Goodbye Autumn Hello Winter!

The theme for the Scribble Picnic this week is "Goodbye Autumn". When I saw this prompt a few weeks ago, we already had a lot of snow on the ground! We said a fond farewell to Autumn a long time ago! Here is my watercolour to celebrate the change of season!!

And of course, for fun, I had to draw Bugs saying goodbye to Autumn too! :)

I'm still fooling around with that digital painting program, slowly but surely I'm learning all of the gazillion functions it has! Though I think I will stick to landscapes until I can acquire a digital pen! My finger on the touch pad of my laptop is way too wobbly for detail!!

Once you start to receive Christmas cards...Autumn is definitely long gone! This lovely card was sent to me by Christine, our fellow Scribble Picnicker and Blog friend. She made it herself too, I love that! Thanks so much Christine!! :))

Charlie would LIVE outside all winter if we let her!

Alex and I did the monthly shopping last week...so glad that's over. On shopping days we don't even bother to cook, we always make sure we have a nice cheese platter to snack on as we put groceries away. :)

We've had some unpleasant surprises lately...lots of power outages due to the heavy snow on the Hydro lines; next, our water pump busted and we had no water for almost a day; not to mention a partially flooded basement. :( We have a great landlord though, and he came over to fix it. Having no water is kind of depressing...but I'm glad it wasn't a big repair, I had some Homemade Salsa and Marinara Sauce to can! 

Another crazy thing that happened was car-related. I would be braking then the car would jerk suddenly and scare the bleep out of me. 

The ABS brake sensor was malfunctioning and last month we had it replaced. But the car dashboard still lit up like a Christmas tree! Oh, and just for fun, the "check engine" light came on too; so yesterday we had to go back and it was some kind of ridiculously expensive bearing on the wheel that had to be fixed. In times of stress, a nice walk in the woods helps. Alex and I came upon this frozen river on one of the trails near the garage.

Despite that surprise expense, I am proud to say we are nearly halfway towards our savings goal for a down payment! :) And...since I challenged myself in early November to only use the car less than 10 times until spring...it's been three trips out so far...once for monthly shopping and TWICE to the garage!!! I hope that's all settled now so I can keep that promise to myself! Our next car will have NO GADGETS...these modern cars claim convenience...but the cost to fix them is anything but!!! What do you guys drive?

Time for comfort food!!! This dish was SO GOOD. It's a Vegetarian-ish Shepherd's Pie. I say "ish" because I use Worcestershire sauce in it, which I believe has anchovies.

Green Onion and Potato Soup with Potato Pancakes. Oh Mr. Potato how I love thee! :)

Chocolate Coffee Cake. First time I made this! It was really good, especially the streusel topping!

Cozying up in bed with Jack, my precious hound dog. :)

Farewell little fella...until next year!! :)

Scribble Picnic: Forest...Food...Fun!

Hello Friends!! :)

Hope you're all doing well! :) The theme for Michael's Scribble Picnic this week is "Forest". I thought about a snowy relaxing forest painting...but, you can't take the "scary" out of the gal it seems....this is my ink/watercolour "Forest"! :) I've had nightmares like this, so likely this is a self-portrait of sorts!!!

We've been dumped on with a good three feet of snow in the last half week! It's beautiful, and although I'm not a fan of cold, I've been trying to make the best of it by snowshoeing in the forest. :) I followed a game trail for about 45 minutes yesterday - me thinks it was deer though I didn't see anything but tracks. When it's snowing in the woods, it's so peaceful!

Here's my cartoon drawing for the picnic. In the Looney Tunes short "The Windblown Hare", Bugs taunts the Big Bad Wolf in the forest as he's brushing up on his fairy tales. Bugs fans may remember him strolling along singing "The rabbit in red...la da da dee dee dee, the rabbit in red...."... I love this episode and I was lucky to find it on Daily Motion (there may be an annoying ad before the cartoon starts, sorry about that!), check out the video if you want to bring back some memories!! :)

I hope the link worked! :)

I've been trying to make some great comfort food dishes lately. Lots of breakfast for dinner ideas! First, it's Breakfast Tacos. Then Linguine Carbonara (though I used capellini pasta because it's thinner and we prefer that).

A few Mexican inspired dinners: Papas Fritas (without the chicken this time) and Baked Enchiladas.  All with my homemade Salsa and Sour Cream. So delicious!! I would like to say that this is the time of year where I focus on comfort food...but who am I kidding? That's my main menu all year long!! :)

My homemade wood pallet decorations are out! Crooked Christmas Tree and Mr. Snowy are happy to be showcasing themselves for the season! :)

I'll end this post with an odd sighting...the elusive "oven-hood-cougar" who rarely lets himself be seen...little brat!!!  ;)

*************
My other blogs:

Rain's Thoughts
Latest Post: What Do You Want?

Rainy Day Cheese Making
Latest Post:  Wrapping The Cams

Scribble Picnic and GHOSTS!!!

Hello Friends! :)

I hope you're all doing well :) The theme for today's Scribble Picnic is "Bottle" (please follow the link for more art or to join in!). The very first Looney Tune cartoon that came to mind when I thought of "bottle" was Carrotblanca. Poor Bugs is hitting the carrot juice pretty hard!

I know "they" say to read your labels, but I honestly have never read the front of my Worcestershire bottle before...brings food alive huh? Hmmm...

This may not turn out well... :) 

We opened up a jar of Absinthe-flavoured cherries we'd canned in the summer of 2017...Oh my, what a great combination of flavours!!! Alex made us some Old Fashioned's to celebrate that success! :)

Sleepy Jack

Time to rest up...Halloween is right around the corner! I'm very excited and have lots of fun stuff planned that I will be sharing over the next few weeks! Do you have big plans? :)

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻 GHOSTOBER!! 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

I post these daily on Instagram, but I'd like to share my Ghostober paintings and ghost stories with my Blogger friends too. Here is the artwork I've done for the last few weeks:

"Apparition" (watercolour): An apparition is a sudden manifestation of a spirit who is trapped in a certain place. Usually an apparition will appear out of the corner of your eye, when you turn to look at it, it will be gone! 

"Battlefield Ghosts" (watercolour): Battlefield Ghosts are spirits of dead soldiers who are trapped in the battlefields where so much death and destruction took place. They haunt these areas seeking out their fellow slain soldiers and their horses.

"The Bell Witch" (ink and watercolour): The Bell Witch is a woman who was allegedly cheated out of a land deal by John Bell. On her deathbed, she swore revenge on him, stating that she would haunt his home, his family and all of his descendants. She created poltergeist activity in the home, and caused physical harm to the inhabitants, including the children and the farm animals on the land. It is believed that her spirit played a hand in John Bell's death by poisoning.

"Dryads" (acrylic): Dryads are protective tree spirits and have been known to lure lost travelers into the depths of the woods as an act of vengeance towards humans who destroy forests.

"The Flying Dutchman" (acrylic): The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make it to port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever.

"Grim" (acrylic): The Grim was thought to be invented during the time of the Black Plague. Because death was so rampant and terrifying, people personified the horrors with a supernatural creature who came to claim lives.

"Hungry Ghost" (acrylic): A Hungry Ghost is the spirit of a deceased person who was greedy and envious. They have necks the size of pins and cannot swallow, they roam the earth endlessly looking for food which they cannot eat.

"Madeline Usher" (watercolour): In Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", Roderick Usher, distraught and mad, buries his sister Madeline alive because he believes that his deadly fate is connected to his family name and his home. Believing that he is the last Usher to survive, he feels he has conquered his doom until one night his bedroom door bursts open to reveal Madeline standing there. He is terrified as she approaches him, she falls on to him, accompanying him into his death, as the House of Usher shatters, sinks into the ground and disappears forever. 

"Mrs. Wessington's Ghost" (watercolour): From Rudyard Kipling's "The Phantom Rickshaw". After being discarded for a younger woman, Agnes Wessington dies of a 'broken heart'. She haunts the man who betrayed her relentlessly. At first he sees her old rickshaw all around town, then he sees her riding in it, then eventually she appears to him constantly until he loses his mind and his new bride to be.

