{Virtual Coffee} #5: Taking the bad with the good

First of all, I need to bitterly complain about the editing on Blogger. Are any of you  as frustrated about Blogger as I am? Why is it so klutzy?! I can't understand why it messes up the formatting so much when I attempt to use photos and then it'll underline whole sections for no reason whatsoever! I just about gave up completing this post entirely because of the ridiculous system. Argh!! Okay, so my rant is done ~ on to Virtual Coffee ...

Morning coffee with box of chocolates I gave Greg for our
anniversary. The scripture verse on the box was most appropriate
considering what has been going on in our lives lately.

{Virtual Coffee} today includes a potpourri of things. If you were here sharing a cup of coffee with me today, I would have to tell you that my beautiful mother-in-law, Irene passed away on March 16th, so it's been rather sad around here lately as we mourn the passing of my husband's lovely mom. She is in Heaven and free of the worries and stresses of this world, but it is difficult for us.

My son David was in the middle of rehearsing for the musical, Honk! when he was called to say his good byes to his Granny. Honk! is a super upbeat and happy retelling of the Ugly Duckling, so it was tremendously difficult on David by opening night to perform when his beloved Granny had just passed away. The cast was very supportive of him and the shows were dedicated to the memory of Irene.

Standing beneath her beloved apple tree
Irene Supina
1929-2011

The Celebration of Life Memorial was beautiful. All of Irene's children paid tribute to their mother. (Proverbs 31:28-31), A common thread wove it's way through all their words: Love.  She was a remarkable woman whose deep faith impacted many lives. With great compassion and constant encouragement, she joyfully welcomed everyone into her heart.

One of the beautiful things that happened through this was the little miracles in the insignificant details. Irene's favourite flowers were the ever-joyful sunflowers. Sunflowers are definitely not in season; we were told that the florist may not be able to use fresh sunflowers in the arrangements because of this fact. However, as the memorial drew nearer, sunflowers started popping up everywhere! First they started appearing in stores, then on opening night of Honk! all the cast members were given flowers: sunflowers! Then, when I went to the Post Office to buy stamps to mail out thank you notes, I discovered that Canada Post had just released sunflower postage stamps on March 3rd!

Canada Post Sunflower Stamps released March 2011

Although we grieve and we're still emotionally exhausted, Greg and I also celebrate today because it is our Silver Wedding Anniversary. Tonight, we plan to dine in the restaurant that Greg proposed to me in 1984.

The two of us in 1986

{Virtual Coffee} #4

Good morning. The sun is brightly shining outside, but it's still -16 Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit), and the mounds of snow outside makes me glad to stay inside at the moment. It's time to put on the Virtual Coffee pot again ~ welcome! If you were here with me this morning, I would give you a piping hot mug of coffee and then tell you about what the last 16 days have been like.

You see, my sweet mother-in-law (MIL) and my children's cherished Granny, Irene had a massive heart attack on February 19th, and we have been back and forth to the hospital visiting every day. She was in the Critical Care Unit for about a week and then transferred to a Cardiac Unit.

A couple positives that came out of this is that we got to spend time with my MIL and 
my sister-in-law who came from out of province to spend time with her mommy!

Yesterday, the doctor sent my MIL home. I have very mixed feelings about this. Of course I am happy that she is healthy enough to leave the hospital and continue recovering ~ she needs open heart surgery, but her heart must heal more before that is possible. However, she is not a lady who likes to sit around. She also has a lot of stresses at home ~ namely her husband and a couple of sons who demand far too much of an 81 year old woman.

Before her heart attack (which she barely survived ~ flat lining upon arrival at the hospital), she could out-work me, I swear. She would wake up around 4:30 a.m., cleaning, taking time to read her Bible and a wee bit of CH Spurgeon, cooking a full healthy breakfast for "the boys", starting her physically disabled son's van (and I imagine brushing off snow when necessary) so he could get to work on time, and then she would rest. Her first catnap of the day occurred around 8 a.m. then it was back to housework again....

