Word Verification 'ON'

Sorry folks. I had to put it on as I'm getting a ton; I mean a truckload of spam comments. So, here's a test. What does the image say? Can't get it? Squint your eyes.

Made By Girl Loft Dreams

Jennifer Ramos of Made By Girl fame has a slick loft tour on her blog today. But before you go....Pop Quiz: Who owns the pink building in the distance?

Marie Antoinette's Doughnut

Known as Austro-Hungarian carnival doughnuts ('donut' spelling pour moi fellow Canadians), Sufganiyot are so sweet and delicious; royal, delicate & luxurious enough to be baked and eaten at Marie Antoinette's french court chateau. Because these holiday treats are fried in oil, they have been adopted in Israel to celebrate Hanukkah.

1 teaspoon dried yeast
1/4 cup (50 ml) lukewarm milk or water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons sour cream or vegetable oil
A pinch of salt
2 or 3 drops of vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups (250 g) flour, plus a little more if necessary
Oil for deep-frying
Apricot, red-currant, or raspberry jam
Confectioners' sugar to sprinkle on

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk or water with 1 teaspoon of sugar and leave for 10 minutes, until it froths. Beat the rest of the sugar with the egg and the yolk. Add the sour cream or oil, the salt, vanilla, and yeast mixture, and beat very well. Fold in the flour gradually, and continue beating until you have a soft, smooth, and elastic dough, adding more flour if necessary. Then knead for 5 minutes, sprinkling with a little flour if it is too sticky. Coat the dough with oil by pouring a drop in the bowl and turning the dough in it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
Knead the dough again for a few minutes, then roll out on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to 1/4-inch (1/2-cm) thickness. With a pastry cutter, cut into 2-inch (5-cm) rounds. Make a ball out of the scraps so as not to waste them, roll out, and cut into rounds. Put a teaspoon of jam in the center of a round of dough, brush the rim with a little water to make it sticky, and cover with another round. Press the edges together to seal. Continue with the rest of the rounds and arrange them on a floured tray. Leave them to rise for about 30 minutes.
Heat 1-1/2 inches of oil in a saucepan to medium hot. Drop in the doughnuts, a few at a time. Fry in medium-hot oil for 3-4 minutes with the lid on until brown, then turn and fry the other side for 1 minute more. Drain on paper towels. Serve sprinkled with confectioners' sugar. They are at their best when still warm and fresh.
VARIATION
An easier way is to fry a thicker round of dough--about 1/2 inch (1 1/4 cm) thick--and when it is cool enough to handle, cut a slit with a pointed, serrated knife and put in a teaspoonful of jam

Modern Day Scrooge

I am here to represent all of you out there who are 'NOT' into Christmas. It's just uber-wrong on so many levels. Where do I begin? Perhaps I'll start on Dec. 1st. Imagine. 25 Days of the anti-xmas girl (modern day scrooge) sharing her feelings. You'll be begging for more. See you then.

In Time For The Holidays

"Patti..... I picked up your book last night and did not put it down until hours later when I finished reading the last page! I was intrigued by Sydney’s story and I wanted to know what she would choose for herself, where she would end up, and if she would follow her passions and creativity. I LOVED this book from the be...ginning to the amazing ending! Anyone who picks up this book will not be disappointed because it is a touching and inspiring story! Congratulations on publishing your book, I hope many read it and fall in love with it like I did!" - xoxo, Sarah Walter!

(Just a nudge and a wink that all orders for my novel will be in your hands to wrap in time for the Holidays if you place your order by Dec. 1st. Love LP xo)

What's Your Equation?

