But does it look encaustic?

A happy little photoshop experiment has led me to a new technique. If you have had a chance to look at my current Art Creations Friday challenge submission, you may notice that it has a waxy look. Almost, dare I say, encaustic. So I tried the technique on other projects and while not all come out as I would like, I do get a fairly consistent appearance that looks, at least to me, like encaustic work. Digital wax.

My technique is not ready to be shared -- yet -- as it's still a work in progress. But I'm really happy with what I've created so far and look forward to more photoshop fun as I try to perfect this.

I will always remember

Melancholy. That's my mood today. I woke up this morning and softly thought, today's the day. The day I've been dreading, such a sad anniversary. It's now been a full year since we had to say goodbye to our sweet Terra. It was last November 28th, a Friday, when we learned that Terra had inoperable, untreatable, advanced cancer -- something she hid completely and so well -- and we had to do the right thing for her. Within hours she had deteriorated rapidly. It was heartbreaking. It was so hard.

Not long ago I read somewhere online, possibly on somebody's blog, that jewish people believe it takes a full year to grieve, that you must pass through all the seasons while mourning. I have no idea if this is really a jewish belief, but it makes sense to me. Grieving is a slow, painful process that everyone experiences differently. You never really get over the loss, but with time, with the changing of the seasons, you do eventually make peace and learn to function in this new world, the one where somebody special is missing. And now I've had a full year and yes, I am at peace. I still miss her though. Of course.

The above photograph is quite possibly the first one I ever captured of Terra, not long after she came into our home. What an adorable pup she was! I so wish she was still here, how she would have had such fun playing with Tippi. They would have been best friends, I know. But our pets live forever only in our hearts; their time with us physically is limited. You accept that reality the moment you let a furry one into your life, your heart -- but you cannot dwell on it. They become family members and you make their lives as wonderful as you possibly can. But they in turn make your life much more wonderful. I think that no matter how much you love them, I suspect they love you more.

ACF "Dreams"

You may recognize the image I used in this week's Art Creations Friday collage. It's from a previous ACF challenge HERE, a collage I called "Grace". I was unwell yesterday and so last night, when I checked the ACF site for this week's image and saw the wonderful background we were to use this week, I really didn't know what to do and so forged ahead, creating quite a complicated collage. Only trouble, when I looked at it today I was displeased. That's what happens I guess when you create with a fuzzy head.

But one thing led to another and I decided to do a little photoshop experimenting today and what you see above is the result. I like this one so much better than what I concocted last night! I think it has an aged, almost waxy appearance. I'm also pleased to be able to take a previous creation and use it in the production of a new project.

Happy

Thanksgiving

to all my

American friends!

Bohemian Rhapsody, with The Muppets

Enjoy!

Push: a novel

When the A-Z Wednesday Challenge rolls around each week, I usually post about a book I have read, but not today. Instead, for this week's letter P, I'm highlighting a book I hope to read soon: Push: a novel, by Sapphire. You may have noticed all the media buzz about the new movie Precious.....that movie is based on this novel. It's apparently a slim read, but packs an emotional powerhouse of a punch. One reviewer on Amazon warned that it is "not a fun book" and said she felt like taking a bath after reading it, she felt she had waded through so much mud. She also said it's a book she'll never forget.

Here's the novel's description: Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. "Sometimes I wish I was not alive," Precious says. "But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning." An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

I don't mind reading books that are disturbing and have been on the library's waiting list for this novel for weeks. I hope to read it before seeing the movie.

Too shy

I haven't participated in the Moody Monday challenge for quite some time; the site appeared to be down for several weeks and, frankly, it ended up totally off my radar. But I was checking all the challenge sites today to see what the various themes were this week and was pleasantly surprised to see that Moody Monday is again up and running. And when I saw this week's theme, "shy", I immediately thought of the photograph you see here.

Last year, while visiting Pittsburgh, I took several photographs of the old Hotel Praha in Tarentum, a borough (spelled "boro" in the U.S., by the way) just outside of the city. The hotel features a popular evening nightclub and was rumoured to have the best burgers you could find for miles. I wasn't there to sample the menu though; I wanted photographs. I did notice I was being watched from within as I wandered around outside the building, aiming my camera high and low, but my admirer (?) would only give me a wave of a hand, refusing to show his face. Too shy? I did give him a "thank you" shout-out for the wave, though. The captain and I were quite amused and now when I see this photo, it's a pleasant reminder of a great day in Pennsylvania.

