Working, reading-

Paper flowers

A quiet Tuesday. A sense of acomplishment. Being able to do a little bit of this, a little bit of that, staying on top of things, making some delicious yummies for my sweeties, some new drawings, (where are they going?) using watercolour and ink, not ready to show them yet, maybe tomorrow, making some inner decisions, what to discard, what to keep, making notes all the time, if I am to do this more efficiently I have to focus on fewer things, haven't I been doing that for months? but I am still in the process (believe it or not) of setting these priorities, I am moving from living on 'artistic impulse' and lets face it 'impulse generally' to something 'planned'. A 'planned' life. I think I lied last time I mentioned something about happiness. When I sit down and think about it all, my insides start purring like a cat's next to a fireplace. Happiness comes much more often than Christmas.

On housekeeping

My househeeping book. It 'embraces' recipes I copy, thoughts, wish lists, quotes on homemaking, any helpful tips on housecleaning, menu plans (in the making), pages on breakfast,
lunches, and dinners. Do you know I actually froze a whole load of shirts and ironed them beautifully and soooo easily...oh my! If you take a peak into our freezer right now you will find two neatly packaged shirts (sprayed with water, rolled up and placed in plastic bags) waiting for that next day of ironing...LOL...It works!

Anna's visit

Living so far away from so many of our loved ones makes a visit from someone so dear very special.

Gifts of flowers.

And obviously special visits must include walks, chat-chats, tea, coffee and apple cider.

Thank you Anna.

Friday in and out of the kitchen

Yes, this Friday its out.

But the sunlight is still with us. Sunlight on garlic.

Somehow appropriate.

Have a lovely evening.

Bits and pieces ...

Lunch...

A read...

The desk on Thursday...

Music and sunlight

Sunlight streaming into our new 'music room'!

I am always asking myself 'what is important? really important?' I do this when I paint, when I do my shopping, when I decorate, when I write. I guess that is where the concept of simplicity comes in, because whithin 'simplicity' what is important stands out immediately.

C for change

C for change...but also C for contentment...
C for confusion... but also C for clarity...

Seeing, looking.

The beauty of grey.

The light this Saturday

Lunch at home. I painted that plate with the birds last year. It's like having a West Van garden on my table.

Late afternoon light. A new, thrifted vase.

Sundown. Lucy trying out her Halloween decorations.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Flowers in the 'piano-room'

A sweet friend brought me a pot with flowers over a year ago. This most amazing plant has never been without flowers ever since. During my recent reorganisation I was advised to split the plant to two and repot. Which I did and this is one of the two! It's in the 'formal living room' which we never used very much because I guess we are not that 'formal'...but now the room hosts the new, very old but very loved piano. (the book was picked up by Lucy from the freebies the school library was giving away, because of the gorgeous cover-don't you agree?)

The paintings are up-

Finally, the paintings are up. After a day of an emotional roller-coaster...but I am used to it by now. I know the storm is coming and that sort of helps. And obviously I did wonder what on earth I am doing painting at all, I started considering what other employment options I have and then I thought that painting is what I know to do best even if not as well as I would like to...
So, that is that, I have to keep on painting, nothing I can do about it...

Things where they should be and as they should be.

New pots for my beauties- I love their full roundness-
Finishing touches on paintings for tomorrow.
Finalising my thoughts on the course I start teaching on Tuesday.
(I always find teaching a great learning opportunity- I will start with Matisse this time and that makes me so very happy)
Thinking that what children need more than anything- really- is the 'parental eye', not looking after them with great stress and worry (like my 'eye' was for most of my first three children's life) but with interested, kind, and firm attentiveness- When I have taken Lucy to basketball the last couple of weeks I have spent the whole time 'looking' at her, seeing what I might learn...Before I would read, chat with other moms, and mostly draw while waiting for her. I thought that by giving her all my attention it would be good 'for her' but today I realised it is also teaching me things about her that I might have missed otherwise.
Pieces are falling into place. The puzzle is coming together.

A calculated quest for the very-best cookie...

Lucy has decided that when she grows up she will be a chef and a farmer. Baking is something we both enjoy very much.( Too much?) But really it is also one more way to teach math. Since not much progress is being made at school, this seems to be a good way to convince her of the importance of math in her life. No math, no cooking, no counting of baking times, no measuring if you want to double recipes. We have made progress, as we are tackling both the quest for the very best cookie, and the math challenge. Yummy progress....(obviously, I hope never to find the very best cookie but to relish every exciting new chapter in this the never-ending quest...)

