U is for undomestic

A few years ago, my sister-in-law (hi, Heather!) was reading Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a Shopaholic while we were all enjoying a family vacation on the beach in Florida. She was constantly laughing out loud and when she finished it, she passed it on to me. I instantly became a fan of Kinsella's breezy chick-lit style. So for this week's A-Z Wednesday reading challenge, where we are now at U, I chose one of my Kinsella favourites, The Undomestic Goddess.

I have to be honest here. To enjoy this novel, you must suspend all rational thought. The plot is implausible, plain and simple. Simply sit back, grab the book, and prepare to enjoy a lighthearted, amusing story in the classic fish-out-of-water vein. Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Undomestic Goddess:
Samantha Sweeting, the 29-year-old heroine of Kinsella's latest confection is on the verge of partnership at the prestigious London law firm Carter Spink — the Holy Grail of her entire workaholic life. But when she finds she has made a terrible, costly mistake just before the partnership decision, she's terrified of being fired. In a fog, she stumbles out of the building and onto the nearest train, which drops her in the countryside, where she wanders to a stately home. The nouveau riche lady of the house mistakes her for the new housekeeper — and Samantha is too astonished to correct her. Numb and unable to face returning to London, Samantha tries to master the finer points of laundry, cooking and cleaning. She discovers that the slow life, her pompous but good-hearted employers and the attentions of the handsome gardener, Nathaniel, suit her just fine. But her past is hard to escape, and when she discovers a terrible secret about her firm — and when the media learns that the former legal star is scrubbing toilets for a living — her life becomes more complicated than ever.
 
Chick-lit this is, but it's chick-lit at its finest. If you're looking for a great book to take on vacation or read while you're hiberating by the fireplace, you won't go wrong with The Undomestic Goddess. Or any of Kinsella's other novels, for that matter.

tippi's first christmas

Tippi had a great first Christmas; she was so excited!

2009, a month at a time

I started working on this little montage back in April, then promptly forgot about it....until yesterday, when I stumbled across the file as I was looking through my folder containing 2009 photoshop projects. So I finished it off today and decided it was a terrific year-end posting. (I know, it's not the year-end yet. I'm a tad early).

Here's what the photos represent:
January: an old 7up bottling plant in Corbin, KY; something I spotted as we were driving through this small town on our way down south
February: a Florida pelican
March: a poster of Guy Fieri, host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, on prominent display in Matthews Cafeteria in Tucker, GA (this restaurant was featured in one of the show's episodes and the captain and I went there specifically because of that)
April: a spring flower blooming on the day the captain and I wandered around the grounds of the Guild Inn
May: this duck and his mate were backyard visitors
June: our wonderful family vacation down to DisneyWorld
July: Tippi!
August: homemade peach pie
September: Toronto's art&design district
October: fall colours in eastern Ontario
November: Leslie's rear garden, testing cameras on a fun-filled afternoon
December: this year's christmas tree

Here's looking forward to 2010, a new year and a new decade!

Merry Christmas

Hope your day was everything you wanted it to be, and more. Merry Christmas, everyone!

My favourite Christmas photograph

Our son (Rob, or Robbie as he was known when he was little) was just 17 months old when I took that photograph you see above, back when I still shot film, using my old Minolta SLR. No fancy buttons, no automatic anything.

I mean the picture on the right...obviously.

That Christmas photo remains, to this day, my favourite holiday picture.

T is for terrific

The A-Z Wednesday reading challenge seems to be flying towards the end of the alphabet; we're already up to T. It just so happens one of my favourite books begins with this letter: Two for the Road, written by the husband-and-wife team of Jane and Michael Stern.

I love this book. You will too, if you're at all a fan of road trips or even travelling in general. And eating. The catch? You have to be willing to forego the chain restaurants and try the local fare. When the captain and I travel, this is something we always do. If you also do that -- or you haven't but you'd like to -- then please read this book. It'll make you want to hit the road, pronto.

