Winter Sunsets

I was just complaining about winter and bam suddenly despite a snowstorm the other night Spring seems to have sprung...things are dripping, the crows are cawing & the chipmunks have woken up.

I want winter to be over for our wild hare Iris...I want it for the rabbits who are so so bored inside.

But I like the quiet winter brings, the lesser chores outside...the gorgeous finger chilling sunsets!

Palette Happy

It's hard for me to find time in my studios right now to be honest...

 

But here's something in the works.  I am excited about the palette of this one.

Ag-Gag Bill 156

Is my face imploring enough to get you guys to please please please take a moment
to sign a petition to tell our government that we, as caring Canadians,
do not want to see ag-gag bill 156 passed.
This is a bill that allows animal agriculture to keep getting away with it's wicked evil ways
by gagging the truth, by punishing animal activists and those who want and need the truth.
It stops all of us from standing up for the voiceless and it stops the truth of what really happens behind those walls everyone wants to but can't keep ignoring for the sake of our own selves.
This bill is not in any way shape or form a step forward for humanity, it's a step back
and accepting this bill is closing your eyes and allowing us to take a step back into the dark ages...
we have to be smarter than that.  Our chances of fixing things now are slim but there's still a chance.
This is not a vegan thing, this is a human thing, a freedom of speech thing,
a kinder future thing, a truth seeking thing, a connect the dots thing.

Canada has some of the weakest animal protection laws in the whole world,
and as a Canadian aren't you ashamed of that?  This bill will only add to our bad track record.
Allowing this bill to pass will say that Canadians don't give a crap about helping to protect our very most vulnerable and innocent or about the right to be able to make informed decisions.
Allowing this bill to pass further encourages animal abuse.
This bill gives power to the greedy and heartless
and punishes and silences those wanting to better the world.
Petitions DO have power but only with numbers...
this petition is already over 14,000 signatures strong
but it needs more to get the attention of the politicians.
So I implore you, as a human being wanting a better future for everyone, not just animals,
please please sign this petition (just click here)
and say HELL NO to Ag-Gag Bill 156.

Come On Spring

Winter is feeling very long all of the sudden, long and extra cold!...

I am getting as anxious as the buns to start to see things melting!

My Inspiration

We are in the 2nd week of my honey's cancer treatment...

6 are scheduled, hopefully that's all he'll ever need again besides regular scopes.

The first week was horrendous but this 2nd week went way better.  Hopefully they get easier!

I'll tell you about it more soon but I have to first talk about how much I admire his attitude.

This was before his first surgery...

He was tired because the night before we had a very sudden & completely unexpected rescue!

He was scared shitless, no need to say that of course!

and he woke up with a really bad migraine BUT he here was smiling, holding my hand,

making conversation, being patient even though the surgery was like 3 hours late...just being him.

I am looking to him to set the tone & mood of all this & he's been nothing but an inspiration to me.

Leisel In Lines

Leisel's portrait is all done...I am really pretty happy with it.  I sure do love these Micron pens.

I think it would be really fun to print this off & get some watercolour to the print., do you think?

Supplies & Bunnies & Sun Oh My!

Is there anything quite like a box arriving with fresh new art supplies...

and a sun-filled studio...

and a sweet little rabbit in your studio to share your excitement with! Don't think so!!

Quick Icy Jaunts

It's hard for us to get away from the house right now because of where this cancer has hit

and the nature of all the surgeries, scopes & treatment,

it's not a secret, it's just very hard & tricky for my guy to be too far away from home right now...

So right now it's very short jaunts of fresh air, quickly run errands etc..

lunches with friends, coffee or diner dates are not in the cards right now, not even for me on my own.

The truth of it is, I don't care if others don't understand that.  As long as I am with him, it's all good!

Cute Cute Cute!

Just a little duckling all complete and looking as cute as pie!

(this is part of  my newest image "A Kind Night")

I am feeling the need to switch away from my coloured pencils for a bit (I don't know why)

but I'll finish this one up before I do so, hopefully!

Bladder Stones

We've been having a really hard week.
My honey's first cancer treatment was absolutely awful
and then on top of the stress & pain & exhaustion from all of that
we found ourselves racing Flynn to an emergency vet appointment last Sunday afternoon.
He fell backwards off of a short bench, not even a foot high
and at first it looked like he hurt his foot but he was using it so we were watching him closely...
but then he started doing this weird shuddering movement and it became
clear pretty fast that he was in pain and
it also looked like it wasn't able to pee so we rushed him in.
Even though these emergency vet visits are crazy expensive, we always appreciate our rabbits
doctor meeting us at a moments notice because we know they don't do it for all their clients/patients.

