Share Your World – April 30, 2018

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World

Do you use paper money? If so is your money organized sequentially according to denomination?

I do use paper money and I do use debit. I try to avoid using the credit card but when I do I try to remember to pay it off right away. I’m not alway successful. I can’t get my head around people who use their debit card for small purchases like a cup of coffee. Don’t they know that they add to the cost of each cup when they do that. Maybe they just have a better bank plan or maybe things have changed in that department and I haven’t kept up with the times. Time to visit my bank.

Anyway I do like using cash for smaller purchases and I organize my money by denomination in my wallet with a separate compartment for my change. Doesn’t everyone do that?

You are comfortable doing nothing? For long stretches of time?

Not really. I don’t consider sitting at my computer or watching TV as doing nothing, although some people might disagree with me. I get too antsy just sitting and doing nothing. I have to keep my brain working and even after sitting and doing stuff I have to get up and move around.

What is your greatest strength?

I think my greatest strength is my creativity and my work ethic. The latter is what my husband said which surprised me a bit because there are days where I feel very lazy. I also like to do things for other people and I can pretty much be relied on to do what I say I’ll do.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination

Last week was pretty uneventful. I finished reading a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

On Friday my husband and I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. We signed the ownership of our second car over to them and went to lunch at a local sushi restaurant. Believe it or not it was at Winnie’s request that we went there. How many two year olds do you know that love sushi?

Thanks to my husband who took this photo.

The other thing that did bring a smile to my face last week was the onset of some beautiful sunshine and warmer temperatures. Finally!

New Flower (April 27, 2018) – Yellow Primrose

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Artsy Crochet – Another Art Form

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 83 of 365 Days of Art

Every once in awhile I like to change things up. Recently I took a crochet class. After making numerous wash clothes and coffee cup holders I decided it was time to branch out or get more creative. One thing that I love making are hats, so I found a pattern for an Owl hat for my granddaughter. Normally I make things too large but this time it may be on the small side. If it is, I’ll hang on to it until more grandchildren come around or if someone else is having a baby.

Here is my first attempt at an owl hat for a toddler made with a crochet hook.

Share Your World – April 23, 2018

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks to Cee for coming up with great questions each and every week for Share Your World

If you could have an endless supply of any food, what would you get?

My answer is pretty close to Cee’s . I love cheese and dark chocolate and then a nice red wine to go with it.

List at least five movies or books that cheer you up.

The Wizard of Oz, Forrest Gump, Life of Pi, Up, Bridget Jone’s Diary, Mama Mia

If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?

After dinner a mouse (me) would see us sitting in the living room watching TV. After a couple of hours my husband would go to his meditation room and meditate and do yoga and then get ready for bed. I, on the other hand, would sit in front of my computer and read some emails , read a book and/or work at my art table and produce some art. This seems to be the time when I’m most productive and often stay up till 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

Last week I saw my father off to the airport. He flew to Germany to visit his brother. When he called on the weekend I was so happy for him because I could tell that he was having a wonderful time. On Thursday I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with my daughter and granddaughter. We did a little shopping but mostly we played in the playroom. On Friday I printed Snoopy designs onto the front of six t-shirts that the family wore to our family lunch on Saturday.

The lunch on Saturday was a lovely casual affair and because the weather was so nice we went for a long walk to the park down the street and followed the Heritage Trail. The trail meanders through the park and past numerous marinas. We ended up at a cute little playground where Winnie wandered around and tried out the various pieces of playground equipment.

What’s a Snoopy Party?

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 81 of 365 Days of Art

On Friday our granddaughter requested that everyone coming over for lunch on Saturday wear a Snoopy t-shirt. Our oldest daughter was the only one who could honour that request so Oma and Papa went to work looking for Snoopy clipart. I knew I had t-shirt transfer sheets so it was just a matter of choosing the design and finding some plain t-shirts that we didn’t mind messing up if things didn’t go as plan.

The first shirt did get messed up and I had to hand draw the lower half of Snoopy with a black Sharpie. The next two worked out much better.

I asked my daughter-in-law what colour t-shirt she wanted for her Snoopy Shirt. When she said black I knew that I couldn’t use the transfer sheets that I had so I researched how to transfer designs onto to black or dark fabric. It turns out that there is a special transfer paper designed for dark colours.

I made a quick trip to Michael’s and found the special sheets that I needed and the t-shirts were on sale, buy two and get one free. I picked up three new shirts and decided on the spot that I had to make shirts for daughter #2 and her husband. I loved how easy it was to use the special paper for dark colours and was very happy with the outcome. I think everyone loved their shirts.

Second Project of Part 2

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….day 80 of 365 Days of Art

For the Tape n’Stuff assignment that Carla Sonheim gave us I made two backgrounds. Yesterday I posted the first one here where I explained the process for this project.

Here is my second attempt at this unusual assignment.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Free and Easy

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge

Grooving to the music….

Chill-in on the store bed display

A Study in Patience

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..Day 77

I’ve included this knitting project has one of my art pieces for my 365 Days of Art. It took me hours if not days to complete this shawl. I had never done a lacy pattern before but I think it was the 361 stitches on the needle that caused me the most grief. If I dropped one stitch or miscounted the whole piece was off and trying to fix a mistake when you’ve completed a row was close to impossible to fix. I ripped out the stitches four times and one of those times I was already finished with the lacy section when I realized that I had misread the last row of the pattern and had 70 stitches too many on my needle. Arghhh!

The fifth try was the charm. By this time I truly understood how the pattern worked and the number of stitches remained constant until it was time to decrease. I have to admit that after the third failure I was ready to give up. After all, it was taking away from my time at my art table but I decided that this project was a form of art so I persisted. I made a couple of trips back to the yarn store, Spin Me a Yarn, where I was given the encouragement I needed and some helpful tips for this project.

If you’re interested this pattern is called Mesquite Shawl from Zen Yarn Garden.

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – People or Objects Over 50

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks to Cee for hosting the Black and White Photo Challenge

Art With a Toddler – Day 74

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….365 Days of Art

Today I travelled to Hamilton to spend a few hours with my granddaughter and her mom and dad. I packed up a box of circles from my collection, some stamps, Washi tape, a glue stick and clear ‘cow’ tape. I also brought along a small book with blank sheets inside so that Winnie could have her own sketch book.

We sat together at the kitchen island and I opened my sketch book and we worked side by side so that I could demonstrate how to make a simple collage using bits of paper and tape. She need a bit of help with cutting the tape and using the letter stamps was a bit of a challenge but she got right into it and she added some detail to my example as well.

Here is my piece: