oil painting "Summerville Beach"

I have been inside all week dealing with this bad cold, the first cold I have had in a couple years ,always joking and saying anything that bites me dies a terrible death...well it is being slow at dieing, I have been coughing ,trying to keep it from my chest ,I am sure it is on it's way out and I will be back at the gym come Monday. So here I sit ,dog sitting and as always busy and once I finished up the Sea People order I decided to do a painting I have been thinking about doing for sometime since taking some great photos of Summerville Beach last Summer ,here it is,still very wet of course being done in oils and just finished, I am happy with it and while my paint is still wet on my pallet I have chosen to do another smaller one ,considering I am house bound anyway at the moment,not wanting to even go to Frenchy's coughing and sharing germs. Although I would like too but won't ,yet:-( I think I am having a Frenchy withdrawal.

sick and busy

Well, sad to say that Chuck's cold found me and stuck fast. He hasn't been feeling well for way over a week now and I have been positive in not letting it get me, I missed the Saturday Social walk because of this nasty virus , thinking by staying inside I could be a step ahead of it...but staying inside all last weekend did nothing to help keeping it at bay , this morning I am not going to the gym, I think I could but better not too, maybe I can hang inside again , and keep it from worsening and get some needed work on my little book done as well finishing up 12 Sea People for an order to ship out within the next Month or so for the States. Here is a shot of wizards,Angles and Gatherer's, still working on the Fairies their wings are drying and I will post them later when done. Just added the three Fairies.My plan is to have these all boxed and ready to go for when my client returns from her trip. So much more to get done with Winter product ,paintings ,but as I see it the pressure is off regarding orders . My remaining Winter plans are many. This Winter is so different ,no snow at all, here at least. I rather like snow,yes come March when we have a lot of snow and run out of places to put it can be frustrating,but nothing nicer then sitting warm inside working and looking out at the beautiful white stuff coming down to later go out and build a snowman ,yes I still like to play in the snow and hopefully always will. Would be nice to have someone else shovel it for me.My Children's book illustrations I feel are coming along nicely getting near the end,rather nice to have both Miss Laura and Baby Belle here together this week to inspire me, for this story is about Baby Belle and the fact she is always a " Happy Puppy" and Miss Laura who is our Diva. For someone who no longer owns a dog, I seem to have a lot of dog dishes ,toys and dogie beds here:-)

Last weekend I got a call from Madd ,Mother's against drunk driving ,they are having a fund raiser Hockey game coming up in February and were looking for Silent Auction pieces ,I donated one of my painted mats ,every year I as well as many Artist/crafts people am approached for donations, this has been the first time for Madd and I was only too happy to help. Of course that will be it for donations of course besides the SPCA, animal rescue ,for I always keep them on my list to donate in whatever way I can,they are in great need this year ,I was told, another disturbing story for another time.

So this morning once I post this I will get to work and stay inside and rest for tomorrow will be another day and I really want to hit the gym,amazing how one gets use to exercising and miss it when not there. Poor Chuck is on kitchen duty these days since his retirement,while I mess the house up with paint etc.etc. Gee last year this time I was getting started with my 37 ft. mural for a Lunenburg Inn, now that was a fun project, I think I drank a lot of wine during that project, and loved every minute of it. So I will be off and get back to work.Another day ,another dollar and work to be done,whether I feel like my healthy self or not.

Social walk for Village on a diet

Congratulations to all who came out to do the social walk and help support the possibility of Liverpool to be chosen for the next "Village on a diet" the word is out that there were somewhere in the 300 number of folk's walking ,young ,old and four legs as well. So much fun and I for one was amazed I did it, only 3 km but because of the problems with my feet and legs from arthritis even a short walk a few Months ago would have been impossible for me.But I am getting my life back thanks to some weight loss from Biking all Summer and Winter and then we joined the gym where we are having fun along with getting in shape. I am on a program now and as well as cardio ,there now is light weight training ,working on the whole body and feeling like a new person because of the hard work, if i can get some mobility back from this and be off pain pills which I did not like right from the beginning, yes they may have helped a bit with the pain but to me ,it was not worth it. Better to keep all that stuff from your body if you can, exercise and diet do work,I speak from experience. I remember not all that long ago now ,when I would cry standing in the shower, my feet and legs felt like they couldn't hold me up, the pain doing housework would take me off my so called pins for a couple of days after doing these chores. Now I am a big believer and will share my story, you can get your life back,I am getting mine back and loving it. Although I will admit I feel it today,big time, but it is a good pain:-)I speak for Chuck as well, although yesterday he was feeling a little bit under the weather and maybe should have done a shorter walk but he did it and will be better for it.We went to the Crime prevention Breakfast before the walk and met a person who was highlighted on the first program "Village on a Diet" from Taylor BC. Melissa ,she is a lovely person and it was a thrill to meet her and now we can watch the show and cheer her along. Not much I can say about Melissa and no pictures because the show is over but still being aired ,you know all about those reality shows,Mums the word till it is over with:-)

Here in these pictures I am walking with a friend Nancy,coming and going shot and in front of our house after the walk with our Dear Friend Judy and her sister Susie ,these two wonderful people I have known it seems forever now, Judy and I worked together way back in the early 70's in a local Liverpool Dept.store "People's" where my Mom was working as well at the time. I got to know Judy's family back then and have enjoyed their company since then.

