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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Announcing: My New ART Blog!

I've added a brand new blog
featuring my fine art
which has either been sold, or is up for sale.
Fear not! I will be keeping this blog up and running.
The new blog, entitled Art and Life
will tell the stories behind my work,
the reasons I choose to paint what I do, etc.
Think of it as a sort of behind-the-scenes look
at my artistic process.
I hope you will check out the site and
please leave comments as well
because I very much appreciate feedback.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The weird things that pop into your head


Memories.
They show up unannounced.

Today for instance, I was thinking about my son's choir who has just arrived in England for a tour. That thought turned into a memory of when I was on tour during my college years. That thought took me to eating time, and I remember our group singing a silly song at the end of each meal that was provided for us.

It went like this:
(sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")
We thank you for the food that we have et,
We thank you for the food that we have et.
It was yummy, yummy, yummy,
And so pleasing to the tummy ~
That's the reason for this little minuet.

This tulip picture doesn't have any relevance to this posting, but aren't they beautiful? And yes, they grew in our garden this year. Dare I say that spring has truly arrived?


Monday, April 19, 2010

We have a winner!

Yes, I know I said a winner would be announced yesterday, but I was otherwise occupied ...
So! this morning is the time to draw the name for the Tree Hugger Bookmark.
Thank you all for your fun art disaster and werewolf (!) stories.
Since it's my draw I can make my own rules,
so I put in all your names twice.

So without further delay,
THE WINNER IS ... (drum roll here) ...

Kim!
I'm thrilled that it was your name that I pulled out of my favourite fuchsia hat, Kim!
You need to know that it was your sweet giving spirit that was one of the reasons
I started thinking in the first place, about leaving my Tree Hugger Bookmarks
out there in the big wide world.
I hope that you and everyone else who happens to come along
and pick one of these bookmarks up, will be blessed in some small way by receiving one.

Oh, and Kim I love your Spring Walkabout Apil 13th post photos of you with your art ~
hope you don't mind that I snatched the photo here to announce your win.
It made me smile, when I saw the photo of you literally hugging a tree,
but I liked the photo here because of your beautiful smile.

One other thing ... the New York fine art chair is completed ~ yay!
It's being delivered tomorrow to its new home.
Before it leaves my house,
I will take photos and share them with all my lovely readers.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Re-purposing, Disasters AND a Giveaway


As many of you know, I'm always re-purposing and recycling materials of all sorts in my mixed media art. All the fine art chairs I've painted so far, are 2nd hand or gently used, if you prefer that term. I've been painting over the past month on my latest chair. It's a commission with a New York City theme ~ more about that adventure later. Because I've been working almost exclusively on this chair, I needed a little break. I felt I needed to do something completely different.

This is what I made. They are hand drawn bookmarks with pretty fibres ~ I call them Tree Hugger Bookmarks. They are all made out of pre-used cardboard. I am leaving them here and there in my travels for some unsuspecting person who comes along and happens to discover them. I hope whoever happens to discover them will enjoy using them.

About my New York chair. I have a funny story for you about something happened earlier today as I was painting. I had a major paint explosion! There I was, peacefully painting my chair, when I unexpectedly lost my balance. It has been said by some that I'm unbalanced, but this was ridiculous! Off balance, I knocked my water and paint brushes over, then my foot came down on some red paint and the tube exploded all over ~ all over the kitchen floor, table, drop cloth, my arm, shirt, apron and foot. This could explain why some artists actually have studios to paint in!
In honour of the "amazing" paint day I've had, I am going to have a giveaway. I will send the winner one of my Tree Hugger Bookmarks. Just leave me a comment. I'll make a draw from all the names of everyone who leaves a comment. Tell me about one of your art disasters, and I'll put your name in the hat two times! Let's give it until Sunday to make the draw. I wish you better luck than I have had today. Isn't that photo of my foot scary?

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

ART Friends


Friendship is born at that moment
when one person says to another,
'What! You too?
I thought I was the only one.'
~ C. S. Lewis

As an artist, it's so difficult to be surrounded by those poor unfortunate souls who "just don't get it". But what a joy to find those rare kindred spirits who do!

I am thankful to have a few folks who share in this art journey we call Life!
You are a blessing.


Saturday, April 03, 2010

Elephants and Roses

Besides looking for wonderful treasures, when I wander through a 2nd Hand Shop, one of my favourite things to do is to find the gaudiest, silliest, awful-est item possible and take a quick snapshot of it. Unfortunately the other day when we went to the antique mall, I didn't take my camera with me. So I can only describe the nastiest item I found that day. It was a brass elephant. Not only was it a brass elephant which is bad enough in itself (I've never been a big fan of elephant ornamental items) but it was also a rotary telephone. Had to be one of the tackiest things ever ~ and I didn't have a camera to capture the horror! Sad, sad me.

