2027 Photo Calendar - Flowers

 My photo calendars are ready!

2027 Flowers - Here is my flowers calendar which features flowers taken in several locations this summer. Visits to the St. Albert Botanic Garden, the neighborhood front yards, some from Beaumaris Lake, my sisters garden and the little pond. A good variety of colors and again many shots to choose from.

The holidays have been marked in red.

This calendar has 13 4x6 pages which is 12 month pages with an index/title page.

01 - Dandelion Seedhead                                02 -  Red Tulips

03 - Yellow Dahlia                                          04 - Apple Blossoms

05 - Ninebark Summer Wine                           06 - Alberta Rose

07 - Blue Flax                                                  08 - Pink Dahlia

09 - Sunflower                                                10 - Devil's Paintbrush

11 - Blue Iris                                                    12 - Anemone

2027 Photo Calendar - Nature

My photo calendars are ready!

2027 Nature - Here is my nature calendar which features flying creatures from several locations taken this summer. Visits to the St. Albert Botanic Garden, the neighborhood front yards, some from Beaumaris Lake, Hasse Lake and the pond at the new place. Butterflies were very hard to find this summer. The little pond was very good this year but the white egret did not make an appearance. I had lots of shots to choose from so I am so blessed.

The holidays have been marked in red.

This calendar has 13 4x6 pages which is 12 month pages with an index/title page.

01 - White Pelicans at Hasse Lake                02 - Bumble Bee on pink

03 - Downy Woodpecker                               04 - Golden Dragonfly

05 - Golden Eye Duck                                   06 - Common Cormorant at little pond

07 - Lesser Yellow Legs at Hasse Lake         08 - Police Car Moth

09 - Loon on Hasse Lake                               10 - Canvas Back Duck Pair

11 - Question Mark Butterfly                          12 - Juvenile Blue Heron at little pond

2027 Tea Time Calendar

 
My 2027 Tea Calendar is ready!

2027 Tea Time - I had interest in a Tea Calendar this year so I set up the photo studio on the dining room table.  I had to borrow some tea items from a neighbour to get enough shots for the calendar.

The holidays have been marked in red.

This calendar has 13 4x6 pages which is 12 month pages with an index/title page.

01 - Clear Fluted Tea Pot by Primula                       07 - Yellow Tea Pot with Jianzhan Tea Tasting cup 

02 - Sunflower Tea Cup  Bone China                      08 - Yellow Bone China Tea Cup with Gold Trim

03 - Porcelain Tea Pot & Tea Cup                            09 - Wooden Tea Pot

04 - Grey Bone China Cup - Japan                          10 - White Bone China Tea Cup Royal Worcester

05 - White Regency Tea Cup - Johnson Bros          11 - Tea for One by CanHome

06 -  Royal Kent Bone China Tea Cup                    12 - Glass Tea Mug by David's Tea

2026 Slow Stitching Project - Page 42 - U2 - Ultramarine Blue, Umber

Trying to get caught up on my slow stitching.

2026 Slow Stitching project is my book.  

My prompt for page 42 is Ultramarine Blue and Umber.

I created squares from cotton dyed with these 2 colors. I chose Ultrawhite floss to stitch the squares down as these colors are quite dark.

 

2026 Slow Stitching Project - Page 41 - U1 - Umbrella, Under

Another page in my stitch book for the K3N Cloth Tales' slow stitch challenge.

My prompt is Umbrella. I created a blue background with Inktense pad and pencils.  Heat set it when it was dry.

I appliqued the top of the Umbrella with bright fabric pieces.  I added the tip and the handle in dark grey thread.

I added rain coming down in several colors of blue thread.  Then stitched white clouds from cheesecloth.

We are protected from rain or sun Under and Umbrella.

2026 Slow Stitching Project - Page 40 - T2 Triangles, Teal, Turquoise, Tangerine

Another page for my 2026 stitch book.  I am following K3NClothTales' slow stitch project.

The prompt is Triangles.  I went with that and added Teal, Turquoise and Tangerine.  I searched my scrap bucket and found small pieces into Triangles.

