Day 28 – An Illusion

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Mama Cormier

…thanks Becky for hosting Square Perspective

I have to admit that I copied this idea. If you think that the first photo looks like I put two photos side by side then I accomplished my goal.

Words of Hope and Love

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Mama Cormier

A very good friend of mine who lives alone has started a project that involves all her friends. She recently asked us to all create ornaments with words of inspiration written on them that she could hang on her white Christmas tree. She still has the white lights on it and she thought it was the perfect back drop for her tree of Hope and Peace and Love.

Her original idea was to cover it with ornaments in the shape of moons, suns and stars. We were all given carte blanche and the only caveat was that they not be too big and that there were personal messages written on them to send out to the world.

My whole family is getting involved but I think I’m the first to complete the task. I decided to show you my work in the form of a video with music in the background. I learned something new today as I have never done anything like this. Now I’m hoping I’m able to send it out to you.

Three Day Quote Challenge – Day 3

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….thank you Elizabeth for encouraging me to participate in this challenge

Through my photography I have discovered beauty in every season.

“Many people find November dark and depressing as gardens are put to bed and plants wither and begin to decay. I see interesting shapes and colours and the seeds that will bring new life in the spring.” – Carol Cormier 2015

“If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

Elizabeth from Tea and Paper invited me to join in this challenge. I was hesitant to do so because I’m not into quotes but I’ve always enjoyed reading other people’s thoughts. I truly believe in the beauty of nature so Van Gogh’s quote was perfect for me and I’ve finally expressed how I feel about the decline of the plant kingdom in November in my own quote.

The rules are for this challenge are as follows:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you
• Publish 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days on your blog. It can be your own, or from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires you.
• Nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this endeavor

My third nomination for this challenge is Jill from Jill’s Art Journal. Jill is a creative and fun loving artist. She loves to share her art experiences and encourages others to draw and paint. I love her humour and positive outlook on life.

Three Day Quote Challenge – Day 2

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Elizabeth from Tea and Paper for nominating me

For day two of this challenge I had to share a photo of my new grandchild.

If your baby is “beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time,” you’re the grandma.”
— Theresa Bloomingdale

The Rules for the Three Day Challenge are as follows:

Thank the blogger who nominated you.
Publish 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days on your blog. It can be your own, or from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires you.
Nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this endeavour.

The second person I’d like to nominate is Jodi at Life in Between. I love her wonderful outlook on life, her delicious recipes, amazing photos and her beautiful handmade cards. She is a very gifted, creative and talented person. Check out her blog

Three Day Quote Challenge – Day 1

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

I was invited by the talented photographer, Elizabeth, from Tea and Paper to participate in a “3 day quote challenge”. I was hesitant at first because I’m not one to recite quotes from memory but I did find that the internet has an abundance of quotes on practically any topic. Thank you for challenging me, Elizabeth!

The rules are:

“Food is better in November than any other time of the year.”
― Cynthia Rylant, In November

My husband made this delicious roasted vegetable tart. He got the recipe from Ottolenghi’s cookbook, called Plenty. He’s made this recipe several times and even though there is a fair bit of prep work to roast the vegetables and caramelize the onions, it’s well worth the effort.

My first nomination for this challenge is Melissa over at Aran the Artisan. She is a young woman who originated from the U.S. and moved to Ireland where she married her sweetheart. Melissa and her husband live on the Aran Islands, raising their five beautiful children all the while learning how to use traditional and modern methods to live and forage off the land and the sea. Her blog is a must see.

Haiku Prompt Challenge #48 – ‘Inspire and Loss’

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….thank you Ronovan for this week’s words, inspire and loss

This week’s prompts immediately brought to mind Noah Galloway, an Iraq war veteran who was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Despite being a double amputee he persevered week after week and went all the way to the finals and placed third. The words ‘inspiration and loss’ came up every week after he performed.

Dancing With the Stars

The loss of one arm

and dancing with one leg

Inspired us to vote

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Bravely baring all

His spirit to dance inspires

His loss, matters not

Image Courtesy of: http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-07-at-4.02.31-AM.jpg

Five Stories, Five Photos Challenge – Day 5

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

Elizabeth from Tea and Paper invited me to take part in this challenge. She is a fellow Canadian who doesn’t live too far from me, although I haven’t quit figured out where. She loves to take photos, make art journals and write poetry. For this challenge you need to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.

This is the last day for me and I’m going to keep this one short. I’m probably not going to make the deadline here in Toronto but It’s still April 8 somewhere in the west.

Busy Making Art

I’m a little behind today because I spent most of my evening finishing this piece of art. It’s the same technique that I talked about yesterday but it’s a slightly larger piece and has more detail than the yesterday’s still life. I’m a big fan of Hundertwasser so you can probably see where I got my inspiration. Now I need to give it a title. Any suggestions?

Today I’d like to invite Melissa from The Aran Artisan. She resides on the Aran Isles in Ireland. I love her idyllic life style and hope to some day visit that region of Ireland.

Five Stories, Five Photos Challenge – Day 4

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Mama Cormier

I was invited by Elizabeth from Tea and Paper to join the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.” Elizabeth is a fellow Canadian who lives close by but never reveals exactly where. She loves to journal, take photographs and write poetry.

Tulips

My art is simple, almost child-like. I don’t paint to become the next Picasso or Frida Khalo or Matisse. I paint for me. If you like it, that’s wonderful; if you don’t that’s okay too. I take joy in the process. It relaxes me, gives me a sense of purpose and allows me to be creative and experiment with new techniques.

Tulips was done on a piece of birch plywood. The technique was new to me. I drew the flowers with a pink marker directly onto the board and then covered it with Gesso. When the Gesso dried the pink showed through enough to paint around the image. Before adding colour, more Gesso is applied to create texture. When the second coat dried, I used very wet watercolour to wash over the Gesso. When that dried the whole piece was rubbed and buffed with a damp cloth. The image was outlined with pencil and marker and shaded with charcoal.

Carla Sonheim taught me the technique. I’m taking a year long on-line art class with her and Lynn Whipple called Year of the Spark. I believe over 600 students, world-wide have signed up for this class. It’s wonderful sharing our work on a special FaceBook page and receiving comments and support from like-minded people.

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Today I’d like to invite Joanne from My Life Lived Full. Joanne is another Canadian blogger. I love her sense of humour and gusto for life. I hope she accepts the challenge.