Learning my lesson, on my next outing to a local 2nd Hand Store, I took my trusty digital with me. And there it was in all its beauty! One can only imagine the creative individual who thought that this was a good idea.

Feast your eyes on the amazing Rosie ~ the latest in the Barbie line.
Uh, I didn't purchase her, in case you're wondering.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Unknown Artists

If you have ever visited our home, one of the first things you will have noticed is that i don't have the typical "sofa-size painting" as the focal point in our living room. Instead, I have chosen an eclectic collection of original art to adorn every available space. Most of the art is the work of family and friends who enjoy painting.However, some of the paintings, like the ones I'm showing you here, are done by unknown (to me) artists. They come from different sources including garage sales and the ReUse Centre.
These works of art are a mystery to me. Who is the artist? When did they create the painting? If it's a portrait, who is the person in the painting? Almost for sure, I'll never know the answers to my questions, but in the meantime, these paintings have been given a second look, and a new home after they were discarded by someone who didn't see their value.
NOTE: Please excuse any formatting irregularities, such as bold print and underline text.
Blogger is being glitchy ~ sorry.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Banana Strawberry Cake






Tea Time 
Banana Strawberry Cake
1/2 cup shortening






1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1  tsp. vanilla
1 - 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
1 ripe banana, mashed
sprinkling of sliced nuts (your choice ~ I used hazelnuts)
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs ~ beat until fluffy. Add vanilla. Slowly add flour and baking powder to creamed mixture. Fold in mashed bananas and sliced strawberries into batter. Pour into 9 inch round pan that has been greased and floured.  Sprinkle top of cake with nuts of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour ~ should be nicely browned. Use toothpick test to make sure cake is cooked through.  Enjoy with your favourite cup of tea!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What makes you happy?



It's usually the little things, isn't it?

Afternoon tea served in a china cup and saucer ...

Vincent ...

Making art with a friend ...

Fresh flowers ...

Gnomes ...

Twinkle lights ...

The Alberta wild rose ...

Delicious food ...

Lava lamps ...

Playing in the leaves ...

Watching an old movie ...

Spending the day with your someone I love ...
So what makes you happy?
Please leave me comment, and/or go to your blog  with a link back here and 
tell everyone what makes you happy!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

And the winner is ...


There were a whopping 4 people who entered my 5th Blogoversary draw: Kim,  Dale Anne, Dorothy and Maija
And ta-da, Dorothy's name came out of the old draw hat. Congratulations Dorothy! I'm very happy that you entered this 4~in~1~chance drawing. *smiles*    Also it's ever so handy that you happen to live close by so you won't have to wait too long to claim your prize!
So what does Dorothy win? She is the recipient of a girly-girl Shelf Sitter that I created with a wonderful Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on it. I hope she has a nice shelf to put her pretty hand-painted Shelf Sitter on.

I do appreciate everyone who stops by my blog, whether they leave comments or not. Here's to another great year of blogging at Art of Humungous Proportions: Where ART 

and LIFE meet.

Monday, March 15, 2010

It's a Blogoversary giveaway!

It's been five years since I took my first step into Blogland; what an adventure this has been! I don't blog every single day like some, I don't have the perfect looking blog. But I do appreciate all you who venture over to ART of Humungous Proportions (where Art and Life meet) to see what creative madness I am up to at any given moment.

When I was trying to choose a graphic to use for this special post, I thought "Birthday Cakes" and then I thought of Lace Cakes! You will notice the beautiful Lace Cake pictured here. It is the gorgeous invention of my sweet friend, Laura of the ever-beautiful All about Pretty blog. This particular Lace Cake is available in her Etsy shop here.

I will be holding a giveaway in celebration of my 5th year of blogging. Just leave a comment below ~ tell me something you have enjoyed on this blog along the way, or what you would like to see in the future, and I'll put your name into a draw for a handmade creation by moi. If you mention the giveaway on your blog with a link back here, I'll put your name into the draw two times ~ yay!

The draw date will be Saturday, March 20th.
Spread the word, share the fun!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sunshine Award

The lovely,  the talented, artist extraordinare, 
Maria Pace-Wynters has nominated me for a Sunshine Award. Now, I choose 12 bloggers who bring sunshine into my life. 
Only 12? There are so many, but since I must only choose a mere 12, I will try to introduce you to some of my faves.







The rules for accepting the Sunshine award: Put the logo on your blog or within your post; then pass the award onto 12 other bloggers;  finally, link the nominees within your post.

Here are my Sunshine Award nominations:


Thanks Maria for the nod ~ you truly brightened my day.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

She loved ...

