art fusion

jamie and i finished our art fusion piece! its acrylic and ink on a 48" x 30" canvas. the sunset was referenced from a sunset on the coast of napoli italy, the tree was inspired by the old trees in sherwood forest england...the trees there all look like they have faces. and the swans..because swans are beautiful..so why not. here's the finished piece and a couple of in progress shots

i've  got a few other large scale paintings in the works right now. solo, so way less challenging. the most challenging part of painting at this point in my life is finding the time, hopefully pictures will be posted soon! 

inverno bel bambino

before we left for our hawaii trip me and aya did a mini photo shoot. it was this winter and we were having a lazy day inside. here's some of the pictures from that day...

this hat was one of my first knitting projects

hawaii

aya & i went to hawaii!! we stayed on maui with relatives and spent two weeks relaxing & exploring. there was a beach called baby beach which was our favourite because of all the shade and low water protected by a reef. we also drove the road to hana and went up haleakala volcano to watch the sunrise. one of my favourite places on the island was the lavender farm. here are some photos of our adventure….

the road to hana

sunrise at haleakala volcano (10,000 ft elevation)

baby beach

the lavender farm where we had lavender scones and lavender tea

  

nostalgia

i've been going through old photographs and reminiscing...i'm good at that. i've also been throwing together real albums because nothing can compare to real life photos. people seem to be getting so removed from them, it's kind of sad. so i'm working on a huge album of my favourite pictures from mine and jamies travels as well as a family album. there's something nostalgic about a big leather bound album full of memories. anyway, just because nothing can compare to the real deal doesn't mean i'll give up on online photographs! so here's a few of my faves (mostly of aya of course, my new little muse!)

 i found this picture in my cell not that long ago from when she was only two days old, she was so teeny!!     

we go for lots of walks in the forest

 

my two favourite people ever

love her smile

little bear ♥

cristmas!

we had a very mellow christmas this year...we drank wine, watched movies, built a gingerbread house. it was pretty awesome, but then aya squashed it

poor little penguins:(

cookies

i started baking when i was about four with my mom, i loved it because i got to lick the spoons along the way & the bowl at the end...& i still love cookie dough! sometimes i have it for dinner. that's how much i love it. over the years i have been a total health "freak" on & off depending on how disciplined i'm feeling, so my recipes have been altered over the years. here is one of my favourite cookie recipes i have written:  

~gluten free vegan cookies

~1 cup peanut butter (crunchy)
~1&2/3 cups honey
~1 egg (beaten) or flax mix (refer to below)
~1&1/2 teaspoons vanilla
~1/3 cup soy butter (earth balance is good)
~1&1/3 cups flour (spelt or brown rice (or mix them together))
~1/2 teaspoon salt
~1/2 baking soda
~1 cup unsweetened carob chips or sweetened with agave syrup 

now i know i said egg in the recipe but when you think of what those eggs have been through (for the most part) eggs are kind of gross. so here's a little secret: you can replace egg with flax! just mix 1 tablespoon of ground golden flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water, beat it like you would an egg and in baking thats the equivalent to 1 egg but way healthier! 
i also sometimes replace the 1 cup carob chips with 1 cup of chopped up toblerone. i'm not going to lie, they taste way better when you do it like that, how could they not?!

~preheat the oven to 350 f
~mix the peanut butter, honey, & butter together
~stir in the egg (or flax mix) & vanilla
~mix the flour, salt & baking soda together & stir into the      peanut butter mix
~oil the cookie sheets & roll your cookies into balls
~squish them onto the baking sheet
~bake for 10~12 minutes (keep a close eye on them, honey burns  quite easily)

be careful, they are highly addictive!!

~♥~

miss caitlin ffrench

here are a couple of photos i took of my friend caitlin this summer in her backyard. caitlin has a cat and loves to knit and drink flower tea. her last name is ffrench. her husband gave it to her. he paints nice whales.

she also plays the accordion and collects dead things.