It was not an easy visit, he needed x-rays, the vet tech
and I had to stretch him out and pin him down on the x-ray table
and it clearly painful for him and I had a hard time to settle him down etc ugh.
The scans showed bladder stones!
(Seriously bladder stones on top of Jonathan's bladder cancer, WTF!)
Ugh.

So what probably happened was that little tumble backwards most likely made some of the
smaller stones go through the urinary tract and it caused him pain and trouble to pee.

So he's currently on a strong pain med
but he's suddenly doing way better which leads us to believe that he passed a stone or two.
BUT there's definitely a couple more in there too big for him to pass which require surgery....
but he's over 9!  So we are trying to decide what to do.
The doctor said if he was two or much younger, he wouldn't hesitate to operate & get the stones out
but because he's nine years old and it's a huge surgery maybe we should just be keeping him "comfortable" for as long as he's happy & eating etc...gawd I hate this part of it all so much.
It doesn't matter how long I've been doing this or how many times we have to decide about
a precious animal baby's path, it doesn't ever get any easier.

So he's peeing like normal again which is awesome.
He's eating like a bear again which is super duper great.
He doesn't seem to be in any pain anymore thank goodness...
His ear infection is all cleared up phew!

But do we go ahead with the surgery? We don't know what to do...
especially now with my honey's cancer treatment underway.

I know one thing for sure...life has never felt so fucken raw or rough then it does right now
(I say that with a superstitious fear that it's all going to keep being raw & rough for quite sometime).

In The Garden

I added just a smidgen more colours into Teela's portrait...now I feel like she's done.  

I am hoping to put this image on bags & shirts etc as soon as I find a place I like and trust.

Bun Cozy

Our weekend has been bunny centric.

Flynn isn't doing so well, he fell & hurt his foot & the antibiotics have wrecked havoc on his tum.

In between caring for him, I've just been going from bun to bun doling out snuggles...

Lydia & Barnaby are love sponges & it cheers me up to be with them espeacially.

I wish we could have had good sleep & rest this weekend to prepare ourselves for the coming week...

My honey's 6 weeks of cancer treatments start this week and we're super duper stressed about it.

The live tuberculosis virus they are washing his bladder with terrifies both of us...

But that's not today, so as much as possible, bunny snuggles...sweet simple bunny snuggles....!

Ah A Favorite Place

Ah studio time...now matter how long I've been an artist, no matter how much or hard I work...

 The days I get to be among my plants & colours is always one of my favorite places to be.

The Carrot Mystery

Another case of...

Big Carrot? or Little Bunny?

It's Not The Price, It's The Life You Save

Trying new vegan goods is one of the joys in life in my opinion.

The New plant based Breyers ice cream is really nice.

I prefer the salted caramel whiles my honey prefers the cookies & cream flavor.

   

The cheesecakes from Daiya do to me taste like real cheesecake.

We love to top them with fresh fruit & coconut whipping cream.  The key lime is my fav.

There are so many tasty cheese alternatives & meal substitutes out there

but still some of my favorites are made by our friends at The Kind Choice Food Co.

I highly recommend giving your local artisan cheese-makers a go, I am sure they'd appreciate it too.

And three of our favorite new brands available pretty readily even in our meats & potatoes town is;

Gusta, Field Roast and Sheese...

The Sheese cream cheese is our go-to, the Gusta 'cheese' isn't cheese but it's yummy, especially the original flavor & their sausages are my absolute favorite, especially the Brunche & Germaine kind.

I am not a fan at all of the Field roast cheeses BUT their Smoked Apple Sage sausages are delicious.

Sure vegan products can be on the pricey side, I admit that, they definitely can be BUT

here the biggest thing...you don't need them to be plant-based, they are just treats

& most important thing...

the price of them is nothing compared to the price of an innocent animal loosing it's life!

Coloured Pencil Characters

Airabella is a farmer of lavender...I am conjuring up her little short story as I work on her.

I am thinking that this is the year I get my first book out there with all my coloured pencil characters!

Starbucks Pushing Vegan Milk

The news is always so awful out there nowadays...the scenes from Australia shatter my heart...

But there's good stuff happening too, like Starbucks deciding to push a vegan diet cheered me up.

Starbucks deciding to push vegan milks more than dairy & make sure cups etc are compostable

is a huge admirable step for this huge company.  Click here if you want to read more.