It has been a tough week for our family. My mom passed away on March 2nd. The following was something I wrote about her which was read by my brother at her funeral.


She Loved …

She loved … Holding babies and, after the birth of each grandchild she would offer to go help out the new parents adjust to life with their new babies, often getting up in the night to be there if her assistance was needed.

She loved … Children, and would always have some mints in her pockets in time for church services to keep the little ones happy during service.

She loved … to make everyone's birthday special. She would make a cake for everyone of her children and serve it off of her silver cake plate.

She loved … to spend hours on the telephone talking (but mostly listening) to her friend Edna on the telephone even though the two lived just a few houses away from each other.

She loved … loved taking home movies and would play, on request a B&W Popeye cartoon backwards, much to the delight of her small children.

She loved … to go shopping. But she would never go out wearing one of her house dresses. Going to town was an occasion to dress up.

She loved … photo albums, and would be more than happy to share her family photos with anyone who happened to stop by for tea.

She loved … to watch Figure Skating on TV, and also the 6 o'clock news, which she would invariably fall asleep watching. When someone would say: Mom you're sleeping; she would say: No I was just resting my eyes ~ even though snoring was sometimes involved.

She loved … purchasing small Christmas gifts for her husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Not one person was ever left out.

She loved … making quilts for her children, grandchildren, her sisters and friends.

She loved … loved her pearls. (you may notice some of the ladies here wearing a strand in her honour)

She loved … Jigsaw Puzzles, Crosswords, Crocheting and Knitting.

She loved … phoning and writing letters, sending out birthday, anniversary and Christmas cards and she would always want to know if you had “heard from any of the family lately”.

She loved … when people remarked that she looked like Queen Elizabeth II, although she would blush a little, she seemed equally pleased. When one of her grandkids first noticed the Queen on the back of a loonie, he said ~ That looks JUST LIKE Grandma!

She loved … pink and learned to love purple in later years and appreciated receiving every kind of flower from dandelions to roses.

She loved … to sing, both songs from the old days, and the hymns of faith. She knew hundreds of song lyrics by heart.

She loved … to encourage her her family in music and art, proudly listening to every bad note made by a new pianist to display every drawing given to her by a child.

She loved … her family, and people of all backgrounds. But most of all she loved God and tried all her life to love others as she was loved by Him. She was loved and so she loved. 

Monday, February 22, 2010

Sibling Purse Power

Isn't it interesting how siblings often think alike? I remember when our son, David turned one. He received a very cute birthday card from my mother-in-law. The card also just happened to be the exact same card as the one as her brother bought our little guy. The illustration of the little guy on the front looked an awful lot like David. Fast forward to my birthday this year. I received a few great gifts, including a purse each from my two sisters. They both gave me two very different purses ~ both funky in their own way.  I used to mock my one sister because she seems to have a new purse every time I'd see her. Well now thanks to my sisters, my own purse collection is growing. Here are the purses I received for my birthday this year from them. The first is a beautiful handmade felted purse. It holds plenty of my stuff and is comfy to wear over my shoulder. The other one is aa collage-ish purse with interesting photos including people places and things. And let me tell you, there is plenty of room for all my important [junk] important belongings.With this baby, I should be ready at a moment's notice for any purse scavenger hunt that happens to break out. The 2010 Olympics are going on, maybe I could sign up for the purse scavenger event, eh?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Thank God for friends

My mom's health has been on a steep decline in the last few months. It's so hard to see her in the state she's in now. Her warm blue eyes now most often stare vacantly, and the words that she tries to form are often garbled and confusing. All we can offer her is a hug and a few words of love and a hand to hold. Sometimes when tough things are thrown into one's path, it's good to let loose and forget one's worries a while and surround one's self with good friends who are willing to show up to party in their PJs. 
This marks the 8th year that my friend Gloria and I have thrown our own birthday  party. It all started when we discussed the fact that neither one of our great husbands would ever throw birthday parties for us,  and if we wanted to have one, we'd have to throw our own. And that is just what we've done! Other years, we have had themes such as 1970s, Tacky, High Tea and Bollywood, among others. This year we decided to throw a relaxed, laid back PJ Brunch. Everyone was invited to join us for a brunch with a pajamas dress code. The food was delicious, the animal charades were hilarious, and the party was over much too soon.  
Thank God for friends.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

3 Things



There are a 3 things I want to share with you tonight ...



