Except for a few school bus mishaps in the beginning, it’s been a pretty smooth transition. My emotions keep going up and down with excitement and fear. Speaking of a crazy month, my own little bird (five your old son) started kindergarten, and talk about roller coasters. Our resident Steller’s Jays like to nip at the fruit on the top of the tree, so it felt perfectly natural to invite this Jay to the French Tart party. Since our cherry tree came down, the pear is the new favorite for the birds. My mom gave me my pear tree 12 years ago, and it’s getting really big. I feel like I jumped from a plum roller coaster right into an ocean of pears! I’ve canned 50 jars of pears (underestimate), eaten a million pears (overestimate) and baked a decadent French Pear Tart. As you may have noticed, my little garden gives me a lot of produce, and I’m a bit obsessed with not letting it go to waste. I love this wave pattern – it reminds me of icing.

Tom Matthews created 12 custom frames for this series and each one had a unique combination of ripples. I framed this painting in a handmade Dutch Ripple frame with a unique wavy ripple. Please enjoy the last painting of my Creature Comforts series of Monthly Miniatures, and I hope it helps you find your own sense of warmth and cheer. We have to adjust, to find a way to stay warm and find cheer through the long winter. But the world is still in flux, and our plans with it. My sister recently moved into an old farmhouse, among its charming features are several large hearths. My fireplace is humbler, but when my son and I gather around it to sing songs, it feels perfect.Īs the year concludes, I remember how hopeful I was at the end of 2020 for a year with vaccinations and the return of a more normal way of life.

The three glasses of port are a tribute to dear friends. This portrait of a chocolate cake summs up my perfect birthday. The holidays are a little different for me because of all the December birthdays in my family, and chocolate cake is a birthday tradition for me. Let us find cheer in our creature comforts and appreciate the time we can spend together.įor this painting, I’ve pulled together different things that make the time of year special to me. Happy holidays! I give you a portrait of a chocolate cake and propose a toast to the hearth, a place of warmth and closeness and to all things chocolate.

Haven and hearth gilding