Once Upon a Time...Elephant & Rhinoceros

These two watercolours are for Silke, a fabulous reader and blogger of Metamorphosis...they'll be flying out tomorrow, hopefully to get to her very soon as she has been patiently waiting. Thanks Silke!

I hope you like them Silke...

I am starting the Pond Mural today. I'll post my progress along the way this week...AND please don't forget to come back tomorrow for our Tell All Tuesdays...we have an amazingly talented lady being featured...can't miss this one!

Oh...we came 9th in our City Chase Race this past Saturday.There were 460 teams...SO pleased we made top ten!

Have a productive Monday.
Charlotte,Ontario

Friday Illustration:: Once Upon a Time...Elephant.

I finished this Elephant(Silke yours is slightly different-I will post them another time) watercolour for a lady who had been trying for years to have a child and finally her and her husband went to Vietnam to give little Tinh, their son, a home here in Canada.
I hope she likes it...
Excuse the very short post today...I will post again on Sunday as we have the Mitsubishi City Chase tomorrow...and will be out all day.
Wish us luck.
Char,Ontario

Mouth-watering Wednesdays...

I'm worried...how many do you think I can eat before my stomach starts screaming at me...?These yellow plums are so yummy, mouth-watering and morish that it's hard to stop eating them.

They were given to us by a friend who lives in Toronto...first thoughts were...he lives in the City=Tonnes of Pollution...??? Do I even place one in my mouth?

Then without to offend my husband who carried them all the way home from work, I placed them reluctantly in our fruit drawer in the fridge and forgot about them until today...I'm in the middle of a commission, which I will show you next week...it's a surprise(for the receiver) and can't post it yet...(I'll explain later). Anyways...I needed "something" (as our little Jordan would say) and we have another City Chase Race this Saturday so I've been trying to choose healthy snacks.

The Plums called out...and I tried one, two, ate three...YUM!

You got to love fruit which is picked straight of the tree. Thanks "R"!

Off to pick the girls up...they've had a play date all morning.

Then we have to return an overdue Library book(whoops)...Ash had snuck it up to her bedroom...an Astrix comic at that! She's suddenly become obsessed with comics.

I love the Library...what a great idea...I wonder when it was invented or thought of in the grand scale of things?

I guess that's a question for Google later.

We're choosing fairy-tales to read for bed-time stories this week. I can't and won't read Pinocchio another night for Jordan...I swear I could probably recite it to you...but won't! All she wants is Pinocchio.

What have you been up to today? and what's YOUR fave fruit this week?

See you tomorrow, thanks for passing by and leaving your awesome thoughts and comments.

Char,Ontario

Wednesday wishes...

Firstly...just quickly, because I told all of you I would tell you how we did in the race...we came in 17th out of 450 teams on Saturday's City Chase. We didn't have to eat anything which was just by chance because we chose a different route which had other chasepoints like: dressing up in a Velcro suit and throwing yourself onto a Velcro wall, OR playing blind croquet, OR strip Jenga, OR being locked in an old Jail cell and trying to find a key in complete darkness to unlock the door(there were 8 keys in total in the cell)...we had a lot of fun, and our next race is on August 15th in Toronto.
Yesterday I spent the day working on the Fairy Mural...and this is what I accomplished. I feel like I'm in "My Little Pony" land, which is a good thing because the client wanted bright and cheerful. My wishes for today are that I finish the tree,flowers and the Olivia name...I only have 2 more days so I have lots of work to do.

Well, I was out with a girlfriend last week and we walked into a store hoping they would have a Tagine which I could cook in...because as some of you may recall I received one for my anniversary gift...but due to it being painted and glazed...I could only use it as a serving dish.

Above is my new Tagine, I love it.

I cooked chicken and vegetables last night...it's so quick to use, sear your meat-place a layer of carrots on the bottom of the tagine,place your meat on top of the carrots and layer all the other veggies on top.

I have only cooked with it twice but am amazed at how after it cooking for 1 and a half hours...the carrots are still al dente and the meat is so succulent...love it!

This was just before closing it up and placing it in the oven to cook....no oil and very little salt...and still super tasty!

I took the girls to the Toronto Zoo on Monday...

Always a great place for taking pics of animals as reference for my painting.

I love the little butterfly sanctuary they have...you can walk amongst the butterflies fluttering above your heads. Jordan was a little scared, but Ash held her hand and assured her everything would be o.k....very sweet.

I love this picture I took ...sorry, I haven't had a chance to look up the name of it.

Ok...I'm off to work...

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!

Char,Ontario

worms or cockroaches?

Ok...my husband and I are off to Ottawa this weekend to run the Mitsubishi City Chase...for those of you who know all about it I really don't have to explain the title of this post...but for those of you who don't....
The race is an Urban Adventure race which is a mix between the Amazing Race and Fear Factor...BUT we have to take public transport around the City and run to the 10 chasepoints of our choice. The clue sheet can sometimes have upto 40 chasepoints...but it's up to us to figure out the best options! AAAAggggghhhhhh....
This is their 6th year and our 6th year running it....other than the years I was pregnant with the girls...but my husband has run it every year...and last year we ran it 3 times!
The best we've come is 14th out of 470 teams...we would love to win...because then we go to Quebec where the North American Championships are being held...and then if we win the Nationals...we go to the FINALS...which they're nor telling us where they are as of yet! Last year they went to Morocco.(how cool is that!) I'll post pictures from the race...anyone over the age of 18 or 19 can do it...we have eaten live worms, held pythons,had tarantulas crawl across our stomachs,eaten grass hoppers...and apparently there are cockroaches to be devoured this year.You don't HAVE to eat anything gross...but it's a quick challenge. There could be rafting this year, repelling, swimming, pole dancing...check it out there are races in the US too...and in 10 other countries around the World.


Changing the subject...here's how the Fairy Mural is coming along:
I've sketched everything out in watercolour, that way if there are changes to be had, I can change it...no problem.
Here's a close up of the sleeping cat and bunny...one fairy sleeping on the cats tale and the other one lying on the back of the bunny.
Sunflowers peeking through behind the door.

Over her bed her name, middle name and a couple of fairies...

above the vanity we decided on a bouquet of all the flowers from the main mural.

I'm very excited how it's turning out...the colour starts on Tuesday...

Check back to see how our race went...goes...how many cockroaches we ate! YUCK!

Char,Ontario