Where I live - North of Boundary Road

Life North of Boundary Road has been quite interesting.  Even after a scarey day like today I still would not trade living here for anywhere else for all of the tea in China!!

I shall start off with today and go back as I see fit. 

Today we woke up to the sound of an incredible whistling in the winhd sounds.  Looking outside we could how bad and  extremely high winds there were and that they were so loud.  I immediately wanted to go out and about for a drive, but settled for less and waited until it died down a bit...okay...a lot. 

Just before we decided to go and got in the car, this was our first discovery of the day.

we then decided to go for a little drive to see what we could see.  We started on the 592 because that is where we have to go and get the mail.  We were completely amazed at how many trees came down.  Check it out:

Halloween Broom Ride 2015

I've not posted since Election day because its been quite a hectic week with a few projects on the go, in my studio and outside.  I spent this morning scanning all of my ATCs that I've been opening up every day since October 1 for the Halloween Broom Ride, the second last swap I will be participating in with ATC_Fun.  They are all scanned so I will be spending this evening getting them posted here.  This afternoon, I spent outside with Abby working on an outdoor project, which is to build a wall out of pop bottles to cover up the propane tanks to help the gas keep expanded to see if it keeps the cost down.  So what I did today was I took the labels off of all of the pop bottles...probably around 250 bottles we have.  I sure hope it works.

Anyway, this morning as I mentioned, I spent my morning scanning all of my broom ride cards.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE anything Halloween!  I could handle Halloween all year long, not just in October.  For the last few years, I have been participating in what is  called, the Halloween Broom Ride.

  

                         October 8 2015 were some amazing embellishments from Jeannie M.

Ok, well that is it for the Halloween Broom Ride 2015.  Maybe my last one, but I hope not!  I'm no longer a part of the group that hosts it, its unfortunate but life happens and we move on.  Thank you very much to all of the wonderful artists who have participated in this years Halloween swap.  Awesome mix of images and techniques...good job everyone.

Unfortunately I was unable to add captions if I wanted more than one photo in a row...so there is no way to tell you who's card is who's or what date each artist has unless I make a list...which at this point I don't think is necessary.    If any of the above artists come by they will know their work when they see it.    There is still a whole week of opening a card every day between now and Halloween...I LOVE LOVE LOVE it...Many thanks to all who played in this swap to make it so special.

Well, more to come to finish this swap...come back often!  

Autumn

There is no mystery as to why Autumn is my favorite time of year.  When asked "what is your favorite color?" my response is "Autumn".

Every year ever since I was a young child and living in Huntsville in the 70's and 80's.  I can remember going on Road Trips specifically to see the colors of fall.  There are two types of people in this world...those that are into doing this and those who are not.

The trips I remember the most are the trips to the Dorset Tower.  Whenever we had company in the fall, we would all pile into the car and away we would go.  As we approached the fire tower we got excited as we saw the tower peering through the trees.

But now living here as an adult I have been back to Dorset and climbed the tower.  But two major differences being that one I am adult now and a lot more nervous to climb the tower, and two the tower no longer peer above the trees.

But it is STILL beautiful no matter what age or how you slice it.

Our Autumn this year lasted all but a week.   It was so Damm beautiful out there that all I wanted to do was nothing but get in the car and drive around aimlessly.  

Until one day it snowed...and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed for about an entire weekend.   The snow came and the crispy colorful autumn leaves fell to the ground. 

Election Day

Monday October 11, 2015....election day has arrived.  To be quite honest when I lived in larger cities I have never really been too concerned about voting, and zero interest in politics.  But since I have been living in a smaller rural area I have taken an interest in not only voting but also working at the elections locally.  And only a slight interest in politics.

Last year, I worked at the Emsdale election as an Information Officer.  This year I have accepted a position as a Registration Officer in Katrine.  Abby has also accepted a position as an Information Officer this year in Katrine.  So we get to spend the entire day (A full 12 hours)in the same room together. When they first called us I was going to go to Emsdale and Abby was going to be in Katrine.  God forbid that we should have been apart for that length of time.  But we didn't have to worry about it.  Being at the same polling station just made it easier to bring a cooler of lunch dinner and snacks.

Two weeks before the election, they had a training for us.   We finally got to see the Uviversity of Waterloo building in Huntsville.  I was quite impressed by the foyer they have in there and boy what a beautiful winding spiral staircase and wall we saw.  The wall was completely covered with live plants.  It was absolutely breath-taking and a pleasant surprise.

The training was much better than last year.  Last year was all last minute and all I got for training was a half hour in front of computer videos...but this year they called early enough to book us for the proper training. 

To my surprise the person facilitating the the election training was none other than my high school English and Theatre Arts teacher...and he actually remembered me.  I never dreamed in a million years that I would ever be in one of his classes again.  Amazing!!!

And now here it is election day...we have made it to the 6th hour...we are almost half way through our day.  We have had just over 120 voters so far.   It's been steady but kind of boring...no music, TV and only what little Internet I have on my phone.

Well we made it through the 12 hour day...whew...I'm sorry there are no photos for this post since the confidentiality rule was in place.  But it was interesting, and a very very long day.  What is Canada in store for over the next 4 years?  I guess only time will tell.

On My Stove today

 Home Made Pickled Beets...YUM!

