What's green and shiny?

More micro macramé. This stuff is addictive. 

What are we going to do with all the bracelets and cookies piling up around here? The drawings are bad enough but they can be squirelled away between the pages of our sketchbook. 

Guess we're just lucky we haven't become interested in something like bronze sculpture. :)   Yet.

~Best wishes,   

PS Thanks to Maria for confirming our new birds are Goldfinches. 

January days

Yesterday, when we were talking cookies, we realized we never did share our Santa cookies. So, as we enjoy our post-Christmas clean-up of the goodies (a dirty job that someone must do) with a homemade latte, we snapped a quick photo just for you. And no, for any of you who are wondering, he's crunchy but not bulletproof.

This January has been a wee bit unusual weather-wise in many parts of Canada and, here in the Kingdom, we're no exception. Lots of birds have found our homemade feeder. We used to have a jim-dandy commercial one but the high winds last April took it out and we've been forced to improvise. In fact though, we think this cranberry juice jug makes a better feeder than most. It doesn't allow the moisture to get inside and freeze up all the seeds. We just remove the cap and pour in the seeds and wait for our feathered friends to show up. We have chickadees, a couple of different kinds of sparrows, 2 different types of woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, bluejays, mourning doves and as of yesterday, this guy......

Could they be goldfinches in their drabber winter wear? or snow buntings? We're not really sure. We only know we never had these birds here at our feeder before yesterday. And that's in 25 years of feeding in the same spot. If anyone has an opinion, please leave it in the comments. We'd appreciate knowing what they're called. We have counted 5 of them at the same time. We do see goldfinches in the summer, but never before through the winter. We're still waiting for the cardinals to make an appearance. They are usually very shy, but we do see them from time to time, mostly at dusk or dawn. For some reason we rarely see a squirrel, maybe because there are supposed to be fishers out and about, but one memorable year, we had RATS!!! at our feeder. That certainly took some of the fun out of our bird feeding activities.

Yesterday, as the sun slipped below the cloud cover and prepared to set, the light changed suddenly and produced the most beautiful colours. We grabbed the camera and raced to capture it. These photos just scream "January!" for us.

"January! January! January!!!!

Best wishes from the Kingdom of Coco!!

All in the name of science

Last night, in the interest of culling the herd to make room for the new arrivals, it was one of the Snow Dudes' turn to...you know....take one for the team. Imagine our surprise when it soon became apparent that this dude wasn't going down without a fight. He was almost bullet-proof!! While the Christmas Birds and the Santas had a pleasantly sweet and crunchy layer of icing, this Dude's coating was pretty much inpenetrable. Since Mr. Coco still has all his own teeth (and we'd like to keep it that way!) we decided some detective work was in order.

So, in the name of science... (Karen and Paula, you may just want to look away)...... Please don't call the SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cookies). Snow Dude gave his life for science. There is no higher calling.

We know we covered the cookie with a base coat of pale turquoise Royal Icing which we distinctly remember we spread with a spatula (as opposed to flooding them with a runnier consistency of icing). Then, we piped and flooded the white layer of the snowman's body and THEN we put the scarf details on top. We were so pleased with the way the scarf stood out. So sculptural. So arty. Now, we think we just used too many layers of too stiff icing. That resulted in a rock hard finish. We could mail these babies to Zanzibar and they'd arrive all in one piece!!!

There is a reason that the Great Masters painted with egg tempera. That stuff lasts. And if you ever tried to wash dried egg off a plate, you'll know what we mean. Royal Icing is made from egg whites. We use those pasteurized ones in the carton just to be safe.

One of the problems with book learnin' is that there's no one to step in and tell you when you've made a big goof. You have to find out on your own, through trial and error and experimentation. With luck, you find out before someone breaks a tooth.

And now, we know. Good thing the seventeen cookies we iced yesterday are only going to be painted.

A fresh start

September always seems like the start of a new year to us but Grandma Coco also subscribes to the conventional idea that everything starts anew with the beginning of the calendar new year, too. So, when we flip to the first day of the first month, we get this feeling that anything could happen.

We can forget the misfortunes and disappointments of 2011 and look forward to the possibilities of 2012.

We get a second chance..... A fresh start...... A blank slate on which to write a new and better story. We can be better people, if we choose. We can do more and complain less. Yes, even Grandma Coco could aim for that.

So, last night, after Mr. Hydro reduced his rates, as he does each evening at precisely 7pm in the Kingdom of Coco, we turned on our oven and baked a tray of gingerbread rounds. Today, we gave them their pristine base coats and here they sit.....seventeen perfect, blank canvases. Just imagine what stories they will tell.

Pat has his Vanna ...

... we have our Cassie! And now, our lovely assistant will model some delightful new pieces from our 2012 feline collection.....

We thought this one was kinda loud. In fact, we were sort of disappointed in it until our brother dropped by at New Year's and proclaimed it was exactly the kind of thing a belly dancer would wear. Why, yes! That's exactly what we were going for. Thank you.

Oooh, look! Stained glass! You're getting sleepy.....sleepier......ZZZZZZZZ

Remember the little beauty on the bottom? This is the one that ended in a rat's nest of tangled cords. We had thought we'd just cut out the beads and move on but when we looked more closely all that was really wrong was that one of the cords had come unplied. So, we twisted it back up, glued the end and carried on.

Moving on

Grandma Coco was touched by all the people who sympathized with her massive disappointment of yesterday. Seems like everybody's been there and done that. First thing this morning, with the world all new and frosty and with bright clear sunshine pouring through our windows and with hope in our heart, we went back into the studio and .... nope! still doggy-doo. We will do as suggested though. We'll put that puppy away and just let him hibernate a bit and consider his options. We did not touch a match to him as we might have done years ago. No, we're older and wiser now and realize that every dog does have his day.

However.......... This day is Fun With Cookies Day!!! We've been trying to find our very own take on this cookie decorating adventure. Today, we decided to play. Just play. And not to worry about what might come out of it. Mr. Coco will take care of the mistakes.

We've been fascinated by a couple of cookie decorators who might rightly be called watercolour painters because they paint on a cookie with thinned food colouring in a water colour style. Once Upon a Plate makes delightfully delicate scenes and Arty McGoo just paints wonderful designs. Period. You should go check them out. They look like such fun....but alas, we're not water colourists.

Copyright  ã Cheryl Coville 2012 

We decided to stick to our strengths and we used fine edible ink markers to draw our designs and water colour washes to colour them. We think they're pretty nifty.....and certainly worthy of more investigation.

Yes, it`s the Blow Your Own Horn Lady again. In the Kingdom of Coco, we recycle.
             

Have a fun-filled day!

Question for the ages

Why, why, why? We went into our sewing room this morning intent on picking up where we left off on our knitting themed quilt. We were so into it last winter. We knew just where we were going with it. It seemed SUCH A GREAT IDEA!!! New. Fresh. Exciting, even.

Then we were side-lined by the eye thing and we had to dismantle our studio so house guests could actually sleep in there and then other projects beckoned and FINALLY, after that 6-month hiatus, TODAY we get back to it...only to find that it's something we hope we wouldn't step in if we were walking down the street. If you get our drift.

How is it that the brilliant piece you put down one day wakes up the next as such a monstrous dud?