Coping

Spring Pots at the Shopping Mall

Recently, I had some unpleasant experiences with mean people.  Rudeness, meanness, inhospitability in separate incidents.  You are hurt at first, in naive disbelief at people's behaviour.  It can be from strangers, extended family or longtime 'friends'.  What I have noticed over the years is that I cope by being kinder and more polite to people around me.  It's as if I've learned and self-improved from what I have gone through.  It is very satisfying, not being a confrontational type of person, it's my quiet way of dealing with unpleasant treatment.  It might also be time to 'disconnect' from certain friends for awhile, lol.  Life is short, let's just enjoy it.

Well, this is what I am sharing for today's Saturday post.  Hope your weekend's going great!

Paint Party Friday - Father and Daughter

For Paint Party Friday, I did this piece in my sketchbook (9" x 12") in watercolour pencil and crayon.  It was done using a wonderful photo of my brother taken some 12 years ago with his newly adopted daughter.  He and his wife have a biological son several years older.

Rum Ball

We had to take one of our cars for a Drive Clean emissions test last week.  It is required every 2 years for vehicles older than 7 years.  You have to do this before getting your licence plate renewed.  There is a nice Italian bakery nearby and it is always a good excuse to stop by there while the test is being done!  I had this latte topped with chocolate sprinkles and a rum ball.

Couch vs Barbecue

Last week I had taken my mom to McDonald's for lunch.  It's easy for her to eat her filet-o-fish burger compared to other kinds of meals I've noticed.  She has some dementia which compromises her skills as time goes by.  A young woman sat at the table next to us and started talking to us.  She was waiting for her car to be repaired.  Apparently the lights weren't working so she had been using her high beams to drive.  It had been about 4 days and still the car had not been fixed.  I hoped it would be ready for her that day.  She lived in a rural area without good bus service so was relying on relatives for rides.

We had had a day of summery weather and she told me some friends of hers decided they wanted to barbecue.  They didn't own a barbecue and decided to buy one instead of the couch they needed!  Hmm, after thinking about this for a bit, I thought a couch might be the better purchase!

Then she mentioned her dad takes the family for a $6 fish and chip dinner on Sundays and mentioned the restaurant.  It sounds like a good deal.  She was a very kind and friendly girl I thought, certainly not from a privileged background.

Creative Tuesdays - Lil Monsters

Welcome to Creative Tuesdays!

This might be my most playful piece yet.  I made some little monster cut-outs that I designed based on some famous monsters.  Then I glued them onto my playground background.  The piece is done in watercolour pencil and crayon in my (8 1/2" x 11") art journal.  I hope you get a chuckle from this piece!

Tire Advice

We replaced the snow tires on our cars for regular tires last week. Sitting at the tire shop, I noticed this display and thought you might like to see it. Do your car tires need replacing?

Sunday Sketches - Eyeglasses

For Sunday Sketches I did a greeting card (4" x 6") in watercolour pencil and crayon inspired by a photo I saw in a magazine recently.  Have a great day!

Seasonal Visitors

Look who's here for the season!

Paint Party Friday - Sunrise

Welcome to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday. This is a greeting card sunrise done on textured cardstock in watercolour crayon and waterproof artist pen (pictured below).  I'm quite pleased with this new pen.  I can brush water over the watercolour crayon and the black ink doesn't run.

Construction Hazards

My friend S and I passed by this uncovered manhole near a construction site.  If you looked down the hole it looked like a sewer pipe with no end.  We could only imagine certain death if anyone fell down it, including animals.  The cover nearby was too heavy for us to pull over it so we just pushed a fallen signpost over it the best we could.

A few weeks ago, S found this beer can covered with a coffee cup.  Hmm.

Don't these wires look neat hung on the post?

Summery

The weather has gone summery this week.  I snapped this photo on the weekend as I was out walking.  It is time for us to replace the snow tires on our cars with regular tires.

I finally saw the movie Spotlight.  It was horrifying, 'The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.' as described by IMDb.
 

Warehouse Sale

gourmet coffee

hand cream, lip balm

dish mat, dish towels

Husband M and I went to the William Ashley Spring Warehouse sale this past weekend. I had not been to one of their sales in years and years. They have a lot of upscale items in addition to fine china. Above are some of the items we purchased.

Gourmet chocolate

Hope your weekend was a good one!

A good friend stopped by last week with a gift of this chocolate she got me from her recent trip to Barcelona.  It is extremely delicious, sad it's just the one bar but I shouldn't be greedy!  The weather was sunny and improving so we went for a nice walk and caught up with what's been happening.

Earlier that morning I had gone for my monthly haircut and colour and was feeling extremely pampered.  I had been handed the latest issue of my favourite magazine and been given a cup of coffee.

It was a good day.

Sunday Sketches - Adam's Apple

Welcome to Sunday Sketches!  This piece is done on (6" x 6") good quality green cardstock.  Adam posted a photo on his blog that spoke to me, and I decided to paint it.  I am calling it 'Adam's Apple', pun intended.

Sugar Snap Peas au naturel

Daughter L will often snack on sugar snap peas, you can buy them stringed in packages at the grocery store.  It's quite crunchy, sweet and good, you don't even need a dip.

Paint Party Friday - Spring Snow

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! This is a quick piece on a yellow (3" x 5") memo sheet. It was on hand when I got inspired by a photo I saw. I did the piece in watercolour pencil then the black 'seeds' smudged in a few spots as I painted over the piece with water. So I covered the smudges with white acrylic paint then decided it would be a 'Spring Snow' piece!

