foody

15 recent foody shots from a few lunches & dinners & snacks here at 29 Black Street

It's no secret that I L-O-V-E to cook and I especially love trying to put a heart healthy spin on some traditional favourites. This post is especially for John, who always seems to get cooking inspiration from my food shots. A blog of your own perhaps ... John ?

the best oranges on sale 2 for 1/roasted salmon & potato wedges/Thai rice noodle salad/ dog cookies natch/that pumpkin pie with chocolate chips/tons o' veggie stir fry prep/baked chicken Parmesan with chunky vegetable marinara & Caesar salad/salmon ready for the 425 roastin' oven/grilled cheese on multi-grain bread/we eat a whole lot of fruit/cabbage rolls with ground chicken/canned salmon & rice pie/gourmet (uh huh!) tofu dogs/tuna salad lunch with dessert

20

an assortment of 20 from the last few weeks - no such thing as too many photographs


listening : audio books Steve Jobs biography & Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food + finches
cooking : homemade Pizza Margherita - with big juicy tomatoes, garlic & my own fresh basil
drinking : coffee with flavoured dairy creamer ?!? like a faux Starbucks here in my wee village
eating : poached eggs on an English muffin with asparagus spears & a big fat orange
pondering : still, the re-branding of me & my new 29 Black Street web site launch Mon. April 2
drawing: jewellery (fantastic freelance job) & brand new typographic collages - watch out !!
baking : that amazing practically no fat, no cholesteral, no sugar pumpkin pie with chippits* ;-)
reading : Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux (so good !) & The Happiness Project thanks Amanda
watching : the first season (taped from HBO by the Prince) of Game of Thrones - oh boy !
catching up : emails, postal packages, letters & cards, inventory (ugh) + tax timeth loometh ;-(
walking : hooray ! back on the crescent beach & the salt mine road with my best girl Missy D

off to work at the post office this morning !

so ... what' on your list ?
& a very happy weekend

* sprinkle a good handful of chocolate chips onto crust before pouring in the filling. yum

can

get noticed ! an ad I created for April to run on the sidebar of fav maker's blog Elise Joy Blaha

design brief

size of ad - 170 x 100 pixels
communicate - what I do (in as few words as possible)
objective - get noticed ! (hopefully ;-)

Pretty much finished my illustration project, just a few kind of picky improvements I'd like to make, wee tweaks & extras. Then onto a big juicy jewellery design project & creating the extra pages for my relaunch of les blog redesign. tres exciting.

The word around here these days is most definitely can

Yes you can ! (Oliver) Yes I Can ! Yes we can, can !
ps. MS ! Oui ! Oliver is the most excellent partner in this Creative Empire building

the high bar

a sneak peek ... a tiny corner of my current custom banner illustration project -sigh


There is no challenge more challenging
than the challenge to improve yourself.

Michael F. Staley

I hope to finish it today - the big deal, anxiety producing collage/painting, hold-my-breath project. It's a 3 part illustration - created extra big to allow me room for lots of detail. It will be scanned in 3 pieces and digitally assembled. So ... why all the holding of my breath ? Well ... when I finished the line drawing for this project awhile back (which does also include a large & prominent hand drawn/typography section) I felt instantly a bit swoony at it's potential - I felt in my creative heart that if done right this piece could/would be a much coveted & beautiful new big feather in my portfolio cap ... a shiny jewel in that darn CE* crown.Plus it's for someone else - that always ups the angst quotient - wanting with all my heart & soul to have her squeal with delight at it's completion, maybe a little jumping up & down while clapping enthusiastically ;-) I know I set that bar pretty darn high - too high often but I know that this high bar of mine is what pushes me forward, always & makes me better & better + I really do love the challenge of pushing myself.

Les messy desk mid afternoon yesterday (below) - Mr. Mr. Oliver gets extremely pissed when my desk gets this full & cluttered 'cause there's no place for him to sit. I do try to keep my printer covered and free of debris & oh thanks so much (not) for the heated pillow topped, maybe catnip scented printer cover. He's already sourcing materials & calculating the cost per unit figure - he's sure North American (+ England of course) sales will be Rockin', he's an entrepreneur cat.

And speaking of cats - pop over to Dani's blog and say hello to her sweet new brood of puppies.

*CE - creative empire

mostly oliver

super model - I'm a very, very handsome cat ! & athletic, creative, needy, attentive (sheesh !)

Did I mention athletic ? savvy, kind, protective, suavé, diligent, romantic, loyal, tres athletic ...

Cats, cats, cats ... of course, mostly Mr. Photogenic himself, Monsieur life-of-les-Parté Oliver