Lilac Window

We’ve been traipsing all over Calgary these past few weeks. Particularly enjoying full days at the AP playgroup, at Sikome Lake, and at Stanley Park. Waking each morning, and packing a lunch, no matter what the weather or plans. It was nice to stay in pajamas till noon, and build an outdoor living room on the porch. The house is clean and all my doors are open. Feels good.

Spiritual contemplation, meditation and prayer. How do you find your motivation, reconnect with the source of your truth, call on help and make a connection with something greater?

After some thinking about the forces of our time, I am working on a plan to daily live a philosophy of “true economics” that is based on “Love, Kindness, Generosity and Severance.” pg 28.

my simple thoughts and initial plan includes:

Severance: detachment from results, to have dreams and goals but to not be attached to them, to pray and meditate on this daily.

Love: to love those I am with, to generate more love and to express love. to be specific about the love I feel and to direct it to the people, work, or reality I am facing.

Generosity: to consider what gifts I can offer. to not feel limited. to give, and give.

Kindness: to seek out those in need, and offer kindness.

This is my business plan as of today.

“Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity…” Baha’u'llah.

The boys are all ready for a pre-bed, and after dinner bike ride, in their PJ’s. So awesome to ride around the neighborhood in the evening. Makes me wish I had a bike-garage though. Dragging that trailer up the front steps every day is getting tiresome.

During nap we made this little monster pillow Marcel is holding. Super fun, and made from scraps around the house. We did cut up a bed-pillow for stuffing though. Some things just must be sacrificed when the creative urge hits. We also fill ed the bottom with rice so he stands up. Hes pretty cute, and well loved.

Marcel’s teacher said he needs to practice his writing over the summer. I don’t really agree that handwriting is really critical for a four year old boy, but I do see the joy he gets when he concentrates on something he is proud of. I also love encouraging him to develop skills, concentration and control. Its also nice to throw in some art, process and design.

During Em’s nap we worked on this project, that brought me so much delight…and is so much more fun than repetitious alphabets in a work book for Marcel! We started with choosing a subject matter, and printing out a photo of it. I chose a jack rabbit. Marcel chose Lightening McQueen. Then we drew a picture of it in pencil. Then we traced that picture using a ink pot and a old fashioned nib. Then we scanned that drawing, and put it into photoshop. We arranged our composition and then printed onto cardstock. We then coloured our drawing with watercolour pencils and painted it. Then we signed it and hung it up.

This process is one I do all the time for my work, and it was so fun to repeat with Marcel. I LOVE the results. His little drawing is so wonderful. Its very cubist the way he is trying to draw the car from the front, but including things like the side windows – because he knows they are there…

I did this painting with a group of kids in Edmonton. 6 little ones painted two of these as a gift for their caregiver. What a sweet way to thank her.

I will be participating in the “Mommylicious Trade Fair” this August 8 2010. Come and check us out there. It should be a wonderful display of goods and treats for moms and families. It will be held at the Carriage House Inn, in Calgary.

I am also really excited about some ideas I have up my sleeve. I am stoked dreaming up ways to make art more accessible to people who would love to paint, and want to create beautiful work, but feel intimidated. Making art can be relaxing, soothing, meditative, while also being expressive and therapeutic. I am hoping to have a new product available at the fair as a trial run… and I cant stop thinking about it…

cleaned the kids play area all weekend. removed 4 large garbage bags of “stuff” to the thrift store. Excited for beautiful, quiet, creative time spent at this table this summer.

Last day of preschool yesterday. First day of summer today.

Listening to this song: “Alas I cannot swim” my Laura Marling. You can hear it on her Myspace.

It nearly made me cry. There is a message in this song that I need to hear. The “river” may not represent a place, but my own fears, apathy or lethargy. I gotta cross that river, and start living the life I am meant to live right now, right here.

