Crawling Back To Blogger and the Picnic! :)

Hello my friends :) Did you hear that??? That was the biggest sigh of relief you will ever hear!

Spring Cleaning is DONE...I never thought it would take this long and be so tough! Ten days in total of cleaning, with a few days off in between. My body is SO sore...this is very physical work, and I'm not buying into the idea that it's good exercise either lol...just work that results in an achy breaky body! The big deep cleaning idea was for us of course, but mostly for this pack:

Click for a better view :)

Jack, Charlie, Marlene, Pavlov, Oscar the cat and Stella (butt to butt), Leo and Dana. Alex got a panoramic photo of the eight pets together, not an easy task!! Three of the five have mystery allergies. I'm hoping those ease up now.

I have a daily upkeep plan for the house to keep it clean and dust free now. You'll note the basement is nowhere to be seen on this list...if it were up to me, I'd never go down there, but my darling Alex vacuums it regularly so I don't even have to worry about that anymore. :) I also made a Spring Cleaning Checklist if anyone wants to be inspired to get down and dirty lol! :)

I'm so happy to get back to painting!! I didn't think I'd make it to Michael's Scribble Picnic this week, but I was up so dang early this morning. Good thing! :) The theme this week is Across the Universe. (check out more lovely scribbles by following the link - why not join yourself?!) :) I felt like doing a little abstract Nebula today. What's happening on your side of the universe? :)

This is what my world looked like this morning at 7:12 am. I love the hue of blue on winter mornings!

Today Alex and I celebrate our 5th Anniversary together. :) We're having a Raclette dinner and I'm making an Amaretto cake! During the spring cleaning, we realized how much work this rental is...and how it's WAY too much house for us. We don't want to go through this back-breaking cleaning ever again on a rental...we really want to buy our own place next year, downsize and live in the woods. We put together an extreme frugal plan for the next year so we can try to buy our home a year from now. It's going to be tough, but our motivation is very high! As long as pet, car and/or dental emergencies don't get in the way, we can do it. :) 

Big ol' icicles are a sign of warmer weather! We lost internet for about 3 days and had to rely on our phones, which I now accept is a good back up for the internet-addicted lol...I'm not that addicted, but it definitely comes in handy. I'm sure I could do without it, but I don't want to. :)

To keep sane the last few weeks, I continued my daily drawings...all cleaning-related! (I post a daily drawing on Instagram)  I'm so glad to be back and catching up with all of you! :) It feels normal again. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! :)

I was so sick that day...I think it was all the ickiness of the unfinished basement!

Back Soon!

Charlie: One Of A Kind

Hi Everyone :)

Today's theme for the Scribble Picnic is "One of a Kind". I guess this watercolour is a self-portrait in a way. After all, I am one of a kind :) I was told once that "they" broke the mold after they made me...but I wasn't sure if that person said it in a good way or a bad way, so I'll assume he meant in a good way!! This painting is called "Thoughts". What goes on in my head, in my world and in my heart is unique to me. Sometimes the thoughts are good, sometimes bad, but they definitely are my own. :) Thoughts lately have been troubling. I can very firmly say "Oh, my shattered noives...(nerves lol)"!!!

We heard something in the woods!! (September 2016)

Swimming in the Rivière du Nord (August 2015)

Charlie, our fiesty female husky gave us quite a scare Sunday night.

Look at this poor little girl! We were sitting in bed watching a movie, when suddenly she started to whine and scratch at her face. Her face must have tripled in size, her eyes got all red and nearly closed. Veterinary emergencies ALWAYS seem to happen either on a holiday or a Sunday night...

Charlie Art

We called the emergency clinic that is just north of Montreal for advice. I have to say I was scared we were going to lose her. The drive is nearly 3 hours away, we were in the middle of a blizzard and you can imagine how much money they charge. The first thing we checked was her gums. They were still pink though it was nearly impossible to open her mouth, that was a sign that her windpipe was not compromised. Phewf. The vet tech (who was ridiculously reluctant to share information and refused to speak to me in English) finally told me to give her 75mg of Benadryl but that "it won't work anyway". What a {insert derogatory expletive if you wish, in my thoughts, I did!!!}! My gosh, how about some compassion and care for the animal instead of your damn cash register??? Anyway, we only had 50mg in the pack so we gave it to her in some yogurt, she had such a hard time swallowing the pills. :(

Charlie: One of a Kind Husky

Sunday night we were both wide awake keeping an eye on our Charlie. After Pavlov's allergic reaction and now Charlie's...we are completely bewildered as to what is causing these poor dears such allergic reactions! She didn't eat anything she wasn't supposed to, we didn't see any bites on her, or hives or physical traumas, cuts...

