An Autumn Gathering

I went for a walk a few days ago with the boys to collect different leaves, and other tidbits and morsels that nature dishes out this time of year.

It started with acorns. There aren't a lot of oak trees in Hamilton, so I was giving the boys each a nickel for each complete acorn that they could find. I like having little dishes of the outdoors to sketch from.

But then we travelled down to Missouri a couple of weeks ago and hit the acorn jackpot. I had to stop handing out nickles eventually. (but yes, our acorn collection is plentiful;) Now they're on the hunt for berries, moss, fungus, leaves etc.

We arranged the colorful little pieces on a plate and it almost looked delicious enough to eat. (especially with the quail egg shells! We always have these on hand anyway, as Reuben and my niece are allergic to chicken eggs, these are their alternative. And really, they are so much cuter!)

We had a little watercolour party, inspired by our plate of goodies. The boys are still working on theirs, and are looking for even more to add to it.

I made a little nest out of the goodies, and can't wait to make some more. The colours were so inspiring!

This print is now available in my shop

Sketchbook Project

I promise that I meant to mention this earlier. In case anyone is interested, there are only two days left to sign up for
the sketchbook project.

I ordered mine a little late, so I'll have a lot of sketching to do between now and January!

For my theme/topic, I picked "I'm a Scavenger". (oooh, so true) You should see the assortment of leaves, twigs, feathers, moss and fungus that I collected on today's walk...(actually, you  WILL see them in some upcoming artwork!)

If anyone feels like participating, sign up soon!

I'll be posting pics of mine as I go. I'd love to see yours!

They're Back! Soda Can ornaments

People Magazine's Order when they featured my stars in 2008 in People Español and with Sabrina Soto on HGTV

It's that time of year again! The time where I get a craving for shiny metal paper cuts and force my friends and family to pack on a few pounds by drinking absurd amounts of these addictive beverages, so that I may keep the cans and make all sorts of sparkling beauties.

Ok..I kid, I kid. I'm actually really fortunate to live right next to Poco Loco, a fantastic Tex-Mex restaurant who's sweet owners allow me to raid their recycling bin on a weekly basis.

I have, however, gotten Mark to try different beers, based on the beauty of the cans. (Which is no worse than when he gets me to drink beer or pop based on the bottle so that he can make these... ) Let's just say as suckers for pretty packaging, we've tried some fairly putrid beverages, all for that shiny pink can or classy looking bottle with a painted label! Luckily, we've found a few that we do like as well!


These will be available in my shop until the 1st of December. I don't trust Canada Post's shipping past that point.