If you were here, sipping your coffee with me, you would no doubt agree that now there must be changes made.  There's the necessity of hiring a cleaning person to come in from time to time (my mother in law has always kept a very neat and clean home). Then there's the meals to consider. Irene is one of the best cooks I've ever known ~ everyone has always loved the opportunity to sample her delicious meals. But now, someone else needs to do meal preparation. We know now too, that she is diabetic, so her eating habits must change ~ for example, the 4 heaping teaspoons of sugar per cup of coffee is a thing of the past. Then there is salt ~ another big enemy ~ one that she always used liberally. Another thing that has to go is her 60+ year smoking habit. Of course, this is a major contributor to her heart attack (along with her enormous stress load). The entire time she was in hospital, she didn't smoke once. We are hoping that she won't give in to cravings ~ especially when faced with stresses ~ and that this deadly habit is conquered once and for all..

Are you still with me? If you were here, I'd give you a warm up on your coffee ...

Decisions will have to be made about living arrangements. The large house on the acreage is not feasible anymore. It actually hasn't been for years. My father in law has had cancer for a long time, and when he was first diagnosed many years ago, some of the family suggested that a move may be wise ... way back then. But no, that idea was ignored and quashed. Now, there is simply no choice. So we will see what happens in the days to come. Because of the family dynamics (ie., Father knows "best" ... well actually Father knows EVERYthing!), my husband and I will be left out of any family discussion or decision making in the days to come, so we can only hope and pray for the best.

Thank you for spending time with me this morning, and have a great week. 
Please check out the other {Virtual Coffee} participants here!

{Virtual Coffee} #3

It'll be a Tim Horton's Roll up the Rim for my virtual coffee today. 

Not much of a post here today as my mother-in-law is in intensive care as she 

had a massive heart attack on Saturday. 

We're spending our days with her, and are happy to see her improve some each day. She needs to rest up and recover so she has to rest up because a triple bypass operation is still to come.

I hope that I will have good news at next week's Virtual Coffee time.

Don't miss this amazing site!!

The Google Art Project  is the next best thing to actually being there and  the close up detail on some of the paintings is simply awe inspiring!

We have a winner!

The winner my 2011 OWOH giveaway is Lovey from the US. She will be receiving two Tree Hugger Bookmarks and a collection of Instant Ancestors.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the event, and thank you Lisa Swifka for putting this together for the past 5 years ~ it's been a joy to participate and to meet so many lovely bloggers from around the world.

{Virtual Coffee} #2

Hi everyone ~ I'm back to have a virtual coffee with you again, so grab your coffee, curl up on the couch and let's talk.

Today I'm opting for tea because last night I felt like my throat was getting a little scratchy. This morning it felt almost like the beginnings of a sore throat, so I am drinking Honey & Lemon Tea. I also downed a clove of garlic, some Vitamin C and Cold Resist (Zeller's more inexpensive answer to Cold-FX) ~ I'm quite the pill popper, eh? I already had a cold this winter, so I don't really want to have another, thank you. I used to have a ginger drink that was quite good, maybe I'll check my cupboards for that ~ it's pretty strong, so it may just do the trick. So what do you do to stave off a cold?

Oh, how do you like my fun coffee mug? It reads: Life is too short to cook for you people.

Hey, did you do anything for Valentine's Day? I watched a romantic comedy (Music & Lyrics) with my husband and son. We ingested supermarket pizza (which wasn't great) and popcorn and Coke ~ talk about health nuts, eh?

Today is what we affectionately call Ukrainian Valentine's because it's the day after Valentine's when all the chocolates go on sale for 50% off. My husband will likely buy me a box of chocolates which he (and my son) will eat a majority of. For my chocoholic hubby ~ Valentine's ranks right up there with Christmas! I won't be overly disappointed if I don't get any chocolates though, because I already bought myself a Valentine bouquet yesterday and signed the card like this: Happy Valentine's Day ~ I love you & you love me! then I gave it to my husband. Isn't that romantic?!

Thank you for stopping by for {Virtual Coffee} ~ please check out the other folks too! I hope we can meet again next Tuesday.

Valentine's Day Fun!

Look at the beautiful door hanger that the lovely, the talented Martha Brown made me

for the Canadian Chickies' Valentine Swap.

Lucky me! The following is what I posted on my Facebook this morning:
Tonight ... anytime after 7 p.m. I invite all single, unattached, desperate young guys of my acquaintance
(you know who you are!)
to come over to our house and watch CHICK FLICKS with me!!
Possible line up: While You Were Sleeping ... Sabrina ... Roman Holiday ... etc.