Her first walk in the woods in 2015 She LOVED it!

We adopted Charlie from a shelter in July 2015. She was skinny, depressed, had been abandoned and was at the shelter already 3 months when we fell for her.

On Monday morning, as soon as 8am hit the clock, I was on the phone with the local vet. We brought Charlie in at 9:30am. The swelling was going down but she was still so itchy and uncomfortable. The poor husky gal was burying her nose in the snow for relief when I took her out to pee in the morning! We didn't have enough Benadryl on hand to see if it would work or not. (btw, safe doses for dogs is 1mg of Benadryl per pound of weight...please keep some at home for emergencies my dear dog lovers!) She was given a shot of anti-histamine mixed with cortisone and a pain killer. She is now on day 3 of the same medicine in pill form. Thankfully the swelling is gone and she is almost back to normal but oh so drowsy. :(

I feel like a drug pusher lately giving all of these pills to our pets...with Marlene's bladder stones, Oscar the cat's mystery allergy, Pavlov's mystery allergy and now Charlie's mystery allergic reaction.

Yesterday I took about an hour to write a list for some major deep cleaning of this rental. Each room has a page like this one. OMG it's going to be a big job...it's an old cottage...the possibilities of things that the pets could be allergic to are endless. Even Alex and I have noticed that we get more congested during the winter. I have to get out and get some natural cleaning supplies tomorrow and then the cleaning overhaul begins. I'm even going to vacuum and wash all the walls and ceilings.

So that's what's been keeping us busy. When it rains it pours doesn't it? I don't even want to think about how much this has all cost...Dinners have been whatever we can find that's quick and easy..Things seem back to normal this morning, so I'll be cooking again today. I need some kitchen therapy before the big deep cleaning!!!

I'll leave you with some of the drawings I've done lately. One thing I'm doing very purposefully is to draw every day, despite the stressors. We haven't eaten or slept well at all this week. Drawing and painting calms me and I don't want the anxiety to take over again!

"Lost" - another patented Rain nightmare, yeesh!

Brilliance

Sunset

Enchanted Forest (one of a kind trees!) :)

Green Trees

The Sun

Howling at the Moon

Take care everyone, give your little fur-kids a big hug!! :)

PS: I have picked a winner for the book giveaway, and I promise I'll post about that soon!!! :)

Stuffed Eggplant Rolls

Hi Everyone :)

Hope your Sunday is going well. There is a blizzard outside and that makes me happy today! I know that this kind of weather will keep the tourists away...there is a winter festival going on in the village and I just want some peace and quiet. This week I tried a new recipe: Dom's Mom's Stuffed Eggplant Rolls. This is from the first of Dom Deluise's cookbooks. It turned out really delicious and it was SO easy to make! I served it with a pasta with butter and minced garlic. What a nice treat! :) 

The recipe called for Ricotta cheese so I made some...I refuse to pay $7 for a half cup of Ricotta at the store! I made 2 cups with some milk that needed to be used, and it cost me $6.50. It tastes better too! :) The recipe also calls for Marinara Sauce. I had ONE Mason jar left that I'd made last fall. Next year I will have to can a lot more of it because we are using more than I thought we would!

Speaking of Mason jars...how is your pantry holding out? We're almost March and I have only 3 jars of apple sauce left!! I canned 30 jars last October. I use apple sauce mainly for the dogs...to hide pills, supplements and for treats. With 5 dogs, I guess I would have needed to double up the canning. I'm getting low on canned tomatoes too...it seems that 65 pounds of tomatoes isn't enough to tide us over the winter anymore!

I've been spending a lot of my time on my art projects. I'm really loving how my life is going lately. I wonder why it took me so long to realize how much I enjoy this! I wanted to show you guys one of the new techniques I've been playing with. My friend Serena shared one of her techniques with me. She suggested I try watercolour as a base, then add colored pencil to the drawing to give it more ooomph, and it definitely has ooomph! :) Thanks again Serena. :) xx I added a few more layers of yellow and bright orange to the piece at the end to cut down the redness a little. I like this technique though I really do need more of a quality sketchpad for this. I bought a Dollar Store one because I wanted to make sure I liked what I was doing. Now that I know I do, I'll be getting some more supplies next shopping day!

**Thanks to those who showed interest in the cookbook I'm giving away! (Tpals you have a good idea, I think I will add a few more little surprises to the package...thanks for the suggestion!) I'll announce the winner on Wednesday's post. There is still time if you are interested. :)

Three "P"'s and a Give Away! :)

"P" #1:  Pavlov has a "mystery allergy" according to the vet. Ugh. Our cat Oscar has the same mystery allergy. It's something in the environment in this rental. We will never be able to pinpoint it, so the solution is that Pavlov is now on allergy pills and so far, his toes are looking better. I switched the cone of shame to Jack's (homemade) boots to give him a break, poor thing. He keeps licking, we have to stop him from doing that to give him a chance to heal.

