laundry

How mundane is a pile of old dirty laundry?  But get a beautiful, windy day, a nice photo filter and all of a sudden it's magical....well maybe just to me.  For some reason I am finding inspiration in the laundry line.  Hopefully there will be paintings to follow.

boots

This is a photo I took by accident today when I was trying to get a cute photo of LF.

This is the original photo I was going for:

I am happy with them both:)

been a long winter

Well actually it's been a really long time since I have posted anything.  After having my sweet baby back in July some things had to take the back burner and dear ole' Poppy Love was one of them.  while I didn't make time for blogging I have been  making time for painting.  Nap time for baby has become creative time for me.

It did not begin that way.  It took me until about September to realize that lacking a few things in my life would drain me completely.  I did an exercise at this ladies group I attend, where the facilitator read from a long list of words.  We had to choose about 4 or 5 words that spoke to us or moved us.  I chose words like: intimacy, creativity, transparency, relationship....there were a couple of others but they have slipped my mind.  The facilitator told us to look at the words we chose.  She then told us "if you are lacking any of those things in your life, you are probably dying inside" and I was on both accounts.

I soon got my sweet little flower packed up in the truck and we headed to the big smoke to get art supplies!  I stuffed in as much as the truck could hold and my bank account could handle.  I began to paint again.

Here is one of my pieces:

I painted and painted and I am continuing to paint.  I have a fair amount of work now so I decided to apply to be on the local studio tour.  I got accepted!  I will be showing my work this summer in my soon to be art shed.  My LL is currently building the shed for me in our little Maple/Oak wood.  I am so excited.

The Photo Fantasy

Facebook and blogs, in my opinion, are full of photographic fantasies.  There you have wedding, family, high school, university,  pregnancy, and vacation photos.  They all look so polished, happy and dreamy.  Sometimes I look at these albums and wonder why my life is not as perfect, exciting and rich as they.  Photos of laughing children, and parents throwing their kids in the air, "We are so carefree and happy (insert child's giggle) and look at us on our Italian vacation with are perfect 5 and 3 year old ordering from the menu in fluent Italian.  We are culturing our children well aren't we?" and that's the thing, perhaps all this is about getting approval and showing how cool and perfect we are.  Are our lives being "lived" online?  Are we more about creating an avatar of our life rather than living it?

I fell guilty of this recently when I posted some new mommy and baby photos of myself and my sweet girl on Facebook.  Here I am looking blissfully elated about motherhood and eating up every cutesy moment with my precious bundle of joy.  But wait.  No one told me about the hard times, well at least they sure didn't post a Facebook album about it.  All I have ever seen are the moments of poetic, beauty captured by a hired photographer.  Here is one of my fantasy photos (captured by my dear friend and great photographer Robynn )...."Look at me I just gave birth 5 days ago and I am glowing and happy, with my baby that never cries.  I promise there is nothing swollen or throbbing on my body, and look how fresh I appear with my ever so natural makeup in the natural light of my romantic bedroom....and of course...whispering sweet nothings into the tiny ear of my darling baby girl"

Yes I posted a fantasy album.  I thought since I did that it would be only fair to post the reality as well.  Unedited and raw, here I am first thing in the morning tired, weary and worn out from multiple feedings and poopy diaper changes all through the night.

The end.

Summer is Here!

Hurrah for summer, my favourite season of the year!  Nothing gets summer started like Little M and her friends at the lake.  May we have many more days like this one.

Canada Day wknd 2011

I love being Canadian!  One thing I love about living where we do is that we don't have the trek back to the city, on Sunday, after a lovely weekend.  We can keep on enjoying the lake and the sunshine without the dread of a long, inconvenient drive back to the south.  Yay for us hicks in the country!

It doesn't get much better than this.

My Logger Love with a beautiful back drop.

Sunday afternoon.  I floated or should I say bobbed in the lake for the best part of the day, enjoying feeling weightless, with only 4 days until my due date.

Grade 6 Grad.

Our Little M is blossoming into a beautiful lady.  We are so proud of her and blessed to have her in our lives.  This year she achieved so much between excellent school grades, competitive gymnastics, winning a gold medal for Track and field, and a wealth of character development.  She has displayed compassion, kindness and an eagerness to learn.  We could not be happier.

 With Cookie at T&R in Belleville.

End of year Gymnastics show.

Our wee stunner.

Daddy's Girl.  So cute.

 Tying for first for the Athlete award.

Best Buds!

From the archive...

