Twas the Week Before Christmas...and Why You Should Never Put Something In A Place Where It Won't Ever Get Lost.

T'was the week before Christmas and all through the house,

a great mess was stirring and and chaos did rouse.

Guests were arriving, great presents and snow,

In the mail, a gift, from Magic Love Crow!

A painting so lovely, a pointsettia crow in the frost,

Carefully I placed it so as not to get lost.

Her Christmas card hung on the stairs with such care,

And her painting was placed...only I knew where!

The holidays too crazy to post in my blog,

I would wait until later when my brain cleared of fog

And soon, it is quiet, I was ready to post,

I look for the crow painting, and oh no, it's lost!

I searched in the attic, the basement, the tree...

Panic set in, "My painting," cries me!

It's time to put all the decorations away, 

I hope still to find it, I hope it's today!

With all but the last decorations remaining,

my hope of finding the painting is waning.

Just the garland atop of the mantel remains,

my heart skips a little, I feel in my veins

I lift the garland and what do I see,

but Stacy Magic Love Crow's painting looking at me!

Thank you so much, Stacy!  I absolutely love it!  Please click on the links above and have a look at Stacy's blog.  You won't meet a nicer, more generous or kind-hearted person on the web :)  And she's talented, too!

Glad it Over!

It's New Years Eve.   Tonight, we will be spending the evening enjoying the company of  family, friends and neighbours.  Lots of great conversation and a feast of delicious Chinese food.  For the finale, a round of spectacular explosions as the fireworks are blasted off at midnight.  The kids love it almost as much as the guys who are setting them off!

The holidays are finally winding down to a close.  I love Christmas and New Years, but I can't say I am not glad to see them sneak out the door.  The excitement and hectic craziness of it all makes me long for normalcy.

The glow from the candles in the window, the glimmering Christmas tree and the soft shimmer of  the garland on the stairs.  These all made me smile the first night I had all the lights out but, in between rounds of gift wrapping, scrubbing walls and floors and running here there and everywhere!













And what a wonderful time we had!  We had a little party for the kids, and you'll never guess who stopped by for a visit!























My awesome cousin Ron was visiting from Houston with my aunt from New York!  We had a fabulous time.  Ron was hoping to get some skiing in.  That didn't quite work out, but instead, we managed to sneak in some sledding and the Two Rivers Wildlife Park.

I had barely enough time to paint some wine glasses which were to be gifts for some of my favorite people :)  I'll post a tutorial if there's interest....leave a comment!

For me, the real finale is not the fireworks but the calm that follows on New Years Day.  Ahhh....peace and quiet!

I will be enjoying it thoroughly, since it will after that that I plan on going full speed ahead with those New Year's Resolutions.  But that's another post!

Holiday Craziness and Work in Progress

The winter holidays are quickly closing in...are you ready?  It is only the first week of December, and already you can feel the rush and bustle in the air!

Things here at the house are getting pretty hectic, too...I have lists everywhere and calendars are filling up with schedules, activities for the kids and Christmas parties all over the place.  No wonder it's hard to keep up with it all :)  That's not to mention the cleaning and shopping.  I love cyber Monday :)

My youngest son, Ethan did his solo in his Christmas concert beautifully...we were all so proud!






They also enjoyed the Christmas parade :)







Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Google Plus, Etsy, Fine Art America...Anybody else find it hard to keep up with it all?  As an artist, I think it's important to be on at least some of these social media sites.  It's a  way of getting your work out there and seen and also see and enjoy other artists's work.  I like to start my day by checking my email and putter around with all these different social media sites.

Here's my problem...I get on all these sites, and it's fun...meeting other artists and chatting and having a look at all the amazing artwork out there.  The next things you know, hours have gone by and I haven't painted a darn thing! Anybody else experience this?   I'd love to hear how other artists and bloggers balance it all. (Yes, I know I have been slow updating my blog here!)

So that being said, in spite of all the craziness going on around here, I have got a bit of painting in:) Here is a sneak peek of my latest work!  It's a work in progress, still a bit more work to be done.

I plan on adding some collage elements to it.  It's based on a photo of my grandfather when he first came to Canada from Poland.  I collaged in some letters from his mother in Poland, some pay stubs and some receipts of money he sent back to the mother country.  A lot of these got painted over, so I will print these off on rice paper and collage them back in, distress it a bit, too.  Any thoughts?

Thanks for stopping by!