I finished the memory bears! I did end up hand sewing them. Then set off to mail them away to Canada. Little did I know that somewhere along the line, someone who insert their value as $4000!! My poor niece was told she couldn’t have them unless she paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars in duties. She was able to challenge it. It took about six weeks to get them to give the bears back to her. I don’t know what they were doing in the meantime but I’d like to think they were having grand adventures with all the other packages being held up by Customs. Lord knows who they meet or what they got up ..read more

Hello all! It’s been a bit! I’d like to say I have been very very busy but the reality is that I got caught up doomscrolling all forms of social media. It’s amazing how much that steals the time and for me it makes me feel less creative, tires out my brain and my eyes! My New Year’s resolution is to get rid of most of those apps. I do like Instagram which my link is in the side menu. And I also like the new Post News, I’ve had a lot of positive feedback there. As always I’m on WetCanvas.com despite the changes, I still like the forums. I don’t know how much longer it will remain open but I thi ..read more

Maud Lewis was a Canadian artist who created beautiful folk art despite suffering terribly from rheumatism. The film “Maudie” detailed her life. I think it’s still on Netflix. She was a talented folk art painter even going to the extent of painting every surface of her tiny one room home. Her entire house is preserved inside the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. There’s even a virtual tour which is worth looking through. On WetCanvas, which is still alive despite the owners, we have a monthly challenge in the acrylics forum. The theme for May’s challenge (I know I know I’m late posting but I don’t t ..read more

No, not the music kind. I do love that though. Thwomp thwomp throw your arms around! thwomp thwomp (that’s me dancing to the beat) Anyway… I received a new Ipad and Apple pencil. I’m quite enjoying them. I downloaded both Procreate and ArtRage. I haven’t tried ArtRage much yet but I’ve been having fun with Procreate. Procreate has a symmetry option which I’ve been having fun with. Kissing Kissing KissingSnowflake in pastelsSeaPet To create something similar. This is what I did. Layer 1: random color splotches then used a Gaussian blur to smooth the edges. I saw one lady online used the smudge ..read more

Note: I’ve done this pattern several times but no one else has so if you see any mistakes or have any questions please let me know. If you don’t wish to sign into WordPress to ask a question, you could ask me on my Twitter or Instagram. My account links are at the side of this page. For this gnome I used worsted weight wool and a 4mm hook. Size will vary with different yarns and hooks sizes. I used a bit of black embroidery thread for the eyes. I would classify this as an easy to intermediate pattern. Short forms used. MC= magic circle (see this tutorial on YouTube) sc = single chain INC = a s ..read more

We decided to do one last ATC trade on WetCanvas.com before it evolves into it’s new form. (the forums will be archived so you can still look up tutorials and such on it). The theme of the forum was basically a free for all, artists choice, with the title “One Last Hurrah”. Of course we may be able to do trades on it’s new reincarnation but I’m not sure what that’s going to look like. I decided to do some houses and trees that I had been meaning to do for awhile. I did these all in ink with a touch of watercolor (most of which did not show up in the photos!). Here’s a couple of them. These are ..read more

This whole year has been an abstraction and I’m not impressed with it but I hope it’s finding you well. I did these as part of a challenge over at WetCanvas. I got right in there with fingers and palette knives and large brushes. These all started out as innocent sheets of 12×18 watercolor paper, they ended up being various sizes depending on how much I tore the paper. I ruined a couple of brushes and one shirt but it was thoroughly entertaining. These are some of my favourite places. “The landscape”“Water’s Edge, Niagara”“Horseshoe Falls, Niagara”“Sailing”“The beach”“The field” Let me know in ..read more

I’m still getting used to the new editor on WordPress, It’s been around for while but I’ve been using the Classic option which seems to have disappeared. I have to say, I very much dislike this block editor. Anyway, I’m still missing Sammy. I think I probably always will. My sketchbooks are full of small sketches of him. I turned one into a small embroidery. While I’ve been crocheting more than anything, I have also been having fun collecting Victorian drawing books. Many of them are out of copyright and some companies have been reprinting them or pieces of them. I love looking at the old dra ..read more

It’s been a month since Sammy suddenly passed away from an aneurysm. He was stolen so quickly from us, it came as a complete shock. He had been playing and chasing his toys that afternoon and when he laid down I thought he was simply enjoying the sun. Tallie let me know that something was wrong and he passed away in my arms that evening. I am distraught and yet I know that as much as he liked Tallie and enjoyed playing with her, he was never the same after Zeus passed away. He loved Zeus and missed him so so much. Zeus was his feather, Sammy could always be brave and big when Zeus was around ..read more

I was wondering if after all this time You’d like to see my blog… I have been neglecting the old blog, there’s all sorts of cobwebs and paintbrushes laying about in here. Sampson the purple dog is doing well. He is 13 now.  He had to have surgery on his leg to remove a tumor but it was benign, thank goodness. It was a ruff operation but it didn’t take him long to get back into his yoga routine. He’s been pretty lonely since Zeus passed away. He grew up with three cats and Zeus of course was his nonstop companion. He was having fits every time we left him alone and let me tell you terrie ..read more