Settled in the Maritimes of Canada, surrounded by the forest and Acadian Mountain Chain, I live a simple life of gratitude. This blog is a journal of my art, food, furkids, garden, home, my life and my thoughts. Thanks for reading!
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Mornings. Tweety Bird likes to start his day with some morning meditation. We should all be practicing some mindfulness these days, cuts down on the stresses of life!
Instead of portrait art this week, I decided to play around with my acrylics. This is how I would spend an ideal morning. Out in nature, the sun rising, surrounded by my pets as I create art! My friend Martha from from Mystical Empowerment recently showcased a beautiful Tarot deck and one of those cards inspired this painting. Thanks Martha! ♥
Morning comfort food: Potato, onion and mushroom hash with buttery toast!
Foggy mornings on the blueberry fields.
A photo I forgot to post last week, I just wanted to show you the enormity of these rocks on the coast of the Fundy Bay before the tide comes in!
Drum Roll Please!!
My new YouTube Art Channel is now live! I have a few videos so far, and there will be more weekly! The videos will all be instructional and informative. The tutorials will include a stencil, a supply list and a time-lapsed bird's eye view of me drawing. Anyone can follow along by slowing down the video in YouTube or pausing it. If I get more interest I may post the full-length tutorials with voice-overs. It's a heck of a lot of work creating a video! I had to get some good lighting, a special tripod arm to record over my head, video editing software, graphic design software...plus I needed to learn Photoshop and everything about YouTube! I'm still learning!
I'm so excited about this channel, I've been wanting to do this for years and I finally had the confidence to start! I hope to see you there!!! And if you have any constructive criticism, please let me know! I have a contact form on my right sidebar → but most of you know my email address anyway! 😊
Okay back to food and critters...Phil, you asked if I would have cooking videos up on my channel. Not on that one, but I do have high hopes to start a foodie/homesteady type channel in the future!! Of course it will include cheese making videos too. But that may have to wait a few years! This year, I'm concentrating on EATING cheese!! I opened two of my Camemberts the other day, oh they taste so good! These Cams are the best cheeses I've ever made!!
I don't have any recent bird photos, but wanted to share a photo of this Great Blue Heron that I saw when I lived on Prince Edward Island back in 2009/2010.
Check out that wingspan!
This week's highlighted artist and/or blogger is Valerie from Bastelmania blog! 💗 Valerie creates beautiful, uplifting art. She's a coffee nut and brings us on lovely walks through her photography. This was one of her many contributions to last week's theme of Criss Cross! Please visit her blog! 💗
I'm linking up with these wonderful bloggers today, or at least trying (!!), please visit them for some really interesting posts! And why not join in on the link parties? You can meet some really nice people!! 😊
Click on the links for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! All spam and non-related links will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Criss Cross. I was inspired byAndrea's post for the theme Jump! a few weeks back when she featured a video of the Double Dutch championships. Bugs, Daffy and Porky Pig are demonstrating the criss-crossing of the jump ropes in this sketch! I don't think I could handle too much jump-roping these days...Porky is in much better shape than I am! 😊
I remember coming up with this theme last November after I watched the Hitchcock thriller "Strangers On A Train". The entire motive of the movie revolves around a criss cross of murders. It's a great movie. Patricia Hitchcock is in many of her daddy's films, she is a splendid actress. This is my charcoal drawing of her in that movie.
Here's the trailer.
A great remake of "Strangers On A Train" is the 1987 film "Throw Momma From The Train" starring Billy Crystal and Danny Devito. I love these two comedians and they were so great in this film. This is my ink and graphite piece. See Danny's hands??? I STILL can't draw hands...I'm glad Billy's were hidden lol!
Here's the trailer.
Walking on the blueberry trail the other day, we saw a family of deer. The dogs go nuts when they see deer! Here's a little video of Jack's reaction!
Speaking of blueberries, they are really starting to fruit all over that field!
I heard a familiar knocking sound outside the other day. There was a beautiful female Pileated Woodpecker tearing up a wood structure on my property. (Did I get that right? The female has a black forehead where the male's is all red?)
Here is a lovely Cheddar and asparagus quiche!
I haven't had much time for baking this week...I went back to the Rocks!!! I couldn't help myself....it was such a beautiful sunny day, this time you could see across the Fundy Bay.
I brought the dogs because I discovered a walking ramp at the North cape beach. Marlene has so much trouble with her hips and back legs...I didn't think she could handle the 101 stairs to go down to the ocean floor. But that ramp made it possible for the dogs to enjoy being there! So happy!
I actually went twice this week. The first time by myself. I was able to get a selfie with me and the dogs!! They loved it there, so many things to sniff and see!