Summer should include:

• days spent entirely in your bathing suit.
• hours in the evening, after a summer potluck dinner with friends, spent chatting under swaying trees and hot summer breeze.
• nights outside, under the stars with your love
• breakfast on the porch
• screen doors, that only keep some bugs out, because they are open and closed so much
• a hammock
• campfire
• sparkling water, morning mist, songs of birds
• singing, guitars and lots of recorders
• time to read many books, cover to cover, and time to sit, and contemplate life with a four year old.
• adventure, packed lunches, and the smell of citronella.

All this may yet be on the other side of the “river”. But I am determined to do whatever it takes to get there!

Here is a painting I recently did as a commission for a family celebrating a new baby, and a birthday. The prayer is one for children, that they say to their baby. I really enjoyed painting this, and trying to express their joy and love for each other with the paint. Its quite big, which is also a departure from the little guys Ive been doing. Actually it was a really welcome relief.

I am taking commissions like these, email me (angie(at)lilacwindow(dot)com) if you are interested. I’ve done a few now, and they seem to be rather popular…

yes. this was my lunch. I am making salad every day this week. Probably more than once. It may be raining, but it will be summer on my plate, darn it.

The kids had mostly the same, only each item was separated into different bowls.

The great thing about this salad that I NEEDED to share was this:

After all the salad making, there’s always bits of leftover lettuce, greens, half a lemon,a piece of kale, a bit of onion… bits and pieces. Instead of trying to find millions of tiny tupperwares, I put them all in one big one. Then today, after toasting the pecans in olive oil (mmmmmm pecans) I quickly fried up all the lettuce and bits from the bin. Yup. I FRIED the lettuce. They do it in China, so its cool OK? Then I mixed these toasted bits in with crispy cold romaine lettuce and uncooked fresh herbs. sprinkled on nuts, added feta cheese, a boiled egg, a chopped tomatoe, a little raw onion, drizzled on my homemade dressing and OH MY GOODNESS! It was drool-y good.

I also baked some ciabatta buns. fresh. So there was warm buns to go with it. I felt like spoiling myself. I use the recipe from here. I have made them so much its actually easier to make my own than go to the store to buy buns. Only I do have to be prepared as I make the dough the day before.

But once again, this was the clincher for me. fresh bun with warm, fresh, dressed salad? need I say more?

Some random but possibly interesting facts about salad around here:

• not enough salad is consumed in this family.
• This may be due to the fact that lettuce just goes bad too quickly. Also, I usually make too much salad as a side dish, and then it goes bad, and I feel wasteful. But I have discovered, that I just need one head of Romaine Lettuce, and a ton of other vegges, and we can have salad all week. Just one or two lettuce leaves is enough when I put everything else on.
• I have a sudden aversion to buying meat. We may become weekend carnivores, and weekday vegetarians. We may not ready to be full vegetarian, but a couple steps closer.
• That said, we do like the bacon. Its even better with salad.
• I justify the bacon consumption with kale. We LOVE kale and bacon. (Pancetta would be so much more gourmet – but I’m not fooling anyone. We eat bacon, and I’m admitting it here.)
• Trying four recipes from Smitten Kitchen this week.
• Finding that children will try things they don’t usually like if the presentation is adjusted. This salad for instance. Inspired by this Cobb salad, I put ours out on a platter. It went over well.
• In order to remain satiated on this week of salads we include more filling ingredients such as bread, nuts, eggs, left-overs, lentils, rice…
• When making a salad I ofter just fry a few strips of bacon first. Then use that oil to toast seeds/nuts, croutons, left-overs, lentils, kale, anythings else that I want to put on. (fattening? yes. but, the argument is that these are to be little toppings, not the entire salad. And hey! its salad for dinner! and this way the kids eat it. Its win-win.)
• I love warm salad toppings. Hence my previous note. One a bed of crispy romaine and baby spinach, warm toasted anything is good. (especially with dressing)
• We try to have nuts and seeds around the house. Especially pine nuts.
• This week’s salad treats are pecans, and Swiss cheese. If I’m not buying meat, I can justify that too!
• boiled egg – a good thing to have around the house too.
• my favorite dressing: Olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, salt, garlic, lemon juice, flax seeds.  – quantities to taste. And sometimes I add other things, like ginger, paprika, other spices… you know, I like to have fun.
• My favorite thing about the farmer’s market is the big bags of fresh herbs for $3.00. They seem to last longer than the store bought ones, and I feel like I can be really generous with them, use them for greens in the salad for instance.
• Jamie Oliver has a warm salad with roasted carrots and avocado that nearly kills me its so amazing. I will make it this week. He often puts hunks of toasted ciabatta bread in his salad. This makes a salad a meal, and is the best idea ever because the bread soaks up the dressing, and fills you up, and takes the whole “salad for dinner” concept to a new level.
• Oh gosh. Today’s lunch salad just blew me over it was so good.