The most beautiful things in the world

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched -- they must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

(artwork created for Art Creations Friday -- congratulations on their first anniversary!)

November birthdays

Wow...two posts in one day. Rare for me. But this is important. You see, it’s birthday time here at the eatwritecreate household: today is the captain’s birthday and tomorrow, Tippi will be 10 months old!

Of course, Tippi thinks every day is a celebration…and really, I think she’s on to something.
Every day is special, not just birthdays!
(Oh, that's a bag of dog treats in the captain's hand (above); we had just visited the local pet-only bakery before we took the walk in the park.
I thought I'd best mention it in case you thought it was...you know...)

But I’ve always believed that birthdays are extra special, just like I believe my husband is extra special, so I couldn’t let the day pass without acknowledging the event.

So ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!

One for the money

I didn't even look at my bookshelves when I realized we were up to O in the A-Z Wednesday Challenge; I knew immediately what book I would choose. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich, is the first in a series of books about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum -- this series is an absolute favourite of mine.

I don't even remember who recommended these books to me, but after I read this first one, One for the Money, the captain and I began a quest, visiting numerous second-hand book stores until I was up to date. This book has suspense, it has romance, it has laugh-out-loud moments; heck, that describes the entire series. The characters are quirky and you'll fall for all of them.

You should be able to find plenty of copies of this series at your local library as well as bookstores, but I do recommend you read them in order. There is definite character development as you move through the series and new characters are introduced along the way; some story lines also develop in one book and then continue on. If you don't read in order, I fear you'll be a bit out of the loop.

From Janet Evanovich's web site, here is her description of One for the Money:
Watch out, world. Here comes Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie's opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.
She's a product of the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.
Now Stephanie's all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad's, doing her best to sever the world's longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case.
Out of work and out of money, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook.
Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli is also the irresistible macho pig who took Stephanie's virginity at age sixteen and then wrote the details on the bathroom wall of Mario's Sub Shop. There's still powerful chemistry between these two, so the chase should be interesting.
It could also be extremely dangerous, especially when Stephanie encounters a heavyweight title contender who likes to play rough. Benito Ramirez is known for his brutality to women. At the very least, his obsession with Stephanie complicates her manhunt and brings terror and uncertainty into her life. At the worst, it could lead to murder.

One last thing. Two years ago, the captain and I were cruising for our anniversary and one of our dinner companions was a retired teacher from New Jersey. She asked me if I'd read these books and when I told her I was a fan, she told me how much she also loved this series and also that Evanovich has the New Jersey neighbourhoods absolutely nailed, that she felt "at home" when she read the books. She said Evanovich's descriptions of both the Trenton area and the local people were bang-on. One day, I want to check out the area for myself!

Abundance, no. 2

Colette and I have now completed the two diptychs we intended for the {Echo} challenge, as I mentioned earlier in the week. This second one, the one you see above, was created by Colette after I emailed her the photograph of the tomatoes. Don't the two images pair so well?! As you might recall, the first one was created after I received her photograph. She did not know in advance what image I would pair with hers just as I did not know what she would pair with the tomatoes. It's an interesting challenge, very inspiring. You can read Colette's blog post here, and both of my photographs as well as the first diptych are in my photostream at Flickr. I wonder what the next {Echo} topic will be?

Three little boys

Once upon a time, three young brothers lived on the wrong side of the tracks just outside of Pittsburgh.

Or not. Truth is, I'm just guessing that they're brothers, although the building really is just outside of Pittsburgh, really is just next to the local railroad tracks. I photographed it last year.

You see, the original image of the boys is this week's Art Creations Friday challenge photo. I knew when I saw it that I wanted to split the three apart and position them in one of my own photographs -- I also knew I took many photos of older buildings in Pittsburgh last year and hoped one would fit the bill. I also knew I wanted the final photograph to look as if it came from an older era.

I don't know why I do this to myself sometimes. Positioning the boys on the stairs required a lot of fine, close-up work in photoshop, erasing parts of the photograph and erasing parts of the boys in order to make it appear they're really standing there. But I think it's a good exercise in patience and I welcome the opportunity to hone my photoshop skills. Even thought I'm always highly critical of my own work and know I didn't do a perfect job, I am pleased with the results.

And it's always fun to take on a challenge like this, especially when the final outcome inspires me to think of what possible story the image conveys. Who are the boys, why are they out on the fire escape? Are they rich or poor? Hellions or angels? What does their future hold? What do you think?

