Word Crow

04/18/2026

One of the highlights of my trip to Mexico was the workshop and gallery in an artist village outside of Oaxaca. The artist community is called Teotitlan del Valle. My friend knew how amazing this family's work was, so we made a fun trip one day to go visit them and other artists in the area.

The family undertake every step of their art by hand - from crushing the cochineal bugs that live on prickly pear cactus to get the crimson colourant out of the insects, to hand-dyeing the wool, to creating their own patterns and then weaving these patterns into gorgeous rugs.

This is Omar Chavez Santiago. He and his sister have worked alongside their parents as weavers for decades. There was a sweet photo in the gallery of Omar as a boy with his dad proudly showing one of his original works of art.

03/08/2026

It’s is an absolutely gorgeous warm day in Mexico City and a wonderful day to explore the richness of women in art with my artist friend Marylou.

02/03/2026

What a fun graphic and an even more fun saying!
Who needs “normal”?

01/16/2026

Finalizing my lemon sketching era. Seems too rudimentary to be actually learning anything - but I am indulging the instructor in giving personality to lemons.
I do love a cheery yellow, admittedly.
🍋

01/15/2026

According to the artist teaching this course, learning to create expressions is easy, especially if you learn on something fun like lemons. 🙄 🍋
So together we are creating sad lemons and happy lemons and exasperated lemons and lemons that have had a hard day at the office and are sick of computer drudgery and of winter in Winnipeg would prefer to be drinking cocktails on a sunny beach while sipping lemonade (we are allowed to make up our own backstory for our lemons).

01/14/2026

It’s weird because the worst thing that could happen is you stumble over words or forget what you were going to say. Hardly life-threatening.
And yet it still isn’t easy. But I am SO lucky to be part of such an awesome Toastmasters club where everyone in the room is encouraging.

I found out my 93 year old dad, who has been a farmer most of his life, used to go with his dad to Toastmasters when they lived in Saskatoon, long before dad met my mom. Dad still remembers giving a talk on the Empire State Building. And he said it was one of the scariest things he did at the time.
Haha
Doing scary things is good for all of us!

Thanks to .wilton for taking the photo!

01/12/2026

I feel like I have gone way back to basics as I fill my sketch book with bad drawings. Haha.
But I’ve come to realize one of my biggest challenges is impatience. I just want to be able to create a quick sketch and it’s great. It’s a slow process to become fast.

01/11/2026

What DOES a million bucks feel like?
I would say it feels like generosity, abundance, freedom, joy and gratitude.

What does it feel like to you?

09/11/2025

I finally got in a hike at Pembina Valley Provincial Park to take in one of these glorious sunny fall days! It is my favourite time of the year!
The leaves are just starting to turn, so they are not yet sparking 'wow' but the berries are compensating with rich hues I couldn't even begin to match with my acrylics. There were so many acorns on the trail that it was a bit like walking on marbles, as my scraped knee will attest, but the chipmunks and squirrels were happy.

09/08/2025

08/26/2025

I really AM a millionaire in so many ways!!

I am a lucky girl.