This should be fun!

.•*¨`*•✿.•*¨`*•. * .•*¨`*•. .•*¨`*•✿
.•*¨`*•✿ HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.•*¨`*•✿
✿•*¨`*•. (¯`v´¯) (¯`v´¯) .•*¨`*•✿ . . . ✿•*¨`*•.¸(¯`v´¯)¸.•´*¨`*•✿ . . .
……………….....♥ •.¸.•´♥……………..........

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953)

Sketch Club 1

Recently, I came up with an idea ~ Sketch Club.

The ideas is simple.

Once a month,

a location and time will be announced.

then people will be asked to join us, and to

bring a pencil, sketch book, pencil and eraser with them.

(All skill levels are welcome)

Today's location was at Steeps the Urban Tea House on Whyte Avenue.

Four of us showed up for the first Sketch Club gathering.

What a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning ...

good friends, unstructured art making and tea!

Thrifting with Dawn

Why don't they make fun commercials like this anymore!

Do you remember the Dawn Doll? It was introduced in 1970,

ignore what it says on the YouTube title above. More about Dawn Doll later in this post ...

Today, my friend Shelly and I decided to do some thrifting.

We hit three spots: Goodwill, Value Village and The Bargain Shoppe.

Overall, it was typical ~ over inflated prices and very little to really grab our attention. We cannot wait for garage sale season to start again! Anyway, I digress ...

Goodwill

There I found a delicate candy dish (Princess House, 1.99) a Reitman's brown turtleneck (the tags were still on it, 4.99) and a small set of Spectrum watercolour pencil crayons (1.99).

Ugly Find of the Day

When my eyes beheld this "beauty" at Goodwill, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had indeed found the one item that was truly dreadful enough to draw my camera out of my purse to take my "Ugly Find of the Day Photo". I think this one may be classified under the category
"It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time"

Behold its majestic nastiness ... This came from Pier 1 Imports?! Are you kidding me??

Anyway ... our second stop was at Value Village. I found nothing there.

Our third and final destination was The Bargain Shoppe, (a charity store which supports a downtown mission). The store was virtually splitting at the seams with an over abundance of goods! A couple years ago, when this store first opened its doors, it was a breath of fresh air. Everything was clean, orderly and most importantly, the prices were exceptionally reasonable. I remember back then Shelly remarking to the lady behind the counter how impressed she was with the prices. She added: "I hope you will keep the prices reasonable like this."
The lady insured us that the prices would always be reasonable.
Fast forward to now ... the prices are no longer reasonable like they once were,
and I wonder if that is the reason there is so much stuff in the store.
The customers don't like the prices and just aren't buying as much because of it.

Find of the Day

Back to today.
After looking around The Bargain Shoppe, I was about to leave the store empty handed when I happened to glance into a cabinet that was holding a Dawn Doll Case!

At first I thought it was just a case. However, upon opening it, I realized it was so much more ~ it included 4 dolls: Dawn, Glori, Angie and Head to Toe Dawn and clothes and accessories (9.99). Be still my heart ~ I had to buy it! I will add my own Dawn Doll that I have kept from my childhood and she can have some company finally
and they can share clothes and have fashion shows and ...

... what have you found in your recent thrifting adventures?

{Virtual Coffee}

Virtual Coffee time Folks ... if you were having coffee with me today, you'd share it with my dear art friend, Nicolette. All those cups of coffee and tea weren't ours ... honest. (Nic had a Venti Chai Latte and I had a Grande Passion Tea ~ just in case you're curious). What would you have indulged in if you had joined us?

Every time we meet up, it's a grand opportunity for us to discuss art, family, work, and did I mention art? We leave encouraged, and ready to create some more!

Thank you for joining me for Virtual Coffee ~ check out all the other links too!

Feeling the creativity bug!

The Creativity Bug has struck and I'm super excited! I want to create again. I finished up a couple art commitments that I had hanging over my head and now I am doing a small Property Master/Costumes job for a play at my son's university, which is exciting. And, I plan to finish off my latest chair which has been 3/4 done since last summer! So there are a lot of things to create, so I need to get down to it. You know the problem with most artists is their BIG IDEAS and their propensity to procrastinate! Perhaps if I talk about it here on my blog, then I will be held somewhat accountable and actually doing some of this stuff I have swirling about in my head.

