Happy New Year

Here's hoping that you find time to enjoy the sun, snow, fresh air and whatever weather surrounds you. And to wish my blog readers all good things in the upcoming year. Cheers!

Europa Bakery

On a recent trip to Toronto, we visited Europa Bakery whose pastry chef Antonio creates pastries originating from different European countries. These French éclairs looked fantastic.


These yummy looking flans are Spanish.


Cherry cheesecake? Isn't that American?


These apple strudel represent Austria in the bakery Olympics.


Not sure where Bread pudding originated but hey, these were tempting.


Leave the gun and take the canoli, right?


Something I recently discovered is "Torrone" a nougat confection made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds. At a little Italian grocery store, I found candies called "Torroncini" (little Torrone) which are single bites of this incredibly delicious concoction.

ATC Gang 2008

We had our annual artist trading card party on Saturday and unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. Freezing rain blanketed our region and only a few brave souls could make it. As it was, we had a nice trade as well as our potluck party. We're planning to do it again in June when (we hope) there will be no bad weather.

Look Who I Saw!

I was able to grab a quick photo of this guy who was delivering his goodies to all the good little girls and boys out there. Hope you all got what you were wishing for!

Santa's Secret?

So, do you think that Santa headed to the wig store before his journey from the North Pole or do you think that all that white hair is natural?

Happy Holidays!

Brr. It's cold out there. Mrs. Chicken (not Naked Chicken, BTW) knows how to dress it up right. Stay warm and happy holidays to everyone out there in blogland.

Christmas Bestiary ATCs

Here's my set of artist trading cards that I'll be trading at the upcoming monthly ATC Trade this Saturday in Dunvegan. And since it's Christmas, we'll also be having our annual potluck party following the trade. Always a fun time!

Ronna Lisa

My friend Peter up to his old tricks with Photoshop...

Sunset Trees

When the sun reflects off that brilliant white snow, it's delightful. I guess that's meant to counteract the fact that it's getting dark by 4:15 p.m. But not to fret. The days are now starting to get longer. Yippee!

Sushi Anyone?

I forgot to paint the pickled ginger. Strange, because that's my favourite part!

Looking Back

Looking back at this year of painting ceramics, and putting much of it on the diningroom table before my Christmas sale, I was surprised at just how much there was!


What's even more exciting is thinking about all the new stuff I'm going to paint in 2009.

Art Journal

Our round robin art journal has 14 participants so it'll take us over a year until I see my own, completed journal. Can't wait! Only three to go. This one is for Fran's journal called "Glass." Fran is a fabulous watercolour artist who paints glass (and other things too!) very, very well. Her watercoloured marbles in the journal are gorgeous.


The journal was full of beautiful versions of glass in various forms, windows, vases and the like. Since I'm toward the end of this journal, I tried to do something entirely different and did a spread entitled, "Rose-coloured Glasses."

Into the Woods

Richard and I spent much of last weekend pulling in more wood. I finally got my own toboggan so it's a lot easier on my hip joints.
This drawing is not of my woods but based on a photo I took last year in Québec, near the Rouge River.

Time for Gifts

I wasn't sure what to get my cousin, his wife, their two boys and my aunt so I painted each of them a personalized mug. Then I e-mailed my cousin and surreptitiously asked him what the family likes in the way of candy. My cousin and his mom like any kind of black licorice (especially salted licorice) and his wife likes milk chocolate. The boys apparently will eat anything sweet.


Richard and I visited the Bulk Barn in Ottawa and he found "double" salted licorice, all-sorts, and black licorice cigars. (I didn't even think they made those anymore!) We also found milk chocolate Santas, Andes mini mint bars, and red, green and white sours (for the kids). I packaged them up in a basket sitting in colourful candy kisses. Ribbon to be added just before I give it to them...my cats love to chew on ribbon.


My cousin Lucy had a baby last month and although little Luke won't be eating off this plate for a while, when he does, I hope he'll get a kick out of the blue kitty cat.


My friend in Montreal asked me if I could do a keepsake plate for a couple getting married on December 22nd. She suggested two of anything and when she suggested birds, I thought a pair of red-winged blackbirds would be perfect!

Views of Parliament Hill

Richard and I had dinner with friends in Ottawa and after supper we decided to go see the lights at Parliament Hill. I love how these lights look from inside the car and even better, how they are captured on my camera.


We decided to walk and get close to the Parliament Buldings. It was snowing and the statues were getting frosted. This one is of Terry Fox, the young man with cancer who ran the Marathon of Hope across Canada (with one leg!!) to raise money for cancer research.


The majestic Parliament Buildings as seen from across the street. The whole area has lights on every tree. The buildings themselves have giant snowflakes projected onto them.


Here's a closer version of the buildings, with the Peace Tower at the top of the image and the eternal flame at the bottom. To see an excellent photo go to Richard's blog.

The Adventures of Naked Chicken V

Looking back, Naked Chicken had many adventures. Like the time she tried to have a snooze on the collection of coloured pencils. Ouch.


This seemed a better place to grab a cat nap.


But napping amongst a pride of cats seemed perilous at times.


Dogs were friendly enough but Naked Chicken had to remind herself that dogs really, really liked chicken...for supper mostly.


She met many relatives, sometimes they seemed a bit wooden.


And other times, they seemed a bit too animated.


And so Naked Chicken waves a fond farewell and thanks everyone for all her marvellous adventures in Eastern Ontario. Until next time...

The Adventures of Naked Chicken IV

Naked Chicken enjoyed her first Christmas and loved how she looked next to the bright, red poinsettia.


She also loved hiding in the Christmas tree.


Cutting the Christmas turkey, she later admitted, made her rather nervous.


A nice bonfire to celebrate the holiday season is always fun...


...especially when you find someone warm to snuggle with.

The Adventures of Naked Chicken III

We decided that Naked Chicken could use some exercise so we took her along to Curves in Alexandria for a workout.


She had some problems operating all the machines properly but Chris, the manager tried to give her some encouragement and egged her on.


Later, Naked Chicken had a good stretch with fellow Curves member Fran.


She ended her workout by weighing herself. Light as a feather. Phew!

The Adventures of Naked Chicken II

It was time to let Naked Chicken discover her roots so we decided to let her see what life was like on the other side...like if she had to live in a chicken coop and what she'd think of it.


She met all sorts of folks who she was convinced were her relatives.


Some more closely related than others.

And how she laid this egg so quickly, we'll never know.