I have a lot of interests. Sometimes I feel like I am divided all over the place. I have my own business, I paint, I do architecture, I have an interest in sustainable lifestyles, I am a mom, I am interested in education, I have this blog…

This painting is for an architectural project, but it felt like I was just doing what I love. And it made it onto this blog. I feel whole again. smile.

I was mucking around with paper yesterday, seeing what I can do with these little drawings. I had so many ideas, but the paper I was using wasn’t holding up well. I ended up going for the good old arches, and including a painted tone on a pencil drawing. Now I think I am in love. This little drawing went from a sketch in my book, to a sacred little object. The amount of clean white paper on the border, the simple lines, the reserved paint, is so restrained and minimal, it makes the sweetness and simplicity of the image so much “louder”.

As you know I have been struggling with finding a way to print drawings on the printer. It just brings so much more to the table than I really want to deal with. Its adding a whole process to the production of the “thing” that I just don’t want to deal with. I want to create objects of art that have lives of their own, and that exist because I handled, loved, and crafted them. Not that I am against reproduction, its just that I have mountains of original work that I would love people to have on their walls, rather than a photocopy. So. I have been thinking about creating these precious drawings, that can be reproduced by hand. At this point that seems more feasible than paying premiums for a print shop to do it. And this way the product is an “original”.

In a way.

But then, that also seems weird doesn’t it?

inspired by the first warm morning in a while, I made an outdoor – living room on the back porch.

I had been lamenting that we didnt have a gate out there to prevent Emery from wondering off. But then I realized our large bar-b-que is big enough to close the opening. I was down because we don’t have comfy patio furniture, but decided to sweep, lay out blankets and transfer the couch pillows outside. The boys spent all morning out there, reading, playing forts and eating snack. We even had a tea party. The mosquitoes tried to spoil the fun, but I dug out my home-made insect repellent and they seem to be repelled enough to hang back. I didnt make it, but bought it from a friend who is a herbalist. But I am sure you COULD make it, if you were so inclined. The ingredients are:

Neem Leaf

Grapeseed oil

Beeswax

Essential oils of:

Geranium

Cedarwood

Citronella

Lavender

Tea Tree

Patchouli

It smells wonderful, and does the job. I’d tell you where to buy it, except she doesn’t have a shop.

three little paintings. the whole suburbia, car dependency, road, interchanges, and sprawl “thing”. It gets to you sometimes. but then, these are some pretty little paintings. So maybe its not all so bad.

I did these on the 300bl rather than the 140. Its completely different to work with. I didn’t realize how used I am to the 140, but I think I may fall in love with this. (hello $18.00 a sheet…)

Also, I imagined paintings that were much more developed but am entranced with the thrill of the fresh first layer, and so, for these I decided to keep it.

The signs are place-less for a reason. But I am sure you already got that.

thinking about green tea, I painted this yesterday. Also inspired by the wet green I see through the window.

Its SNOWING!