Abundance

Sometimes, when you least expect it, an artistic opportunity falls out of the sky and lands in your lap. This happened to me earlier this week when I heard from the lovely Colette, who reached out to me all the way from Australia and asked if I would be interested in partnering with her on the {Echo} project created by Susan Tuttle and Chrysty Hydeck. Colette's email was such a pleasant surprise and I'm delighted to participate with her in creating some beautiful diptychs!

Above, our first collaborative diptych on the current theme, abundance (if you click on it, you'll get a much bigger view). More to come in a day or two!

Next, by Michael Crichton

The late Michael Crichton was responsible for one of my all-time favourite television shows (ER), so for this week's A-Z Wednesday Challenge -- we're up to the letter N -- I decided to acknowledge his considerable talent by choosing one of his novels, Next. Not his best, but I did find it a real page-turner.

Crichton, perhaps best known for Jurassic Park, released this book back in 2006, with the paperback coming out about a year later. It was to be his last novel. I eagerly looked forward to reading it and while I would agree with some of the criticisms levelled at the book -- too many characters and sub-plots, for example -- I still most definitely recommend it.

The novel is based on genetics. At Harper Collins, the book's publisher, I found this description:
Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction—is it worse than the disease?
We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies.
We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes . . .
Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn.
Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.
The future is closer than you think.

I couldn't tell you how accurately the science of genetics is presented in this novel, which parts are the creation of Crichton's imagination and which are based in fact. All I can say is that I enjoyed the book, especially Gerard, the intellligent grey parrot. If you're interested, your local library likely has several copies.

November nature

Last night I shared a photograph with you I had taken earlier in the day, one of the many captures I made during a spontaneous photo-shoot in Leslie's gardens. I promised more and, well, here you go.

Not all of November's nature is beautiful. The demise of the ladybug ... circle of life, I guess.

Leslie's leaves

I had the wonderful opportunity today to tramp around Leslie's yard, shooting photographs of anything I spied. As my "purse camera" doesn't fit into the smaller purse I recently bought -- a situation to be rectified asap! -- Leslie was kind enough to allow me to use her new purse camera. It's a Lumix and, I must say, I found it easy to use, with great quality.

One thing I don't understand though -- and I don't know if it's my eyes or not -- but this image looks a little fuzzy here on my blog. I posted it here directly from Flickr, not something I'm used to doing. Maybe I shouldn't be doing that? Does anyone else post from Flickr to their blog? I'm thinking I won't do it again.......

Anyway. This photo is just one of the many images I captured today; I'll be sharing more here soon. I decided this was a great picture for a November calendar page, so that's how I've used it. It's on my Flickr account, free to download. Just click on the photo to head on over there, then click the "all sizes" button you'll see above the image. Hope you like it!

Sunday morning in Montreal

Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend on a whirlwind getaway to eastern Ontario and Quebec. Day one, the Saturday, we left Toronto before the sun was even up and made our way to Kingston, then Ottawa, then Montreal. I've shared some of my Ottawa photographs here -- scroll down and, in the sidebar on the right, you'll see a list of labels, where you'll find Ottawa -- and now it's time to show you a wee bit of beautiful Montreal.

It was dark when we arrived in Montreal Saturday night so, no pictures. We were up bright and early Sunday morning, with St. Joseph's Oratory our first stop. I have never ever before gone sightseeing so early. I took my first photograph at 7:19 a.m., inside the bus as we were approaching the oratory! How nuts is that! Above and below, a few of my captures (some altered, as you can see), both inside and out. As always, if you click on them you can view in a larger format.

We left the oratory just after 8 a.m. and made our way to old Montreal, headed for the Notre-Dame Basilica. This beautiful Roman Catholic church is an architectural stunner and our time there was totally insufficient to really take it all in. I did not go inside -- a sign informed us that no photos were allowed inside and, besides, mass was being conducted and I just thought it was a tad disrespectful to be disruptive. Anyway, there simply wasn't enough time; we had only 30 minutes there and the entire area is so photogenic. Below, just a few of the photos I took during this brief stop.

Finally, about 35 minutes after the bus had parked, we pulled away. I spied the McDonalds and was thankful the camera was still in my hands, as I noticed something I hadn't when I had walked by it just a few minutes earlier -- the building was built in 1905! To find this garish fast-food chain in one of old Montreal's classic historical buildings .... make of it what you will. I admit, it makes me go hmmmmmmm.

