So before you go thinking I’m receiving some sort of “kick back” from Ace Bakery let me set the record straight .. I’m not.  Wish I were but no such luck.  If anyone out there in the blogsphere has any connections please let know.

A few days ago I just happened upon another delicious product of theirs.  If you remember a few weeks ago I was raving about their Artisan Granola ( I even ♥ the name) you can read about it here.    

On a regular basis I don’t eat much bread.  Not much of a sandwich or toast girl so it’s never really in the house that much unless the kids are around.    Having said that I will totally contradict myself and say that there is nothing I love more than a warm loaf of bread right out of oven served with creamy butter … yummy!  That’s the way it tastes best and that’s the way I like to eat it.  So when I saw the frozen multi grain small loaves at the grocery store the other day I simply knew I had to buy them.

Having eaten one last night I admit it’s a blessing and a curse ….

I almost ate the entire thing myself … it was the main course and whatever else I had on my plate was the side dish.  There’s nothing that compares to putting butter on warm bread and having it slowly soak into every nook and cranny.  The inside remains soft and moist while the outside has a deliberate crunch factor.  It’s making me hungry just thinking about it.

So there you go another fabulous food from Ace Bakery … I think they should hire me as a spokesperson or at least send me a year’s supply of granola …

                                                                      Have a Great Weekend

]]> http://www.melodymadden.com/2012/02/its-friday-time-to-kick-up-your-heels/feed/ 0 http://www.melodymadden.com/2012/02/spread-the-love-around/ http://www.melodymadden.com/2012/02/spread-the-love-around/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:18:17 +0000 admin http://www.melodymadden.com/?p=406

I can’t say Valentine’s Day has ever really meant anything special to me.  Too Hallmark cardish I guess … sorry Hallmark. In my opinion love shouldn’t only be celebrated  on February 14th.

I believe those feelings and thoughts should be expressed as often as possible to those we love.  I’m actually good at that.  Rightly or wrongly I wear my heart on my sleeve most of the time, oh and I cry a lot.  Movies, commercials, music and most especially when I hear of some random act of kindness.  I just fall apart but in a good way.

We continually hear how short life is but I don’t think we really process that fully.  But… it is short.  Once you begin losing people you love you realize that pretty quickly and it hits home in a big way.

Say “I love you” now and say it often.

I also think if we are going to celebrate Valentine’s Day let’s spread the love around.  Who says it has to be only about our significant other?   Yes, we love them

but let’s take it a step further and widen the circle to all those we love..

                                                                                       Family & Friends

                                                                     Loved ones in Fur Coats

                                                                                      Nature

I believe our lives really are about the small things that happen in our day to day existence… it is what shapes us and our perspective of the world around us.

If we are able to find joy in these small moments on a daily basis …well life just opens up.

But hey don’t take my word for it …let’s give  the last word on the subject to the Beatles who so eloquently summed it all up ..

“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make”

Beatles, Golden Slumber …..Abbey Road

I wish you a day filled with ♥ today and everyday ….

Changing Winds, 36″x36″, Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

I’ve been trying to find time in between all of my other household stuff to finish the above piece … and I finally did.  I was forced to lock myself in my studio until I was happy with the work.

Last week after a long stretch of studio time I stood back with all the muscles in my hand throbbing (all day painting sessions do that to me) and thought “hmmm, not right”.  I so wanted to like it but the sky was wrong it was way too cheery for the dark, atmospheric groundcover.  I put it aside and thought  maybe the “like” factor would return or it would start to grow on me but it never does…. silly girl you should know that by now.   If something in the work just isn’t sitting right with me I just have to fix it.  It gnaws at me like the sound of nails on a chalk board and I can’t seem to stop myself from obsessing about it.  It drives John crazy!  ”Why don’t you just paint a darker sky next time?”  ”Someone will love that piece”  ” You know art is subjective”.  I look at him with my “seriously?” face … He knows when it’s time to stop talking to me about “my” art and “my” vision.  Which is really what it’s all about isn’t it?  If it’s not working for me it’s not working at all because it is my vision and how I see the work I want to put out into the world.  If I completed a piece tomorrow and 100 out of 100 people thought it sucked I wouldn’t care if and only if I loved it.  That’s the beauty of creating for me…

Let’s swing back around to the beginning… so I painted over the entire sky and I did so without so much as a touch of hesitation or a single doubt. It was the right thing for me. After another long session the above sky appeared just like I saw it in my head … and yeah I’m happy.  Changing Winds will be heading down to The Village Gallery on Wednesday.

