True Colors

When all is still snowy, and most of the time slushy.. don't we just crave tulips and brighter colors!? Here's to the last stretch of winter!! 

Valentine

This is me, buying you virtual flowers ;)

And I drew my Eskimo face just for you, my funny valentine. 

xo

Espace Mukti - Winter

 Another illu I did for Espace Mukti, and the lovely Karine. Those are always a dream to work on. I love yoga, and I love Karine's view / aesthetic take on it. Funny enough, exalted warrior is one of my favorite yoga poses. I like to hold this for a while after warrior I and II, and it hurts feels so good in your quads and arms. :)

 She mentioned that she loves Solow clothing. True enough, I had a lot of fun picking an outfit to draw from their website. Total envy. I think yoga is an amazing way of fighting winter ruts. This illu really represents the comfort I get out of calm winter sunlight, when inside. Now, I also always look forward to being able to take my mat outside for the first time around April or Mai.. 

Mercredis Wedding OCD : Accessories & Invitations

 Well, well... I am sorry but it looks like I might only post on Wednesdays for a couple weeks.. ;) My transformation into full-on Bridezilla has not begun yet, but I'm assuming it's coming soon. 

 First of all, we sent formal invitations a couple weeks ago, and of course I did not save any for us, or take any pictures. I had two extra of those tiny little illustrations left (which were part of the design - it's printed on shiny origami paper) and it's been taped on my office wall since. (G took one for his office too. Because he such a lovely dude.) 

 I've also made some progress on the accessories. I got those boots, as an awesome wedding gift, from a dear friend. They are seriously just so perfect. I cannot even stop looking at them. They fit like a glove, which is lucky since I had not tried them on. I say it's fate. 

Barwood boot from Madewell

 She also sent me this dainty crystal bracelet. It's a little tighter then what I'm used to for bangles. (Note: she is much skinnier, this was meant to happen.) I'm not sure about the pairing with the second bracelet. I bought this one at the flee market over the weekend, hoping it could do for my something old, or something blue. Is it okay to use one object for both?? 

(This is crazy, it's coming so soon. I'm officially bat shit excited.) 

Mercredi Wedding OCD : Flowers

 Ouh... A wedding post! Said wedding, is coming up quite fast! Pretty much everything crucial is already planned, but I feel like February will be a whirlwind of last minute loose ends to tie.. Still, we're looking forward to it more and more each day!

 But first things first... Here's an image I made for another Damask & Dentelle Wedding Guide. This was super fun to work on (recognize the colors?), the direction it took was right up my alley-tastes, and I get to work with such an amazing team. :) 

***

 Now.. moving on the the wedding, something I got really exited about was, the flowers.. I have always had a weakness for anything fresh flower, either growing in flower beds, backyards, bought at the market to have around the house... I just love flowers, from the bottom of my heart. So, yeah, I was exited about this part. 

 I got to meet Anaïs, from Les Petites Excuses (she is downright adorable) and she talked me through what possible for my in the middle of winter  on a budget small wedding. I dreamt of peonies, everywhere... but they are not in season in March, so she recommended renoncules instead.. seriously, prettiest flower on earth. Also, unconventional choice, double carnations. She never looked at me weird when I said I disliked this and that about traditional weddings.. and I basically feel super confident in the fact that she will make my wedding look purdy. 

 There is so much to think about... no wonder people hire wedding planners. But at least, fussing about flowers was pretty fun. Guillaume and I came up with a really nice idea for the table center pieces, but i'm not spoiling. ;)

Calendar : February

Click on the image for full size desktop.

Oye.. I realize, I have barely posted here in a month. I'd like to apologize to my 4 readers.. 

I've been juggling a lot of small assignments and organizing myself is always a bit harder after the holidays. Especially when my attention is divided into a lot of different things, instead of one big job. Still.. I'll try to get back into the swing of things on the blog! Hoping february will be good to all of us.Valentines or not, flowers or not, chocolate or not, treat yourself and your loved ones. 

xo

Goodbye 2012

2012 has been really really awesome. One of my favorites for sure. 

