Here are a couple of the pages I created at the retreat. Stay tuned for more to come!

lisa vollrath - valentine's countdown

Another fab collection of goodies from Lisa. Get them (here) while you can!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

after the first big snowfall

For the first time since 1971, all of Canada will be having a white Christmas.

We have had three big dumps of snow so far this year. The first was last Wednesday, then a really big one this past Sunday and now today.

We managed to get out between snow falls and get all our groceries and last minute shopping done so we can sit back, relax and enjoy the next few days without having to worry about going anywhere.

We have been invited to our friends (and close neighbours) for Christmas dinner, so all we have to do is pop on our boots and coats and walk three doors down our driveway to their place. All our family who were travelling have made it safely to their destinations. I have a girlfriend who is supposed to fly to the interior of BC this afternoon, so I hope she makes it to the airport and her flight doesn't get cancelled (fingers crossed).

Here are some pictures of our area over the past week.

Happy holidays to all!

view from our front window this morning

our friend luna enjoying the snow

a spotted towhee grabbing a snack and a rest

lisa vollrath's - original printables holiday countdown

Lisa has another one of her fab countdowns for Christmas. Check it out here.

a contest...

...is being held over at my fabulous friend, Shari Beaubien's blog. Pop on over and take a peek.

mama needs a new pair of shoes...

...and Lady Luck just happened to agree!

Let me explain.

When I started my new job in May, I knew I needed to upgrade my wardrobe and that included new shoes. I took the plunge and forked out some serious cash for a pair of Finn Comfort - Standford slip-on shoes (in black of course), as I knew I would be on my feet a lot and wanted proper support. Ka-ching $$$ the most expensive shoes I have ever purchased by a long shot, at close to $300. One of the smartest moves I ever made though. They have been wonderful...oh so comfy. Some may call them "sensible shoes", but I don't do heels and I think they are pretty cute.

About a month ago, I went back to Foot Solutions to take another look at shoes (something to go with browns this time) and the lovely folks who run the shop in Port Coquitlam told me that the same shoes were coming in, in bronze! Super...they would go with browns, but look cooler than standard brown shoes (they also have them in red, which was tempting, but I rarely wear red). I said please put me down for a pair. I got to pick them up this morning. Again, it was hard to shell out that kind of dough, but the support they provide is soooo worth it.

On the way home, the three of us decided to pop into the casino for a bit. We toodled up to the empty craps table and with my $40 limit, I said, "Mama needs to pay for a new pair of shoes," and I started to roll.

Long story short, I did well. As my chips increased, Wes would slip a few chips into his pocket. Shortly after I started he said, "You can play with everything," meaning he had my starting $$ in his pocket and I was now playing with the house's money. I continued to play, continued to win, and Wes continued to put chips in his pocket. I really didn't know how I was doing, except to say that I always had enough in front of me to place all the bets I wanted.

After about an hour, we decided to call it quits. I tipped the table and we walked away. That's when the fun really began. Wes started to empty his pockets into my hands and when all was said and done, I had won EXACTLY the cost of my shoes (after taking out my initial outlay of $40, plus the tip)! Woo hoo!!

Coincidence, or Lady Luck? Doesn't much matter, cuz Mama's got her new pair of shoes!!

artfest 2009

It's time to get excited again! After missing out last year, I am thrilled to say that I am planning on attending Artfest again this year! All the gals of 6W, from my first year at Artfest (2007) are reuniting next April!

As we Canadians get to send in our registrations a week prior to our US neighbours, Nadine has gratitiously agreed to gather all of our registrations (sans San Diego Deb) to mail in on the first allowable day!

Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I get at least a couple of my first choices (Laurie Mika, Pam Sussman and Ty and Marcia Schultz).

In the meantime, I guess I can start thinking about trades. I love the logo for this year and hope I can come up with some fun ideas around sea creatures. Speaking of which, our Deb recently posted a link to the cutest YouTube video "oktapodi". You can find it here.

26 years ago today...

...I married my best friend.
Stephen, I love you with all my heart.

the dark knight

After many months of anticipation, we finally got our chance to see the follow up to one of my favorite movies, 'Batman Begins'. It did not disappoint. Christian Bale is the consumate Batman. Heath Ledger was AMAZING as the joker! His mannerisms, his voice, everything was perfectly disturbing. We'll see what happens come oscar time...I definitely think his performance is worthy of a supporting actor nomination.

great big sea - secret concert

Stephen recently used up most of the JACK points we had both accumulated to get over 300 entries for a contest to win a pair of tickets to the secret Great Big Sea concert held in Vancouver on July 27th!

It paid off! And thanks to our friend Robin, who heard Stephen's name on the radio, we found out we had won! [There was also a message on our answering machine when we got home.]

The concert was held at Doolin's Irish Pub.

There were just over 200 people invited to attend. We got in line early enough so that when we got in, we could get a good spot close to the stage. They had taken all the tables out of the way so there was room for us to crowd around the tiny stage which was in one corner of the pub. We ended up practically at the front and the band had to walk through us all to get on stage. It was a very intimate setting.

Best part of it was that cameras and other recording equipment were welcome! Most excellent! We took a bunch of pictures and videos using our Nikon Cool Pix and Flip video camera.

The boys played for around 90 minutes. Along with several songs from their latest album, 'Fortune's Favour', they played some of their big hits and a few covers, including Led Zepplin's 'Gallows Pole' and The Police's 'So Lonely'. Wicked!

I was hoping to post some of the videos on YouTube, but they are bigger than it allows, so I am trying to figure out a way to compress them.

Here are a few pics from the show.

We did find a couple videos that others posted. You can find one of them here.



What a fun way to start off a four day weekend!

Thanks again, JACKFM!!

father's day goodies

I'm calling it goodies, as countdown seems a bit strange considering Father's Day was yesterday. Lisa has another collection of freebies...they are available here. Get them before they are gone!

a fabulous weekend

This weekend the three of us spent a wonderful weekend in the capital city of this amazing province of ours...Victoria. We had the pleasure of being hosted by our lovely friends, Mary and Don.


We shared great conversation, lots of m-m-m nummy food, a little geocaching (their first time) and to top it off, a performance of Cirque du Soleil's Saltimanco.


I find myself captivated by each Cirque experience and this one did not disappoint. The athleticism, the artistry and the humour all woven together by a signature cirque soundtrack. In this performance, the live band was situated at the back of the stage on risers and played a prominent part in the entire show.


There was a particularly amusing clown that made the show. He vocalized all these terrific sound effects during several acts. The best one was when he pulled a fellow from the audience who really got into his role. He was such a good sport; going along with everything that was asked of him...I should say mime'ed of him. Just hillarious. The two of them had the audience in stitches. I couldn't stop laughing.


A very relaxing and throughly enjoyable way to spend the weekend.

Thank you, Mary and Don for everything!!