Today was my Brothers birthday, my computer was so slow that I'm late posting. However we had a wonderful dinner out with family to celebrate! His son laughed so hard when he saw the cartoon painting I did of him. Here is the card and character I am developing centered around his quirky personality. Oh yes oddness is in the genes. Each time we're together there are even more antics that transpire into giggling fits!
This is also a special day for my friend Violette who's first book Journal Bliss is launched today! A culmination of her love of art journaling while inspiring others to find their own Bliss! Violette is as vibrant as the color she amasses on the page. She's also fully responsible for requisitioning my dormant creative spirit five years ago!
Check out Violette's blog for the list of those on her blog tour! I'll be included in the blog tour come June first. I can never really express how grateful I am to Violette for encouraging me to unleash my inner goddess, and find my true artist within! Congratulations on putting your precious spirit on paper, best wishes for a successful run!
Boy Pepper and I were excited to get this free bag at Army & Navy during Earth Day wednesday. It's roomy and beautiful. I could see the women carrying it with pride.
I understand that reusable totes are in the infancy stage, but my gosh why are companies so far behind the eight ball when it comes to style? Seems a smart marketing ploy would be to make desirable bags that people actually want to carry. Like this one!!! Oh yes the plain ones are functional, but lets face it, it's more desirable to bring along a fancy one!
This bag is boring....I am kind of getting sick to death of the word GREEN. Sad too because it's actually one of my favorite colors. I am blue that we're wearing out the word Green even though I love the concept. Being old school, there are areas of wastefulness where being green is all I know!
Lulu lemon has always been innovative and ethical in their practices, so when they came out with this bag, way before it was mainstream to be green I was very proud to carry it. The message reflects the company, which originated in Vancouver but has become national. They make the thinking mans bag! Red isn't always a fashion match, but it's fun to carry anyway! Shoppers drug mart is one of my favorite stores, because they have the point system. Earth day we got a free reusable bag and points for buying a fifty dollar gift certificate. Then I spent the gift certificate, and received points again, doubling my points for one transaction, plus if you spent over fifty dollars which I did, I got 20 dollar coupon to buy anything in the store.... So the twenty dollar sunglasses I bought Pepper were free. Thank you for abundance!!! That was so exciting and why I am so loyal to Shoppers Drug Mart!!! They do care about their customer! Although this is a great message, It's not my favorite bag,...it need more pizazz! It will be used but not my first choice to carry!
To coin a buzz word, it's a win win if we pick your bag to carry around! You get free advertising. A desirable bag is incentive to put cash out to carry it! Why not modify them regularily! New art work with a company logo, have design contests. Let customers figure into the designs. Let the bags take on a life of their own, leading the way in advertising.
I hate to say it but I think some companies are run by an old boys club mentality, afraid of change. Feeling pressured to embrace the environmentally friendly bag rather than seeing it as new opportunity!
Personally I love my own bags, but will carry the new one too! Being a fairly non routine person, there are things I must do in routine. Took me a while to get the hang of the reusable bag. Doesn't help with a lag in memory. So I had to rethink the situation. Now I must return the bags under the seat of my car immediately upon unloading them. Makes for more convenience on the spur of the moment!
All those years I shopped at Costco without big canvas bags. What was I thinking.....it's so much easier to pack the car with a bag, rather than handle each individual item. Life really is simpler with reusable bags.....ho hum...why didn't we advocate this years ago???
It's all about getting those cheeks right, I've redone them at least ten times. The smile is not accurate, but keep in mind it's a cartoon of him, and he can be found laughing out loud often! It looks more blended in person!
I’ve been creatively busy, lazy blogger lately! How’s that for a contradiction. I’m trying to finish a cartoon face of my brother for his birthday on the 29th. I have been working on for three years, can’t get the cartoon skin perfect!! Lol….maybe I should make it green for a laugh. He loved it when he first saw it….I really want to get it completed and also make some prints of it….just for fun!! God only knows what he’ll do with them. Possibly put them on the back of his powder room door to scare the visitors right off the toilet!
I usually work on it a bit, then set it aside so I can study it as I go. In the meantime I have been working on this canvas called Ripe for love! It's not finished, I need to scale down the bodice on the dress! Wish I had the gumption to submit some of my art into a show for kids in White Rock. But I’m not there yet! I couldn’t handle my stuff sitting beside some skilled artists.
Today was a comical day! Pepper and I went to Langley for this big, News breaking annual shoe sale at Army and Navy. It’s a big economically priced blow out of some very popular name brand shoes from all over the world.On the drive out there Pepper had a raging headache. She asked me not to talk. Moments later I approached a train track, the princess not wanting to have to wait for the annoying trainyelled as I hesitated toward the changing light, "JUST GO, JUST GO!!!"
Not telling you what I did……just guess!
OMG….the women were insane, grabbing baskets full of shoes to try on. They had staff running around collecting shoes from every area of the store. I was the purse sitter trying to amble through a maze of shoe fishing females with none other than a shopping cart! Dumb eh? Trust me I needed the barrier. If they had sticks I would have been dead! Damn I should have taken a photo!
Pepper got one pair of shoes a about a sixty percent savings!
All the mess and frenzy sucks me dry of energy. I didn't find any shoes, however Pepper spotted these fat bottomed lady oven mitts and a pot holders, and I loved them. They were reasonable and match nicely my whimsical decor!