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about this gem: The authors of Roadfood are crazy for American local food, that often informal, inexpensive cuisine that's not especially healthy but sure is tasty. The husband-and-wife team has traveled the country since the 1970s, seeking out the sort of food found in "unlikely restaurants in small towns and off two-lane highways," which, naturally, leads to all manner of fish-out-of-water scenarios, which they relate in this endearing chronicle. The Sterns' adventures are funny, if not quite perilous; the car breaks down in Enigma, Ga.; six jugs of iced tea bought at a South Carolina restaurant leak all over the car's floor, which the Sterns don't realize until days later, when they're nearing the Mojave Desert and could really use a refreshment. Their enthusiasm is inspiring; they regularly consume 100 meals in 10 days or less, but that only makes them more passionate for road food. Their descriptions of their grail are the book's highlights: baby back ribs at Carson's, in Skokie, Ill., for instance, are "sensuously sticky with a baked-on sauce that [is] striated red-gold as if it had been painted by an artist of the Hudson River School"; caramel rolls at North Dakota's Havana Cafe are "light and fluffy, swirled with veins of caramel frosting."

And here's a small excerpt:
"Long before GPS and Mapquest, getting lost was our lifestyle. As we drove through the east Tennessee hills on a road that twisted into a realm of primitive otherworldliness, we felt like strangers in a strange land. Through a tunnel of trees, we passed preplumbing log homes with dilapidated La-Z-Boy recliners on their front porches for the residents' relaxation. As foreign as it seemed, it wasn't scary, for every porch-sitter we drove by waved hello as if the passing of a car were a happy event."

This is one of the few books I've read more than twice. The Sterns are so crazy about what they do and they tell their tales of the road with such passion and enthusiasm, it's contagious. I highly recommend this book and I also suggest you check out the Roadfood web site. Happy travelling and happy eating!

O Christmas Tree

You see that Christmas ornament, with Snoopy? If it was twisted the other way 'round, you'd see "1978" on it. Yup, that's the Christmas tree ornament the captain and I bought right after we were married, in honour of our first Christmas together. We've bought one every year since; the ornament for 2009 is one we purchased at the Kennedy Space Center during our wonderful family vacation back in June.

Over at The Poetic Eye, today's photo prompt is "The Heart's Light". This made me think of the lights on our Christmas tree, of how they make me feel warm and comfortable. How the brightly lit tree is a symbol that marks our family Christmas as the years go marching on.

Our Christmas tree is finally up, lit, and decorated. We have a real tree this year, our first deviation from artificial in several years. I love the smell. This tree, while fairly tall, is much slimmer than our artifical. Miss Tippi thinks the lights, particularly our snowman lights (pictured below), are toys and she can't understand why she can't play with them. Poor girl. I hope Santa brings her something special!

I took several photographs after the tree went up; the five you see here are some of my favourites. They all light up my heart.

Anything Can Be

listen to the mustn'ts, child,

listen to the don'ts.

listen to the shouldn'ts,

the impossibles, the won'ts.

listen to the never haves,

then listen close to me.

anything can happen, child,

anything can be.
*shel silverstein*

(posted for Art Creations Friday)

The light of friendship

Some women have dozens of girlfriends. I have never been one of those women. I have never been without friendship, but my circle of friends has never been large, not even as a teenager. Over the years I've lost contact with many of those old friends, but on occasion I have been able to reconnect. My friend Donna, for example, who now lives in Japan.

I first met Donna Reddick in 1969 at Winston Churchill Junior High in Ottawa, when I sat in her seat, by mistake, in first-period Geography class. I was new to Ottawa and so was she; her father had been transferred there on business. She and I and Elaine Roy became fast friends. I lost contact with Elaine shortly after she married in 1978; I believe her and her new husband moved to Calgary, but I'm not sure. Over the years Donna and I managed to keep our connection alive, but sometime in the '90s we lost touch. I haven't seen her since 1985, but a couple of years ago I did manage to track her down, thanks to some intensive googling where I eventually found an online obit for her father, which led me to her mom's address in North Carolina.....so I took a chance and sent a card. Funny how modern technology helps us out. A few weeks later, I heard from her by email.

With other old friends, I have not been so lucky. My best friend in Vancouver, Nancy Vogt, for example. We met in grade five -- we lived in neighbouring apartments and we were in the same grade -- and stayed in contact right up until about April, 1980 (it could have been '81), when my birthday card to her was returned to me, marked "moved". I do on occasion google her name (and that of her little brother, Paul), but I've never found a trace.