Monday's mini-interview with Elk

What inspires you?
First I am amazed by all the many talented artists I see. who could not be inspired by the talent! Simplicity in daily moments , from witnessing life unfold behind the camera lens to the music in my classroom each day. Aritsitcally, I relish tones of the season in nature, delight in the smoothness and edges of papers both vintage and new and the softness and texture of fabric. I am always humbled and inspired knowing a card sent may touch someone or a collage created brings a smile. How do you turn your inspiration into art?
In quiet times I may journal or list ideas, but find that the clearest way for me to create is the actual cutting of fabric. Some shapes I may not use but bring to another piece, always denim and scissors in my bag to snip away during a free moment. The fraying and unraveling of fabric hold a parallel to life for me, a bit frayed in spots, sometimes unraveled, yet the rounded shapes of the bird...a comfort and a wisp of flight.
Papers are torn and cut and kept in a wicker case ready to be applied to a project. I make a few cards ahead but the majority are made when the feelings arise, I find that making them 'fresh' is more interesting and fun. When I make a card for a friend who is ill, or a birthday celebration, I am able to use the feelings I am having about her to create a more personal piece.


How do you balance art and family life?
The balance of family is less of a challenge because my daughters are older...it was a joy to collage with both of them this past summer when we were relaxed and out of school, they have been the greatest teachers! I would say though, the time and energy I devote to my work as a music teacher and the photography for my visual blog are where my balancing act is the most difficult. Ironically though by using both my work and my photography as a part of the artistic process, in the end, they add such layers to the piece.


Thank you Elk for the thoughts and the glimpses into your life and art-making. It is interesting to read how much music is part of your everyday life and how that may have influenced your photography and collage work which are so deliciously poetic.
Have you had a chance to enjoy Elk's photographs and collage work? You will find them in her blog here.

How can a Sunday go wrong when it starts with pancakes? I have always been a pancake snob- I have vowed never again to eat pancakes in a commercial setting and I always make ours from scratch. For the last fifteen years I have not used sugar in my mix but have replaced it with ripe bananas. Recently we had a pancake craving though and alas no bananas! so I experimented with apple sauce and I actually now like that even better. A must try! The pancakes gave us all the energy we needed to get on with a team-clean of our family car, and as a reward for a job well done we went on a picnic.

A gorgeous day.

Some brave people were actually swimming (the one minute contact with the sea water..) but I am afraid we are not that brave...

Of course, some of us would if they were allowed!

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

One is set free when one, finally, sets one's own standards...

In 'Home Comforts' , Cheryl Mendelson discusses 'standards of housekeeping' and how it is up to us individually to 'set our own standards'. I thought that concept is the foundation of all contentment in life. I don't say happiness because that's an elusive state of being, a fleeting thing, and so it should. Happiness is , and should be like Christmas, something worth waiting for. But contentment is a reasonable daily goal. And it comes from ' setting our own standards' in things. And of course one can start in the home.
Today was a good day, I took Lucy for some cross-country running first thing in the morning before school , then I painted for about six hours, in the afternoon I ventured into the backyard for some clearing up, and later I took Lucy to her second piano lesson. Also, I am very excited to report that my 'studio' is used by the older children for studying , and even by Nigel for some quiet moments to play Sudoku... I made a room for all to love! YES! That's meeting my standards...

Desk Thursday

Picked up the acrylics today, reworking an older painting. Large canvas, big brushes. I realised I needed an even bigger brush. I was happy at the end. But I never know until a month or two pass by how really 'good' a painting is. At least I know its working 'better' than when I started with it this morning. I changed the shape of the man reading, I was going to take him away completely but suddenly I really wanted him there. I couldn't bear scraping him away. Everything seemed happy with everything else. I didn't want to change a thing. Just to sit there and look at it. I am hanging a small show at a coffee shop on Thursday. I have a few paintings but there are three that really move me. So that is good.
It is good enough.
When do you know when things are 'good enough'?

My creative space-

Slowly getting back into it- trying things out with ATC's -my inspiration comes from the gardens

in our area- so abundant- and the roads, the trees, the birds- of course all become shapes- I pursue the shapes and they pursue me- time pursues me too- I try to convince myself:"time is mine, time is mine..."in the end though maybe I should only ask : was this day well spent? instead of stretching time I should be enriching it-

This is my son's last year of highschool- I see every day as precious because I know that I can't stretch the time he is a child-I cleaned his duvet today, his pillows, his room. I was never 'that kind of mom' . Not really. Because I always saw it as a bother. As something to be done with and finished in record time...He greets me with a laugh in his eye. What's this? vanilla smelling pillows? Yum!

This is my creative space today. A balancing act, focusing on the moment, on small things, on small scale, on a small brush, on lines that break and become maps, and charts, and needlework without the needle.

Enjoy all the creative spaces at Kootoyoo!

