I Said Yes!

Wedding plans have been happening, but in an effort to not "over-share" and keep things a surprise for the celebration, I've been keeping quiet about everything on my blog. This is an easy share though - I found a wedding dress!! After trying on - 10 that day, and 5 or so another day, I said "yes!"

I must say I love the little sign that the store had made up for such occasions. :)

Chichén Itzá

Chichén Itzá is an old ancient Mayan city dating back to A.D. 750 (depending on the source you read from). Above, the large pyramid structure, is the Temple of Kukulkan (El Castillo). 

We visited this site while visiting Mexico this past January. Despite the three-hour drive in a bus, it was beautiful to see. It's now considered one of the wonders of the world (referring to the new, modern list) - so it was a must-see while we were down there.

It was such a warm day while we walked around this site, despite feeling like we were going to pass out from the heat and sun beating down on us for hours, I guide said that we were lucky to visit on such a cool day. Whoa? What? I guess we were visiting Mexico during their 'cooler months'...if you go to this site during the hotter months - please bring lots and lots of water, a hat and umbrella for shade -  I can't even imagine how hot it can get on a 'hot day'.

 
You are not allowed to walk on the structures anymore. Previously, this site was owned privately, and then the government purchased it and from there it went on to be a wonder of the world. My older brother got to climb the pyramid 5-7 years ago, but that is no longer allowed. Not only is it extremely steep and tourists were getting hurt, but it was also getting damaged from all the foot traffic and the rude people doing graffiti on it.

There were so many interesting carvings in the rocks - and so well preserved, considering how old they are and how long it was not as well protected. 

Below is the cenote that they sacrificed young girls in. It's called accordingly, the Sacred Cenote. Archeologists have drained and explored this sink hole, and found many bones and jewelry from the victims. The Mayans believed that these cenotes were entry ways into the underworld.

Can you see the lizard on the rocks below?

And, of course since this is a tourist attraction now,  all the walkways leading up to and between structures are lined with vendors. We were warned to be careful if purchasing anything there - there are no 'by-laws' for selling at this particular location, and some people have been ripped off. You just have to be careful though, there was a lot of beautiful items.

So that was one our first adventures in Mexico! It was such a long, long day (left the resort at 7am and returned at 7pm), but it was worth it to explore this important piece of archaeological history. :)

Snowed In Last Week

 

The weather outside was quite frightful last week, and I didn't make it into work two days because the roads we completely whiteout. Now what we got in snow is nothing compared to what some the cities in the U.S. got. But the rain came on the weekend, and melted it all away. 

On my days off, I worked on all the commissions that I have. Sometimes though, my mind needs a 'creative break' to wander off and create something else. Above is the beginnings of a painting that I hope to share with you all later this week :)

You can also see my new laptop up in the picture - yes, it was a sad day, my little Dell died without warning. After running it to the nearest computer store in a panic to pull everything off it's hard drive (and they did very successfully), we ventured in search of a new computer. After some discussion, I decided to switch over to Apple, and purchased a MacBook Pro. My cell phone is due for it's 'free replacement', now actually, and I was looking at iPhones - so this will just tie it all together.

It's been a huge learning curve - mostly with printer colour profiles, something I've never really had to do before, but now that things are running more smoothly, I am liking it more. It's also all shiny and new, and who doesn't like that in technology? :)

Busy Bee

I've been semi-absent from the blog as of late - a lot of good reasons for that :) The garden is starting to finish up - and that means tons of produce is coming off, and I have to do something with it all, plus clean out what is spent. My weigh-in tally for August was almost 60lbs of produce - which for a first time, 3-box raised garden bed, I think is pretty awesome! I'm going to be sad when we have to start buying vegetables at the grocery store again...

My poor tomatoes that I thought were never going to make it, have been turning around like champions so fast that it's been hard to keep up. We had an easy solution to that though - salsa! From the garden tomatoes, so far, we got 4 regular pints, and 7 half-pints of salsa! I had also purchased two 25lb boxes of Roma tomatoes, for fear that we wouldn't have enough. From one box I got another 3 pints of salsa, and 10 pints of homemade tomato sauce! That's right folks! Fresh and clean tomato sauce this winter for these people! :) I still have one almost untouched 25 lb box of tomatoes to go, plus everything else I get from the garden.

