Summertime and the living is...busy

In the summer, things always change for me. My teenage daughters are in the house all day and I find myself easily distracted. I haven't painted very much the past few weeks as family life takes precedence. I'll have to figure out how to sneak in some painting time when the house is quiet (maybe when they sleep in each morning? :)

I always feel stress at the beginning of the summer as I feel my daily routine being tugged away from me. There are so many things I meant to do before the summer started and, well, here it is.

I celebrated my birthday on July 1st. Emma made me a fabulous beach-themed cake. I've always felt lucky to have my birthday on Canada Day. Canada is 146 years old now. I am younger.

Other activities from the past few weeks: sleepovers, visits from friends, an early birthday party for Chloé who turns 14 on July 7th, dips in the pool with Meeko who loves to swim, house cleaning, garden weeding (they're still winning), and Ikea furniture making (an art storage cabinet for me, a bookcase for Emma and some CD shelves for the basement).

Guess who wishes Emma had made a cake for his birthday?

I find the burden of my Etsy treasury teams hard at this time of year.  That's been complicated by all of the recent format changes Etsy has made that have gummed up traditional ways we've all made our treasuries. Some of my teams have reduced their quotas for the summer and that has helped me step back a little. Less time at the computer is a good thing. I don't think many people enjoy change all that much, but I think it's our resistance to it that creates the most problems. Maybe it's good that all of these changes happened just as the summer began. It gives us time to consider what's important and adjust. I know that it would be better if I spent more time making art and less time worrying about what Etsy is doing or not doing.

Last night we all went to a fabulous concert in downtown Montreal that was part of the Jazz Festival. I like how a concert transports you from your ordinary life. Camera Obscura from Glasgow Scotland was the opening act. I'm just getting to know them. I was searching for the words to describe them and Emma said 'indie pop with a retro twist'. Sounds good to me. I enjoyed them. The main act was She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and Matt Ward). We have all of their albums here. It's rare that all four of us can agree on one group. The concert was fabulous. Zooey packs a very big voice into her small frame and it was fun to see her play piano and ukelele. I liked when Matt and Zooey sang together. Their voices combine beautifully and you could see that they enjoy each other. The backup singers were amazing too and I read after the concert that they are the daughters of Tom Chapin and the nieces of the late Harry Chapin. I can remember listening to Harry Chapin 8-track tapes (there's an age indicator) in the car when we were on summer vacation when I was young.

There are more distractions ahead: family visits here, a trip to Lake Muskoka to visit my parents and a trip oceanside in Maine. For my part, I'll try to keep going with the summer flow.

Happy 4th of July to all of my friends in the United States! I was born in Manitoba but spent my first year in Cleveland, Ohio! I came very close to being a dual citizen! 

Coffee, Tea and Cake

In the past two weeks, I have worked on two paintings, one of tea and the other of coffee. My idea was to show the plant behind the beverages we enjoy on a daily basis. I tend to drink coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. I love both. And, as you already know I adore flowers, so I was happy to learn that both tea and coffee plants have beautiful white flowers.

The coffee painting gave me some problems early on. I just wasn't happy with how it started. That's when watercolour can be a troublesome medium. With oil or acrylic, I could have covered over the parts that were bothering me. I thought of abandoning it, but my stubborn nature kicked in and I found a way to balance out the composition and have ended up liking it after all.  The tea painting is already available as a print in my shop. I just have some small details to finish on the coffee painting and then it will be made into a print too.

Emma made the most wonderful orange cake over the weekend. It was as delicious as it looks. She used the recipe here. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

Chloé has her March break this week. Emma has hers next week. It's the first year that their breaks have been out of sync. I hope to find moments to paint in between spending some time with them. I have so many painting ideas swirling around in my head these days.

A Warm Kitchen

No need to visit the Arctic. It has come to see us instead. If yesterday was cold, today is a block of ice. The temperature at the moment is -25C with a wind chill factor of -37C. I did take Meeko out for his walk yesterday, wrapped (me that is) in a ski jacket, snow pants, hat, gloves and two infinity scarves. We'll see if we venture out today. Meeko doesn't seem to mind the cold at all and, as I've mentioned several times here, he adores the snow.

Days like this are best spent indoors sipping hot coffee or tea and making or at least dreaming about warm creations coming out of the oven.  Our ever-expanding cookbook collection grew a little over the holidays. Pictured at the top are the books that were under our tree, plus a couple I ordered in early January. I bought the book 'I love cinnamon rolls!' because I couldn't get the cinnamon rolls my sister-in-law made for our family out of my head. What to do when plagued by thoughts of cinnamon rolls? Make more!

We own every Jamie Oliver recipe book that has been published. We love Jamie and his recipes. They always work and taste so good. We own most of the Barefoot Contessa collection too, also wonderfully reliable although I've learned to reduce the salt a little and use evaporated milk in many of her recipes calling for cream.

On the very top of the pile are two books published by Love Food (aka Parragon Books)--one owned by Chloé and the other by Emma. We now have three of their books. I posted last summer about a fabulous 'sheepscape' that Emma made, inspired by a cookie recipe in one of their books. I contacted Parragon at the time and asked if they would give me permission to print the recipe on my blog. They were lovely about it and said 'yes'.

Some family recipe cards and a photo of Emma at three decorating a cake

A few months later, they contacted me and asked if they could feature my blog as their first 'blog of the month' on their website. They asked me about my art and garden but were particularly interested in how Emma and Chloé got to be such wonderful bakers.

It is pretty exciting to have my blog featured somewhere and it was fun to talk about all of the baking that has gone on in our kitchen over the years.

My interview with Parragon

Keep warm, my friends!