One of the things I love about the fall season is CHEAP vegetables...like $1.44 ten pound bag of beets from No Frills in Huntsville!!!  That alone is a good reason to celebrate Autumn.    I love pickled beets as much as the next person...but this is only the second time I have tried making them on my own.

Last year, our neighbor got me interested because the day we stopped by their place to see if we could buy some maple syrup from them she was cooking beets.  I had never done any kind of canning before, so naturally it built up my curiosity.  She let me take pictures of the recipe from her big cook book, but I've since taken a kazillion photos and have no idea where they are in my computer.  Anyway Ingrid told me that she was going to get herself a new canner, and she ended up giving me her old one...so now I have two, a large one and a medium one.

So this is the recipe I found on the internet this year, and used...

PICKLED BEETS

• 35 -40 small beets unpeeled
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon whole cloves

Directions

1. In a large pot cook the unpeeled beets until fork-tender (do not overcook) cool and then remove the skins.
2. Slice into about 1/4-inch thick or cut into cubes.
3. Pack snuggly into the canning jars (be careful not to bruise).
4. In a large saucepan combine the sugar, water, vinegar, ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon and whole cloves; bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes (no sugar granules should remain).
5. Quickly pour over the beets in the jars, leaving 3/4-inch head space (the liquid should go no further than the shoulder of the jar!).
6. Process in a boiling water bath for 12 minutes.
7. Cool on a rack. 

I ended up with 10 medium sized mason jars of pickled beets...however I did have to add a bit more water, a bit more sugar and a bit more vinegar to the liquid part of this recipe so that I could finish the last four jars.  I have marked them in the order I canned them in the sealer...1 of 6, 2 of 6, 3 of 6 etc and then the last four 1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc so that I know which ones were which.  I can't wait to try them....YUM

10 Jars of home made pickled beets...YUM

October 25, 2015

Abby and I finally got to try some of these beets today and they are so delish!  I will be using the same recipe to make some pickled cucumbers.   YUM

From Dardarbinx to The Paper Manipulator at long last!

It has been a long time coming, but finally I have found a new name for me that I think is perfect and so do every one that I have asked so far.  Its long...but its a name  :)  My first love of art came to me in August 2010.  So I have not been making art all of my like many of my artist-in-laws.  I joined Swap-Bot in February 2011, and I have also dabble a little bit in a few yahoo groups, including ATC_Fun and not mention ATC For All.

I was living in Brampton at the time, caring for a dear friend who was diagnosed with a very serious and fatal case of kidney cancer with the help of my beautiful wife Abby.  It was soon after that I was told about Artist Trading Cards by my sister-in-law Karen, to whom I am very grateful for, because I truly believe that it was my new found love for art that helped me make it through Alan's death, which of course is right up there with Abby's love and support.

While living in Brampton, I had the good fortune of meeting my art teacher/mentor, Natalie Murdock who was on the design team at a scrapbook store in Mississauga, ON called Scrapbook Queens.  I hired her to teach me what to with stamps and card making.  It was wonderful to have 3 one on one classes with her.   She taught me Stamping 101, 102 & 103.  She is now on two design teams, one being One Crazy Stamper.  She is sooooooo talented, I am so honored to get to be her student and friend.  I miss her dearly.

There is one thing that I regret since starting my path as an artist.  And that is that I have not been properly keeping track of all the swaps I've participated in.  I started to, but gave up on it because there have been so many.  And also in that respect I have not always necessarily dated my work either.  Because I have started going through all of my 1000's of ATCs and finding that many of them had not been dated or even titled for that matter.  So I can now see the importance of doing just that...Ah well, not to late to start.

My studio as of late is a huge mess, I've been working at trying to de clutter it and organizing everything as close to alphabetically as possible so that I can find things quickly and easily as I need them.   I've been trying my best to do just that since we have moved to beautiful Northern Ontario, but to no avail!  Perhaps now that I am blogging and taking ownership by telling you all about my "to-do" list then maybe, just maybe it will get done.  Abby cautioned me of this when I first got started because she experienced it with her Mom...but I only half a small amount of stuff, in comparison to many other artists I know and love.

Here is my colossal To-Do list...

1)  Alphabetize all of my ephemera, tools, art things and put away neatly where I can find quickly:

2)  Sort out all of my ATCs by Holiday, and in some cases by artist to display:

These aren't even all of them....I have probably about 4000 ATCs, no idea how many really

3)  Make a huge Halloween Collage:

4)  Make Art:

These Halloween Rolodex's are for a swap in my Facebook group

5)  Put all of my Tim Holtz distress inks in baggies with their circular and triangular foam pads

6)  Finally finish Melody's inspiration deck and get it to her, hopefully before the end of the year as it feels like I've owed it to her for an entire lifetime!

7)  Organize and sort all of the photos and documents in my imac.

8)  Scan all of the 2015 Halloween Broom Ride ATCs to share with you all here before Halloween.

And everything all not necessarily in this order, I have been working on each job a little bit at a time for some change in what I've been doing, so it feels like nothing is getting done.   So little to do and so little time.  I have been hugely distracted by Halloween art which is my absolute favorite time of year for being creative.

I have also been managing my own Facebook group if you are interested in checking it out. 

Your Sister In Art

Dar Bassie-Cripps
aka dardarbinx