A Birthday

Husband M celebrated his birthday this past Canada Day. We all went to visit his mom that day, he thought she might enjoy the visit. Daughter L's boyfriend also came along. She didn't feel up to going out to a nice dinner, her arthritis was acting up,so we went out to dinner and came back to cut the cake with her. I might add that I woke up that morning and realized we didn't have a birthday cake to cut. So I baked a cake mix and made my own icing. I don't think I've made icing before but it turned out ok. It was a simple buttercream icing.  I got a lot of good-natured teasing from some of my sisters when I sent them a photo of my efforts.  I am definitely not a perfectionist, especially when it comes to frosting a cake, lol.  Daughter L didn't have time to help that day.

New Pressure Cooker

I am happy to show you this new pressure cooker I bought at Costco. My old one is not working properly and I was happy to find the same model, x years later. It operates in the same way, no learning curve, just a bit more modern looking.  They don't provide a small cookbook anymore, maybe it is online. It was a guide for cooking times for various foods, but I still have the old one.

Sunday Sketches - Looks Like Rain

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! One morning I snuck out for a quick walk, hoping the forecast rain would hold off. I snapped a quick photo of the skies, it looked pretty. I then sketched the image in my (8 1/2" x 11") art journal in watercolour crayon.  It didn't rain that day after all.

Here's my photo:

July 4th

Happy July 4th weekend to our American friends!


I saw this pretty sitting area at the mall, love the blue.

We saw the new Jurassic World movie a couple of weeks ago and I liked it, surprisingly.  I had never seen any of the other movies in the previous series.  Are you a fan of these movies?

Paint Party Friday - After the Storm

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! It was just over a week ago, I snapped a photo of the clouds in my neighbourhood the day after a violent thunder and lightning storm. This is my version of my photo in my (9" x 12") sketchbook in watercolour crayon.  It never did rain that day, but the sky was still angry.

Here is the actual photo (to help you figure out what my painting is lol):

Summer of Color - Red, red, metallic

Here is my Summer of Color entry this week done in my art journal in acrylic (8 1/2" x 11").  I just drew the model's face and hands in with a pencil.  Kristin chose red, red and metallic for this week. I am using a burgundy red for the shoes, and a metallic bronze for the shirt, with a red skirt on my model.

Here is another photo where I tried to get the bronze to look more shiny in another angle.  I had fun with this one!

Mint Tea

Mint

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians!

I have mint plants growing at the side of my house, spread over from the neighbour's garden.  It inspired me to make some mint tea.  Here is an easy recipe if you want to try it.  It tasted like a teabag as daughter L said.  This made me wonder how I would make peppermint extract to make things like mint chocolate brownies!  The peppermint extract recipe sounds really easy, you steep the mint leaves in vodka for about a month.  The mint chocolate brownies sound so good too!

This led me to the discovery that the peppermint plant is a different plant than the spearmint plant.  So there is peppermint extract versus mint extract which would be a combination of peppermint and spearmint.  There is always something new to learn!  Were you familiar with all this?