Warm sunlight puts everything right-

A quiet Tuesday. The house is clean, it smells like a mixture of vanilla and lemon. (I might be imagining this...) The children are at school. I am back at my 'new' studio today, sorting my papers, and watercolors, and picking up that... thread again. (the thread of creative thinking) I am looking for clarity, simplicity and real color (to reflect my need for some 'real values'). I might get off track a little but now I can easily pull myself back on line. My line.

Labour Day Monday at the PNE- just some photos

Wishing you a lovely start to the week!

Wet Sunday!

We changed all our plans because of the rain. We drove to Squamish, which is about an hour away from our home. We had lovely soup and ice-cream for lunch, then did some more driving around the small town. But these photos are from our drive back to Vancouver, a beautiful spot called Brunswick beach. When I look at these photos I can see how my artwork lately has been very inspired by the rounded shapes of the land mass and the various islands in the Howe Sound.

Lucy was full of joyfull beans as usual-

How was your Sunday?

Experimenting in the kitchen

Well, I guess trying a whole wheat version of shortbread cookies wasn't enough , Nigel had to experiment with a few more twists to the original recipe. He used oats, and whole wheat flower, and brown sugar. And of course took advantage of the more-than -willing- young -labour- force!The resulting cookies have amazing texture. The ones that were a mixture of whole wheat and white flower were quite hard and absolutely perfect for dipping in one's coffee- (which is a deliciously terrible habit of mine, and Lucy is learning fast...) These ones today would probably dissolve too fast in the coffee but they have an adorable crumbliness about them and a light and delightful crunch... There they are, sitting pretty next to our other experiment of the day: Gingerbread made with brown sugar, whole wheat flower and apple juice instead of oil. I thought it was too risky but it turned out so well!

Saturday we shop for the week, and we started early today, but had a bit of drama because at the grocery store Lucy got stung by a wasp twice, yes there tears...many tears... but then we went home and baked this (well, small) storm and the world was set right once more!

Have a lovely weekend!

Remember the blessings

We have had a beautiful summer. We had some lovely walks (this photo is from one such walk)
There has been significant progress made with the state of the garden.
We have cleared and reorganised the whole house. I have come to understand it so much more as a 'home'.
I have discovered that if I keep things simple and take care of only a small number of plants I too can have a 'green thumb'!
Rea has returned from Greece full of good memories.
Lucy and I baked the yummiest whole-wheat shortbread cookies!
It has been proven true that all can be achieved in small steps. I often get so overwhelmed -probably because of my own expectations more than anything else-but the cure is to focus on small, on simple, on one-two-three, on the beginning, then the middle, then the end. The whole idea of reorganinsing my whole house begun a couple of months ago when I emptied my closet and put everything in 'its place'. The idea must have worked in my mind for some time before I yearned to do this everywhere in our home. It was the tinniest of steps and it eventualy created a massive desire for change.
These are some of the blessings this summer has given us.

Thinking about empowering children without putting a world of expectations on their showlders.....

..."If we try to teach our children to see us as perfect, they will be terribly disappointed when our imperfections emerge, as they inevitably do. But if we teach them to see us as people trying to grow by learning from our mistakes, then we make it easier for them to see their own mistakes and failures as lessons to be learned from rather badges of shame and incompetence."...

"How good do we have to be?", by Harold S. Kushner- I read it a few years ago and it just sat there in the library looking at me yesterday so I picked it up and brought it home for another look. Its a thought provoking book, a good read definitely.

My creative space- finally there!!!

Almost a whole month 's work to get there. On the way to fixing this space I had to rearrange most of the house. But now peace has come. I admitt I feel a little disoriented but that will be corrected soon I am sure. I have an acrylic waiting to be worked on because I suddenly realised the figure needs to go. Simplicity has to reign here as well. About a year ago my work was much more about telling a story, now I see how I am becoming more of a 'shape and color- maker'...

Do you see the Ikea beauties? Lucy's first bed has returned to its first state (with the sides up) and its waiting for some pillows (in my head still). The table which is perfect for my extra large drawings, was on sale for sixty-nine dollars when I got this idea of moving! The easle, garage sale, the chest of drawers I picked up on the street left for free...

Well, my original desk I have already mentioned was ten dollars, garage sale, the chair, five dollars,garage sale,

another Ikea desk and chair, and last but not least,

the ugliest but most comfortable chair ever, disguised in inherited beauties. Lucy asked: mommy do you ever buy anything not in a garage sale? LOL- am I terrible then?

My old studio has become a much needed storage and laundry/ ironing room.

I hope I can keep up a routine that will keep the house/home fresh, neat and welcoming.

I had to rethink alot during this month. I found great inpiration here.

A new season has begun!

Now I will go and say hello to some lovely friends at Kootoyoo here.