I also entered some of my produce in the fall fair in town here this past weekend, and everything did wonderfully :) The chili peppers snagged first place - luckily there were three red ones to pick for the fair!! My winnings will help get me more seeds for next years garden - so to say that garden paid for itself in food is now a literal statement :)

My mini-bells have been turning beautiful colours too. And, I wished that I could have entered them in the fair - but alas, there was no category for mini-peppers, and I didn't have enough ripe ones to enter into the random vegetable category (needed 7 ripe ones, and I was short 3!). Maybe next year :)

Besides being a little homesteading housewife, I've also been busy with my artwork - working on a lot of commissions, and packing orders. I am also putting together my 2015 calendar, and I hope to have it done shortly. I wanted a lot of new artwork for it, so I have to paint that artwork first, and then create the calendar. That means, this month - I cannot say when, as it is a crazy busy month, but sometime, there will be a huge shop update with a lot of new paintings :) Exciting! 

A Hiking We Will Go!

This shot only took many, many attempts with a camera timer and my speedy leaping through the trees.

Summer brings back our hiking trips! Our first hiking trip brought us out to Skinners Bluff. This 16km hiking trek (8 km to the above spot and back to our car) was blessed by a beautifully clear and cool day. We couldn't have asked for nicer hiking conditions.

We were way high up on the bluffs escarpment. 

Gorgeous view from Skinner's Bluff. I just can't get over how blue the water is in Colpoy's Bay (off Georgian Bay)

So many trees growing up and bent out from the rock edges. 

I'm hoping that this is just one of many, many hikes out and about the Bruce Peninsula this summer. I hope we get to explore so much more, and enjoy this beautiful area that we live :)

A Clear Mind

I've been on a creative rampage the past few days, and then BAM! I hit a wall. What always helps me out, is clearing up my art room, and especially my art desk. It helps a lot of have that space, and to see things more clearly.

Cheers to clearing creative blocks!

Small Town...

So today, I share with you all very exciting news! This is the exact news that I have been "sorta-kinda" referring to the past few weeks. And, the same news that has had us running out crazily and maybe stressing a little bit. 

We bought a house!!

So, suffice to say, we will be moving...but this time we will be staying at this house a long, long time! It's a first for both me and James, so it's very exciting and scary all at once! Everything was finalized in the past few days, so it's now safe to share with everyone :)

I do not have any photos yet, I will be sharing those once we move in - in less than a month!! I know, super fast!! It is a cute, little small town that we will be moving to; so back to small town living for me :) (Hence the song I've included, "Small Town" by John Mellencamp). I'm excited and scared. It's been a long, long time since I've lived in a small little town - since I started university in 2004 and moved from the countryside back home - almost 10 years ago!

 I'm excited to have more space - we have a nice and big back yard, and a deck overlooking that. I'll be able to have a nice garden and cute flower beds - maybe even a fruit tree or two! We are also close to so many friends in this dear small town -so it will be nice having them all almost next door. You can even see the milky way at night on clear nights - that's how far away from the city lights we are :)

I'm not scared about not knowing anyone in this town with this move. This is James' home town, and so we visit it frequently. I already know, very well, everyone on our street. And it's for this reason that the decision to move there was so much easier to make. 

Anyways I should stop here for now, there will be more to come about this move as time goes by I'm sure - especially when we start some renovations. My shop will be staying open the whole time. We aren't moving a crazy distance from where we are now, and so the essentials are easy enough to move and set up again, it just makes sense. 

Studio Update

Since getting over a nasty little summer "cold"....after a long recovery, and a 9-day work stretch (finished tonight with my last night shift before a day off)...I've had some time and a mood to get a little creative again. I created several paintings, and finished some, and will be sharing them with you all this week! I'm going to try to stretch it all out over upcoming week, and maybe offer a deal or coupon code on one day throughout the week - stay tuned so you don't miss anything!! It will be mostly watercolours I will be sharing, with maybe one or two mixed media pieces! Some you have seen 'progress' shots of, and some are brand-spankin' new completely! So much goodness, it will be so much fun! You will find them all in my online store jellybeans.etsy.com as well as here.