I stitched the Triangles in a scattered pattern with coordinating thread.

I am happy with this piece.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

My aunt and I headed to Barrhead to pick up our Feature Artist pieces. 

I sold 2 patches which is not a resounding success.

I will be able to reuse some of them into cards at the gallery but sales have slowed there as well.

I am grateful the weather has hung in and we had a nice sunny day.

I watched this movie on line.  The Etruscan Smile/Rory's Way.

Set in Scotland and the USA.   A father who has pain in his body leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island for San Francisco to see his son, new grandson and seek medical help for the pain.

The grandson is wonderful.  His parents are doing what they think is best. The doctor delivers bad news and Rory meets a woman in an art gallery.  

The son left his Scottish life behind and has to deal with past issues with his Dad.  The woman at the gallery is not sure about this older man. The grandson is having adventures with granddad in this big city.

Wonderful movie.

I was looking for a lemon ginger loose tea so I did some research and decided on getting this Blue Ginger Detox tisane from David's Tea.

I was at WEM to pick up photo calendars so I may as well nip in to check this out.

I am wanting not use teabag tea which puts microplastics in what I drink every day.  It wastes packaging as well. 

We shall see.

The wonderful sunflower and gold finch art has been hung.  It used to be over my desk in my office but that wall as too much electrical cables for fire suppression, etc. in it.

I decided to hang it in the hallway facing into the kitchen so I will see it every day.  Goes with the sunflower theme of the kitchen.

It takes a while to decide what a new home looks like and feels like

Several of us attended the reception for the Weight of Silk by Yvonne DuBourdieu at the Red Brick Common Art Gallery. She is from Scotland and now lives in Calgary.  We are so appreciative of being able to see new artist work several times a year.  It is on display till the end of January 2027.

It was sad to learn that the gallery will no longer be hosting art shows. The curator's position is no longer funded so the permanent collection of art will be hung in the gallery.

Summer at Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs is the book I finished this week. After breaking up with her fiancée, Olivia Bellamy reluctantly trades a trendy Manhattan summer for her family’s old resort camp in the Catskills to renovate the bungalow colony for her grandparents. Camp Kioga brings back old memories of her summers as a teenager, when she was still discovering her passions.

The camp is now in disarray, and to her chagrin Olivia is forced to hire contractor Connor Davis—a still-smoldering flame from her own summers at camp. But as the days grow warm, not even the inviting blue waters of Willow Lake can cool the passions flaring or keep shocking secrets at bay.

The nostalgic joy of summers past breathes new promise into a special place and people…a promise meant to last long after the season ends.

A bit of a predictable story line. I guess I should not her books too close together. 

Mono Printing Class

I spent the morning with a bunch of artists learning how to use a gelli plate to make mono prints.

Lisa Matthias was our facilitator and provided gelli plates, botanicals and many ideas.

1) Apply acrylic paint directly to the plate and pulling a print.

2) Using a brush in order to remove paint, let it dry then apply a lift layer to pull the print. Christmas tree.

3) Painting on the plate, letting it dry then applying a lift layer to pull the print. Yellow flower.

4) Apply paint, and press botanicals, cover and pull a incomplete print, lift botanicals, dry, apply a lift layer and pull the print. Blue ones.  If you place a hinge you can capture the detailed print in the holes from the first pull. This process can work with many objects. I used a doily in the blue print top row - kindly donated by another artist.

Interesting that patience is required.  At times the paper needs to sit on the paint for several minutes and just does not work well if you do not wait. Hair dyers were provided to hasten the process.   At other times one has to work fast before the paint dries.  I am very interested to work this on fabric.  After I saw this today I believed a textile medium will be required.

Many of my Folk Art artist pigment bottles were old and it would have helped to give them some water a few days ago to thin a bit.

Inktober 2026 - Day 31

Inktober 2026

Day 31 

My Prompt - Seed Packet
 

I went for a kraft color for the envelope.

Lines for the details.

Inktober 2026 - Day 30

Inktober 2026

Day 30

My Prompt: Arcs

An abstract of soft smooth shapes - arc.