I usually start with a picture to pick my colors for illustration, it helps me find the right ambiance. I thought I'd share this palette with you. I cannot share the image it's for yet, but will soon! 

xo

Calendar : January

I hope you all had a very very merry Christmas. I did, it was pretty lovely. Lots of fun and amazing gifts. So spoiled. :) 

xo

Click on the image for full size desktop. If these files don't work well for you just comment, and I'll try and make it up.

Cue : Madness

 Yeah. Are we close enough for you to know I've been obsessed with Quilting this year? If not; I have been obsessed with Quilting this year. Let's just say, since I have a bigger studio now (as in, a fair percentage of my previous home fits in the room that is my office in this house) I have enough space for my sewing machine to be out and ready pretty much any time. I have spent most of my down time sewing up a storm and quilting away. I have a couple of close friends who are pregnant right now, and this really became an excuse passion for me. 

 Anyhooo, I figured, since I actually drew this pattern (or quick plan, I'd rather say), I though I could share it here too. ;) I talked plenty about this awesome feather pattern on my knit blog before, so I won't repeat and ramble, but know that, it is free (!) You can follow my quilting endeavours, or not. I just wanted to share this new epic project. Especially in case they find me dead under piles of tiny fabric scraps, dehydrated and starved, O.D.ed from caffeine and/or sleep deprived, with dirty hair. 

Mercredis Wedding OCD : Wedding Outfits

 So we're making some progress this week about what we are going to wear. Significant improvement, considering all we had purchased until now was like, one dress shirt for him, and my dress - which is major, I know, but still needs quite a bit of tweaking and alterations. So... Here it is:

Jacket - Belt - Boots - Shoes 

 Guillaume found an awesome jacket yesterday. (I drew the checkered up there without even looking back at the fabric, either online or in the closet here.. Sometimes I think I have weird picture like memory skills.) The dress shirt is from Banana Republic, and is a kind of...dark khaki. Even though we were pretty set on a tie, since I gave a tie-clip to the Mr as an engagement present... We tried like 8 billions different ones, and... Ties just look weird on him, while bow ties look great. I say... if you can rock those effortlessly, go for it, and screw the tie-clip. I'd like to find a sort of burnt orange / peach / mustard little-cloth-thingy (those probably have a proper name) for the jacket pocket. Just to bring a bit of pop since a lot of it is still neutral. (Think flower girls in dark grey.. ) The jeans are Levi's 511 skinnies in black. He will most likely order a belt from Wood and Faulk, because it's an awesome company. He is still not sure about what he wants in his feet, but it will most likely be some kind of black leather boot or dress shoe. We tried those two options at Clark's and they both looked great.

 My situation is a bit more complicated*, as in, it's always more complicated when you are a woman. About two months ago I purchased a dress, that was on super crazy clearance, at David's Bridal (in Burlington VT - I highly recommend this place, it was the best shopping experience my Bride's maid and I had - compared to St-Hubert St... and we found there. The prices were very reasonable, and there was a lot dresses, in a lot of sizes, that were available for immediate purchase, instead of ordering. Being like 4 months away from the wedding back then, that was our only option.) 

 So, the dress. I love it, but the skirt was not exactly what I wanted. We are doing some adjustments, and I purchased all the fabric I need for the new skirt yesterday! I want to wear a skinny belt over it. I used to be very sure about the copper glitters... but now I'm leaning towards cognac leather. I think it would look better with the groom's stuff... 

 In terms of shoes, I have no clue. I wanted some pretty flats.. but the fact that this is a winter wedding, it would just make things much more easier if I'd wear boots. I tried those magnificent ones yesterday, at the Hush Puppies store (but cannot find them on their website?) I think they would be perfect, but the price tag of genuine leather boots being what it is, I decided to give it some thoughts. Also, what color of nylons or tights do you wear under a wedding dress!? I'm more of an always-black-tights kind of gal, but I guess nude would be more.. logic? 

*I'm not going to show or draw my dress in detail, because I'm kind of keeping it a secret. ;)

November

November always feels like the longest month of the year, to me. It's colder, grey, darker and darker, kind of just a long drag before Christmas time gets here. All the Holiday stuff in the stores are a little obnoxious until the real time for it comes, December-ish. (to me, Christmas is in full swing when we get that weird little panicky voice in our heads like: "GOSH is there really only two weekends left before Christmas!?") 