I thought that maybe a picture of my watercolour "box" and palette will ignite creativity in everyone too, with all the lovely colours! For my paintings that I sell, I use only tubed watercolour - the colours are just so vibrant right from the start. I do have a small watercolour box with the dried "plates" of watercolour and a palette of Peerless watercolours on paper strips, but those are usually just for my art journal. I love just looking in my little 'treasury' box at all the colours! I have numerous brands....throughout the years creating (over 7 years now!) I have bounced back and forth between brands...sort of how the mood strikes, availability, and colour ranges through the different products - Cadium Yellow in one brand may be quite different in another. The palette, one that I never thought would originally suit for me but I gave it a leap of faith, has been with me most of those years as well. It just works so well for my colour system, and has those larger pots in the "flower" for mixing larger washes. I don't see myself straying from this palette anytime soon. 

So there is lots going on with my artwork, and also in life. A big change is brewing in the wind...and only time will tell what direction it's going to take. Yes, overly poetic - but it fit quite well. I'll have more details as details here become finalized. I'm quite excited for this change, and quite scared. It's a big one. :D 

On a last note, the "Tail Ships" came to Owen Sound this weekend. We didn't have tickets as we weren't sure if we would be awake enough to see them, with us both working night shifts this weekend, but we managed time to go down. Unfortunately the tickets to go closer and actually board them were sold out, so we admired from a distance. Maybe next year. 

Mosaic Love

Finished frame with photo from our trip to Tobermory

This summer has been hectic - as I have probably mentioned in every post hehe. But last week, I had two days where my Mom was able to leave the farm in between field work (further up north in Ontario) and come down for a visit. One of the things we did was a little 'craft project' - it was super, super hot outside, and so finding something to do inside was indeed called for. She's also a creative person, so it was perfect!

After all the white plaster was dry.

Neither of us have done mosaic work before, so this was completely new territory, and the result has some cracks in the plaster I think because we weren't quite sure what we were doing 100%. But it was fun, and I think the cracks add some character :) I 'mosaic-ed' a wood frame, and my Mom did the top of two little boxes. 

After it was all dry, I added a tint of brown paint to give it a more vintage look to go along with the cracks. I really like how the blue and brown go together.

I love the little 'jewel' tiles that I have on the corners, they take in so much
light and sparkle

This project took lots of concentration and fiddling (as we did not know what we were doing LOL), but I really love the effect of tiles. It's a nice addition to the decor in our house, and it's neat to know that I made it.

It was so fun to try something new and to have a partner to struggle through it with me - mom, thanks! lol. We weren't even set on doing this project when we went to the store for the supplies. Initially I was thinking we'd get a kit to make some bracelets or something, but the store didn't have any of those, so we just wandered until we saw a project to do that wouldn't take too many extra tools. I'm happy with our choice :)

Trying to Grow a Green Thumb.

This weekend, after my shift on Sunday, I went out and got the tools to do a little gardening. My green thumb is quite sporadic, sometimes it makes an appearance, and something things just die. First on the list was to repot my Jade succulent into it's new home up above. This was long over due, and my poor plant wasn't making any progress in growth as the old pot just didn't give it space to grow!

Next up, was getting a second round of herbs growing. The first round did not fare too well - I had directly planted them outside, and despite prompt watering, most did not even make it up, and those that did were nibbled away before anything became of them. So, now I'm going to start them inside instead, and keep them inside. Despite how cute the neighbourhood rabbits are, I would rather not have them eat all my herbs up...and I may have let the weeds re-take the garden where they were planted, which might just also be a contributing factor...

But, the gardening that I was most excited for, was to try and take 'cuttings' from a gorgeous, and wildly out of control bush that started blooming like crazy in our yard. I googled 'rose cuttings' to dip my toes into at first, and looked at all the different methods. The easiest, and I felt most natural way, was to take cuttings, dip the ends in honey, and them plop them in some soil. I uses these little peat pellets to start off with, as I felt then I wouldn't be struggling with the task of trying to separate them. 

I'm also realistic in the sense that I don't think they will all "catch". I read that it can take up to 3-4 weeks for the roots to really take hold, and growth to happen, so I will just have to nurse these little guys until then. If I can have only one or two survive that will make me happy. 

Here's a bloom from the plant that I took the cuttings from, isn't just so vibrant?! And they are large blossoms, most the size of my palm. There has got to be more blooms then leaves on this rose bush right now too, it looks quite hardy. Since we are only renting this current property, I want to be able to take these roses with me when the time comes to move. I just love roses, and would love to have them planted all over the place when we own a house. 

Just have to cross my fingers that these little guys make it!

Changing Directions

Painting in progress - mixed media acrylic.