I am fortunate to have good friends right now, some I've had for years and some that are new -- all are cherished. I was lucky to share the day yesterday with my friend Nancy and, as often happens, when I left her home my brain was mush. Even when we don't intend to, we always seen to get going with some creative idea or another and then just go with the flow. Exhilarating, but exhausting! If you look at the above photo, you'll see the reflection of both of us, a photograph I took last year when we were on one of our photographic walkabouts. I see the light of friendship in that photo, which happens to be the Day 4 photo prompt over at The Poetic Eye. This image couldn't be more appropriate.

Rooms for rent

I didn't get a chance to post for yesterday's daily challenge at The Poetic Eye, but I hope I'm not too late. The photo prompt for Day 3 is the light of the everyday, of the ordinary. Above, an ordinary light fixture above ordinary doors on an ordinary street in an ordinary suburb of an ordinary American city. (Perhaps. I expect the good people of Pittsburgh would take exception at the characterization of their city as "ordinary".)

An everyday shot, taken at dusk. I do believe though, that behind the ordinary, there are many, many stories to be told. Stories that are not ordinary, not everyday. This pink rooming house has, I'm sure, its share.

Still Alice

Have you ever really wanted to read a book, but at the same time dreaded it? That's how I feel about Still Alice, written by Lisa Genova. Leslie recommended this book to me earlier this year and I've been on the library's waiting list for it ever since (it's a long waiting list). Still Alice is my S pick for the A-Z Wednesday reading challenge.

This is a novel about early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, told from the point of view of Alice Howland, a Harvard professer in her early 50s who begins to notice an unusual forgetfulness in her day-to-day life. As her memory worsens, she receives the horrible diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's. Reviewers have called this book "a work of pure genius" and "heartbreakingly real". The Alzheimer's Daily News wrote, "A masterpiece that will touch lives in ways none of us can even imagine....the best portrayal of the Alzheimer's journey that I have read." The book even has its own web site.

This, from Amazon: Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University.
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what's it's like to literally lose your mind...
Reminiscent of A Beautiful Mind, Ordinary People and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Still Alice packs a powerful emotional punch and marks the arrival of a strong new voice in fiction.

When I was a teenager, one of my father's friends, an extremely intelligent, sophisticated man in his mid-40s, began to lose his memory. Within a short time, he went from being a vibrant, outgoing individual to a confused recluse. It was so hard on his family. For me, only 15 at the time, it was terribly confusing. Alzheimer's again touched my life, about 20 years ago, when the mother of my boss at the time was stricken with it. She too suffered a rapid deterioration. It's a horrible disease and I do hope this book will make me better informed about it.

The miracle of light

Those of you who visit here frequently may recall my blog entry entitled "A new dawn, a new day"; you may also have read yesterday's "The light of memory". That post was light-hearted, but I am more reflective today. For December 15th's photo prompt of "the miracle of light", I refer to both that August post as well as the photo above. Yes, another sunrise.

The rising of the sun should be special for everyone, I think. Aren't we all grateful, really, to be here? I know I am. The words I shared in that earlier blog post will tell you that. I know there is a time for everything, which can certainly be hard to accept -- last Christmas we were very subdued, reflecting on our loss of Terra. Others have felt loss since then, are grieving now -- the most recent news being the sad death of the husband of one of our very own artistic community members. And one of the captain's co-workers was recently injured in a house fire and may not pull through. All so very heartbreaking.

Words can soothe, but they can't heal, not on their own. I believe in words, in their power ... but only time can truly bring peace. With each new day though, each sunrise, I think we can all be thankful for the blessings we have and especially for the ones we have had. The sunrise is a reminder of all that is good. Is it a miracle of light? I definitely think so.

The light of memory

A little something that I hope brings a smile to your face. As I was blog-hopping this evening, I visited The Poetic Eye, L.K. Ludwig's wonderful blog. She is doing a "photo prompt" starting today and running for 19 days, all the way to January 1st. While I can't promise to post each and every day, this is a challenge I want to tackle and I hope to accomplish every one, even if I don't post every day.

The prompt for December 14th is "the light of memory" and when I read that, I immediately went to the Christmas photographs I took two years ago, opened up photoshop, looked at some of my textures (choosing this one), and ended up with what you see here. Yes, that is Bumble, the abominable snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He is a tradition in our home and tops our tree every year...as you can see, he is reaching to put on the star. I am always happy to see him and I hope you are too.

Quebec City, one more time

When I was in Quebec City, it was near the end of October. I took many seasonal photographs.....pumpkins, hallowe'en decorations, etc. It seems silly to share those photos now, when we are feeling festive rather than spooky, but I couldn't resist posting as least one of the pumpkin photographs.