And I received a lovely gift in the mail from Patsy Paterno.   The interesting thing is that she intended to mail it in April 2013 but was cleaning out her desk and found the envelope recently!  So I am sharing her sweet card with  you today and thanks Patsy, better late than never!

Healthy Snack

This is my healthy snack lately.  Veggies are so good dipped in hummus, in this case red pepper hummus.

Daughter L mentioned to me that the actors in 'The Big Bang Theory' TV series now make $1 million per episode, that is mind boggling.

Nice ambience

Son K and I stopped in at Whole Foods recently.  After tasting their pizza sample, K decided to get a slice of their plain cheese pizza and a bottle of boathouse fruit smoothie.  We sat in their eating area and I enjoyed the nice spring flowers at their tables.

Creative Tuesdays - Lamps

Welcome to Michael's Creative Tuesdays.  The current theme is 'Lamps'.  My piece is done on 6" good quality pink textured cardstock in watercolour pencil and crayon.  I turned a lamp on at home in the late evening and painted pretty much what I saw, give or take some of the details.  Also, I don't have pink walls!  I hoped to capture some of the reflected light as best I could.  The lampshade is beige so it emitted a yellowish light, and the light escaping above and below the shade was white, emitted directly from the bulb.  I am showing a photo as my scanner changes the pink colour to a different shade.

Surprise spring snowstorm

cold robin seeking shelter

We had a surprise spring snowstorm last Monday.  I had planned to get my health card renewed and decided to do that in spite of the weather.  Sure enough, the lineups at the government office were half the usual length.  The administrator said it did take her 45 minutes to get into work that morning, for what is usually a ten minute drive.  I told her 'well, at least you made it' and she agreed.  She asked if I wanted to be part of the organ donor program.  I hesitated, thinking I had to do that online or by mail.  With the press of a button, she registered me, asking only if I wanted to donate both my organs and my body parts for research.  I decided to donate just my organs.

I left thinking it was a good day and that I had accomplished some worthwhile things.  We have been having a cold start to spring around here, sheesh.

Sunday Sketches - On Alert

Welcome to Sunday Sketches!  This piece is done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour crayon.  The yellow I used was showing up too brightly in my scanned image so I am using a photo instead.  This is a leopard on alert, it's all in the eyes.

Shirataki Noodles

Daughter L made these shirataki stir fry noodles the other day.  She said she washed the noodles in vinegar, then seasoned them with soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce and plum sauce.  Doesn't it look delicious?  These are low calorie yam noodles with zero carbs.  Mind you, we find that we get hungry again after a short while.  This is the down side of low calorie yam noodles!

Paint Party Friday - Spilled

Welcome to Paint Party Friday!  This piece is done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil and crayon.  I called it 'Spilled'.

Please note that I cannot comment on certain Google+ blogs as I have not converted to Google+.

Hors D'oeuvres

Daughter L made these bacon cheeseburger hors d'oeuvres for some of her friends this past weekend.  I think she gets a lot of her ideas from Pinterest.

Spring Snow

I went for a walk yesterday morning and took this photo for you.  It was still cold from a surprise spring storm on Sunday night so the snow is still around.

Did you know it was Doris Day's 92nd birthday this past Sunday April 3?  I've always liked her since I was a little girl, and one of my favourite songs of hers is 'Que Sera Sera'.  It makes me happy listening to it.  She says she is young at heart and loves to laugh, doesn't think about her age.

Do you have a favourite song that makes you happy?

Tesla

Tesla Model 3

For the car lovers, the Tesla Model 3 is all the rage these days.  It was unveiled March 31st and there were lineups for the pre-orders.  The car won't be available until 2018.  The base list price is US$35,000 for this electric car.  The successful model S is around $70,000 so the model 3 will make Teslas more affordable for the general marketplace.

CEO Elon Musk is being compared to Steve Jobs of Apple, he is a (crazy) entrepreneur who took a lot of risks to debut the electric Tesla cars.  As entrepreneurs will do, he sold his shares as a co-founder of Paypal for US $165 million, almost lost it all when he started this new Tesla venture which has really taken off.  His net worth is now 13.5 billion US.

Delightful Delivery

It seems about once a year I get this special offer from Shutterfly for 12 free mix and match stationery cards.  I can never resist and was delighted to receive these attractive boxed cards with 6 selected designs from my original art collection.  I just had to pay the postage.

Sunday Sketches - Moon

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.  This is a 3" x 5" greeting card in acrylic.  It might be one of my most simple pieces yet but it speaks to me.

I stuck the card on this tabletop and don't they look great dancing under the moon?

New Movie

pretty fence

I noticed this pretty fence on a walk, nice house too.

Demolition

I didn't manage to get photos of the demolition of this small plaza, but the machinery is in place to build a new condominium.



We saw the new Batman vs. Superman movie this week.  Daughter L wanted to use up a bunch of half price movie coupons that were about to expire.  As might have been expected, I thought the movie was yuck, very depressing and violent.

At any rate, have a great Saturday!

Paint Party Friday - Galah Bird

Welcome to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday!  This is a Galah Bird done on good quality green cardstock (6" x 6") in watercolour pencil and washi tape.  The Galah is a type of cockatoo common in Australia.  They are in their early fall season now so I thought I would put a scarf on my Galah.  I thought it would to give my piece a one-of-a-kind touch!  Don't you feel cozy just looking at him?

Washi tape is kind of fun, I should invest in some different colours and patterns!

And have a Happy April Fool's Day, hope you don't get pranked or that it's a good one!