I’ve also been working on some smaller pieces as well that are still in progress

Have a great Monday

Before Christmas last year I decided I wanted to tap into my “Martha Stewart” and bake gifts for most of my friends complete with homemade gift tags and fancy ribbon.  They only thing I had jarred in our cold room was a strawberry jam my hubby and his mother made last summer which truth be told, ssshhhh, was not to my liking.  Note to self:  find new jam recipe before spring.

Granola struck me as a great option as who doesn’t  love granola?

One of my favourite foodie blogs  Kiss My Spatula had a great recipe so that’s where I started…….but…..seems granola is not quite as easy as it appears. What I learnt was that your oven temperature needs to be lower than what the recipe states and you need to be continually moving it around (not occasionally) as the edges get burnt so quickly.  Do not go off to finish varnishing a painting with the oven at 350 and come back after 30 mins (the recipe called for 30-40 mins) After I threw away the blackened part I was  left only with enough for us which meant the friends were getting a bottle of wine for Christmas afterall.

I came across this recipe yesterday which calls for peanut butter and looks delicious.  I will definitely try it but incorporate the lessons learned from last year.

But in the meantime I happened upon this which is unbelievably good (I ♥ it on yogurt).  It is made in Toronto which is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from me at a place called Ace Bakery.

Ingredients

Thick rolled oats, whole almonds, dried cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax, maple syrup, honey, sunflower oil, cinnamon, vanilla and salt.

The only modification I would make is to throw in some flaked coconut and if you get really daring some dark chocolate chips.  I added some frozen blueberries that we picked last summer  in a place called Wawa on Lake Superior.

Christmas 2012 will be here soon enough and you never know when you going to need a good back up plan. Plus I still have a box full of homemade gift tags and fancy ribbon…..

I love painting big skies …

I believe this love comes from the years  I’ve spent on Lake Superior.

We have had a small cabin there for the last 20 years.  The beauty and strength of that lake … well there is nothing I can compare it to.

My favourite days consist of sitting on the beach and just staring out over the water as the colours change so rapidly and the clouds dance in the sky…continually changing as does life.

Hues of every conceived blue imagination…and the waves….there is such power there…there is such inspiration.

Yesterday I was spending a bit  (yes, only a bit) of time in the studio doing what I consider necessary… organizing.

I would rather be painting…

But I must admit there does come a time when it is impossible to ignore the fact that you can’t find stuff, like an 8”x8”  canvas, a pencil and my tube of prussian blue paint.  It is then that you are forced to consider the obvious….

My space is 10‘x12’ which doesn’t lend itself to being a great place to store much but I am happy there.  I get the north light almost all day which is great for painting and because it is away from the living portion of the house it really feels separate from everything else … and mostly it’s my own.  If I decide to look at it from the glass half full aspect, I fortunately have a small storage closet  in which I am able to house some paint and a few canvases.  Glass half empty … everyone else who lives in this house also stores much of their stuff in there as well.  Old games, beany babies who look as if they have seen better days, blueprints for I don’t know what, manual for things we no longer own.  I’m feeling a purge coming on …

Generally I’m fairly neat and tidy.  Clutter does drive me up the walls especially in a small space but I must admit there are times when I am working and have totally lost myself in the process.  I’m just so in “that moment” and that connection between me and the work is so strong that it seems to be the only thing that matters.  Putting things back in their place is not even on my radar.

So as I sat in my disorganized space yesterday, trying to figure out where to begin, drinking my second cup of tea, I spot out of the corner of my eye a sketch I completed last week …. I feel that initial tiny surge of adrenalin building and before you know it that ovewhelming need to get started organzing painting.  I pick up a pencil and tell myself I will need to give myself a bit more time to figure out this organizational plan of mine …. perhaps tomorrow.