Still, November was good, even though it seemed really long. 

I got to hang out at Salon du Livre for this. Babysat my nieces for the first time. Worked on a lot of different things at the same time. Quilted some more. Cut my bangs (myself.) And visited NYC for a weekend with a friend, and her huge bouncy baby. 

City Guides for Damask & Dentelle

I've been working with Vanessa, illustrating some fun City Guides, for her blog Damask & Dentelle. Those are really a blast to work on, and I realized I had not posted them here yet. :) 

CALENDAR... News!?

...

 Some bit of news flash, update, blab about my 2013 calendar. I have decided... not to have a printed version of the calendar this year. Instead, I will be making desktop images, and handing them as free downloads here. I guess I could charge for it, but really.. I don't feel like it. 

 I felt like it was not going to be ready in time for people to buy it as a christmas present. And to be honest, I did not really want to have a paper calendar this year. I won't be doing any craft shows, so there was very little outlet for me to sell it, in Quebec. And the shipping costs are often discouraging for  local clients, that buy it on Etsy. So, I wanted to come up with a solution that felt very win-win to me. And I am really happy about it. (I'll admit, after several bouts of agonizing and anxiety.)

 So at the end of each month, I'll have the full-rez desktop ready image in a blog post here. I'll be linking on facebook, tumblr, twitter and all, of course. I hope some people will still be happy to use it as their calendar, but on their computer this time! 

Mercredis Wedding OCD : Faire-Parts

Working on these was so much fun. The boyfriend and I have a lot in common in terms of aesthetics, and visual taste. It was really fun to come up with.. our vision of what we want the people to expect from our wedding.... By now people have received them and I'm not spoiling anything. I'll be sending invitations to confirmed guests early in the new year. I'll need to work on those soon! :) 

In terms of specs, I bought all paper good at L'essence du Papier on St-Denis and the font I used is Lane.  

An Autumn Vacation

 On the first weekend of November, we went out on a vacation / retreat. We basically, on a whim, rented a cabin, in the middle of nowhere - or Lefebvre, Qc - and took off for 3 days and 3 nights. It was perfect. It rained, or spat for most of those three days, we had no cell reception or Internet, so we really had to change our pace and adapt. Adapt to relaxation mode, and it really recharged us. 

The cabin itself was just so lovely. It had a cozy mezzanine, a balcony over looking the woods, and massive windows facing a stream and waterfall. The sound it made was so imposing... it was surreal. We were detached from reality. Days going by with nothing to do but read, make fires, drink tones of coffee and tea, tend to the fire, cook great meals, drink tones of wine, cuddle with the dog. (And with each other, a little ;))

I took walks with Constance in the little forest surrounding the property, and did yoga every morning. It felt great. We drank good wine, and cooked awesome meals. I made a roast for the first time, ever. It was a scandalizing success. I'm including a humble recipe down at the bottom of the post. 

We had the intention of making a lamb roast, but did not find any at the Drummondville market.. We bought bison instead. Great move! 

As you can see I basically just put my piece of meat in an oven friendly pot. Made it cozy with some green beans, garden carrots, onions, and fresh thyme branches. I added kosher salt, ground pepper and generous chunks of butter to my veggies. I coated my bison with more salt, more pepper, and Dijon mustard. I added about 1/4 cup of blond beer to the bottom of my pot, to make sure these guys would stay moist, since the bison was pretty lean. 

I set my oven at 375f, and let it go for 45 minutes. (the butcher had recommended 1 hour, but I eat red meet pretty rare, have all my steaks blue, and did not want to over cook.) So I checked the middle of the roast, and put it back for an extra 5 minutes. 

Once you're happy with the done-ness, take it out, wrap it in foil. (it will keep it warm, and make it even more juicy, while you serve the vegetables) Slice your meet and enjoy.. Oh boy, that was one good meal!! 

Mid-Movember

A painting from my talented friend Edith. It's always so fun to pose for her. 

Don't forget to donate!!! 

Happy Weekend xo

Mercredis Wedding OCD : Flower Girls..Progress!