Mmmmmm...cupcakes

I made cupcakes yesterday. Red Velvet cupcakes, to be specific -- with vanilla icing instead of the traditional cream cheese icing, not with the intent to buck tradition but merely because it was too cold (and I was too lazy, truth be told) to go out to the grocery store for cream cheese.

Ask the captain, I have this "thing" for red velvet cake. It is difficult to find here in Canada but easily found in the U.S., particularly in the southern states. When a restaurant has it, I make sure to leave room for dessert. It's an odd cake, white but definitely not white, chocolate but definitely not chocolate. There is cocoa, but not enough to depart a recognizable chocolate flavour; it is basicallly a white cake but because of the red food colouring added (and the wee bit of cocoa), it has an intense -- and yes, sometimes odd -- red shade. Mine were not vibrant at all, on purpose...I used only a few drops of red food colouring rather than spoonfuls.

I made these cupcakes yesterday because a few days ago Martha Stewart's Cupcakes came into my home; flipping through its pages, I spied the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes and knew it would be the first recipe I would try. It also made 24 cupcakes, which I conveniently cut in half to make only 12. Some of them made their way to work today with the captain; the two of us certainly don't need a dozen cupcakes at our fingertips.

I have the book from the library, it's not a purchase. Not yet. I may buy it, I may not.....after just a few days with it, it makes me both hungry and frustrated. Hungry because of the sheer variety of yummy-sounding cupcakes and corresponding luscious photographs, frustrated because the book is, in my opinion, flawed.

There is good advice in the book. In the "tools for baking" section at the back of the book, Martha writes that standard muffin tins are used for cupcakes, but suggests you adapt to suit your own style, using mini-muffin tins or jumbo muffin tins instead of the standard tins if you wish. To make this easy, she conveniently tells her readers that the cup in a mini-muffin pan should hold two ounces, four ounces for standard, eight ounces for jumbo. (I measured water into my muffin tins to see if they were standard and, as I suspected, they were.) She also wants you, when putting the batter into the tins, to only fill them three-quarters of the way up. Good tip. And in the photographs, only ordinary muffin tins are shown. By "ordinary", I mean those with either 6 cups or 12. Like the muffin tins you probably have in your cupboards. So far, so good.

But. But. Oh, Martha. Martha, listen to me. Why then, are the yields of your recipes all over the freakin' map? Rhubarb Cupcakes, makes 20. Devil's Food Cupcakes, makes 32. Ginger and Molasses Cupcakes, makes 26. Chocolate Malted Cupcakes, makes about 28. About? What's up with that? This is simple math. Make the batter, three ounces for each cupcake. That's how you develop a recipe, so it works out evenly. There's no about, um, about it. And why 28 anyway? When you go to the store, you have a choice: you can buy muffin tins that hold 6 or 12. You know, the ones you show in your photographs? I'm willing to bet that the majority of home cooks likely have one or two of each size. So why can't you -- or, in honesty, not you but your many minions -- develop recipes that make cupcakes in multiples of six? Twelve, eighteen, twenty-four. Simple. But nooooooo. You have recipes that yield 40 cupcakes, 16, even 15. Martha, it's just weird. And frustrating. Why do you offer no advice about how to handle the overage...whether you should put water in the unused muffin cups to prevent them from burning, for example? The topic of these odd amounts is not mentioned at all in the book. I've looked; I've searched. Nope. It's simply ignored.

Date-Nut Mini Cupcakes, makes 75 mini. Okay, who the heck has the equipment to make 75 mini cupcakes? Couldn't that recipe have been scaled to make, say, 48 mini cupcakes? And then there's Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes. Makes 42. They look delicious. But 42 cupcakes means a LOT of muffin tins in your oven. Think about it. No advice in the recipe to bake them in two batches; the recipe assumes you are baking them all at once. And then my favourite part...you have to assemble these cupcakes by filling a pastry bag with homemade lemon curd then squeeze the curd right into the middle of the cupcakes, letting a little puddle of curd form on the top of each. Then, unless you're basically serving them right away, they need to be refrigerated. That's a lot of fridge space you suddenly need. Yeesh.