Women, for the most part, continue to define themselves with words like 'Mom, Wife, Friend, Sister, Daughter'. I'm here to rock that boat baby! Your assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to excavate 3 special words that define you (without using those mommy/wifey words I've listed). Who are you, really? What gets you hot? What makes your back shiver and your loins burn? What gives you a tingling tummy and a racing heartbeat? I have discovered - in part from living 50 years - and also through creating Liberty Post, that I am most certainly "Photographer + Blogger = Cultural Producer". Let me explain: I love imagery and making imagery which I love to share with others, make for others and publish for others = Photographer. Blogging captures all the things I dig. Writing, publishing, social media, magazine-like behaviors, dialogue, feedback, ego-stroking (recognition), vulnerability (like this!), the Internet, photography, editorial, expressing my viewpoint = Blogger. Because I photograph and blog I am producing cultural content for the world = Cultural Producer. (A worthy vocation I might add) The things I have, am and will produce don't necessarily need to be online either. All these activities that rock my epicenter will extend into the 'real world' through guest speaking, arts events, workshops, products, books, consulting, videos, podcasts, advising and a whole host of many other ideas I'm stockpiling. So you. What's your equation?

Letting Go

When your babies are swaddled in your arms and your mind is swaying between bliss and the fear of postpartum depression finding your bedroom, you don't consider that perhaps one day this child will spend most of their grown up life living separated, far away from you. It's difficult to put into words and it is most certainly a test in mental strength, but somehow you remain filled with a powerful confidence that the bond you share with your daughter or son is made up of sheer 'forever love'. My Egypt Girl; the least likely of my four children to ever wander beyond the neighborhood has become a world traveller with an adventurous heart. Who knew that a lot of life was going to be about 'letting go'? And marvelling. LPxo

Photo: CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/Getty Images - Globe and Mail

A Second Helping Of Cracker Jack

Cracker Jack

Her brain was different. She couldn’t remember the sweltering hot summer evenings they giggled in the bleachers watching the boys play baseball. After school they’d skip home, gulp down milk on the back shed stoop. The smell of lumpy bags of potatoes and carrots leaning up in the woody, dark corner filled the hot air. After the last bite of the fresh baked cookie they’d race up the back staircase into her bedroom. Fussing and flopping onto the bed; deciding what to wear to the game. Pinching their cheeks with cream rouge and tinting their youthful pouts with red lipstick. Evelyn’s brain was different and her best friend Delores would never be able to thank her. It was forty-three years later. Evelyn just sat in her chair, lap quilt covering her legs, starring out the window. Delores came every day to visit. There were only three things that lit up Evelyn’s eyes. The taste of Cracker Jack, the feel of her sheepskin mittens of winters long ago and the sight of her tattered photograph of her and Delores. These are the three things that connected them to their past and after an hour of them, Delores would give hugs and walk out the door.Evelyn and Delores met in fourth grade. There were exactly fifteen row houses between them and two fire hydrants. Evelyn’s parents ran the furrier uptown and many winter afternoons when the storage section of the business was slow, the girls would be hired to clean the large cooler room. Between the racks and empty hangers they would sing and dance; pretending they were on stage; performing to standing ovations and picking up dozens of roses off the creaky wooden floor. Evelyn had an imagination to carry them both through many boring moments. Her eyes would sparkle and then in a snap second she’d come up with a new and exciting idea for fun. After their housekeeping was finished they would head outside to play in the snow banks; sticking their tongues out to catch fluffy snowflakes. Eve and Delly laughed a lot. Eve possessed the kind of funny bone that made her whole body go weak when she found something humorous. More often than not they landed in the snow bank beside one another, tossing handfuls of snow at each other. One afternoon a reporter from the local newspaper stopped and asked them if he could photograph them. The girls loved this; insisting to their classmates that they had become famous and sure enough, the image landed on the front page along with a story about the severe weather the area was experiencing that year. Eve and Delly were each given a copy of the photo as a keepsake. Eve and Delly cried a lot too. Mostly about boys and mostly at the baseball field while they ate Cracker Jack as they watched the practices. As they moved through womanhood, mysterious adolescent moods and awkward boyfriend experiences, they supported each other. Giving hugs and making crafty greeting cards. They were always grateful and said so in their many scribbled notes to one another, ‘Thank goodness only one of us gets sad at one time. xo.’ Delly met Jack the year of the girls’ high school graduation. He was new to town and swept her off her feet. Eve was never left behind. It was the unwritten law of the ‘Cracker Jack Girls’, as they were known by everybody who knew them. Delly and Jack and Eve were inseparable. And then Jack proposed. Eve was the most beautiful Maid of Honor anyone had ever seen. Some whispered, ‘Prettier than the Bride’. After the ‘I Do’s’ it all changed. Delly’s husband became more and more adamant that his new wife be home to see to his needs; pressures of the weak economy brought more stress on the newlyweds. He became irritated at Delly for talking about Eve. He slowly silenced her and quickly built a wall and a wedge between the best friends. People in town saw Eve’s sad eyes. Jack became known as ‘Cracker Jack’. A negative judgment of a husband who erased a childhood friendship. Eve and Delly were resilient and resourceful. They could speak without speaking, they could communicate by sense and both were determined to change the way things had gone. The baseball diamond was the only place they could visit. Eve started dating a player on Jack’s team. She didn’t even really like him much; she just knew it was her chance at ‘bat’. To be with Delly. To keep her friendship alive. One evening after dinner, Eve gathered up the courage to walk the three blocks over to Delly’s apartment. She thought it would be nice to sit out on the porch until sunset. Perhaps lemonade. Maybe a few cigarettes. Hopefully acceptance and hugs. What she came upon would change their lives forever. As Eve approached the building she could hear muffled screams of Jack. He was hollering at Delly. Eve’s heart started pounding as she ran up the narrow stairs to the second floor. She banged on the door calling out for Del. ‘Go away Eve’, he shouted. ‘You have no business being here. Leave!’ Panicking to open the door she yelled to the neighbours below to come and help. Within seconds they ran up to kick in the thick wood door. It slammed to the floor. There inside, huddled in the corner was a tearful, distraught Delly. Covering her head, begging for kindness within a rage of violence. Jack was wielding his baseball bat.‘ Stay away from her Jack’ screamed Eve. ‘Don’t touch her.’ The neighbours tried to calm Jack down while Eve made jerking attempts to get past him. It was a frightful segment of confusion and shouting and fear and pleading. Jack warned them. He threatened to hit Delly if they did not leave his home. And then Eve moved in. She ducked around Jack to cover Delly. Standing tall she announced to him to back away. And then he swung. The heavy, heaving bat hit Evelyn’s temple with a watery, horrific smack. Her brain was different.

