mini frittata crostini

I can’t believe it’s December 1^st. It hardly seems possible since we’ve had amazingly mild weather-with only small bouts of snowfall here and there. It seems unbelievable that in a few short weeks, Christmas will be here. If you’re anything like me, the usual hustle and bustle of the season leaves you rushing around at the last moment, on a never-ending quest to find just the right gift. Ruffling through mounds of wrapping paper, ribbon and tape, I make an undoubted pledge that I will never again find myself in such a predicament and every year I prove myself wrong. My self-imposed ‘to do’ lists leave me feeling anything but jolly…but this year is different. 

Now that my holiday preparations are well underway, I’ve been able to spend time doing festive things a little earlier than normal; like baking cookies, making homemade wreaths at my friend Sarah’s house and hosting a Christmas brunch in support of a very worthy cause. I’ve also had time to make a homemade advent calendar tree with my children-something that has been on that ‘to do’ list for quite some time. Each day is filled with family activities that we can all enjoy and I can’t tell you how excited they are to see the fun things we have planned for them.

I think one of my very favorite parts about Christmas is spending time with my family and friends and having the opportunity to really enjoy each other. Last week, the children had a snow day and so we made hot chocolate and snuggled under a big blanket watching Christmas movies all afternoon. It was amazing.

And so now that the month of Christmas is upon us, I vow to not feel overwhelmed by the small stuff or get sucked into the vortex of rushing around endlessly. I will focus only on enjoying my little family and spending time with my loved ones. 

Below I’m sharing a simple recipe for mini frittata crostini. As I mentioned,  I hosted a brunch last week in support of an amazing organization and this was one of the items on the menu. I think we’ve had it for dinner twice already since it is so easy to prepare (and anything ‘mini’ goes a long way with kids.) 

lime+ginger mini parfaits

mini chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream-cheese frosting

pear+ gorgonzola appetizer spoons with honey + toasted pine nuts

beautiful accident

I found this beautiful paint spill at the back of my building, which has been under construction for months. I want to find more spills that are this pretty. Stopping to take this in made my day.

i'm painting

I love found objects, used items and collaging. Always have. Even as a kid I loved finding things on the ground that could be used in art pieces I was working on. I love finding treasures and being resourceful. It's a big part of my creative process to integrate elements that I collect, find or have donated to me. A friend gave me a tonne of stamps that were otherwise going in the garbage - jackpot! I've had them in a box for a year and opened it up last week to use in my upcoming paintings. My process for painting typically starts with laying a ground on the blank canvas and building up the surface with what I can get my hands on. I've been asked before if starting a painting on a blank canvas is scary? No way. It's the best part. I started several blank canvases last week (see below). I like to build up the surface with textures and colours. I had my daughter in to help me with painting the grounds. No rules. Just paint and fill it up with colour and textures. So much fun and I love that she has a layer in each of the canvases.

art with a grade 3 class

My daughter has a great teacher this year and I've often thought I should be volunteering more to help out. I think teachers are amazing to take on the job of teaching a group of 20+ kids...especially eight year olds.

Last year, I volunteered to help out and the teacher asked me to give each student a test on prisms. For those of you that know what a prisim is, good job! I honestly had to google what it was before the test. I thought this year I'd offer to come in and do an art project with the kids, something I knew a little about. Classrooms aren't set up to accomodate messy, paint throwing art projects, but I thought I'd give it a go. What's more fun than throwing paint around and being messy? It was a great morning and the kids had fun. I even had one girl ask for my autograph (great for the ego). They were all eager and open to being abstract impressionists that morning, full of energy and emotion. We moved the desks to the edges of the room, covered the floors with plastic, the kids wore garbage bags, rolled their pants up and took their socks off. Not much direction was needed, they're kids after all and loved the idea of not sitting at their desks. I told them the only rule was that they couldn't use a paint brush. I'd brought in straws and other kitchen untensils. Most used their hands or squirted the paint right out of the tubes and went to it like they were little Jackson Pollock's.

my new studio

It's been a while. I've neglected to blog and have been itching to share some exciting new developments in my world. I am feeling really motivated by a new studio space face-lift that has taken place over the last couple of months.

I'd been renting a studio space in downtown Edmonton for almost a year and wasn't very inspired by the ambiance, it was borderline dungeony and a bit scary venturing down there on my own. I was the only one down there, so it was also a bit lonesome. After I returned from summer vacation, I was seriously contemplating giving the space up, but then, as the universe tends to work, the owners approached me and said they wanted to rent out the whole bottom/basement floor. That's when a fire ignited within me and I saw an opportunity and took it. I asked if I could take a kick-at-the-can and see if I could spruce the space up and rent it to other creative people.

Sadly, I don't have before pictures, but can tell you that it was very 1970's. There was brown carpet and a collection of items that had been piling up in the basement over the past 20 years. The owners were awesome and ripped up all the carpet and exposed some of the large cedar beams. What a difference it made and completely changed the vibe of the space. I wanted to come up with a solution for the floors, which were exposed concrete with the carpet glue sanded down. I asked around and found a concrete flooring place in the city and did a test in my office with a gloss epoxy. The result was amazing and once the owners saw it, they loved it and we did the entire basement. All the offices have been filled with other creative entrepreneurs and we've labeled the space unit b. It's a work in progress and are working together to turn it into an amazing creative collective space. We're planning our first party this December. I'm painting more and because of the new energy, I'm super pumped. I'm planning an art show in the space in the new year. Here are a few pics.