Sunrises

Incredibly Good Tea (♥ anything Tazo)

Good Books…

Painting Figuratively…

Quiet Conversation

Acrylic on Canvas 6″x6″

A Cookbook … that makes me want to eat more seasonally

My new secret addiction…

 Favourite painting of mine .. to date

In A Whisper

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

30″x30″

Yesterday I was in the studio for most of the afternoon and painted while the rain pelted down on the window.

Dreary and dark.

I can take any sort of winter as long as I get to see … she says with her fingers crossed…  sunshine.  Day after day of cloud and I begin wondering if that SAD lamp might just be right for me.

Around dinner the temperature began to plummet and I was seriously in the mood for some “comfort food”

Creamy Tarragon Chicken has been kicking around in my recipe book for years now but I’m not exactly sure where it originated.   I definitely cut it out of a magazine but the only clue I have is when I flip it over I see a half  of a subscription form for French House & Home Magazine.

So with that said, let’s give the credit to them…

Creamy Tarragon Chicken

2 tbsp olive oil

6 bone in, skin on chicken breasts

salt & pepper to taste

3 large shallots, sliced

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup 35% cream

1 tsp Dijon mustard ( I used 2 )

1 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh tarragon

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Heat oil in large, wide skillet over medium-high heat.  Pat chicken dry with paper towel; season with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet skin side down and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Flip and cook another 2 minutes.  Transfer to large baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked through.  (I didn’t have any skin-on chicken last night so I just used skinless…it was still good but skin-on is better)

2.  Meanwhile, to make terragon sauce, add shallots and garlic to skillet, reduce heat to medium and cook for 4 minutes or until shallots have softened. Add wine (this is a good time to use up the white homemade wine that was given to you over the holidays that you know you’ll never drink by the glass) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.  Add chicken broth, bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes.  Strain, reserving liquids and discarding solids.  Return liquids to skillet or a small pot  ( I like using a small pot), bring to a boil and whisk in cream and Dijon.

3.  Mash butter and flour together in a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of hot chicken broth mixture and stir until combined (it will be thick).  Add entire mixture back to hot chicken broth and stir until combined.

4.  Add chopped tarragon and season with salt & pepper (I didn’t have fresh tarragon but needless to say if you do… it’s definitely better…fresh is always better) Spoon sauce over chicken.

I made basmati rice which is one of my favs and served the chicken with sauce over that.  I also steamed some broccoli as well cause you gotta get your veggies in.

Simple, easy and delicious … like all recipes should be..

So wherever you are in the world today … make it a great one!

Back to the easel for me …

This morning I find myself sitting in front of this enormous blank canvas with my mind equally as blank.

This IS the dreaded 30″x60″ I’ve been avoiding for weeks…ok, if truth be told…months.  It has been sitting in the hallway just outside the studio  like a girl who has been invited to the party but never asked to dance.  I pass it every single morning on the way in. I simply glance at it from the corner of my eye because I know if I look at it dead on I’ll have to acknowledge the fact that fear has gotten the best of me…

In my own defense I will admit I’ve come a long way.  When I started out in the arts 14 years ago I was a textile artist.  I initially created art quilts …

like this…

 Blues on Blue

From there I moved to…thread, paint and wool on cotton

 Fields of Red

One

These two pieces above are only 3″x4″ …. tiny but unbelievably time consuming..

I started working bigger…this piece below is about 5″x6″..

Passionate Ground

The drive to work larger continued to motivate me until I ultimately knew I had to move on and it wouldn’t be in thread.

I felt like a change was a comin’…and I was more than ready for it.

I’ve had so many people ask me if I miss the work but honestly I don’t.   I believe all things come to pass so that new doors can open in other directions to take us to places where we can continue to be more of who we are meant to be …

I picked up a paint brush a little over a year ago and haven’t looked back. It feels good to me.  It feels right.

So let’s circle around back to where we started shall we?

I wanted big…I got big…you know what they say “Be careful what you wish for”

To Be Continued….

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