I would also like to do some painting and experimentation in themes. This scares me because I feel under-confident about stretching my artistic muscles. Guess I need to tell the old inner critic to get out of my face and take a flying leap, eh?

What do you do to stop procrastinate and become inspired to create?

Sunday morning inspiration with Mary Cassatt

American painter, Mary Stevenson Cassatt (May 22, 1844 -- June 14, 1926) lived much of her adult life in France, exhibiting her work among the Impressionists.

Cassatt is best known for her portrayal of the bond between mothers and their children. Enjoy!

Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day (1993) ...
My favourite movie of all time ...
Funny ...
Poignant ...
Watch it!

One World One Heart 2011

It's giveaway time again! One World One Heart (OWOH) 2011 begins now ...

My name is Dawn Supina and I enjoy meeting Creative People, ART-making, Antique Malls and Home Decorating. I try to live frugally, green-ily, godly and simply. I also have a passion for painting gently-used upholstered chairs (check out my other blog, Art & Life if you would like to see some). I have been blogging ART of Humungous Proportions since 2005.

This year I will be giving away two hand-drawn bookmarks (made with recycled cardboard) and adorned with pretty fibres ~ I call them Tree Hugger Bookmarks. I will also include some original B&W photos ~ "Instant Ancestors" for the winner to enjoy. These adopted family members make great additions to mixed media paper arts, or as conversation pieces when they're included in a family photo album!

A warm welcome to everyone who visits during OWOH and enters my draw ~ it is open to active bloggers from all over the world, and the winner will be chosen randomly on February 17th. (All you have to do to win is leave a comment!) Make sure you leave the information that I will need in order to contact you if you win! I also hope you will come back soon to visit my blog again. Enjoy!

A new year begins with a good bye

Right after New Year's Day, I got a call saying that my aunt (Dad's youngest sibling) was dying. I flew out to Victoria, and was thankful that I got there just in time, to see and speak to her before she passed away at the age of 89.

She was everyone's favourite auntie. She was single all her life and loved nothing better than to dote on her nieces and nephews. Christmas time she would send a large parcel to our house brimming full of beautifully wrapped gifts with something special for everyone. Whenever our family visited Vancouver Island, she would welcome us to her house and take us to interesting places in Victoria and further up the island.

She devoted her life to the service of others, taking care of family members as they grew older, including her father, two brothers and one sister (she was the youngest of 12 children). I will always be inspired by her dedication in caring for others; that is what I'll always admire most about this very special woman.

A new year and a look back

Happy New Year to you all!

I thought it may be fun to share some 2010 photos...

Sights of Christmas

This has been a very nice Christmas.

We've had lots of visits with friends and family.

Way too much food!

Some fun games and just a lot of warm moments.

See you in the new year!

Christmas Blessings

For the past 12 days, I have been taking part in an awesome art swap with some

of my very good friends, the Canadian Chickies.

Today, I would like to show you the beautiful gifties everyone created for the swap.

Day 1 ~ Arlene Travnik ~ Hand-Stitched Leather Bracelet

Day 2 ~ Brittni Carey ~ Mini Booklet with Turtle Dove Decoration

Day 3 ~ Mar Gray ~ Tree Magnet with Mini Painting and Easel

Day 4 ~ Kathryn Ssedogo ~ Altered Matchbox

Day 5 ~ Martha Brown ~ Fabric Joy Banner

Day 6 ~ Sabina Parsons ~ Fairy Angel in a Jar

Day 7 ~ Dawn Supina ~ Vintage Hang Up

Day 8 ~ Heather Robinson ~ Altered Composition Book

Day 9 ~ Kim de Broin Mailhot ~ Soft Sculptured Heart

Day 10 ~ Nicolette Anderson ~ Retro Beaded Decoration

Day 11 ~ Jennifer Conway ~ Bottlecap Pin and Scrabble Tile Necklace

Day 12 ~ Cindy Hogg ~ Jar Snowman

Thank you Canadian Chickies, for making the days leading up to Christmas so enjoyable.

To all the readers of my blog ...

May you have a safe holiday season filled with the warmth and love of family and friends.

Christmas Blessings to all!