I've been playing in photoshop today -- different filters, different textures, different edges, just experimenting -- and the results are what you see here. I shouldn't be sitting on my duff with so many holiday activities as yet undone (cookies to bake and presents to wrap being just two of several), but it was a dull day and I was uninspired to do anything else but sit.

Tomorrow, I will get cracking!

That last picture, the bicycle, was texturized using my own "texture 2" and "texture 3" from my freebies set on Flickr. If you like working with textures, please give them a try -- remember, it doesn't hurt to use more than one!

Looking back at Quebec City

I've been trying to organize the images on my hard drive to make it easier to find certain items (in particular, digital embellishments like old text and vintage photos) and, in the process, I found myself looking through the photographs I took on my Quebec getaway back in October. I don't know how I ended up in that folder, but I did. And I then realized with a start that I shared photographs from Ottawa and Montreal here on my blog, then stopped. My bad. Time to correct that.

Quebec City is such a beautiful place and I took oodles of pictures there; these are but a few. Unlike Montreal, where we had almost no free time, we had several hours in Quebec City to ourselves, enabling me to wander about with my camera. The following photo of Les Délices d'Ariana (a restaurant serving Afghanistan cuisine), however, was taken from inside the bus shortly after we arrived in the city.

These two pictures were taken as I wandered.

Finally, our dinner in Quebec City was fabulous. We dined at Sous le Fort; Lori had been there before and was happy to see it was still there. She gave it a high recommendation and so in we all went. Her advice was spot-on -- our dinner was delicious. It's a small establishment and our party of 12 was divided, by necessity, to two tables of six. I'm not sure what the others dined on, but at our table three of us ordered salmon, while the other three, including me, enjoyed the duck confit. I would return -- both to Quebec City and to Sout le Fort -- in a heartbeat.

Do you love cupcakes? Art?

I had a bit of fun this evening, colouring this little cupcake. I like to colour....and I love cupcakes. Everyone knows that. So I was delighted to find a link at Irene's blog to Pigment of Your Imagination, Catherine Holman's blog. Her cupcake art is fantastic -- and calorie free! -- and even better, she has a giveaway going on right now. You can read about it HERE. Enjoy her art!

Mediterranean beauty

This week's challenge image from Art Creations Friday is titled "Mediterranean Beauty" and that she is.....a lovely portrait.

I decided to keep it simple and seasonal and created the holiday card you see here. The photoshopping really was quite minimal: some cropping, some colour play, a festive clipping mask (bought from the Designer Digitals site) and finally some text, using the Algerian font.

As always, please click on the image to see it full-sized.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

There was no decision-making to be done in choosing my R book for this week's A-Z Wednesday reading challenge. I could choose no other than Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road. This is one of the most haunting novels I have ever read -- bleak, chilling, yet in the end, in its own way, uplifting. A true literary masterpiece.

The Road features a father and son, travelling south through the eastern United States, on foot. The setting is post-apocalyptic, barren and ashy. Few people have survived. It is late fall or early winter and it is very cold. There are constant dangers, including other survivors who have adopted evil, cannabilistic lifestyles. These two, father and son, should have no hope, but yet they do, yet they continue on. The novel highlights a world that has almost destroyed itself, yet you come to realize that it also highlights love. McCarthy dedicated this book to his son and although it is a chilling, harrowing tale, it also illustrates the unending devotion a parent can have for their child. When all else is lost, that love is not.

I sought out this book after watching McCarthy being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. It was an awkward interview; clearly the man did not want to talk to her yet both he and Oprah soldiered on. It was fascinating and I wanted to know more about him, and about this book. The only other McCarthy novel I have read is No Country for Old Men, a violent tale that left me unsatisfied. But this book? This one I loved.

I must warn you though, The Road is not an easy read. You will care about the well-being of the father and son but still, this is not a light, feel-good book; it is only after closing the pages the final time does the message really sink in. However, McCarthy also writes with a beautiful, lyrical prose; in that sense, the book is a true joy to read.

While I highly recommend The Road, I do recognize that many will want to pass it by. Personally, it is a favourite of mine and I also look forward to seeing the upcoming movie and only hope it does this book justice.

