Time Keeps on Slipping...

Another new year is upon us. I can't believe how 2007 just seemed to slip by so quickly. Best wishes to all for a very happy and healthy new year.

Dunvegan ATC Group

Our ATC group had its annual holiday potluck and trade and celebrated our 7th year together. It was a really fun afternoon. Great food. Great conversation. Great trades!

Chocolate MInt Cake

I made this chocolate mint cake for a potluck party last night. There was hardly anything left by the time the party was over!

Big Things

Big bowling pins in Cornwall, Ontario. Unfortunately the bowling alley went broke a few years back and they knocked everything down.

Lost Pets ATCs

Our monthly artist trading card session is coming up on Saturday where we will be celebrating our 7th anniversary with a big trading session and potluck snack. My Lost Pet ATCs (click to enlarge) are what I'm trading this month. The lost donkey was from a classified ad in the Oregonian from Portland, Oregon. The other ads were found in the Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette.

Boxing Day

After a wonderful Christmas meal in Ottawa, Richard and I headed back home and watched The Sound of Music, kind of a Christmas tradition. Richard does a great imitation of Gayog (Christopher Plummer) singing "Edelweiss." My version of "The Lonely Goatherd" ain't bad either.

Merry Christmas to One and All

I'd like to wish all my friends who celebrate it a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you enjoy your family visits and eat lots of turkey and stuffing. I'm off to Ottawa this afternoon to celebrate with Richard's 90-year-old mum, his 2 sisters and brothers-in-law. Bring on the plum pudding!

A Beautiful Time of Year

What a gorgeous time of year. Embrace it. Afterall, spring is only 3 months away!

Solstice Bonfire

The days are now getting longer! It'll be nice not to have it pitch black at 4:30 p.m.
This photo is one Richard snapped of the solstice bonfire. Pretty dramatic. (I'm the one in the black coat with my hood up.)

Solstice Cake

We went to a Solstice party last night and spent the longest night of the year in front of a massive bonfire. There were about 30 people around the enourmous fire drinking hot glog or Mexican coffee available in the open-log studio, (warming in crockpots on very long extension cords). When we went inside there was tons of food and my solstice cake, which was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Small Town LIfe

Leaving $30 in a can? Kind of nice I think. Another odd small town Canada thing...Xmas shopping with Richard last night at Zellers in Hawkesbury, Ontario and we decided to eat at their in-store retro 1950s diner where half of the restaurant had its chairs removed to enable a group of 10-15 seniors to do a line dancing routine. Right in the middle of the restaurant!

Pine Grosbeaks

These gorgeous pink birds (the females are the plain, tawny-coloured ones) were spotted at Richard's place. They've been back to the feeder for sunflower seeds several days in a row. Wonderful to see them.

Snow Fence

It really looks like winter out there. And winter only really starts on December 21st...

What I Did During the Storm

Since I couldn't go anywhere, I loaded the fires with wood and starting painting. And I couldn't stop!

Now That's What I Call Snow!

I ventured out yesterday afternoon to get a good look at the snow. (That's the front of my house and the snowed-in walkway to the front door.)

And then last night I decided I'd better start shoveling. This is what I saw when I opened the front door!

Let It Snow!

We're expecting up to 60cm of snow today! And most of it seems to be coming down horizontally because the winds are at 110km per hour. I think it's a good day to stay in and do some artwork.

More Baby Plates

The baby plates I posted were so popular, I was asked to do some more. Jack and Henry are for a friend's grandchildren in Boston. Brian's plate is for an almost-two-year-old in Ithaca, New York. Now all I have to do is find some more retro diner plates! Any ideas?

Quick Trip

My niece was in from England so I hopped on the train and spent 2 quick days in Toronto visiting my family. It went by so fast it's hard to believe I was even there! Good seeing family...we all went for a big lobster dinner. Yum!

All About Ronna?

My friend Peter sent me this the other day. Pretty funny, eh?

Baby Plates for Liam & Paige

After seeing my sample baby plate, my friend Lis asked me to personalize two baby plates for a friends' grandchildren. Paige is 6 months old and Liam is 2 and a half.

Mourning Doves

For the past five years, my friend Peggi and I participated in the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. It was an ambitious project in which the province of Ontario was broken up into squares and bird breeding activity was recorded in each square. Peggi and I monitored the square in which we were both living (so the feeder outside the window was a good start). The Atlas is expected to be published in early 2008.

The Glengarry News

I opened our local paper yesterday and there I was on page 5 (above the fold)! Nice write up on the show. Click image to enlarge.

Let it Snow

This is the view from my bedroom window after our 2 day deluge of 25+ cm of snow. It's really pretty...as long as you don't have to drive in it. The building on the left is the barn, where the little barn cat is living.

Baby Plate

I couldn't help myself. I just can't seem to stop doing ceramic painting. After the Saturday art show, I've sold a few more pieces from folks who saw stuff and came home and then wanted more. And a few blog buddies have shown interest too. While at the show, one of the ladies said they were going to use the rooster platter as her grandchild's dinner plate. Got me to thinking...

Barn Cat

She appeared in my bird feeder 2 weeks ago and although I don't want another cat (5 is enough), I just had to feed her when she started to eat the bird's suet. She now has a bed set up in the stable-side of the barn. And I feed her twice a day. She's a very shy cat but she meows to me, from the back of the barn, when I'm out there feeding her. (I think she's really cute!)

It was Fun!

The day flew by. We had tons of people and we all sold well. I sold a bunch of ceramic pieces, tiles, a few of my books, some art and several of my photo cards as well. All in all, a very successful day. I had my friend Mac snap this shot of the 3 artists just as the first buyers walked through the door.

The Show is Today!

