Facebook Instagram - Mandy Saile Instagram - WhirlInCircles Behance Behance Pintrest www.MandySaile.com Email

Friday, December 25, 2015

Happy Holidays XO

Happy Happy Holidays Everyone...I hope your all super duper cozy, happy & relaxed.
 
 
Whiles my shop remains open 365 days a year it's time for a blog break. See you again mid-January.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Baking With My Babe & Bunny

Baking with my hon & with our kitchen assistant Flynn is always fun & is one of my favorite things.
 
 
We made chocolate covered coffee beans & have to chuckle at how much it resembles bunny poop!

 
Flynn tries to use his Jedi mind tricks to convince us to spill lots of sugar & yummies on that floor!

 
We made Rumkugeln...which are rum balls...light on the rum, heavy on the cocoa.

 
And good old simple sugar cookies...they didn't turn out to be so pretty, ha ha but they sure are tasty.

 
Hope your having a good and un-stressful time in your kitchens this week.  XO.


Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Snug & Sparkly

And a very Happy Christmas Eve Eve to you all...are you all ready for Christmas?
Us and our 9 little soul-baby-bunnies are all snug in our sparkly cheery little house,
the Christmas movies are constantly on, the egg nog is pepperminty,
the bunnies are anxious to unwrap things...okay okay and so are we, ha ha!
 
 
Yesterday we rushed Frenwyck in for an emergency visit...with the month we've been having,
we need lots of glittery cheer! And if this monster migraine that has been pulling me down all week lightens up even abit later on tonight, I'll be finishing up wrapping and
we'll be tackling our Christmas Eve Eve baking, I'll show ya what we've made tomorrow perhaps.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Bata Shoes With My Bestie

My bestie, Judit, lives rather far from me & I only get to see her once or twice a year...
once or twice that is, if I am able to travel to the city, which is sometimes impossible with the buns
and it's a bit too tricky for her to come my way because the usual 4-5 hour trip
ends up being an exhausting 7 or 8 hours with her little one, ha ha.
But last time in the city, I did get to spend a whole day with her
and we decided to visit the Bata shoe museum together...
it never matters what we do,
as soon as we're together, we're home, we're with family
and we feel settled and warm and hugged and happy.
One of the many things that binds us in friendship is our love for history and historical fiction...
I took a lot of photos but it was the Victorian wing that really had us intrigued and interested...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We weren't aware of what a horrible toll fashion, especially shoes
and crinoline cages took on the 18th century ladies and gentlemen.
Right from the horrific conditions of picking the cotton for the fabrics etc to the super poor and dangerous working conditions for the bone-weary souls who were the makers, right down to the people who actually wore the clothes who were often times poisoned to death because their dresses and shoes contained high levels of containments like arsenic and lead!
We also had no idea that way back when there was no left and right shoes, only one to fit both sides!
Or that corsets and such dress cages actually killed woman because they were so flammable,
unfortunate woman would go up in an horrific blaze of no escape if they happened to near a candle!
Or all the poor little kids who died because they were put in pretty blue or red velvet shoes
not knowing that that particular dye was more poisonous any other colour...holy crap!
Can't you imagine....
we'll we walked out of there feeling rather quite grateful for our comfy jeans & comfortable boots!
 
(for more of my Bata Shoe photos just visit my Flickr album...
it's a catch all for many shots I don't show here on the blog)


Friday, December 18, 2015

Happy Weekend

I am normally on holidays by now but I'll keep going for a few more days atleast,
so I'll be seeing ya next week before we take a blog break.
 
 
I hope you have an amazing weekend...
We're going to enjoy it whether the snow we're waiting for comes or not!


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Beauty From A Studio Window

So you guys know by now that I adore & appreciate my studios...
and I can't help but fall head over heels in love with my view
when I look out my studio window to see this kind of beauty...
two white-tail deers just meandering through our front garden,
eating our trees, cleaning themselves...
 
