blooming...

It's been so cold these last days. But it's warm in here and my very old amaryllis decided to bloom again.

We updated castle cat's shop. See more details here and here.

I like Nick van Woert's work so much! - via but does it float

snowing...

Yesterday was the day of all weathers. It started with a light snow that turned into what you see here, huge fluffy balls of snowflakes. The crow was high on that tree and screaming.

Later in the afternoon, it changed into a very very windy blizzard that lasted all night. I went out to see a play and almost flew away in the wind, just like Mary Poppins. Sometimes having a few pounds over your normal weight has its advantage. The wind chased the clouds away and today is very sunny. Still windy though and very cold. Right now: -18°C, -30°C with the windchill factor. Should I go out?

Every design student should see this movie - via share some candy

oignon.....

Last weekend I made a huge bean soup. It was so good. There's nothing better than homemade soup to fight the winter blues.

At work, we were supposed to hear about the pitch last Monday but nothing came in as of yet. Fingers and toes are still crossed but getting cramped. We are pitching for another project next week. Very similar regarding the needs of the client but this time, the pitch will be done live. A bit more nerve wrecking. Now we are gathering all demos we made of our former projects and we will let the images to the talk :)

The other day, Aris posted a blog about the beautiful prints she got from Belinda. So what was my surprise to get an message from her saying she made a treasury on Etsy (see it here too) and that one of my paintings was featured in it. There are such beautiful items there and I especially like Lilla Jizo's tiny ceramics. Reading the comments I was also brought to the lovely birds of Inaluxe. And she has a very nice blog too.

I'm always amazed how one thing can lead to so many other when you surf the web. But for now I'm dizzy with all those links. See you soon!

p.s. if you are wondering what happened to the tomatoes, they're just frozen.

experiment & answers...

Going through my photos, I found a bunch of old flower shots. They are not very good and thought I should delete them. But then I decided to use them to play with and try different types of treatment. This flower was originally a very saturated shocking pink. I forget its name. Can someone help me with it? Oh! It came back to me. I think it's a dahlia. Martine, c'était chez toi. Est-ce bien un dahlia? Tu peux m'envoyer un courriel.

There is this open tag going around blogland that I thought I would answer. It came to my attention via Deleilan. You can participate too. You have to answer with only one word. Here we go.

Where is your phone? dunno
Your hair? loose
Your mother? loving
Your father? tough
Your favourite food? all
Your dream last night? none
Your favourite drink? coffee
Your dream/goal? paint
What room are you in? studio
Your hobby? photo
Your fear? many
Where do you want to be in six years? huh
Where were you last night? home
Something that you're not? procrastinator
Muffins? nope
Wish list item? imac
Where did you grow up? montreal
Last thing you did? this
What are you wearing? pyjamas
Your TV? ancient
Your pets? sleeping
Friends? best
Your life? full
Your mood? changing
Missing someone? niece
Vehicle? legs
Something you're not wearing? highheels
Your favourite store? market
Your favourite colour? lots
When was the last time you laughed? yesterday
The last time you cried? yesterday
Your best friend? close
One place that I go to over and over? internet
Facebook? sometimes
Favourite place to eat? home


Very clever tape drawings by Till Lassman - via Drawn!

lilas...

The pitch is done and gone. Alea jacta est! We worked really hard on this during the weekend and late Monday night. So yesterday I took the afternoon off and like Line and Anairam, I started to go through my photos and do some cleanup. I'm far from done, but I found this one in the wrong folder. A bit of life during these very gray days we're having lately. Where's the sun?!!!!

Beautiful paintings by Alyssa Monks.

last of the farm...

What can I say, after being in outside in the cold, condensation covers your lens when you go inside.

Up very early this morning. I couldn't sleep anymore. I worked most of the weekend on a pitch for a very interesting project. We need to wrap up everything today and send our proposal early tomorrow. I hope we get the gig! My fingers and toes are crossed tightly!

Lovely post by BibliOdyssey

p.s. last day for shop sale!

wild flowers...

I wish I could visit this farm in the summer. It's full of different species of wild flowers.

And I wish I could do letter press like in this video - via Uppercase.

fermette...

So the little farm, or fermette, had 3 chickens, 2 dogs and 2 horses. It was very cold that day so the animals stayed in the barn, except the dogs. This one is Kimo. You can see his stunning eyes here. More photos to come...