Baby's due in 6 daysish, so now I am really in the throws of last minute "nesting" (my mum cannot abide the term "nesting" so I am using it on purpose to bug her!).  Whilst arranging and rearranging I came across some old paintings I had hanging around the house.  The first is a trio of yellow roses on a pink background.  The spot I had them was hiding them so I have moved them to a more open space.

The picture below Pink Trees was hanging in our upstairs bathroom.  We have been recently re-doing the room so I need to find a new place for this piece.  Perhaps it will end up in the basement for a while.

The Baby's Room

Here are a few pics of our baby's room.  I decided to bypass duckies and sheep and opt for a simple, feminine and pink look.  Hope you likey.

A wealth of pillows and a cozy place to nurse.

                    

A cute wee dress pinned to perfection (inspired by Country Chiq )

Handmade blankets from my mum and the ladies at the church.

My VV find for a cool $40!

A quilt and pillow handmade by my mumsy.  Yummy.

 Another VV find.  Could you get a bedskirt any cuter?

my inny is officially and outty

Only 6 and a half weeks to go and my good friend S (designer of bluebirdsflyboutique) took some lovely pregola photos for me.  I'm not big on the blossoming belly but I thought it would be rude not to have a wee bit of photographic evidence of the event even though there will be living evidence shortly.  I wanted her to get some shots before I become gross-pregnant (you know what I mean...... we can all say "oh you look beautiful and glowing" but come on, gross-pregnant happens).  So here are a few of the pics she took at her lovely cottage on the lake.  Not to be forgotten my dear friend Anigav (sister of S) who styled and primped and fluffed my hair and made sure my "angles" were flattering!

I'm a genie in  bottle, obviously.

 Loving the lens flare.

This one is for you Robynn ;)

lady blue

Just playing with the colours and keeping the same composition...for now.  The yellow I used shows up, in this image, more green. 

ballet gowns 1 & 2

Inspired by...Edgar Degas, Lawrence Amelie and my bridal party dresses.  

big pink rose

The second snow day for this year and I finally managed to drag myself to the basement to rework a nasty, looking piece I had abandoned months ago.  Anyone that knows me, knows that pink roses are my favourite.  Instead of a soft arrangement I opted for one large, dripping bloom.  I don't know what it is about drips but I just can't get enough of them.  No painting of mine seems complete unless it has been splattered and dripped on.  When on teaching practice at Lancaster Girls Grammar, the A-level students were dripping left and right and there was just such a beauty in the unfinished, rolling drops of paint that I knew I wanted to capture that within my own work.  Now 8 years later I am still allowing great globs of paint and water to adorn my canvas.

I'm not sure where this piece will settle but for now it is above my bed.

Below is where the "magic" happens!  My dark, dimly-lit basement.  Perhaps one day I will have a beautiful white washed art shed complete with a squeaky screen door.  Until then my little nook in the basement will have to do.

morning lace

Here's the latest touch to my bedroom.  Ikea lace!    I sewed on pink, ribbon ties and hung them on a branch from out the back.  So lovely with the morning light falling across the bed.

It's been a year and a day...

...since we got married!

I love you more each day xox

(a photo from our honeymoon)

sunshine and snow

A lovely day out with the family in the beautiful sunshine.  I'm so happy the "Do-Jo's" (our sometimes neighbours out the back) were not around although I'm sure they would have a had a fit if they knew we were sledding and 4-wheeling on their lake that they don't own.  And now for the positive message..."Trespassing is fun!"
Disclaimer:  If you are reading this and you are one of the Do-Jo's, we absolutely did not trespass on your property.

p.s. Did I mention we had a campfire with cedar roasted sausages, complete with ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut?  Why is it that sausages taste so much better out in the cold?

a valentine "...punch in the face..."

More treats from a box, who knew?  Duncan Hines Lemon sponge, wow, so delicious.  I made my own icing (inspired by a friend) with real raspberries and cream cheese.  In the words of my step son "Oh...oh my, now they are a punch in the face of flavour!"  Why should I go all crazy trying to bake from scratch when I can have them made in minutes with lots of time left to spend with my family?  They were a mouth watering extravganza!

My Logger Love was off on  trip with some friends, up north, so my steppies and I had our own little Valentine's celebration, a quiet dinner with pink roses and yummy cupcakes.  Simple and sweet.  Here are a couple of pics from our dinner table.

textures

I'm so excited about finally figuring out how to add textured layers to my images.  Thanks to my lovely friend S who told me about the youtube tutorials, I have my first couple of images to share with you.  Now these are probably way over done but sometimes you just get so excited about all the possibilities that it's hard to choose.  Like S I lost 2 days of my life to exploring this new treat.  Hope you like what I've created.

 Cindy

Little M