p e l a g i c   s a t e l l i t e s

Its been snowing a lot recently, but I decided to post one of a clear day, since there isn’t really enough light to produce a sharp photo when it’s cloudy and snowing heavily out as it has been the past few days (not to mention a little depressing; school already provides enough of that for me =P).

I’d like to also take this space to thank Ingo for being kind enough to buy one of my prints and offering such kind comments about my work–it made my day ^_^ Thank you!

I’ve been making a lot of stovetop popcorn and cookies lately and got bored today, so I took a couple of photos of them just for fun. I’ve also discovered the perfect extra chewy peanut butter cookie recipe through trial and error the last few days, so I thought I would share in case anyone is a cookie-holic but would rather it be a little healthier than the standard sugary snack food.

Extra Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

-1 cup smooth peanut butter
-2 tbsp olive oil (or other oil of your choice)
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp vanilla extract
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup splenda (or granulated sugar)
-1/3 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
-1 egg*

Preheat oven 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix together the egg, peanut butter, vanilla extract, both sugars, and olive oil. In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder until well blended. Combine dry ingredients with the peanut butter mixture and fold together until smooth. The dough should be extra sticky and gooey. Spoon tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet and gently press them flat (but not to flat), about a quarter of an inch thick. Let them bake for 7 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. The cookies will come out a little puffy and soft, so have them rest until they harden a bit.

*since becoming vegan, I thought I’d add in here that instead of using an egg, feel free to use an egg replacer like EnerG, ground flaxseed, tapioca starch, etc.

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Yesterday was the first time I’ve tried popping popcorn on the stove, and I have to say they taste MUCH better than store bought popcorn. All you have to do is put a tablespoon of oil in a large pot on medium heat, pour the kernels in, shake the pot a bit, and put the lid on for a minute or two. Yummy.

Not too much has been happening recently, but just thought I would update and say that my watercolour piece “awake” has been sold (hooray!). I hope to be working on more of my series this week so any updates on that will be posted here as usual.

I’ve also recently just finished Zelda: Twilight Princess and I must recommend if not for the gameplay but certainly for the artwork and design at least (gameplay and storyline is great nevertheless). Possibly the best Zelda so far IMO.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve changed kaavie’s layout. If not, you are missing out on all the extravagant fun so here is the link just in case you forgot =): http://kaavie.com/. Aside from the layout, the first piece for my new series of work titled “december solstice” is now uploaded to kaavie, so feel free to stop by the portfolio to take a peek.

I will likely be working on the second piece tomorrow, so expect it sometime tomorrow or a couple days after, depending on the proportion of my motivation versus sloth.

Here is an adequate example for sloth:

It looks like there will be some changes with the portfolio site layout-wise. Since I’m beginning to have more content, I want the site to be easier to navigate, so expect something new in the coming months. I’ve also added some selected photos to kaavie and will work on adding more drawings–namely the new series–as things progress.

I am however unsure how much work I will get done being lucky enough to live three blocks from the fire department and very close to a street where drunk and loudly nonsensical university students like to frequent…but for now it’s late, so good night!

I have returned from my trip–I’ve actually been back for almost a week now–and today I’ve decided not to be lazy and chose a few photos to post of the chalet. We were to go blueberry picking, but I ended up taking more photos than I did of blueberries =P Nevertheless our host was especially hospitable and let us gorge on blueberries despite being lazy, AND even made us a blueberry pie. It was delicious. I would have taken a photo but I was too busy stuffing my face =)

I’d forgotten to include a photo of the blueberries the last time I visited, so here it is:

They had gotten ripe since the last time I visited as well as the raspberries.

Going for a walk in a field behind the chalet.

I went through my sketchbook looking for some post-worthy pieces and only seemed to come up with one. Fortunately I am the type of creep who enjoys observing people while they sleep and Phil was conveniently snoozing comfortably on the couch making it an optimal time for me to scribble away with only minor setbacks such as the occasional tossing and turning. I hadn’t used conte for quite a while let alone sepia toned conte and it was the only thing I could grab off-hand that would make the process quick and slightly less painful than using pencil. A little rust around the edges but he seemed to be content with it =D

I plan on turning this somewhat into a photo blog and making a note to take at least 1 photo a day to post, so here are some photos taken today…

the sun setting after the rain

there seems to have been a lot of rainbows lately; sadly no lucky charms nor pots of gold.

As promised, the chosen photos that were taken during my stay in Quebec City are now posted in chronological order =)

(at my boyfriends’ family chalet)

The dock where no fish were caught…

Flowers galore!

There were a lot of these avian creatures…

Someone was unlucky.

There were no bears.

Now entering…

Just as it started raining.

Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one of these.

Clearing up…

On our way up to the fort. It was long–very long, and wet. I did not get to sit in one of these…

At the top of the fort (my battery was dying by then).

The man in the hat was playing the harmonica under the bridge; quite talented. We threw some change as payment for taking a blurry photo of him to exploit on this website.

Getting dark–still rainy.

In addition to the rain, the fountain was squirting water onto my lens…it took a while to get this shot.

The night dying down as did my camera.