Category: At Home

Posted on

Born to Blog

It took me several years of playing around on social media to realize that my first love on the Net – blogging – is still my passion. I love blogging!

I miss posting photos and blogging regularly. Writing a novel took me away from that, as I needed time offline to get the novel finished, but time on Twitter and Facebook has also cut into my blogging time.

I’d also noticed a drop in commenting in the last few years, and that was discouraging. The LIKE button came along, and many of us – yes me included – now find it easier to simply LIKE a blog post, rather than take the time to log in and comment.

While I can’t promise another novel won’t take me away from regular blogging (that would be a good thing, right?) for now, I’d like to try posting at least once a week again; to have some fun with taking and posting photographs again, and to try commenting on more blogs each week. I know how great it feels to read someone’s comment on my blog. I hope to give that back.

Meanwhile, it’s Saturday and it’s summertime, so I’ve just been chillin’: reading, gardening and picking bouquets of lilies, floating in the pool, and taking lots photographs ….my daughter and I loved these tangerine drinks, and I loved how they made those lilies pop!

🙂

IMG_0077

Posted on

A Few of My Favourite Things: Dresses and Heels

Confessions of a Girly Girl

Heather Grace Stewart's avatarHeather Grace Stewart

I’m a girly girl.

There, I said it. Sometimes I have problems admitting it, because it seems a little weak. And I’m not weak. I like to inline skate long distances. I love to cardio box. I like to debate a point. I love to win.

But the girly girl in me takes over when there are dresses and heels in my vicinity. I don’t own many: maybe just three good party dresses and three pairs of nice heels. But I love it when I get a chance to wear them.

Dressing up lifts my spirits, and makes me feel youthful (with the big 4-0 approaching–in 2012–feeling youthful is a very, very good thing). I’m not saying I’d happily go grocery shopping in heels–that’s when I break out the running shoes–but fashion can be so much fun. Life is short. Play it up!

View original post

Posted on

How to Make Sweet Easter Treats

Hey gang!
I’ve decided to start sharing some of my artistic hobbies with you: chocolate lollipop making, flower arranging, and perhaps even patio table-decorating if we ever get rid of this snow!

These are the arts and crafts I do while I’m plotting my next novel or poem. I like to keep my mind busy with another art form while I’m ironing out the writing project I’m working on, or when I just need to do something different with my creativity.

These easter lollipops are the latest batch of lollipops I’ve made with my nine-year-old daughter. We don’t like to use the words, ‘I’m bored’ around here, but that means coming up with creative activities to suggest to your children, or to do with them.  If you always have some chocolate compound (also called melts), molds and lollipop sticks on hand, you’re set for a fun (though rather messy!) afternoon with your children aged 7 and up. They may even forget about their iPhones and iPads for a while!

It can be an expensive hobby to start up just because you’ll probably want to get molds for every holiday – when we started we got ones for my daughter’s birthday, Christmas, and Easter. The molds are only $3 each, and the compound that melts in the microwave is $5 at Goldas Kitchen (where I love to order all my supplies as they always arrive the next day or in 2 days at the latest). You can probably find it cheaper somewhere like Bulk Barn. The lollipop sticks are $7 for 150, but again you can maybe find them cheaper at Walmart or a party store.

My daughter has told me she’d much rather make chocolate lollipops with us on a weekend afternoon than go to a movie – which these days runs at $50 for a family of four, if you want drinks and popcorn too. The best part is that I can spend $50 on supplies and we get to make the lollipops several times a season (and the molds are reusable forever, just don’t put them in the dishwasher!)

We use paintbrushes to fill in the fine details before filling the molds up with melted chocolate. We had to experiment with bowls and microwave time before being able to make really complicated and detailed molds. Some bowl types get really hot and then burn the chocolate. We now put in 1/4 cup of chocolate melts, put it in the micro for 35 seconds, stir it, then put it in for another 35 seconds, stir again until smooth, and place as much is needed in mold. Now that we’ve figured out the process (we each like to have our own mold to work with, a paintbrush or two of our own, and a section of the counter where we can ‘share’ a bowl of chocolate) the sky’s the limit, and we even make some of these without lollipop sticks to place as decorations on cakes.

We love giving the treats away as gifts. We use small plastic bags, tied with dollar-store ribbon. It feels good to give someone we love a chocolate treat and see their face light up.

Please ask any questions below – I’m happy to try to answer them.

IMG_7912 IMG_7916 IMG_7921

 

 

Posted on

Sure, I’ll Write Another 1,000 Words…

Right after I arrange my outdoor office space, take photos of how great it looks, and then play with the paint settings on my camera; then blog, Tweet and Tumblr the photo. Right after that, promise! 😉

Seriously, I’m half way there, and can’t wait to publish the “Working Title” and an excerpt after my first big edit. That will hopefully be late December. I know it’s a wait, but I hope you’ll feel it’s worth the wait. I’m going to submit to many, many publishers once it’s completed, but will also consider self-publishing ~ just going with the flow.

Thanks for standing by, and for your Likes and Shares of all I write. It keeps me writing…less decorating, more writing! Thanks.

FSCN0064 FSCN0068

Posted on

Art Inspires Art

One of the reasons I like sharing part of my world with you on this blog is to inspire others —especially those of you who don’t think you have a creative bone in your body—to try their hand at one or more forms of art. I’ve always loved writing, drawing, painting and photography, but I’m not equally good in each discipline. Each art form relaxes me in its own way, and gets my creative juices flowing.

Do you ever tire of one art and feel like your well has run dry? That’s the best time to take a break and try another art form altogether.

In my case, I needed a break from plotting and writing my novel. My 8-year-old daughter wanted to try acrylic painting, and while I wasn’t sure I could teach her much, I decided to try.

She painted a small treasure box with her name on it, and I tried to paint a garden on a wooden jewellery box. Next, she tried a Pegasus with magical pink clouds behind it. Then she tried to do exactly what I’d done: a hibiscus and hydrangea. And she wanted me to talk her through it!

What a challenge for me to try to explain how I paint. I’ve never explained it before. It was exercising a new artistic muscle for me, just to explain how I paint petals and light. I was also afraid to teach her the ‘wrong’ way, since I’m no expert!  But look at her face when she got her hibiscus the way she wanted. Such joy!

I’ve learned today that taking a break from an artistic project doesn’t mean you have to stop being creative altogether. I’ve also learned how working together as artists can be energizing and revitalizing.

I’m feeling refreshed and ready to get back to writing that novel tomorrow!

IMG_3098 IMG_3102_2 IMG_3104