Painting Time

There has been so much going on lately that it's been hard to find painting time. The solution the past few mornings has been to make a cup of coffee and go up to my studio first thing while still in my pajamas.  It has been working quite well as Jocelyn is long gone to work by that time and Emma and Chloé sleep in during the summer. The past few mornings I have left Meeko sleeping in his crate downstairs. But today, he stirred as I walked by his crate and I got brave and brought him up to the loft to sit with me. He was a little fidgety at first until I put my foot down right beside him (note his paw in turn touching my foot).  He was very good and slept for about an hour and a half there. I couldn't have done this before without him gnawing on the furniture legs or consuming my watercolour paper.

Emma made the comment recently that she thinks Meeko and I are co-dependent. I think she might be right. I am already missing him, just thinking about leaving him with the dog-sitter while we are away.

I'm glad that I have been getting some painting time the past few mornings as I am working on a commissioned painting that will be hand-delivered (not by me) to France later this month.  Here is a little peek at it in progress.  It is about halfway done at this point:  lots of detail, colour and contrast still to be added but the basic structure is there and I'm starting to 'feel' the place.  It was a surprise initially when I received the photos as I didn't expect to see the palm trees. It has been interesting to paint a more tropical garden than I would normally.

When out of my studio, I am getting us ready for our family trip to New York and Chloé for her first overnight summer camp (which happens almost immediately upon our return).  We also have to leave the house relatively neat as my brother and his family will be using our place as a stopover on their drive out to PEI. I said that it is a family trip to New York, but it is more than that.  I am going to meet my sweet friend Lucile for the first time. She will be visiting New York from Paris with her two children. Cannot wait!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes. I didn't have a chance to leave individual replies the way I normally do but I appreciated each and every comment.  I had a great day. Emma made my cake and it was delicious!  She used Nigella Lawson's Buttermilk Birthday Cake recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess (an excellent, very tasty cake that we have made many times here).  I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging in the next week. I'll see and so will you! :)

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the U.S.!

Birthdays, Books and Cake

Each family has its own traditions around birthdays. In our family, birthdays always involve a homemade cake, a family dinner and books.

My eldest daughter Emma is 17 today. I'm having a lot of trouble believing how fast the years have gone by, but I am so proud of the beautiful young woman she is.  She is intelligent, kind, principled, a little bit quirky and very strong-minded. I love each and every part of her.

I remember the day I found out I was pregnant with Emma. It was on the Thanksgiving weekend and that seemed entirely appropriate.  I recall how very hard it was waiting to meet her which I finally did on June 1, 1995. As a birthday bonus, Emma's cousin Erica was born the very next day.

From the look of these recipe cards, you have an idea of how many times I've made this cake. That peacock blue ink and calligraphy-style printing tells me that I copied this recipe in my early twenties, loooong before I was a mom. :)

Ever since Emma and Chloé were babies, books have been one of the gifts they have received from us on birthdays and at Christmas.  Of course, they would receive toys but there would always be books among the packages.

When Emma was about eleven or twelve, she came into my room and said 'Mama' in a serious voice to the point that I was a little worried about what she was going to say.  She said, 'Mama...I just wanted to thank you for giving me your love of reading'.  I thought my heart would burst.

This year, Emma has asked for an iPod as a gift. She has been using my old one that is not performing very well at all anymore.  A couple of weeks ago, she asked me if by requesting an iPod, would she still be receiving some books as she always looked forward to them.  I would find it very hard not to include them. Right now, I am making her cake. Later we will go to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner.  And tonight, along with a brand new iPod, Emma will receive a big stack of lovingly chosen books.

♥ Happy Birthday Emma! ♥

Late Gifts

I worked on a painting this weekend of a small bouquet of violas I picked as I was emptying some pots in the garden.  I never have the heart to toss anything out if it's still remotely in bloom.  There are some people who tend to their gardens according to their watches and calendars.  I will wait as long as some flowers are there which means occasionally I can get backed into a wall of snow.

Here's the mug of violas in progress alongside a pansy painting I did a while ago

As I was working on my painting, I was thinking that for sure it was the last bouquet of the season. Then yesterday, I found a bunch of verbena still growing in a pot that I usually abandon outside all winter.  There was enough for not just one bouquet, but two! Talk about late garden gifts.

I think it points to what a temperate November we have had.  I would have enjoyed a little more light some days but it's hard to complain when I am still gathering flowers in late November! The temperatures are definitely changing.  The high didn't go above zero yesterday and tonight they are calling for freezing rain.

I have spent more time indoors than outdoors this week.  I have been working hard on converting my paintings into prints and have added a few more to my Etsy store.  Here's one of them:

I received a couple more orders on the weekend. When you open a new shop, it's hard waiting for the orders but so exciting when they do start coming in.  My youngest daughter Chloé saw how happy I was and, spur of the moment, decided to make me this cake to celebrate. (I posted this photo on my Facebook page, but decided to share it here for those who don't go on Facebook.)   She was limited by what we had in our kitchen drawer so my Etsy celebration cake was decorated with Winnie the Pooh candles, smurf-blue icing and sugar pearls we bought in Paris this past summer.  It was beautiful and delicious!

Here's a funny little story. A few days ago, Chloé asked me if we were going to have any guests at our place for Thanksgiving.  I said 'Pardon?'--not because I hadn't heard her, but because I wanted her to repeat the question to see if she realized what she had said.

You see we live in Canada and we celebrate our Thanksgiving in October!  It shows you what a big impact the U.S. celebration has on us. Chloé is not a kid who gets confused easily. We see the American Thanksgiving mentioned on cooking shows, in magazines, on blogs and on television shows to the point that we feel that we are celebrating along with you!

To all of my U.S. readers, good luck with all of your preparations, travel and celebrations.  I will be offering a special in my Etsy shop over the weekend, so be sure to have a look!