Getting Ready for My Christmas At Pine Ridge Sale

The Carp Farmers' Market Christmas Market was awesome! What a crowd! And lots of them liked pottery, so I came home very happy. Tired, but happy!

Now I'm getting my house and studio ready for my Christmas at Pine Ridge sale this weekend. Four friends, I am delighted to say, will be joining me with their work. They will be set up in the house, so I am busy getting it shipshape (always a challenge in my life) and doing a bit of Christmas decorating. This morning, to my surprise, I actually Found A Sock. Usually socks just go missing.... I'm convinced there is an alternate universe somewhere where socks appear instead of disappear. Dryers, I believe, are the connecting mechanism. We grumble because we do a laundry and come up one sock short, there they grumble because they do a laundry and find extra socks. It's the only thing that makes sense. Anyway, this sock was stuck under one of the slipcovers which I took off to wash, and, will wonders never cease, I actually had kept its mate. So I feel like I have a new pair of socks to wear!

But I wanted to tell you about my guests at the Sale this weekend.

Janice Johnston is a painter. She lives in Fitzroy Harbour (very local) and does a lot of mixed media work. Here is one of her recent paintings. If you think the tomatoes look like you could pick them up off the painting, you are somewhat right! They are three-dimensional. But they are attached.

This painting of Janice's reflects her love of good food and her background in food and nutritional sciences. She has done others with titles like "It was a good apple"; "Pear-shaped"; and  "What shall I do with all these tomatoes?". This year it spilled over with preparation of preserves: dill pickles made with McGregor's cucumbers from the Carp Market, green tomato relish made with plum tomatoes from her own garden, traditional orange marmalade and salted lemons too. 

She's planning to bring some of her preserves to the sale as well as her paintings. I can't wait to find out about salted lemons!

Brenda Beattie is also a painter, and she also lives nearby. She lives in Constance Bay. Here is what she says about some of the work she will be displaying:

  "I have enjoyed doing little paintings of birds  this year. I can do them when I have a small window of time, can draw them at one time and paint them later. I  was able to find some small frames for these little paintings. Some of them are 3" x 4" and others are a little bigger, up to 5" x 7". These are watercolors but I also have some small acrylic on canvas paintings that come with easels. Some of these are of ice huts and scenes on the Ottawa River. "

Very affordable and great for small gifts!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my other two guests!