Yesterday, we set up our tables and today at 1:00 p.m. the doors will open (I'm making it sound a lot more dramatic than it really is!!). At any rate, the snow was flying yesterday but today is bright and clear but very cold. The roads are fine so am hoping we get a nice turnout.

Feather Dishes

More ceramics for tomorrow's show. Feathers and nests seem like a fun thing to paint onto dishes.
We're trying to get into the hall a day early so we can set up this afternoon. Will try and post photos of the set up tomorrow.

Dishes for Four

My friend Chris commissioned me to do plates and mugs for her four daughters for Christmas. She gave me a list of things that each of her kids liked best and I came up with the images. Fun!

More Olive Dishes

I am wrapping things up for the show on Saturday and painting everything in sight! Here are a few more things I've been working on.

Perry's Birthday Cake

Perry missed his birthday celebration at our ATC meet and trade on Saturday but a large piece of cake and all the birthday ATCs were delivered to him afterwards. Apparently he was delighted and he sent us all a thank you note today. Maybe we'll sing Perry a round of "Happy Birthday" at our Christmas potluck party at the end of December? (And yes, that is one of my cakes!)

Busy Weekend

Seems the weekend just slipped by. We had our ATC trade on Saturday where we had intended to celebrate one of our traders' birthdays. Unfortunately, the birthday boy was a no show, but his daughter was there, so she took a piece of cake back to him plus all the wonderful "Happy 90th" artist trading cards that everyone made for Perry.
Besides that, yesterday was the Grey Cup, Canadian Football League's final game this year between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. The Bombers lost. Boo hoo.
During the game, Richard and I made our fruitcakes, which has become a tradition with us (and is made on Grey Cup weekend). It's an old fashioned recipe from (Canadian) magazine Harrowsmith and has tons of nuts (5 cups of pecans, 3 cups each of walnuts and almonds) and very little of the 'too sweet' stuff (for instance, it has figs instead of green cherries). It's wonderful (and it makes 5 loaves).
I thought I'd post a few b&w drawings I'm selling on Saturday at our art sale. It's coming quickly.

Ravioli in Brown Butter

I saw this dish made by Giada De Laurentis on Everyday Cooking on the Food Network and I thought I'd give it a try. It was delicious. Our local store now sells fresh ravioli in various flavours. I bought the ones stuffed with Gorgonzola and walnut puree. But I think any type of ravioli would work.

Ravioli in Brown Butter
1 package ravioli, cooked as per instructions on package
2-4 tablespoons walnuts toasted (I added some pine nuts because I didn't have enough walnuts)
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
shaved Parmesan cheese

While ravioli is cooking, toast nuts until fragrant (watch as they burn easily).
Melt butter in a saucepan and cook over low heat until brown (about 5 minutes). Add vinegar. Drain ravioli and add to saucepan with butter and vinegar. Stir until coated. Serve topped with nuts and shaved Parmesan. Serves 2.

Rooster Platters

More stuff for the art sale. I did rooster tiles last year and they were a big hit. I figured I'd keep with a winner and do the same little guys on small platters.

More Olive Bowls

I'm in the home stretch for next week's art sale. I did a bunch of mini olive bowls yesterday. The flat ones were originally butter pats. I thought they'd work well for olive pits or leftover toothpicks. The mini-olive bowls would work well for well...olives!

ATC Quarterly #9

Richard and I folded and stapled last night and we're ready to stuff envelopes and mail the winter 2008 issue of ATC Quarterly. The wonderful cover, based on the "Let Them Eat Cake" theme was done by Jacque Lynn Davis of Missouri. What intrigued me was that she works entirely digitally, using a digital pen and drawing tablet. Pretty cool.

Winter Wonderland

I couldn't post to my blog this morning because there was too much snow on the satellite dish. But it's fairly warm out and by the time I got back from a bunch of errands, it had melted and I'm back! Pretty isn't it? Tomorrow we're expecting 5-10 cms. Last year it didn't snow till January 15th. Looks like this winter might be a real old-fashioned one?

Olive Bowls

I've been madly trying to make enough stuff for the December 1st group show. I am fond of the olive theme and decided to do two variations on the white bowls; one set has the dots on the inside, the other on the outside. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out.

Dance of the Seven Veils?

The sunrise on Richard's kitchen wall was incredibly dramatic this morning. He was doing the breakfast dishes and I told him I was going to take his picture. A bit of a ham, you think?

Sneak Peek: ATC Quarterly #9

The winter '08 (issue #9) of ATC Quarterly is hitting the presses tomorrow. Richard and I will be folding and stapling one night this week and then I'll pop them in the mail next week. There were many "Let Them Eat Cake" entries; most of them will be on the www.atcquarterly.com website (click on centrefold) which should be updated soon. Thanks to everyone who sent one in. They were wonderful!

"Happy 90th Perry" ATC

At our next ATC trade, we will be celebrating one of our traders' 90th birthdays. Perry drives in from Rigaud, Quebec (about a 40 minute drive) to our trade in Dunvegan, Ontario every month. He makes wonderful watercolour and ink ATCs, mainly depicting local scenery but sometimes Perry draws people waiting for a doctor's appointment or folks just walking down the street. Other times he makes, what he calls "Perry Bugs" from odd bits of nature he's picked up: mini-pine cones, straw and grass, maple seeds, and the like. He glues them to an ATC-sized card and turns them into his own creatures. They're adorable.
At our next trade, each of us is bringing a birthday ATC for Perry and we'll toast in his 90th birthday with a big chocolate cake.

Thoughts on TV

Actually, now that I get 500+ stations, there's very little to watch...

Kitty cats

It's been a while since I've posted any cat photos. I know winter is on its way when I find Cookie (seated) and Cinnamon curled up on my bed together. They'll spend most of the season there. Pretty good way to spend winter, I think!