Do you like my hat?It was a treasure to me when I found it, I am soon to be 58 and this hat makes me feel young while I have it on my head. Isn't life grand?Yes if we make it so.

I have been working on a commission from Labrador since Christmas and it will be picked up today.She is in the area for a visit and will pop by ,this little house was her Uncles and I can just imagine what life was like when she was a Child and visiting her Uncle ,Labrador and wonderful place , tilt your head. It is still very early AM,right and that is my excuse.

Next week I have to get back to my next commission from way before Christmas ,12 Sea People figurines for a Spring Shop opening in Connecticut,I feel better getting these things done and ready to go, I like to keep as much stress and pressure from my life by not procrastinating . Sea People are made in stages from sculpting the heads and take time to create.Always seems something else jumps on my plate and it is easier to just get things done and out of the way. My little Children's book is coming along, although I try and work on it when I can,the illustrations will take sometime and I want to give it my all so the more I get done and put on the back burner I then can bring that to the front burner and put the heat up and hopefully end up with something cute in the end. We had the puppy again last week for one day since before Christmas, she was so happy when she saw us, she really is a happy puppy who never knows a bad day. So again Congrats to Liverpool for getting on the fitness wagon.Go for it!!!!

Happy New Year

before ,after stripped,ready to begin and almost complete...to the right.

The picture below is of the Mersey Mill on

New Years Day morning.The other picture is of me taking down the old living room tile ceiling to reveil this lovely wood ceiling same as in my Gallery.

What an incredible holiday Season weather wise. You could say we got away with wonderful weather while other's all around us did not. In my last post right before Christmas I was sharing with you about our little incident ,fender bender and was teasing about someone out there to call and buy my Santa's..Thank you Bill and Patricia,Artist friends of mine http://www.theartistsloft.com/ who did just that called and bought the Santa with the Little blond girl on his lap..that girl looks like Patricia, Thanks guy's . Now with all this nasty weather all around us I was not able to get their package in the mail for fear that it would be sitting around some airport waiting for people to be shipped out on a flight first as they were, so I will get Santa off and posted soon. New Years Day was wonderful, I got on my bike first thing in the morning and took a ride as well I did Jan.2nd. the weather couldn't have been better. It was amazing. I took my camera this time on my ride ,i was disappointed of all days with the camera and there were no waves or swirls but looking out across the Harbor seeing all the smoke rising from the paper mill which employed so many years past ,fed so many families all these years , not only the Mill town but the Fishery as well and back in the day flooded my head with memories from back years ago growing up here,you could say our streets were lined with gold so to speak back then. The overflow from the Mill and the Fishery made life very rich in this small town. Today not so the case anymore ,we pray that the Mill continues and strives , I hate to think what could and would happen if it closed it's doors forever. When I was a youngster here in Liverpool, the job market like in so many little towns through out Canada were rich with success thanks to Mills and ship yards . Shops could afford to be open, some of us didn't travel so much outside our little towns ,we could pretty well get anything we wanted here. Back in the early 70's I worked at the Horseshoe Tavern one of four bars here in town. Pretty well every night but especially Wed. Thurs. Fri. and Sat. nights the walls of this place rocked , draft beer was 99 cents a glass,T bone steaks were big ,juicy and delicious,seats were full with regulars and I have a lot of fun stories from back then. My older brother is the star in maybe many of these stories but one particular time ,well I won't tell that story yet, something about a deep freeze and dirty dishes when I opened up for my shift one morning, he was best bud's with the owner. I also remember when in 1974 things started to die down for a bit and some of us had to do double duty such as wait on tables and do the cooking,not like the really great days when there were sometimes two cooks on per shift,one waitress and a couple bar tenders. In late 1974 I moved to Lunenburg and while there I got a job in the local Tavern, "The Dolphin Tavern" where they had just opened the downstairs to woman,Ladies were still not allowed upstairs, and my goodness I have even more stories from there. Of course Lunenburg even back then was a Tourist town but the local fishermen and fishing industry gave that town life.Every Spring we would see cars loaded with belongings ,arriving fresh from Newfoundland to go fishing out of Lunenburg Port , some of the finest people I have ever met, stepped out from these cars and are still friend's today.

OK, I have been so busy and away from the computer for days now, take a look ,can you see the difference in these two shots of our living room? I sure can and it smells wonderful, I still have much to do, and moulding and trim needs painted but I will get to that another time after I finish my commissions, I am not one to procrastinate . We were lucky ,not to have the puppy while doing this job, she would have ended up with paint on her for sure, I was moving fast to get it done.

So this evening we will relax, look at our nice fresh sunny room and deal with the mess on the dining room table, find a home for all the stuff tomorrow. I will be selling my round oak dining room table with two leaves .Anyone interested ?let me . I want to make something like ,what I call a Shaker type table, something I can double duty as a work table, we seldom sit at the table when only the two of us dine so I have to think purpose and space, like I have said before a small house needs to have a lot of double duty going on.But I believe my plan and choice of color has worked for our darling little living room space, a change of table in the dining room and I am set to go and do my Winter work,except for the gym, I will buckle down and get back at it.