Three's a crowd

Three's a Crowd, 7 x 10 inches, soft pastel, $95 unframed

This painting was a challenge on the pastel artist's forum of which I am a member. The topic of the month was shadows, and this photo was posted as one of the challenges. I had a lot of fun with this one, although it took longer than I expected!

View from our living room

This is the view from our living room on a sunny November day at about 9:00 in the morning. This is the barn that Erick's parents built, where our horses will live. I can just see them now, poking their heads over their doors and out the big white doors toward the house. "When are you coming to feed us??" That's what they'll be saying.

Pick a Favourite - finished!

The number one reaction to this painting seems to be for the viewer to point out which pebble they like best, so that's what jumped out at me for a title. So, what's your favourite? Mine is the shy triangular white one with a translucent purpley sheen on the bottom of the left side of the painting (right above the word 'favourite'). So unassumingly pretty. :)

Incidentally, this is the first painting to be signed 'V R Burley' instead of 'V R Buerkle'.

The chocolate production line

The past few weeks I've been too busy making truffles to do much of anything else. I spent several days and evenings on the chocolate production line. In total I made five varieties:
White chocolate cherry
White chocolate Grand Marnier
Milk chocolate Irish cream
Milk chocolate peanut butter
Dark Chocolate almond and amaretto

I only got good photos of two varieties though. Above are the milk chocolate Irish creams, and below are some of the white chocolate Grand Marnier truffles.
I made about 240+ in total, but I hadn't counted on the rate at which truffles disappear out of the freezer, so I may be making another batch of the dark chocolate ones after Christmas. Erick, you wouldn't know anything about the disappearing truffles, would you? :)

All Trimmed and looking good!

No this post is not about Kirby. He is looking good, but definitely not trimmed. I put this picture here because (for once) he is completely still, except for his happily wagging tail. Awh. :)

Here is what I am talking about! Look at that trim on the bottom of the railing, and the bottom of the big wall. Doesn't that look good? :) Erick has been happily putting up trim all over the place all week. And when he was done, he put up some christmas decorations and then started putting up trim around the doors upstairs. Here is the view from the kitchen: Looking downstairs from the balcony...

This is the view from my studio looking toward the upstairs bedrooms. Doesn't that look nice? :)

Update on pebbles painting

This is the most recent picture I have. It's coming along fairly quickly, and I like how it's turning out. :)

Railing up - 100% safer if not finished

Well the railing is now structurally complete, although we still have some work to do to finish it. We'll be doing lots of sanding, and either some varnishing, or some staining, yet to be decided. We also need to finish the stairs themselves, as they are still the plywood ones that have been there for over a year now (crazy!)

Doesn't the railing look nice? Our massive black stovepipe doesn't look nearly so massive or black with a backdrop like this! We went with exterior deck railing because it was black, kind of cool looking, and 'economical'. Much cheaper than wrought iron!