All colored differently.

Yellow, beige, green, blue, orange watercolor.

Black marker for outlining.

 

Inktober 2026 - Day 29

Inktober 2026

Day 29

My Prompt: Sail Boat

I created a background with a wash of Payne's Gray on a sheet protector and pressed the 4x6 sheet of 154lb paper into it.

I watercolored over it.

A sail boat, a sun on the left, land and trees also on the same side.

Inktober 2026 - Day 28

Inktober 2026

Day 28

My Prompt: Scribbles

Offset my center and drew 10 triangles.  I filled each one with a different pattern done in black acrylic with a dip pen.

I added a circle with a marker then the solid center.

 

Inktober 2026 - Day 27

Inktober 2026

Day 27

Rural Mail Boxes

Payne's Gray for the sky again on this one.

Warm green watercolor for the bottom half.

Three mail boxes side by side along the road side.

I chose 3 different colors with metallic fronts. Outlined in black acrylic in applied with a dip pen.

Long grass surrounding their support posts.

Inktober 2026 - Day 26

I took photos of a full moon last night and colored one today.

Inktober 2026

Day 26

Full Moon

I used black watercolor for the bottom half and watered down Payne's Gray acrylic for the sky. Amazing the color.

Black acrylic for the foliage and pearl watercolor for the moon.

A bit of pearl spatter for stars in the sky.

Inktober 2026 - Day 25

Inktober 2026

Day 25

My Prompt - Letters

The alphabet of course.

Thin lines with a bit of color.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The collection of 2" fabric squares I picked up at ReUse have been sorted and packaged in cello so that I can find what I need when the inspiration hits.

It took 4 hours to sort them all and then hours to create the small cellophane envelopes and to put the squares in there.

I put 2 designs back to back so I could see both designs.

These will come in handy for upcoming projects.

The Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs.

Camille Adams is a widow living a quiet life with her teenage daughter in Bethany Bay, a small coastal town.  Her father lives nearby.

The arrival of a mysterious package breaks open the door to her family secret past.

They return to a French town where Camille's father grew up.  Memories of the dark days of WWII are encountered as he meets friends from those days.  

The village offers a wonderful change from the home they have in the US.  Camille meets a man, the daughter makes friends, and the father rekindles a relationship.

A good read.

Us girls took a drive to Devon AB.

No art gallery but we made do.

The Walking Trails Marketplace holds a wonderful array of gift items.

The Crave Appetite had good food.

The 2 Ravenz Metaphysical shop carries a wide variety of stuff.

The Store Ltd a vintage shop had lots of clothes.  There was a $1 bin in which I found a few things for upcycling. It was a good day.

Inktober 2026 - Day 24

Inktober 2026

Day 24

My Prompt - Contraption

I drew my composition with 2H pencil putting down gears, pulleys, electric bulb and lighting pole.

I laid a thin layer black watercolor onto a sheet protector and then pressed my 4x6 inch piece of Canson Fluid Mixed Media 154lb paper onto it to create my background.

I then watercolored the art.  I used copper metallic watercolor for the large wheel.

Outlined the shapes with a dip pen and Rowney-Daler Black liquid acrylic ink.

Inktober 2026 - Day 23

Inktober 2026

Day 23

Watercolor Washes with trees.

Trees are done with black gouache.

Very loose composition.

Subtle watercolor wash in background. 

Inktober 2026 - Day 22

Inktober 2026

Day 22

My Prompt - Botanicals

A fantastical flower in purples. Maybe a dahlia.

A soft watercolor wash background.

Payne's Gray acrylic ink with dip pen.

Inktober 2026 - Day 21

Inktober 2026

Day 21

My prompt - Close By - Little Pond

Very loose pencil sketch with loose watercolor as well.

The bulrushes were done with dip pen in Yellow Ochre for he stocks and Raw Umber for the cattails.

Deciduous and evergreen trees in the background. 

I could have put birds on the water but I was afraid to wreck it.  Considering how far behind I have been not taking the chance.