SUMMERTIME

Yesterday's tomato harvest and some of my favorite August tunes.

• Bebel Gilberto - AUGUST DAY SONG

•  Serge Gainsbourg - VIEILLE CANAILLE 

• Astor Piazzolla - LIBERTANGO 

• Caro Emerald - A NIGHT LIKE THIS and THAT MAN 

• Stephane Grappelli Quintet - MINOR SWING

April hail

 It hailed earlier today

Luckily, I had enough time to bring in my seedlings.  I thought April is known for its showers, not hail!

Hope the weather is better in your neck of the woods.
Anya

Creativity ...

It seems that just yesterday my head was buzzing with creative ideas and I couldn't wait to get home from my day job to finish a project, or maybe begin a new one, or blog about things I've made ....
... and then something happened and my creative buzz went away and my unfinished projects are now sitting idle on the crafting table.

At first I blamed the lack of time, but I soon realized that time had nothing to do with it.  Just last week, when I had a lot of free time, I tried getting back to my crafting on several occasions and gave up before making anything.
This week I feel determined to shake this weird non-crafty state of mind off.  I am creating a series of exercises to help me. 

  -   First comes a weekly project.  The idea is borrowed from the ever-so-popular project life: documenting my weeks using crafty materials and supplies.  I am planning on creating 2 pages every weekend using papers and embellishments I'd find throughout the week.  It would also be a great way to use my huge pile of inspirational images.
  -   Second is the new TEA TIME series for this blog (more about it in the upcoming posts).
  -   I am also hoping to get some mood boards/inspirational boards going.  I've been contemplating an idea of creating those for a while and it seems like the time could not be better.
  -   And finally I will try to come up with short 5-10 minutes crafty exercises to fire up my creative mojo.  I would like to use them as warm-ups, completing one before jumping into big projects.

P.S. I've sketched this post yesterday morning and simply thinking about different creative activities got me so happy and inspired.  I already have several ideas for things I'd like to try out this weekend; most of them have to do with bringing spring mood into our house decor. P.P.S. The images have little to do with the topic of the post: they are my parade roses and lantana plant from last summer.
P.P.P.S. I would love to hear your inspirational ideas.  What do you usually do to get into creative mood?

______
A year ago Anya was cooking ROASTED PEPPER SOUP

February guest

A while ago, in November, we had a cute visitor on the balcony; begging for peanuts and teasing Sebka.
A couple of weeks ago another type of guest was spotted on our backyard.  I was lucky to have my camera ready and managed to take some shots of the beautiful February guest:

I think he was a little bit camera shy: every time I'd try to snap a picture he would turn away.

Eventually he got restless and decided to hide between tree branches.

The cute moment happened the day after when the same cardinal flew back with his girlfriend. This time she was eating seeds at the bird feeder and he was staying on guard to "protect" her. What a cute couple!

Snowy March

We are snowed in again. The light white snow keeps falling and falling, covering the whole city ...

Could it be the last storm of the season? Some say "yes", but living in Montreal for over 10 years I learned to expect snowfalls in March, April and even May.
The "weather people" promise +6 on the weekend and I even heard them suggesting not to bother shoveling since most snow will melt fast.

So instead of shoveling we take long naps on the couch.

Happy Friday, my dearest readers!
xxx
Anya

Visitors ...

The visitor from ANOTHER DAY came back.  This time he brought along his girlfriend: 

We are expecting a big family reunion on our balcony over the next couple days.