Author Archives: anneve

Work in Progress (Goldfinch Painting)

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You can see I have a little helper for this painting. All great artists have their assistants right?

I have been getting stressed out because of my lack of posts because I felt I needed to be posting more about my artwork. A good stress though it keeps me working on my projects. I have decided to show you the painting I am working on even though it is not finished and maybe I can get some feedback on it. I am also busy working out some sketches and paintings of African animals. I was asked some time ago if I did any African animals and at the time I hadn’t, hadn’t even contemplated it. I was more familiar and had I guess you would call an emotional attachment to the animals I know around me such as bears, foxes, deer. North American animals were something I knew and had imagined personalities and characteristics for. I started to work on the African animals just to see how it would go, and I found it very difficult. So I left them, then I came back, then I left them. This was around the time my sister and brother in law adopted their children from Africa. I found that as started to get to know them better, and Hugh and I started to dance to some Soweto Gospel Choir music for our dance music parties, and I was looking at pictures and reading about these animals that I didn’t know, I started to get a feeling for them and I am now beginning to get some pictures going that I am finally happy with. The artistic process is funny sometimes. You have to keep working at it like any work and it will usually start to show results, but I find I need to have some kind of deeper connection to what I want to create for it to be successful in the end.

I hope you enjoy the work in progress glimpse of my Goldfinch painting.

Pizza and Crayons

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My nieces were over last night for homemade pizza and they requested heart shaped pizza. This is so easy and they were so pleased. Their simple enjoyment of something small like heart shaped food is a good reminder to me that I need to take joy out of the small things in life. It is so easy to get caught up in life’s worries and forget to just really enjoy the little stuff. Luckily kids always remind me of this. I have been working on a large painting which has been taking up a lot of my creative time. So I though I would share some art even if its not mine. This is my son’s first crayon drawing! Enjoy your day!

Farm

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We headed to the farm after Piprell because we were going to go the Kelvington Fair on the weekend. We went on a long hike while my parents babysat and picked tons of wild raspberries. We found quite a few wild strawberries as well which we just ate. They are so tiny and so good. It would take you a week to fill a cup of them though. I will have to make something tasty with my raspberries and post it.

Piprell Lake

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We had another great time with the family up at Piprell lake. All the cousins had a blast together. We had good weather and the fishing was better this year. I was able to go see some of the gem lakes for the first time as well and now I want to go back and see all of them. H. went belly boating with us and had a bottle and napped the whole time.

Refreshing Summer Watermelon Drink

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I am writing up this post on my sister’s computer because my computer is visiting the doctor. I wanted to post again at least once before I take off again up North to the lake. It sounds like I do nothing but hang out in beautiful surroundings. I have to say in my defense that while we stayed at the farm we worked hard. We put up insulation, windows, and more and on top of scaffolding. I hate heights but I conquered my fear for the cause. I thought I’d share a drink I made for us while we were working. I blended up some watermelon and added frozen raspberries and their juice, chopped mint leaves, and ginger ale. Next time I am going to try straining the watermelon juice because it was a little chunky and seedy but still very tasty and refreshing when working outside on a hot day. Adding some pink lemonade might be a nice idea too. I am bringing all the ingredients for our trip to the lake so I’ll let you know about the next version I make. This is a big maybe but I would like to make homemade jelly doughnuts for the morning before we leave. If there successful or if it happens I will post on the process. I have wanted to try them for a long time but just never got around to it. Then I had new inspiration. There is a bakery in Preeceville, Saskatchewan that makes these crazy amazingly delicious doughnuts and I want to recreate those little fat filled wonders at home. If I don’t make them tomorrow don’t worry they will happen sometime and soon.

Amarula Coffee Gelato

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Last year M. bought me the KitchenAid ice cream attachment for Mothers Day. I gave birth to my son just around that time so the ice cream maker took a back seat for that summer. This year I was determined to start using it. So I made some gelato with coffee and the South African liqueur Amarula. It turned out really well, maybe more coffee next time though. I used this gelato recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. I doubled it except for the eggs. I only used 5 eggs in total and when I was ready to mix it in the ice cream maker I added 2/3 cup Amarula and about 2 tblsp. instant espresso. I am going up to my parents land for the next week so I don’t know when I will get to post next. I am hoping to get some painting done if the weather is good and the mosquiters don’t eat me alive. If I am successful I will share the results.

Wedding Photos

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Last week we attended my brother-in-law P.’s wedding which was celebrated in Lumsden, Saskatchewan at my new sister-in-law M.’s family home. Lumsden is in the Qu’Appelle Valley and as you can see it is a beautiful spot.

M.’s parents have an amazing garden so I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of the various flowers.

The flowers for the wedding were also amazing.

The bride and groom!

M.’s mother is also an avid quilter so of course there was lots of really nice touches to the wedding that involved quilting, such as the guest signing quilt, cake quilt, and the gorgeous quilt she made them as a wedding gift. She also made the babies in the family bibs and little aprons for the flower girls to wear during the meal. Seriously I wish I was that prolific and talented.

Then we come to the best part, well a really tasty part anyway, that I think everyone enjoyed not just the kids. The Candy Bar! I think this was maybe even more popular than the alcohol bar.

I think all the little special touches, great hospitality and family dance moves made this one of the loveliest weddings I have ever been to.