Thank you for your very interesting and honest answers on how you blog! Time for me to tell you how I blog. As I said, most of the time, my cat Sadou sits on my lap. Right now, he's purring and doesn't understand why I don't pat him.

I try to blog as often as I can. But to do so, I need to have photos that I am at least a little happy with and it's not always the case. I always tweak them a little - or a lot - and it takes time. So when my work load becomes too important, I don't have time to blog. I must say, it's sometimes a bit frustrating.

Your answers helped me feel less guilty about commenting on other peoples blog. As some of you said, there is so much talent out there, it's hard to keep up! On the other hand, I really appreciate it when you comment on my blog and lots of you do too... But no matter how crazy my schedule is, I always start my day by visiting my favorites blog. It inspires me and helps me warm up my brain for work.

Since we started the Castle cat blog, I decided that every photo related links would be posted there. But since the visits there are not very numerous yet and since the present post is about blogging, I leave you with 52 suburbs, a fabulous photo blog found via Sophie Munn.

clothesline...

Last weekend, we went to a small farm. I'll post more photos soon. I will also do a quick wrap up of the questions I asked on how you blog.

Only three days left to get some cards from my shop (25% off original price.) After that they will be gone for ever!

Have you seen the incredible work of Cal Lane? - via share some candy

haiti...

The new decade is not even two weeks old and it's the third time I talk about death already. This time, it struck thousands and thousands of people as if they did not suffer enough political and natural catastrophes already. It saddens me so much. In Haiti, when someone dies, they say he's going to the pays sans chapeau - the country without a hat...

red and blue...

Seen in the Old Port of Montreal.

It seems many artisits are dyinbg lately. Eric Rohmer died yesterday at the age of 89. He leaves us with so many extraordinary movies! The first one I saw was force fed to me by my room mate. I will never thank her enough for making me change my mind about Rohmer and his fantastic Pauline à la plage. Merci Sabine !

on blogging, part two...

As a lot of you experienced lately, it is not always easy to go out and take photos during winter. The subject of snow can become a bit redundant and fingers can get frozen. I took these in my neighborhood. I think it's the first bas-relief snowman I ever seen. I like it!

Some time ago, I asked you why do you blog? I received very interesting answers to that. Well I have another question for you: how do you blog? Do you blog every day? Every week? When you feel like it? Do you feel guilty if you don't. How do you comment on other bogs? Regularly? Once in a while? I've asked myself these questions and will tell you my answers in another post, soon.

One thing I can tell you is that I often blog with my cat on my lap and I like it a lot even if it is not very comfortable for my back.

I haven't seen any of the two, but I find this very interesting.

she feels things...

The postman has been very nice again and brought me this wonderful bloc painting by Aris Moore. I never thought a small piece of two by four would move me so much. Thank you Aris!

"She feels things deeply. The world is so beautiful it sometimes make her cry."

I went back to work on Tuesday and found it very difficult to find my groove back. I'm happy it's the weekend again. The sun is shining and I can't wait to go out for a walk.

Dear Ada had two great finds again: the drawings of Paloma Crousillat and the work of Kate Copeland. I especially like her security envelope and her newsprint projects.

walk...

A few remains of Expo 67 can be seen from the Old Port of Montreal. The gigantic Buckminster Fuller dome and a very impressive Calder sculpture. Tim, my partner in crime, snapped a picture of me while I was taking the first photo. The wind was so cold near the water, it was almost unbearable!

I am so sad about Lhasa departure. I will miss her talent very much.

postman...

For this holiday, Santa often wore a postman suit. Amongst the gifts he brought me was these wonderful prints from Alexandra Hedberg. I was overwhelmed by her generosity. Eva, the red dress, is one of my favorite work of hers. And her sense of humor always hits the spot with me. Thank you Alexandra!

Santa was very generous this year. But what made me the most happy is that I had time to see friends and family that I don't see very often and I also had time, lots of time, to do nothing. It feels so good to be able to relax!

I love it when artists revisit classic techniques or imagery with a contemporary twist. My love for you is a stampede of horses featured two of them recently: Beth Cavener Stichter and Shelley Reed

Oh, and please let me advertise myself a little. For those who don't know yet, there's a boxing day sale in my shop. More infos here. And castle cat studio shop was filled with more photos recently.