We have Canuck fever starting. Out provincial NHL hockey team has made the second round playoffs. We have a flag we fly on the car when it gets close to play off season, in support of our team. Truthfully I haven’t watched much hockey since the last strike. But during playoffs I can be known to utter a few hockey screams since those other screams are no longer applicable in my life!!
Anyhow, we went here and there and everywhere, each time taking our flag off the car so no one could snap it off. Yes that can happen. We are tearing up the Fraser highway. Which is about 70 clicks not as fast as our 401 highway with the limit 80 to 100 clicks, still a bit of a clip for a residential area, when I remind Pepper to put the flag on the window. She rolls it down, no power winders in my jeep, oh yeah, it was windy too….I casually ( she may beg to differ on the casual part, as she heard it more as of a demand) mention to “ be careful not to drop it out the window….sure enough as soon as the words were out of my mouth…. It was long gone….flag road kill! So I took the first right onto a side street circled around and waited at the corner as she jumped out of the car and ran, arms flailing at her sides, ( we’ve often teased her because she runs like a very effeminate gay male) grabs the flag, still running like she’s ready for take off, back to jump in the car. All the while we are laughing so hard….about how the “DON’T, so quickly became a “DO” drop that flag out the window” We had so much fun laughing....and I think I feel like myself again!
Oh Yeah we're going back today....one of the young fellas told Pepper
Body and love language came to mind with this week Sunday Scribblings prompt. Instead I deviate to address other thoughts.Why do I cry like a baby every time I hear that woman sing or speak? I’m embarrassed of myself. It’s Boyle Mania! I’ve jumped on board this crazy Cinderella story band wagon. The lovely Scottish womanSusan Boyle, bullied and teased most of her life has captivated me. I just can’t get enough of her voice, and story!
It's a language I crave! One of hope, love, acceptance, joy, where dreams are recognized and realized. Where an individual can chisel into the depths of my soul with their creative brilliance, requisitioning emotions long buried and rarely felt!Read Dr. Robert Canfields take on this phenomena!
My whole life I have verbally fought for the underdog. When I see an overly tattooed body on a seemly confident woman, or too many facial piercing, I wonder their story. Rituals, tribal in nature have become main stream amongst youth. I’ve even heard false negative assumptions in my own circles. Still I wonder, could youth be rebelling the status quoof perfection shoved in their faces? Or have they succumbed to filling up with material items and body markings to compensate for unattainable security and dreams they feel is beyond reach? Do young people feel displaced trying to live up to media endorsed frivolous ideals of excellence, that previous generations have fallen prey to?
Life as we know it is changing. A new life language is about to embark!Bloggersand Twitterersarerevolutionizing media.With an almost defunct monetary system the material world may be needing an overhaul too! With the world at a seeming low point, in pops this frizzy haired spinster. Never romantically kissed, labeled as frumpy, sharing an angelic voice and quirky style, beguiling a society filled with pretentious superficial preconceived notions. Like a smack in the face we are jolted into a stripped down version of nature’s purist form of splendor!Possibly what we've all secretly been hankering for!
Our appearance shouldn't matter the way it does. We ALL have gifts, individually unique and profound to contribute. Maybe we don't fit the mold of a perfect image, or speak the language in accordance to the mainstream. Still we can effectively make a difference. We all matter as a part of a collective. Each of us needs to speak the language of our soul! Thank you Susan Boyle for reminding us to believe in our dreams, and push forward, despite inner demons, and rigid societal judgments!
My last post was so doom and gloom that I wanted to compensate with a little visual humor on my blog. I started this image which turned into a new header. Although it's rather bright. That's putting mildly, I thought it was kind of humorous play on words, having a little character named "Promise" chasing you around nagging, " there's promise on the horizon!" Okay, maybe not! But I have faith that there is New bright promise on the horizon.....but you may have to wait for November or December for me to prove it!
Easter is my time of renewal. You may have noticed I usually need a few renewals during the year to get a move on! Pepper had a business meeting yesterday. So Bryan and I went to lunch, then on a search of organizing cabinets for our garage. Bryan is going to paint, put in a work bench and do a much needed purge of old crap! We can't wait until it's completed. I'll post a play by play as we go!! If I dare to air my dirty linen!
Not much hoopla over Easter around here this year. No bunny cookies, or chocolate eggs, or special gifts like usual.Less mess too!! Instead, it was a chocolate cake, box of our favorite chocolate coated caramels to share, and a couple of new cds we can all enjoy! Still it was a lovely weekend. We didn't have the traditional Easter dinner, we had our turkey last weekend when my brother was over, instead our dear friends who lost two disabled children within two years came for dinner Saturday night. My daughter, Bryan and my girlfriend fell asleep while her hubby and I talked until the wee hours of the morning. Brought back memories of our youth, when it was a regular occurrence, along with cards and video game competitions where I was Queen of Doctor Mario!
Sunday Scribbling prompt this week is " Scary" An incident last weekend, along with a disturbing newspaper article about a man appealing his conviction for doing away with his wife provoked this poem, and painting. It's been a work in progress all week. Originally I felt it slightly too dark to post during Easter, a celebration of renewal. However I changed my mind when the Sunday Scribbling inquiry of what scares us seemed to mesh with these pieces.
This is also a special day for my friend Violette who's first book Journal Bliss is launched today! A culmination of her love of art journaling while inspiring others to find their own Bliss! Violette is as vibrant as the color she amasses on the page. She's also fully responsible for requisitioning my dormant creative spirit five years ago! 