Here's a small excerpt:

He woke before dawn and watched the gray day break. Slow and half opaque. He rose while the boy slept and pulled on his shoes and wrapped in his blanket he walked out through the trees. He descended into a gryke in the stone and there he crouched coughing and he coughed for a long time. Then he just knelt in the ashes. He raised his face to the paling day. Are you there? he whispered. Will I see you at the last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God.

They passed through the city at noon of the day following. He kept the pistol to hand on the folded tarp on top of the cart. He kept the boy close to his side. The city was mostly burned. No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust. Fossil tracks in the dried sludge. A corpse in a doorway dried to leather. Grimacing at the day. He pulled the boy closer. Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.

You forget some things, dont you?

Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.

A Christmas "Hi!"

Yesterday was what I call a GREAT day. I met Leslie and Irene at the Extra-Ordinary Jolly Christmas Sale and proceeded to do major damage to the contents of my wallet. All for a good cause of course: Christmas shopping! (Okay, some of what I bought was for me.......)

I thought about photographing some of the goodies I purchased and doing a little show-and-tell here on my blog, except I don't want to give away any gift secrets, so I shall have to stay quiet on that front. But I really enjoyed seeing Carmi and Susan and all the others with their wonderful wares and it was so hard to choose what to buy!

After the three of us emptied our wallets, it was off for a yummy lunch of beet soup, pierogies and potato pancakes, followed by even more shopping, along Bloor Street West. Since my cash was gone, I had resorted to plastic. What a day! Finally the shopping ceased and Leslie kindly dropped me off at my friend Lori's home, where I was able to rescue some cookbooks she no longer wanted. Some will stay here with me, but I have a very good home in mind for the rest. And after what turned out to be a very stimulating day, the captain treated me to dinner out -- pasta and wine, not necessarily in that order.......

It really was, as I said, a great day.

I'm not going to reveal what I purchased, but I do have something to share with you, as I did in my last post. This morning, I was going through some of the wonderful Christmas images I found on Flickr -- the Vintage Christmas group in particular is a lot of fun -- and spied this fantastic retro Christmas card I recently downloaded. I cleaned it up in photoshop as best I could and decided it was perfect to share here. Click on the image to see it at full-size, then just save it to your computer. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Marilyn, with a gift for you

I have always been a Marilyn Monroe fan, so when I saw that this week's Art Creations Friday challenge image was an old publicity still, I was delighted.

I decided to keep it very simple. I hunted down her autograph online, then used a simple holiday message from a vintage Christmas card. Combining the three, along with a few stars -- fitting for a movie star, no? -- and a red border, and that was that.

And speaking of that vintage holiday message, I'd like to share it with you. Just click on the image below to see it full-sized, then save to your computer. It's a PNG file, meaning the background is transparent (even though it appears white to you here). I hope you'll be able to use it for any holiday creations you have planned this month! And if you'd like to see a few more of my free downloadables, please visit my Freebies set on Flickr!

Quickies: Ten Quick Ways with Everyday Foods

When you participate in an ongoing activity like the A-Z Wednesday Challenge, you can't help but think ahead to the more troublesome letters and wonder what books you'll choose when the appropriate week rolls around. As of now, I don't know what book I'll blog about when X and Z are featured, but I never doubted for a moment what I would post about during this week, Q week.

Chatelaine is one of Canada's most popular women's magazines and their cookbooks are terrific. Quickies: Ten Quick Ways with Everyday Foods was the first in the series of "Quickies" cookbooks; I have several of them and this one is quite possibly the best of the bunch. It's certainly the one I use more than the others. Written by the magazine's then food editor, Monda Rosenberg, the book features pages and pages of food items with 10 quick recipes for each. In total, the book features 1,000 ideas! The food items are presented alphabetically, making it easy to look up something for which you need inspiration -- perhaps asparagus, broccoli, chicken thighs, all the way through to zucchini. It's a great resource and some of my favourite recipes are from this book. In particular, the spiced nuts (I have the recipe posted HERE) -- they're a Christmas staple for me. Other "nut" suggestions from the book include "Sugar Snap Peas & Cashews" and "Chili-Lime Peanuts", along with 7 others including the aforementioned spiced nuts. Yum, yum.

I believe this book is out-of-print, but I found it listed at Amazon with used copies available. Since this is a Canadian book, I doubt my American friends will be able to find it in their local libraries, but here in Canada it shouldn't be too hard to locate.