 Yeah... Moving forward! Dresses for the girls are purchased, and received! Turns out, it was sold out in dust pink. We should have pulled the trigger faster! Don't be fooled by the look of joy on those silly faces, they were NOT happy to have charcoal dresses. WHAT!? No pink!? Eeeeeew. 

 At least there is sparkly shoes to make up for it.. I'll make some flowers out of fabric for the top of the shoes too. Cannot wait to see what Noemiah makes for their tiny precious pretty hair! 

I know. We are not Wednesday. Yet again... Totally loosing grip on that whole regular post thing. 

Moustache

I'm trying myself at Movember this year! You can visit my profile, and donate here. 

Have a great weekend y'all. 

;{D

Mardis Manger : A Guest Post from Boyfriend

 Now, now... What? A guest post!? Youpi-yeah. I am pretty excited, and quite all-over-mushy, to introduce to you.... my boyfriend Guillaume! He has prepared a little post for today, and put all of his TLC into it. For a little introduction, all I'll say is... When He and I met, one of our first dates was to bake cookies together. It was pretty darn cute. It was actually that exact recipe he is sharing today. Later, my friends would always refer to him as Biscuit because of that. And the nickname stuck. (and he stuck around too ;)) But seriously, those cookies are serious stuff, highly-addictive, crack-like cookies. I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, but those ones!? It's the salty thing... I can hardly wait until they're at a decent temperature to start ravaging. 

 So, Paule Thought it would be nice if I did a little something for les Mardis Manger. Since she does most of the cooking around here and is pretty good at it, it was obvious that I had my hands full. I'm no cook compared to Paule but there are two things that I think I'm not to shabby at. One of them is Dessert and the other is Breakfast (I'll keep that for another Mardi Manger maybe?)

So here it is my Recipe for Super Salty Chocolaty Cookies !
it's simple but so good. Also easy is to make it your own if you want to!

All you need is:

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

- 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

- 1 stick of butter + 3 tablespoons, at room temperature

- 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 Tablespoon of Cold Espresso (optional)

- 1/2 cup of "make it your own" also optional ingredient

First, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, Baking soda, Cocoa Powder Salt), keep aside. 

 In a large bowl beat the butter with a hand mixer until it's creamy, add the brown sugar, the vanilla and the coffee (or not, I just love coffee and think it kicks up the taste of chocolate) and beat again until it's all well mix. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mix and stir with a wooden spoon or with your hands, mix it until the flour is all incorporated. The dough may be a bit crumbly but don't worry it will all be good when you'll make a log out of it.

 Now is the part when you can make it your own, I had some left over caramel chips, so I tossed that in the mix. You can leave it as is, or throw nuts in there, chocolate chips or both or marshmallow and so on and so on ! When your ''make it your own'' ingredient is well mixed, divide your dough in two and make a log out of them (the wider the log the bigger the cookies) wrap them up in plastic and put them in the fridge for at least three hours :S

Now, Time to Bake !

Preheat your oven at 325f

 Take the logs out and cut them in 1/2" slices (use a sharp knife, and don't worry if they break a bit, just squeeze them back in a cookie shape). Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Let them cool off a bit and enjoy. 

Hope you like them, I know Paule did !

October

Homemade dirty chai -  awesome impulsive purchase- Brave look alike niece, Aude - Autumn flowers, wedding inspirations - full moons and Martha pumpkins. 

 I've been lucky enough to have a lot on my plate work-wise lately. The last two weeks, and next two weeks, are sort of a blur of juggling long time and new clients, as well as very different types of assignments. But it's all good, and I feel super fortunate. 

 I have not posted here in a while, but plan on making it up!! You have a few insights in this October collage about wedding thingies. I will be sharing more save the dates' work pictures soon. Also, stay tuned for a guest post on this week's Mardi Manger from no one else then Le Boyfriend. :) I am quite exited for that, since Guillaume will be sharing his name's sake cookie recipe. (More on that.. )

 Otherwise.... What else to say, except, October is the best month of the year. Hands down. I love every day of it, every year. It comes and goes much too fast! But now we get to count down to Christmas, which is not bad at all either! 

xox