Yesterday I went back and Alex joined me and the dogs. Good thing they have a washing station there, Marlene, Jack and Charlie all went for a swim in the muddy water, the dirty dogs! 😊
......I've been working on something very exciting!!
Here is my fun news! I'm very close to launching a YouTube channel featuring videos of me creating my art!! For now they will be time-lapsed since they're very long but you'll be able to see how I put a piece together from start to finish. I have so much footage that I'm currently editing, I've created my channel and my channel art...now I have to put it all together and I hope I will have it up and running by next week's art date!! I'm super excited about it!! I'll let you all know when it's up and running!! My next big project will be a new website but that may take a little longer since I'm learning everything from scratch!
I'M OFFICIALLY DOING (almost) NOTHING FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!!
This week's highlighted artist is Kokopelli from Kokopelli Design blog, and I'm featuring this beautiful contribution to last week's theme of "Miniature". Kokopelli paints such beautiful watercolours! 💗
I'm linking up with these wonderful bloggers today, or at least trying (!!), please visit them for some really interesting posts! And why not join in on the link parties? You can meet some really nice people!! 😊
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link widget below for more "Criss Cross" creations! If you know of any fellow artists/creators...can you let them know about Thursday's Art Date friends?
See you soon!!! 💗💗💗
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Click on the links for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Miniature. Poor Wile E. Coyote thought for sure this time he'd be able to catch the Road Runner! But alas...he didn't read that miniature fine print on the tonic bottle! I hate that fine print!!!
🍁🍁🍁 Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians!!!🍁🍁🍁
This week I'm sharing some photos instead of drawings. I took a little road trip to the Fundy Bay this week. I visited the Hopewell Rocks on Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. It's just over an hour's drive away. The Rocks are also called the Flower Pot Rocks. I felt like a miniature pebble in a great expanse of rock and water, so I think I can squeeze by and say this fits the theme! 😁
The tides are claimed to be the highest in the world. Twice daily you can walk the "ocean floor" for about 4-5 hours, then twice more daily, the tides come in up to 42 feet and cover the entire beach area. You have to skedaddle to higher ground once the tide really gets close! I was there during low tide.
Here's a little video of the tide coming in. I stood on a stone about 10 feet from the waves and within 10 minutes, I had to move back!
The tides have carved out beautiful formations, cliffs and coves along this side of the Fundy Bay.
The enormous piles of seaweed are spectacular.
There are lots of faces carved into the cliffs and rocks! Here are some more photos:
I took the opportunity to collect some beautiful stones. They are all so smooth with such frequent contact with the tides.
The Fundy Bay is a magical place for me. I love being here, the last time I visited was 2010 and I'm so happy to be living so close now! I'll be back often now that the park has reopened!
The Hopewell Rocks is an annual nesting ground for the Peregrine Falcon. There is a sign before you enter the lookout, saying to tread lightly and keep your voice down so as not to disturb them. This is the first time (of maybe a dozen times) that I have seen one when I visit this lookout! Very lucky! These birds were on the endangered list in the 1970's, at the brink of extinction. With careful pesticide control and a relocation program, they were considered "not at risk" in the late 2010's!
Maybe my birding friends can help me out here. I'm guessing this is an adult female, because she has a beige neck/throat around her "sideburns"; and her feathering is "barred and spotted" (from my Field Guide To The Birds Of East Of The Rockies - Thanks again Phil!)
Walking Jack and Charlie at sunrise. The sound of distant coyotes yipping got their attention in the second photo! The entire family (human and fur) is doing fine as I type this!
Nothing miniature about this garlic scape harvest! I harvested 67 of them yesterday which means I will have 67 heads of garlic to harvest, cure and store in about a month's time! I'm going to save some of the heads to plant in the fall, so hopefully I will never have to buy garlic bulbs again for planting. Self-sufficiency! 😊
This week's highlighted artist is Tom from Tom The Backroads Traveller blog! Tom is a very talented photographer as you can see from his photo above!! He has a keen eye. He also has a good sense of humour! Please visit his blog!! 💗
I'm linking up with these wonderful bloggers today, or at least trying (!!), please visit them for some really interesting posts! And why not join in on the link parties? You can meet some really nice people!! 😊
That's all for now folks! Please check out the link widget below for more "Miniature" creations! If you know of any fellow artists/creators...can you let them know about Thursday's Art Date friends?
Click on the links for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨
Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please revisit to make sure you don't miss those who join in a little late! Also, if anyone adds a link that has nothing to do with the art date theme, it will be removed! The link gadget expires Friday at midnight (EST).
