I have been finding myself changing direction with colour. Ever since I started exploring pastels for birthday cups, I have been longing for the smell of spring.

The fresh air, the trees starting to bud and not have to put on layers of clothing to go out. I like winter and the last few years, it has seemed so long and I think partly because we haven’t had the greatest summers weather wise.  It hasn’t been as cold lately and that is making me itch for warmer days even more. Let’s hope it is just around the corner!

I am a member of Design Style Guide and they are having a Valentine’s giveaway for 10 lucky people! I am part of this event and there are 10 great shops offering a giveaway in different demoninations.

Here is the link. Good Luck!
http://designstyleguide.blogspot.com/2010/02/valentines-design-style-guide-giveaway.html

A while back, I wrote a post about birthday parties and how I was planning on making cups for my daughters’ party guests. I have been giving a lot of thought to how much garbage we create and what each child to have a meaningful item to take home that could last a lifetime.
I did manage to get the job done. I had some interesting results and in the end I was happy with them. I am not a big stain user in glazes, so this was a new experience for me. Stains tend to be a lot more expensive to use than using oxides. If you spend enough time testing with oxides, you can come up with some wonderful results.

When working with any colourants, I like to do my homework. There are certain ceramic ingredients that can leach on food surfaces and it is wise to do the proper testing before placing them in contact with food or drink. That being said, I only placed the coloured surfaces on the outside of the cups as I did not have the time to test all of them. I placed a liner glaze on the inside of the cups because I know it is a safe glaze.

As you can see, the green, yellow and blue were all very bright. The pink did not go pink at all, so I added more pink stain. It still needed to be screened again and mixed better because in the end, it was not pink enough. I thinned the colours out so that I could see the initial on the cups and we would know what cup belonged to which child. I called their parents a couple of days before and asked them to pick between the colours that I had made up. No one opted for the green and I had three blues, two pinks and one yellow.

I don’t think they realized when they were drinking from their cups and having cake that I had made the vessels they were drinking from and it doesn’t really matter. Someday down the road they might realize that handmade is better than machine made.

I love garlic. It is one of those plants that is fairly easy to grow. Some people say, “Why bother? It is so cheap coming out of China.” I like my food as organic as possible and I am a true believer and
supporter of the 100 mile diet. I like to support local as much as possible.

A friend my mine’s husband used to work close to a farmer who garlic that is pesticide free. Apart from what we grow, I always found that there was a lack of good garlic around in the winter, so we purchase a lot from this particular farmer and it lasts all winter.  There is a huge difference in taste when it comes out of your own backyard as opposed to thousands of kilometres away.

If you keep garlic in a cool, dark place, it keeps well for quite a while. My grandparents did this 60 or 70 years ago with food that they grew in their garden.

So this friend asked me if I could make her a huge honkin’ garlic keeper. It holds about 6 bulbs of garlic and it measures 5"h and the opening has a 4” diameter. Now that is complete, I wonder how many others find the average keeper too small for their everyday kitchen needs?

I am not crazy about the holidays. I find it too stressful. I have become the head chef at my parents’ home. When I am going there, I need to prepare food ahead and if I don’t, I find myself shopping or eating out the entire time that I am there. I decided that I would go ahead of my husband and take my daughter to her grandmother’s for a week. Even though I only have one child, there is no down time with a busy 4 year old. I am not a shopper and usually don’t go near a grocery store or shopping mall unless I have too. Well, I ended up at a grocery store, 3 times in three days. I was not a happy camper. It was a challenging week.

My refuge ended up being going out in the great outdoors every chance I got. It was pretty cold while we were there (by Canadian winter standards) we did go out tobaggoning and walking with the dogs. My brother has a wonderful dog that he walks a couple of times a day and needless to say, he is quite fit. He picked an area that had a trail and there was a pond there. Just before we left for the walk, he thought we should bring some bread to feed the swans and ducks. We we arrived there, this is what we found.

Needless to say those swans and ducks were hungry critters. When I am at home, I often see swans flying overhead and honking away. I love the sound that they make. When we were at this pond, they never made a sound, however, there is always a forward one in the crowd. After we were there for a while, one of the swans ventured out of the water. I suspect it was the male. He didn’t seem to be too interested in the food but seemed to be quite curious and maybe ensuring that his children got fed. This beautiful creature hung around for a while and once the snacks were gone, so was he.

Experiences like this one recharged me during this hectic visit. I found it refreshing be outdoors and experiencing nature in a different way. Perhaps next year I will opt out for a more relaxing trip.