OWOH

well today is the day
where bloggers get to meet new friends
get inspired and feel the love!
so to all my new friends
thanks for joining one world one heart

and stopping by
and i hope you enjoy

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please add a comment below
with your link so i can visit you
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and each comment will be entered for a chance to win

one of my necklaces

(draw date feb. 17)

if you would like to see my blog click here

my encaustic painting click here

my photography click here

a special thank you to lisa for hosting this event

digital journal magic

just finishing week two of my on-line class

with marie otero

WOW!!! what a lot of info

i've worked with layers

usually 4 or 5 of them

but for this class i'm using 15 to 20!!

tools i've never touch, clipping masks,

combining brushes, filters, effects, text,

creating my own patterns, learning new tips and tricks

and having fun while doing it!!

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above my finished project

"paris in the spring"

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elements i used in my project

several photos taken on my trip to paris last spring

i used a different filter on each , cutout, poster edge and threshold

an old street map and an old letter i found at the antique market

clip art of a compass and postage stamp

the blossoms are from marie

for my first project

i wasn't sure what to do

i've never been one to scrapbook or journal

so i decided to use my recent photos from my visit

to my friends farm in claremont

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i used the cutout filter for the barn and horse photos

and the threshold filter for the grasses photos

and then chose a colour from the evergreens behind the barn

i found an old coffee stained postcard, a ticket and postage

the background was a combination of paper and brushes

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i'm looking forward to week three

encaustic class

today's class was not very productive

i injured my back shoveling snow

so i spent part of the time looking around the studio

and realize how lucky i am

to have found heather gentleman

my teacher

i have learned so much from her

over the past few years

heather is a wonderful teacher who knows

just how to inspire and motivate me

you can visit heather at her studio

in the distillery's case good building suite 400

or call if you are interested in taking classes

address to a haggis

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin’, rich

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"address to a haggis"

robert burns

see the whole poem here

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today is robbie's birthday

he was born in scotland, in 1759

a famous poet and composer

you will know his famous work

"auld lang syne"

he died at the age of 35

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on sunday i was invited to the

fitzpatrick/telfords

celebration dinner

we started with a tasting of

3 scottish beers

followed with the reading of the poem

(above, the haggis and part of johns kilt)

and a primerib/yorkshire pudding dinner

followed by my grandmother's trifle

it was a wonderful evening

as special thanks to dede and john

for including me

and to tom and may for welcoming

me into their home and all the rest of the clan

OWOH coming soon

it's that time of year again

this will be my third time participating

starting next week hundreds of bloggers

will be linked on one site

it's a great way to meet "new" friends and

visit creative people from all over the world

if you want to see the details

visit lisa swifka at a whimisical bohemian

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next monday i will be posting my giveaways for the event

so stay tuned.....................

daylight robbery solution

catching up on my blog reading since my technical difficulties

i was visiting my friend marie and her post out and about in nyc

it is wonderful to see how my friends spend their days

and her photos are always stunning

as i got to the end of the posting

i laughed at her conversation with her DH

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"since when did a sandwich and coffee cost that much?"

DH goes..... "well, it's new york"

i go....... " it's day light robbery"

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i'm sure i've had this conversation with my friends

out and about in toronto

sometimes you just want a quick lunch

soup and share a sandwich or salad

with a coffee or tea

and its $30-$40

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well i'm here to tell you that sometimes you find a deal

or get your monies worth

even in a trendy neighbourhood

i take classes in the distillery every wednesday

and as a treat i will head over to the brick street bakery

above, left my lunch, a vegetarian with bacon!!!( i know. i know)

with a bottle water and a chocolate chip cookie for $12!
you can also get a blt for $4.50 /$5 with cheese

boxing day (turkey) $8

pulled pork $9

and of course they have all the sweets you can image

while i waited for my meal

i managed to get a few shots of some grunge with my i-phone

camera bag plastic



camera bag infrared

encaustic class

today class inspiration came from a photo i took in new orleans

part of a fence in the lafayette cemetery

usually i do a photo transfer
today i thought i would try to recreate the finial
by sculpting the wax
i add instant coffee to give the was some "grit"
incorporating layers of color and carving to add shape
and metallic paint for the highlites



closeup of the background
alternating taupe and white wax
and adding burnt umber to show off
all the "nooks and crannies"
i love taking photos of the backgrounds in progress
shots of every layer
they make great texture layers in ps





once i got home i altered one of the background shots
in ps and converted it to black and white
this then inspired me to add it to one of my winter photos



i used the "darker color" blending mode

unknown glitch

most haven't notice but for some reason

i was having a hard time accessing my blog

somehow it got it's knickers in a knot

after a few days of frustration

i decided that i'd keep myself busy working

and 6 hours later it was back to normal
not sure why, but it seems that if there

is some strange glitch out there

it will find me!!!

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i did manage to work in ps

above a photo of some flowers i got this weekend

adding two filters, paint daubs and poster edge

then some text, erasing the edges and

playing with some swirl brushes

and came up with the above project

technical difficulties

since my last posting

i have been having technical difficulties with my blog

it has been taking a long time to up load

and my font has changed as well as it position

not sure what is going on but i am working on it

hopefully i will back to normal soon

winter wonderland

encaustic class

after shoveling out of my driveway

i manage to make to school in time

all the fluffy stuff inspired me to work in white today

creating lots of texture and adding photo transfer

here i used lace as a stencil

keeping busy

time is just flying by

i've been so busy with

christmas crafts & jewelry, then traveling,

getting a bad cold , then getting back to work,

my new baby molly and encaustic class,
i just noticed that this is my 505th blog posting

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today i found a little time to sit and play in ps

above, i used several of my new orleans photos

and a clipping mask from shadowhouse

new addition

my new baby, molly

she is 5 months old

has the same birthday as beanie

and is a maine coon

molly had no problem moving in

or adjusting to her new home

and was eager to make friends

beanie on the other hand was a little territorial

but once i reassured her she was still my baby

she decide to let molly know who was "boss"

soon, molly won beanie over

(which i knew she would)

and found her spot on the back of the couch

encaustic class

i seems like it has been a really long time since my last class

8 weeks feels like a year ago

i didn't have any projects in mind

just thought i would experiment

i found a bag of egg shells sitting on my desk

i'm sure i saved them for a reason

so i brought them to class

working on a small canvas i added one of my photos
using the egg shells as a frame and

adding white wax in between

and a little green and raw umber oil paint to highlight the texture

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now that i figured out how it get the shells to stay in the wax

i will try this again next week on a larger scale

change in weather

two weeks ago when i drove up north

there was no snow in toronto

but just half an hour later there was tons!!!

i captured this beautiful red barn on our ride into uxbridge

this weekend it was a different scene

with temperatures reaching 10 c (52f)

the snow has been melted
the fog rolled in

it did make for some lovely photos