May17
Yay! We have a winner – sorry it took so long to draw a winner – my website was down for a few hours!
Congrats Chelsey Velilla of Swirl Girl Studio! You are the winner of my May contest giveaway! You’ll be getting Mary Beth Shaw’s book Flavor for Mixed Meida along with a few other lovely goodies. PLease e-mail me your address and I’ll mail your gifties to you!
I’ll be gone to the Oregon Coast for just over a week – should be back Monday May 27th. Mr. G is going on a Kayak building course which would be akin to me going on an art retreat! Fun! I’ll be walking the beaches and checking out the lovely art and shops in Canon Beach. I won’t be too far from one of my favourite artists Alisa Burke who lives in the lovely town of Seaside.
I may post some pictures on facebook or possibly even here!
See you in a week and a half! Hope you have a lovely several days!
Love, Violette xo
May15
Look at what I got for Mother’s day – this adorable handmade ceramic funky pot. It’s from my son Ryan and daughter-in-law Kathryn. I just think it’s so adorable that i put some of my favourite marbles in it and placed it in a place of honour on my computer desk!
I spent 10 hours yesterday as a Scrutineer for the Election here in B.C. My good friend Susan was running for political office. Unfortunately she did not win. As you probably know I’m not very politically minded but wanted to volunteer to help my friend out. Now I know more about politics than I ever wanted to know….ha! It’s pretty disheartening when you put your heart and soul into campaigning and then you don’t win. There are lessons to be learned in every challenge though.
If you haven’t already done so please enter my May contest by checking out this blogpost! You can win some fun stuff including the book “Flavor for Mixed Media” by Mary Beth Shaw.
Love, Violette xo
May13
I hope that all of the lovely Mom’s out there had a wonderful Mother’s day? We had a nice gathering here – it rained so we put up a tent in the backyard but ended up being inside most of the time. My Mom was sick and unable to attend but through the wonders of technology we were able to “Facetime” with her on my daughter-in-law’s i-pad! My Mom was able to see her great grandkids which made her happy!
Hooray! It’s time again for another giveaway at Casa Violette! Rather than keep giving away my book Journal Bliss I thought it would be nice to give away another artist’s book. This time i bought Mary Beth Shaw’s wonderful book called Flavor for Mixed Media. I thought you would enjoy this book using a metaphor of recipes and cooking to describe mixed media art. Mary Beth uses rich layers and textures to create clever concoctions. She even utilizes “icing” in some of her creations. How fun is that?
So in this giveaway you’ll find Mary Beth’s book, one of my prints of your choice and 6 of my “Be who you are” postcards!
I will be drawing a name on Friday May 17 rather than on Monday as Mr. G and i are going away so he can build a kayak (he’s taking a workshop) on the Oregon Coast. So if you’ll like to enter my contest please let me know what mixed media technique you would like to learn – and if you don’t want to learn anything new you can post that too! Please post here in the comments section!
Good luck!
Love, Violette xo
May10
Yesterday I went with my friend Nicci who is hosting the (Into The HeART Art Retreat)to Loon Lake in Maple Ridge. Oh my gosh…….i so fell in love with the log cabins and the stunning forest setting and the lake……oh gosh……the lake!! It was love at first sight!
Can you just picture yourself sitting here quietly with a cup of coffee in the morning writing in your journal? That’s the first thing I thought of when i saw this chair on the wharf!
I don’t imagine the water is too warm at this time of year – maybe in a couple of months it will be! It sure looks inviting though doesn’t it?
We went to the Retreat center so i could see the setting and also so we could take some photos and shoot a bit of a video which Nicci will be posting soon to promote the retreat.
Nicci brought along one of her frames so we could pose behind it. Next to me is the sign that says “Good Times” – you can see Loon Lake in the background. You can view a slideshow of the rustic accomodations here.
Nicci posing with the sign!
Carolyn met us there as well. She’ll be teaching Steampunk Madness at the retreat! Nicci has been wearing Carolyn’s amazing Steampunk necklace for a while now. You can see it pictured with the doll in one of these photos.
I brought along my Bohemian Bliss book (the class I’ll be teaching) so i could photograph it on one of the lovely weathered picnic tables.
I hope you’ll come and join us on this retreat – just being out in nature like this is a healing balm for the soul! Mix nature plus art and you’ve got a winning combination!
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a great weekend. We’ll be celebrating my sister’s 60th birthday at the Magic Cottage as well as Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the special Mom’s out there!
Love, Violette xoxo
May8
I’m working on this collage right now……I am slow in getting to it as I’ve been busy gardening, volunteering, doing family stuff and work related things.
I have difficulties switching over from one task to another. I think as you get older multi tasking gets more challenging.
This is what gives me joy right now – hugging my tree at Alderwood Park – these trunks are from the same huge tree. Last night i walked to the park with Mr. G who is about as straight and normal as you’ll ever get. So i tell him “I have to go and hug my tree now!” - off he goes looking at the pond while i quietly hug my tree and imagine that I’m being absorb into the tree then growing roots down into the earth (through my feet). I imagine the roots wrap around a giant crystal cluster in the center of the earth and then bring the energy from Mother Earth back up through the roots into my body. All of this magic happens in less than 2 minutes 
!
This gorgeous tree full of pink blossoms truly took my breath away!
I’ve been trying to visit this mama duck and her 12 ducklings every day. Seeing them in this cozy little huddle brings me such joy! I’m not the only one who visits the ducklings, many couples and families with small children visit the ducklings as well. They are quite the celebrities in our neighbourhood.
I hope you are all enjoying a marvellous Wednesday!
Love, Violette xo
May6
Hello hello! I do hope you all had an amazing weekend! Ours was great – we had a gorgeous weekend with lots of sun, yard work and attending a celebratory birthday fundraiser for my good friend Susan who is running for Political Office.
As you know i blogged about being inspired by my friend Sandy’s organizational Caddy. Mr. G spent 8 hours creating his version of it and he even added a handle to it so i could easily transport it from room to room. You won’t believe how excited i am to have this! Now i can see my most treasured supplies at a glance and have easy access to them rather than rummaging through boxes and tool caddies. 
I believe the thing that took the longest of all in creating this caddy was to cut the coroplast (corrugated plastic) and make the grooves in each piece so they could interlock. If Mr. G sold this he’d probably get 40 or 50 dollars for it which would work out to 5 dollars an hour! Yowser! If you live in the States and would like to get something like this I would highly recommend this Marker Organizer. It’s just over 40 dollars and i don’t imagine that shipping within the States would be too expensive.
Most of your pens are supposed to be stored horizontally if you want them to last a long time so this container is idea. If you are on a budget i can envision an inexpensive caddy fashioned from tin cans that are glued together – sort of like this. If you paint it up in a bright colour it will look great in your studio!
I still have to add my gel pens to the caddy and also there are some felt pens I’d like to order online that i tried out. In the above photo you can see – pencils, fat copic markers, copic markers, copic markers, copic markers 
, highlighters, Sharpies in a variety of colours, micron pens, paint pens, water colour pencil crayons (some Inktense) etc. There are also glue sticks, glitter glue, paint brushes and a stamp pad in the little cubbies.
Because i let workshop participants use my supplies my stuff gets scattered everywhere then i don’t know what i have and don’t have. Believe me i was doing a happy dance when i organized my supplies in this fashion and discovered supplies i had forgotten about. Of course i didn’t have room for all of the supplies but just the good pens that i will use quite a bit.
Well that’s it for today! I’ll see you all on Wednesday!
Love, Violette xo