I could go on but I won't. I think you can tell this really bugs me! But ... the cupcakes I made yesterday were very delicious and were one of the recipes in the book with a normal yield. (Yes, there are some.) I know I will make them again and again. So, for that, I give thanks to Martha. I'm betting the other cupcakes are also terrific. Right now I'm just so glad that I grabbed the old-fashioned muffin tins I saw at a yard sale last year, ones with only four cups in each, instead of six. I think I'm going to need them.

The little boatswain

When I saw this sweet little sailor this morning over at the Art Creations Friday challenge site, I knew immediately what I wanted to do....and set about to create it. Above is just about exactly what I had envisioned. He's a real cutie and it was a pleasure to put this project together.

Midwives

Another week, another book selection for the A-Z Wednesday Challenge. We are up to M and I had a few books make my short list: Stephen King's Misery, one of the rare books where I couldn't help but cheat and read ahead, almost sick with anticipation of what might occur, then backtrack and read through; Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, a novel I read long ago and loved; Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food and Baseball, an excellent autobiography written by Mollie O'Neill. I had cookbooks on my short list too, including Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse Cookbook, a fascinating book by Savannah's Sema Wilkes. As well, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the Julia Child gem, had to make my short list.

But I went with a novel I read a few years ago, one that captivated me from first page to last, Chris Bohjalian's Midwives. I saw Bohjalian on The Oprah Winfrey Show, talking about his novel after Oprah picked it as one of her book club selections. After watching the show, I knew I just had to read it. Midwives is a gripping page-turner, a provocative book that features both courtroom suspense and domestic drama; a novel that challenges your sense of right and wrong and the moral decisions that sometimes must be made.

A book that stays with you. Even now, many years after reading it, I still consider it a favourite of mine.

I found this description of Midwives on the web and it sums up the plot perfectly: On an icy winter night of 1981 in the rustic community of Reddington, Vermont, seasoned midwife Sibyl Danforth is forced to make a life-or-death decision that will change her world forever. Trapped by the weather in an isolated farmhouse, cut off from the hospital or even the emergency squad, she takes desperate measures to save the life of a baby, performing a cesarean section on a woman she believes has died of a stroke during a long and painful labor. But what if the woman was still alive during the surgery? What if Sibyl herself inadvertently killed her? The hair-raising story of Charlotte Bedford's death and of the subsequent trial of Sibyl Danforth is hauntingly told by Sibyl's fourteen-year-old daughter Connie, now an obstetrician. She is remembering, and it is through her intelligent and watchful eyes that we witness the tragic effects of Charlotte's death and Sibyl's trial. And as Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of the medical establishment, and the nagging accusations of her own conscience, we are compelled to confront questions of human responsibility that are fundamental to our society.

Like I mentioned, the book captivated me from beginning to end. I highly recommend it. Here's an excerpt:

   The morning the judge gave the jury its instructions and sent them away to decide my mother's fate, I overheard her attorney explain to my parents what he said was one of the great myths in litigation: You can tell what a jury has decided the moment they reenter the courtroom after their deliberations, by the way they look at the defendant. Or refuse to look at him. But don't believe it, he told them. It's just a myth.
   I was fourteen years old that fall, however, and it sounded like more than a myth to me. It had that ring of truth to it that I heard in many wives'--and midwives'--tales, a core of common sense hardened firm by centuries of observation. Babies come when the moon is full. If the boiled potatoes burn, it'll rain before dark. A bushy caterpillar's a sign of a cold winter. Don't ever sugar till the river runs free.
   My mother's attorney may not have believed the myth that he shared with my parents, but I sure did. It made sense to me. I had heard much over the past six months. I'd learned well which myths to take to my heart and which ones to discard.

Ottawa, part deux

When last I mentioned Ottawa, I had found the missing tour bus, taken my seat, and regaled my friends with my mini-adventure. After a (very short) drive, the bus pulled up in front of Ottawa's Museum of Civilization. Above, the bus after it had parked there; below, the museum, where some of its workers were on strike. I don't know the reasons behind the rift between management and union, but the poster near the picketers hints at the troubles there.

I did not want to participate in a quickie museum tour so took the opportunity to instead roam the side streets south of the museum. The rain had finally stopped and I enjoyed both the fresh air and the photographic opportunities.

After my walk I took a seat inside the museum and waited for my friends to return from their stroll. As I cast my eyes around, I spied a group of young men and women at a nearby table and became fascinated with the footwear of one young man. I think his girlfriend noticed me taking photographs but I'm not sure they were aware of exactly what I was doing.

Next stop, Montreal!