"Oiwa" (watercolour and acrylic): The Oiwa is the ghost of a woman who was poisoned and disfigured by her husband. When she learns of his plans to disgrace her, she fatally uses a sword to cut her throat. In death, she takes revenge and haunts her husband until he isolates himself goes mad.

"Shellycoat" (watercolour): A Shellycoat is an evil spirit and boogeyman who haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland. Calling out this rhyme is a dangerous deed: "Shelly-coat! Shelly-coat! gang awa' hame, I cry na' yer mercy, I fear na' yer name." Those who have recited this rhyme in areas where the Shellycoat resides, end up with broken bones and bruises - IF they're lucky!!

"The Snow Ghost" (ink and watercolour): The Snow Ghost is a winter mountain spirit. She appears on snowy nights to travelers who are trapped in snow storms, she leads them astray with her beauty. Her goal is to feed on their life force, often freezing her victims solid or leaving them to die of exposure. During nighttime blizzards, she has been known to break into rural homes, flash-freezing the inhabitants as she feeds on them.

"The Unquiet Grave" (watercolour and acrylic): The Unquiet Grave is a poem (I also read it's a folk song), about a man mourning the love of his life at her gravestone. Her ghost arises and begs him to move on so she can rest in peace.

Scribble Picnic 🎃🎃 GHOSTober!🎃🎃 and a GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY!!

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to start by offering these 16 Williams Sonoma cookbooks to any of my Canadian friends if they would like them. Note: If you really want them and you are outside of Canada, you'd have to cover the shipping...the 16 books weigh about 15-16 kg (un-boxed), so let me know in the comments as well. :)

If anyone would like these, please let me know in the comments, or send me an email (I have a contact form on my sidebar). Canada Post offers free shipping in Canada for people with business accounts, every Tuesday in October, so I'm taking advantage of that since both Alex and I have a business account!!

They are used but in great condition! They are doubles that I have and I'll tell you, I use them all the time, the recipes overall are wonderful! I'll pick the winner on Sunday October 7th!!! :) Please check back then, I'll announce the winner on that day!!!

Today's Scribble Picnic theme is "Chicken". (please follow the link for more scribbles or to join!) The first chicken that came to mind was Foghorn Leghorn trying to convince Henery Hawk that he really isn't a chicken!

I tried some more of the scratch board style with my Acrylic Chicken. :)

 

And finally, because it is October...I had to do something scary! Do you remember the Looney Tunes short "Hyde and Tweet"? The first time I saw this as a kid, I was TERRIFIED of the Hyde-Tweety-Bird!!! Poor Sylvester is having some regrets at the moment!! :)

I also joined an Instagram challenge called "Inktober" which is a drawing challenge using ink. There are prompts to follow each day. So far I've kept up and I hope I can do all 31 prompts!  Here are the first three of the month:

"Poisonous"

"Tranquil"

"Roasted"

I've been so busy over the summer that I haven't done too much art, but now I'm really getting into it!

I started my own October challenge that I call Ghostober. Every day in October, I draw or paint a ghost or ghoul and write a short description of the tale. I have them all on My Instagram Page, and I'll post them here every week too! Here are the first three:

Bloody Mary: Bloody Mary will appear on certain nights when her name is spoken three times in front of a mirror. She is an evil spirit who may foretell the future, but at the cost of your life!

La Llorona: La Llorona is the ghost of a woman whose children were lost. She haunts the river beds, moaning and searching for them. Beware those who hear her cries or cross her path for she will bring great misfortune to you!

"The Ghost of Banquo": In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth has his friend Banquo murdered for fear that Banquo will take the crown from him. After appearing at Macbeth's banquet in ghost form, Banquo foretells the omen "Blood will have blood."

The countdown to Halloween is on! :) Alex and I are watching a horror movie each night and it's a lot of fun! How is your weather? It's cold here in the Laurentians. Lots of rain, lots of frost, lots of below zero temperatures and thankfully we have NO SNOW YET!! But it's definitely the type of weather where nobody wants to get out of bed...especially Jack. :)