 

We live in the middle of a small city...it's amazing to me that we see them now and than.
My breakfast went cold that morning, ha ha, I just couldn't pry myself away from them...
My whole body was physically buzzing from the magical beauty of them...
they refreshed me, heart & soul and I was on a beauty high most of that day...
so amazing...just so so incredibly beautiful and pure and wonderful.


Monday, December 14, 2015

Studio Sunsets

I love the part of the day where I am all snuggly cozy at my coloured pencil desk,
which overlooks our front yard and the quiet court that we live on.
The sun starts to go down & I look forward to our evening routine beginning...
 
 
...I bask in the last delicious minutes with my colours for the day...
I bask in the beauty of that setting sun & hopefully also in a studio day well spent....
ahhhhhh....little things...as always.

Friday, December 11, 2015

40

My gorgeous and amazing guy turns 40 today...
we've been together in life longer than we've lived our lives apart, I love that so much.
I can't even begin to tell you all how honored & amazed I am that I get this guy as my partner.
 
 
A lasagna, brownie cake & some sweet spoils are coming your way my love...
Happy Birthday Babe
Love you so insanely much forever & ever to infinity times two!
XOXO

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

She Marched To Her Own Beautiful Rhythm

So the sweet blue hummingbird and cutie pie snail ended up here...
on my latest mixed media lovely called
"She Marched To Her Own Beautiful Rhythm"
 Isn't she pretty?  I am so pleased with it.  I had fun with all the texture of the background
and of course with the snail and hummingbird.
 
 
It stems from my own personal experience of slowly learning to march to my own
imperfect rhythm because as a chronic & acute migraine/headache sufferer
I simple can't really keep up a 'normal' routine, never for very long that it!
but I've come to realize that it's just part of my life and whiles I feel like I am far behind
all of the time, that doesn't mean it's negative, not if I adopt a positive perspective atleast!
 
And yep you guessed it, prints are in my shop waiting for ya.  Enjoy!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Hummingbird & Snail

I made the cutest little hummingbird and snail recently...
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hop over on Wednesday to see what mixed media they ended up on.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Fireplace Makeover

Last Sunday we decided to attack our old fireplace mantel
& get rid of our old fireplace screen...
We installed awesome new fire doors & put in lovely glossy white tile on the top and bottom.
 
 
 
It took over 8 hours
& made an awful mess because we had to grind & cut out stone which required lots of deep breaths!
but it was worth it cause we love it and we've done yet another lovely thing together for our home.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Colouring Pages Anyone?

Those of my inner studio circle get free colouring pages like this one that just went out...
 
http://mandysaile.com/keepintouch/
 
Sign up to Keep In Touch and you can get them delivered right to your inboxes every month.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Originals

Hi Lovlies,  I hope you had a restful weekend.
We did, after a scare with our sweet honey-bee Teela but more on that later.
I think I forgot to let you guys know that this new lot of 4 originals have hit my shop.
 
"Dream"
 

"Saw Whet Owl"
 

 
"Cup Of Tea"

 
"Screech Owl"

 
Don't forget that it's a good reason to sign up to "Keep In Touch"
because those who are part of my inner studio circle get goodies like free colouring pages,
discounts now and than and always first dibs on original work, etc.


Friday, November 27, 2015

Companion Cube

So apparently there is a computer game called 'Portal', it's apparently totally great...
And there's something within this game called a 'Companion Cube'...
Okay, honestly, I still really have no ideal what it's all about
but my Munchkin wanted one somewhat desperately
so we as smitten and doting Uncy and Auntie spent a weekend sleepover making one!
 
 
 
She and my honey spent almost 4 hours in the chilly garage making up the cube...
She had a blast and I was impressed that she stuck out the cold.
Than I spent about 3 hours with her painting it.
Than apparently it needed a cake...
Than apparently it would be 'super cool' if I did a drawing of the games characters on the lid...Ha ha!