1. Sneak peak of Faux Gogh chair
2. New Journal
3. A new blog discovery



I have been very busy this week working on a new Faux Gogh chair. This one is for my son's choir's silent auction ~ they're travelling to England in the spring. Concordia Concert Choir's upcoming silent auction is on March 6th. (I want to have the chair completed by the end of this week, just in case the chair is needed for display before the auction). The event will also include entertainment by The Nathan Carroll Band in addition to the silent auction. 
All the fun will take place at: 
The Docks Bar and Grill
137 Avenue and 66th Street in Londonderry Mall, Edmonton
Doors at 6:30 pm, Music and Auction at 7:00 pm- 10:30 pm

Tickets are $10 in advance only. Phone (780) 479-9304 or (780) 479-9313 to purchase tickets.
Remember, the chair is not completed yet, so the white part showing at the bottom of the photo will not remain white ~ I have big plans for that space.

Look! I got a new "Keep Calm and Carry On" journal. When Greg and I were in Indigo tonight, I spotted this beauty and knew that that is what he should give me for Valentine's Day (I know it's a little late ~ but who cares). Ever since I saw the "Keep Calm and Carry On" goodies first appear in Blogland, I wanted something with the slogan on it, and it would seem that everything comes to him (or her, in this case) that waits. Yay!


Finally, I want to tell you about a new-to-me blog that I discovered while browsing through the latest Somerset Life magazine. 52 Flea is the work of a lovely, talented artist named Laura. And! she just happens to be having a really nice give-away in celebration of her first Blogoversary. I hope you'll check out her ever-so-lovely blog. I'm going to add her site to my Beautiful Blog section too.


That's it for now friends ~ cheers!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

2010: a look back, a look ahead



The dishes are in the dishwasher ~ I can hear the gentle rumble as they wash. Now is the perfect time to take the opportunity to sit down and talk with you a while. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season with your family. We had a nice Christmas. It was quiet, but nice.


This is my first post of 2010. Slow, I know, but I've been super busy so far this month, and I have scads of excuses as to why I haven't got around to blogging yet this year. The biggest reason I haven't blogged,  is that I have been working on a movie project which started filming January 5th. I am working as a Property Master, which is entirely new to me, but it's very creative position and every day is different on the set. I have some good people to work with, so ~ so far, so good.

This year after many, many years of not doing so, we decided to  go take a look at Edmonton's Candy Cane Lane. When our sons were young, we would often go there either driving the lane or walking it, if the weather was agreeable. This year it was very cold, so we drove the lane. The thing that struck us  was just how many houses were unlit. When the boys were little, there were very few houses who didn't participate. The displays back then were innovative, and fun. This year, there were less lights, and a lot less creativity. Candy Cane Lane 2009 was sadly disappointing.Here is an interesting documentary on Edmonton's Candy Cane Lane which was produced in 2004. At that time, 95% of the district's homeowners participated in the Christmas community display. I hope you enjoy the documentary, and I hope that Candy Cane Lane will be better and brighter next year!


Did you make any resolutions for the new year? I don't particularly like resolutions because most resolutions aren't kept. I figure the only way to go is to make resolutions that one knows one can keep. So, with that in mind, here is my 2010 resolution: I hereby resolve to have good intentions all year long. Now there's one I probably can keep.


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Chilly afternoon and London Fogs


I bless the day that Arlene first introduced me to a London Fog taste experience.
The frothy yummy sweetness of it all!
Since Zach got a frother in his stocking, I decided to make a Homemade London Fog.

Homemade London Fog Tea Latte
1/2 mug of  steeped (strong) Earl Grey Tea
1/2 cup Light Cream, warmed
  1-1/2 Tbsp. Vanilla Syrup

Use one Earl Grey tea bag per cup.
Place tea bag into mug and add 1/2 mug of water.
Next add the vanilla syrup and stir.
Finally, froth warmed light cream; pour over tea.

Sit back and enjoy a favourite book or 
take in the beauty of your ever so lovely Christmas tree.


Thursday, December 24, 2009

Sweetness


These Tetley Tea cans work perfectly to stash individual helpings of Cracker Jacks for anyone you wish to share a little Christmas sweetness with.

Home-made Cracker Jacks
1 cup butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup molasses
1 Tbsp. vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup peanuts
2 microwave popcorn bags

Pop the 2 bags of popcorn in the microwave and place in large bowl. Set aside
In medium pot, boil butter, corn syrup, vinegar and brown sugar for 5 minutes. Remove from stove and add baking soda, vanilla and peanuts. Pour over popcorn and stir.

Bake in 250 F degree oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool before serving or storing in Tetley Tea cans to retain freshness. Add some sparkly star garlands and gift tags and voilà ~ a special little gift to share with friends and family.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas cheer


From our house to yours ...


Thank you for reading my blog throughout the year,


and leaving comments along the way ~


I treasure your friendship.


Wishing a happy Christmas season, shared with those you love ~
and a new year filled with joy and contentment.


God bless us, everyone!