Count down is on

My husband comes home from Afghanistan this month and I am very excited, seven months is a long time to be alone with a baby. I have been staying with my sister and her family in Toronto for some of the time. This past weekend I completed the Sporting for Life 10 km race (apparently it's pretty easy being that it's mostly down hill, I am still sore) but I have a 10 month old and I did a 10 km huzzah. There were 15000 people there and it was a rush. Felt good to finish, my time was 1hr and 5 minutes. Now I wonder what it would feel like to do a 1/2 marathon.I think that would feel pretty awesome to finish. We are getting posted to Kingston On this summer so the adventure continues.
I haven't been to Chapter book store in a while and we went this weekend and to my utter joy Melissa Marr has a new book (I am so out of touch) I have read all her books and I am excited about "Radian Shadows." I also got Holly Blacks new book "White Cat" eek giggle.
Heres is a pic of me and my sister and our neighbor Sonia who writes the blog
kevinandsonya.blogspot.com
at the Sporting for life run

In Almunecar Spain

st patties day







As most of you know and of course the military bloggers, My husband is in the military. He has been in Afghanistan on tour. I was able to meet him on his break and we met in a small town in Spain called Almunecar. I decided to stay in Spain for a month and hang out with the baby since I am on maternity leave. We rented a house in the old village and near our house is the Roman sardine salting ruins and there was an old wall near the park that had the ruins and in this little door was a figurine. Well during a rain storm the "thing" fell and smashed. I decided when I went the the Nerje flea market to get a new creature for the box and here is the replacement I put in the box. Part of that wall is over 2000 years old. pretty cool. The top pics are the new tenant while the older now smashed one is the last pic. Here are some more pics of us in Spain

Bulgogi Marinade recipe Gluten free

1/2 cup soy sauce (VH is gluten free)
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons of water
8 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 a cup
1 smallish onion minced
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (don't be lazy and add untoasted sesame; toast them on low heat till a light brown)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 packs of chinese fondue beef (which is 700 g of eye of round thinly sliced) partly thawed it and then cut lengthways

First cut up the meat and put in large bowl
cut onions and garlic and set aside
put soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, water, oil in a separate bowl
put untoasted sesame seeds in a pan turn on heat and slowly toast
once toasted add to liquid mix, sizzle
Sweat the garlic and onion in that pan that is now hot until they are shiny turn the heat off and add the rest of the ingredients from the bowl to the pan so the sugar melts and then pour it all over the sliced Chinese fondue beef ( thinly sliced eye of round) and fold it into the meat. set aside till ready to use

let the beef set for an hour or more whatever but keep refrigerated if longer.
cook in batches in a wok or whatever you got.

eat with rice

or put on top of pizza dough (or GF pizza dough) with mozzarella on top and cook in the oven like a pizza 425-450 for 10-15 min
Heaven

Baby food in my hair

OH that..thats just spit up on my shirt, slobber on my chin and cereal in my hair. I went for coffee with a friend the other day while I was in Toronto visiting my idea of the centre of the universe. Bloor street. Ahh cake at Futures. And she asked me "So have you been doing any art?" I said "Yeah I am doing an art installation with diapers and the compost bin." It took a moment but she understood. I am at my parents in Quebec for a bit waiting for my flight to Spain to meet my husband. It been 4 1/2 month since we have seen him. I will be staying in spain for a month it will be exciting. I would love to do some sketches while I am there but it will be impossible with a overly curious 7 month old. exhale, when do they nap?????

Flappy ears

This is a video I posted on Funny or Die. I am not technologically suave so this was one way to send my husband video of the baby and it is pretty funny. Lots of people have looked at it too. Probably more people looked at it in a week than who look at this blog in a year. So just click on this link and I am sure you will get a kick out of it. P.S. The music in the back ground is Adele from the CD Adele 19 flappy ears

Baby Brain

So some know and most don't I am staying with my parents while my husband is on tour. We will leave it at that. So I want to be creative and do some form of artsy but the majority of my day is spent breastfeeding. pureeing food, and changing diapers with lots of kisses here and there to a wonderful happy baby, How did I get so blessed? So I think to myself do I write in my blog when I am no longer creating? I don't have an answer but I think I might just use the blogging as my tool to be creative and well we will see. Here is a pic of Christmas day with the cat and the baby. poor cat, but funny.

Gloomy bear

I guess its no surprise to a lot of people that we collect funky stuff. We found this pink bear in a funky shop on Whyte Ave in Edmonton. It's a Gloomy Bear By Mori Chack (His Idea is that Bears should not be in captivity and they will eventually turn on you because it is a wild animal and not a pet, so stay away from bears) this bear we got is 16 inches tall, hard plastic and we got it when we found out we were having a girl. awwwwe. It can go in her room and scare the boogy monster.

My husband as a surprize got me the Hello Kitty Cactus by Tokidoki as well as a gift. It is definitely one of a kind. The only Hello Kitty with a skull and cross bones.

Finally to add to the collection. After months of hunting I found a My neighbor Totoro doll. What I like the most is the hunt for odd objects. You never now what you will find. Sure I guess you could just click and get it online but finding randomly it by walking around and checking out new funky shops run by local people is even better.

Margaret Tarrant "Strike up the Easter band"

My husband and I love looking at antiques, he is on the hunt for a roll top desk. I was looking for bunny kins, particularly the two handle mug and a plate and wide lip bowl and a makeup suit case or hat suit case. I found them all.