Sometimes there is a piece of art that I'm working on that just isn't going as I would like. The process might flow along, but there is just an 'essence' to the piece that is missing. An emotion or a feeling that I want the painting to emit to the viewers. For me, this will eventually lead to me not working on the painting and having it sit in the corner collecting dust until I can figure out a new game plan.

 

Luckily, for my red-haired girl, I had a sudden 'light-bulb' moment yesterday on how I wanted to continue. It was a major, major change in direction from where I started. I was initally thinking a happy girl with a wreath of flowers in her hair, spilling out...but after working on it awhile, and fiddling with the painting a lot - it just wasn't working for me, especially in the face. I knew that I still had many layers to go, and that it might still turn out how I wanted, but it was no longer a direction that I felt I could carry this painting to. 

 

The painting before I changed directions

So, last night - after pondering my new painting-plan and direction - I took the major leap of completely painting over the face. All I left were remements of the mouth, and the lower part of the nose, which I adjust both later. But I painted away the eyes, and all shading, and then started anew.

It might have seemed a little drastic, but I needed a fresh start to the face. And yes, it was chancy (if that's even a word, hehe). I could have not been able to illustrate what I wanted to in the new face, and had lost all my previous painting labours on the old face. And I thought long and hard about that. It was truely an artist's gamble. But then, I decided that I knew I didn't like the current face and that I was pretty confident that I would not be able to bring that face, in it's current state, to a point that I was going to be pleased with.

But isn't that what is so great about paint? If you don't like something, just paint right over and start fresh. I'm sure tons of artists out there have done that, and I know when I was a 'fresh' artist, I was always skeptical about it...but it makes you commit to an idea; and it makes you grow and gain confidence in your decisions as an artist. (Or, so I feel).

So now I have a more realistic, and less illustrative, painting. The brush strokes are way more loose and a lot more painterly, which is what I prefer. I think getting caught up with trying to fix something that I wasn't happy with made my painting just too 'tight' with the other piece. There is still tons of work to do on her, but - for the most part - I know what steps and which direction I am taking.

Have you ever completely reworked a painting, or painted over part of a painting to make it work better? Did it turn out?

Purple Valley Hike.

The biggest hike on our adventure last week was in purple valley, hiking along Colpoy's Bay (which is a little "nook" off of Georgian Bay) . This is up the South Bruce Peninsula, where on the other side of it is Lake Huron (which we visited the same day at Stoke's Bay). The Bruce Trail runs through here, and leads all the way up to Tobermory - so we started on the Bruce Trail, and then took a side trail off to make a 7-8km loop. 

That is the limestone cliff edge that we were hiking along. We were in the forest though - not right  on the edge. And every now and then, there would be a "lookout" opening to take a peak. 

It was very high up, but the view was spectacular! As I had mentioned in an earlier post, this is a spot we never would have really known about if it was not for the "Explore the Bruce" scavenger hunt. I'm happy that we were able to explore this hidden gem, and even happier that this gem is just a hop, skip and jump away from where we live. 

It is so very hard to capture just how high we were up on that cliff rock.

It was a wonderful hike, and we had beautiful sunny weather for it! The breeze from the bay kept us nice and cool as well as the shade from the trees.

Spirit Rock and Corran Ruins

The first stop on our adventure last week was to Spirit Rock in Wiarton. This photo above is before we started hiking. I just wanted to share with you how lovely of day it was, and how blue the waters were! Those islands you see in the distance, on our hike in Purple Valley - a later post - we end up right beside them!

The story of spirit rock is based on legend from the tribes who were in this area first. It is a sad story, but an interesting one. We were not able to see the face from below in the cliffs, as the trees are now quite lush and grown, and it is definitely some place we would visit again.

The view from Spirit rock.

Another view from Spirit Rock - such beautiful water!

These yellow lady-slipper flowers, which are a wild form
of Orchid were all over the forest - so pretty!

"The Spiral Staircase" - which walks you down one of
the cliffs on the trail. 

 At the top of the spiral staircase, completely unrelated to spirit rock, are the Corran Ruins. They are the remaining stone framework from 1881. This mansion was owned by Alexander McNeill, who was a member of parliament and supported Britain. There was a plaque, and I wish I had taken a picture, that also spoke about how there used to be lots of rose bushes around the property, and one - a black rose bush - was cut and transplanted from a bush that Mary, Queen of Scots, slept under before her execution.

Well, that was part of our adventure - last part I will share tomorrow! :)