"P" #2:  PIZZA!!! :) I made a Detroit style pizza the other day and though it was very good, I didn't quite get it the way it should be with the crusty cheese toppling over the sides. I will try again and hopefully have a better report next time! We also had some garlic bread and breaded Mozza (emptying the fridge day!)....does anyone have a BAKED breaded Mozza recipe that actually works? Mine always melt, no matter how long I freeze the cheese first. I think this dish is meant to be deep fried!

"P" #3: Plants. My flowers are really coming up! The chamomile is slow but it's growing! The only hold out is the Marigolds...nothing yet!

There is freezing rain as I type this, wacky weather. The herbs are enjoying life by the window too. I water these every other day and before I go to bed, I put the knitted plant cozies back on them so they stay warm. :) One of the cats nibbled on my "Thyme" label...I had to barricade things even more!

Just this morning the chives burst out of the soil!

Alex got me this cookbook for Christmas. The store sent us two by error and told us to just keep the second one. Is anyone a fan of Dom Deluise? If so, this cookbook is yours for the taking! Just leave a comment if you would like to have it, or send me an email. On my right sidebar, I have an email widget. These are light, mostly Italian style recipes and so far we've had some good meals from this book...plus it's very funny to read.

A question without an answer: Why do the hounds sleep ON TOP of the couch? As you can see, we don't own human couches anymore. :)

Art and Fun!

Hi Everyone :)

Here is my watercolour painting for the Scribble Picnic this week. I felt very sad as I painted this...I saw a similar image online and this started off as a couple walking down a path together, but then it kind of became this lonely old man walking away from a park bench...I couldn't help but think of my grandfather's sadness after my grandma passed away as I painted this and I got quite emotional! Made me want to hug Alex. :)

I'm calling this painting "Love Lost". Sigh. :)

Anyway... back to the art! Michael's theme today is "Fill in the Blank" and the inspiration is a rectangle. (See the details here).

I know that my rectangle (the bench) in the painting might be a bit wider than his, so I tried a few drawings to make up for it! :) And to cheer myself up!!! :)

Can't go wrong with Snoopy and Woodstock! :) I can't wait to soak up some summer sunshine! :)

This piece was very new for me! My friend Dianna sent me a photo of an illustration that she found particularly creepy! It's from the Stephen King novel "Needful Things". The artist is Bill Russell. When I saw it, I thought it would be fun to try out my shading, using only the black pencil. But I did add some white highlights with the white pastel. I figured there would be plenty of rectangular shapes in this drawing to join the picnic :) Here is the original:

This was done using a method called "scratch-board illustration". It's a method where you cover a panel of cardboard with ink then scratch out your designs using a sharp tool. I think this is something I would love to try!

Alex and I went out on Monday for a walk and it was snowing beautifully! It was supposed to rain all day but we were happy with the snow because we went for a little slide!

A few blocks from where we live, there's a really tall ramp type of thing where you can slide down. We rarely go there because it's overrun with people, but the village was empty on Monday so we gave it a go! I screamed the entire way down...you'd be surprised how much velocity you have when you are in slippy snow!

Here are some of the drawings and pastels I've done the last week. :) Thank you again for all of your support with my art adventure! :)

Sunset at Blue Cabin

Hoping that February Showers Bring March Flowers

Piano Dreams

My Tribute to The Scream (or "How I Felt Turning 50 Years Old") ;)

True Colours/Strut Your Stuff!

🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈🎂🎈

Look at the presents I got from Alex for my 50th! :) I got the hat and the aromatherapy diffuser early, but the rest was a nice surprise! The Kit Kat was a joke lol...my favourite chocolate bar! :)

We watched movies pretty much all afternoon, drank special coffees and he took care of dinner. He made me a Smoked Cheddar and Apple Fondue...(yup! another fondue!!)...this one is particularly good with the smoked Cheddar and apple flavours mingling so well, my favourite of all the fondues we've tried so far! And look! He used my potato for the bread! :) I have a little obsession for dishes shaped as food lol...

Did you notice he put more Kit Kats on the cake? :) This is a Ferrero Rocher cake...talk about yummy! This one definitely won't go to waste, guess what I'm having for breakfast!!! :) We opened the 10 year old port too, what a treat! Thanks to all of you guys for the birthday wishes this week as I so SUBTLY mentioned I'm turning 50 lol! :)