Prsent In Pain

This has been a hard week...well a hard month really.
The weather is my biggest trigger & it's been very constantly up and down.

I've spent more time horizontal than standing up being productive this past week...
which I find really difficult because whiles sure the pain sucks big time, I love getting things done.

BUT as much as it sucks, I think I am still mostly able to be 'present' in my life
during and despite the pain and I really do think that that attitude of 'being present', helps me out.

It's a scary statistic of something like 40% of migraine sufferers also suffer from serious depression.
But I think I stay away from getting too down by being "present".
How do I do that even when in great amounts of pain?

I make sure I am concentrating on all the beautiful things happening around me as I am suffering.
Even if I can't open my eyes, I make my ears zone in on the 'happy sounds' like;
my honey moving about the house & having a whole conversation with one of the 9 buns;
Stacks of books by the bed that I can jump into as soon as the pain passes;
The sound of the buns eating or my hon cooking is one of the best sound whether I am in pain or not.
I think about a new image I can't wait to make progress on once I can get back into the studio.
I stay present by basking in the beauty of all the sweetness around me despite the pain...
like knowing when one of the buns is on the bed and reaching out to touch a warm precious body.
The buns keep me present, they are like angels, literally standing over me concerned, watching, loving, supporting, waiting for me to get back to my normal self
and no amount of pain can knock the beauty of that away from me.

I might have a life riddled with difficult pain sure

but my oh my there's so so much beauty mixed in there as well....SO much.

Snugs, Plants & Scones Oh My!

I hope your having a cozy cozy weekend all wrapped up fully in your favorite things...

For us it's rabbit snugs, movies, homemade scones & Sundays are my plant care day.

Off Schedule But That's Okay

With everything going on with our health I haven't gotten my shop back up

and running like I was hoping to for January.

I am not stressing about it.  Trust me, I've finally learnt what and what not to stress about!

I'll get it done.  I guarantee lots of lovely things to come in more than one lovely place!

Go Here When In Barrie

I had some appointments with a pain specialist in Barrie this past summer

and we never complained about having to go back during the lengthy fibromyalgia diagnosis

because we got to go to this awesome place called The Vegan Pantry.

 

If your ever in Barrie, I highly recommend it.  It feels like a haven for me.

We've been several times and we've not been disappointed once.

Their menus is huge with not only sweets but pizzas and air fries etc & really good cappuccinos.

A Good Day Is A Day With Misa

I am enjoying this newest image...

Especially because I have Misa by my side as I work on it.

Korra's Face

I just thought Korra-Soleil's bright orange face might make you smile today...

You can usually tell how she's feeling or what she's wanting, she has such an expressive face.

World Cancer Day

Today is World Cancer Day...

I never thought we would be facing cancer, let alone in our 40's.

We've done everything right...but it's attacked us despite that.

According to the doctor is was very most likely just a DNA replication fuck up!

Just horribly awful bad luck...but how do you accept that?

Today I am thinking about how so much changes after you hear "It's Cancer".

I am thinking of the people out there fighting for their lives, some in better situations than others

but the fact is, it's cancer all the same, you don't know what it will do no matter what you do.

Today I send out hugs to everyone facing this terrifying monster of a thing.

I am thinking about the warriors like my honey & their support circles.

It's strange though, there's millions of people on the same road as us, so why does it feel so lonely?!

Still An Infection

In 26 years of being a caretaker of animals, this past month was the first times ever that I had to go

to vet visits by myself because Flynn was suddenly sick and my honey was stuck in a hospital bed.
(and for Higgins because it looked like he had a slash on the top of his eyeball but he was just fine!).

Well today we had another visit for Flynn & I was so happy to have my partner back by my side...

This guy will move everything around so that he can be at every rabbit appointment,

so I know to be stuck in that bed & having me rushing Flynn to the vet that one night by myself would have been even more stressful for him that it was for me.

To say he's one dedicated Papa doesn't cut it!

Let's hope he never misses another one again!

It's funny to us when people suggest that we have to take care of 'us' now.

That we shouldn't worry so much about the rabbits cause they are just rabbits...

These people clearly don't understand that the rabbits are part of us...they are our family.

So we will continue to find a way, no matter how hard, to take care of all of our stuff AND theirs.

There are days for sure where I doubt we can keep doing this...this rescue life.

But my honey reminds me that this/they are who we are & we have still atleast 9 still counting on us.

So Flynn is doing just fine...still a bit of an infection in that right ear unfortunately

so he's on another month long antibiotic protocol but he's doing really well and has put on weight.