We went to a place in Edmonton called the antique mall. Stalls and stalls of stuff, all be it over priced. By this time we new the value of some stuff and we were shocked at the prices of the stuff in this mall. As well all prices were fixed with no bartering. Who doesn't love a good haggle? So one day i saw this piece, just a poster by Margaret Tarrant called "Strike up the Easter band" 16"x20" (Margaret Tarrant drew the pics for the Alice in Wonderland book and water babies, ah just google her) and ever since I got pregnant all I think about is bunnies/rabbits/hares. I think it is her spirit animal 100%. So I walk away from it cause it was retardedly over priced. And thought about that piece for days and I thought if that poster in an old crappy frame from the 1950's gets sold it will be my biggest regret. So we went back weeks later and I paid full price on the most beautiful image for my babies room.

Its been a long time I know

I have not been doing much art so I have been discussing in my head what is my blog for is it a diary of my life regardless of if I am actively creating or is it just for my art and what I create. I read a lot of books and have opinions on them and have often thought about writing about them. then I ask myself do I just create another blog then? when do I separate the two? then they may intertwine and I would be writing things twice. Anyways for the past year have been working for the Canadian military as a clerk I archive and log incoming correspondence and documents. Most of the civilians I worked with are children, husbands or wives of military personnel like me or former military members. Last fall I found out I was pregnant and wanted to get a secure income for maternity leave. I knew that working as an artist was a great job but it did not supply me with the benefits of a federal job. Incidentally my brain loved the job I did. The numbers and patterns of filing was meditative for me and like a puzzle. I had a baby girl in July we named her Lydia Jane. Here is a picture of my pickle. I never realized how much time is consumed by taking care of a baby. I have been meaning to write in my blog but I have had no time. It's either sleep when she does or pay for it later.

long time again

Sorry again time just keeps on passing by. I love this pic. We were waiting for out connecting flight in the calgary airport going to montreal. right before christmas. thought this was pretty cute. I am not sure what is going except I feel I am slowly getting better and I had a major burn out. I also really am not a big fan of Edmonton. But we will suck it up and bear it and hope to get posted in the next year and half. Mostly I have felt that my art has been smothering me and I needed to step away and take stock. I also am tired of trying to find a supplier for my frames. I think in THE coming monthS things will change. I started getting visions a few days ago. they are Still foggy but different.

get well from Tanner

one of my co-workers cats Tanner got my cat a get well card and some present to keep him company and occupied while he goes throught the transition of becoming an indoor cat. he went a little crazy when he smelled the gift and loved the blanket with the catnip inside. my kitty got very high. The cut is closed over but its squshy around the sides of it hope there is no infection trapped in there. only time will tell. Thank you Tanner and Kim

poor kitty

well its been a while i know. i have a job in an office and i bike to work everyday. not necessarily putting my art on hold it just i have no time. anyways here are the pumpkins we did from halloween a storm trooper and bobafett. here is a pic of my kitty who got cut last night in a fight. i guess??? he is pretty pissed that he is an indoor cat right now. but i have had plenty of crying done last night and today at the vet. Cats fight. i just wish people in our neighbor hood would trim their cats nails so they don't do such incredible damage. I was almost thinking it was a rabbit since we have so many of them around. keep yah posted on the leaking wound. they say they wont do stiches because it might trap an infection so it has to stay open. yuck. i am a little emotionally scared and nauseous by this.

cat costume

It is a star wars theme in our house this halloween. Here is the costume we got for Spartan. We also are carving storm trooper pumpkins. I think these pics are so funny.

meerkats

long awaited blog entry. I know I am terrible. I started doing meerkat cause they are so cute. the telus commercials just got to me so here is a meerkat from the zoo posing with one of my paintings

Art in the Wild

I will participating in the Fundraiser Art Event at the Local Valley Zoo in Edsters. This event will be held on Saturday Sept 13th from 6-9:30. I will be DIVING DEEP and doing a series on sea turtles. Come check it out. I am so excited to be part of an art show with a elephant. toot toot. check out their site Valley zoo

Folk Music festival festival

Lets get folky. I am going to be sell my art at the Folk Music festival and this will be happening on Aug 8th-10th in Edsters Aka (Edmonton). I am excited that Aimee Mann will be playing. Here is the site for the line up and more infofolk fest

new stuff at my store

so a month or so back trevor and I and all my military painting drove to Calgary for the weekend where we met up with Matt Greer a stellar Photographer, where he documented my paintings. and for the past month with the little free time I have, I have been slowly putting them up on my store here is a link to Matt's blog and his tutorial on how to properly photograph art.matt greer here is a link to my store and the new productsmelissa ryans store here are some of the paintings he documented and the quality is awesome.

more pics from the festival

here are some more pics of the display

dead girls angels

so I started doing these paintings of girls that are dead in classic nude poses. mostly backs with them growing/sprouting wings. or becoming angels. well they we the top seller at the festival. I contemplated not bring them out or making small prints of the paintings. but thought to test out the response. people ate them up. so I did my Geisha as a dead girl and here is a new one as well, dead girl in yellow. both of these i made while at the festival. I sold the yellow one and the blue one but i still have my geisha. I love her.

Hey everyone. it been a long time. I just finished up the Art Works Festival in Downtown Edmonton at Sir Winston Churchill Park. It was a 12 day festival from 11 am to 10 pm at night. Here are some pics of my display. this wall trevor and I built and we measure to fit it in the trunk of the car. The wall compacts into 6 leafs books and in the set up one is stacked on another and the they are all attached. making a 12 panel wall. It worked out well. I have attempted to upload my images on my blog severa times but something always happens.