Stay In Your Lane

You have to stay in your own lane; that sacred contract place - the contract that was signed by you and your higher power - witnessed by the universe and milky way. When you stay in your lane you will get to your destination quicker and you will have less accidents. And you ask, 'what destination?'. And it is whispered back to you, 'Eternal Bliss, Population 1'. Are you in your lane? Spill.

Brock University and My Book

This is a wonderful way to end a morning and begin an afternoon: Receiving a photo of your novel in a student's room....ready for reading....she just received it! I am so thrilled. (little 'Babies' everywhere) ****Order by Dec. 1st for Holiday delivery**** Thank You Sarah Walter!!! You just made my day!

Studio Space Wanted

I am feeling restless, stifled, (choking-creatively-muzzled) working and creating from home. I need a change and I want to find studio/gallery space for the New Year. I want to get up early every day and go 'somewhere?' to work, to dream, to make, to connect, to feel. Does anyone out there know of some hip space available? Do you long to work at home or do you yearn for a studio/atelier of your very own (away from where you sleep)?

Just In Time! Thanksgiving Garland

Paypal 'BUY Button' is located to your right! (at the top of side bar) Thank you for purchasing my $2 design! Please be sure to include your email address. It will come to you in a pdf document. Excellent Hostess gift too! Full of Gratitude, LPxo

UPDATE: Whoohoo! Readers are already printing their garlands! Thank You!

My Thanksgiving Garland On Sale Now $2

What will $2 buy you today? (Oh what fun!) I've just finished designing a wonderful Thanksgiving Garland that you may purchase from this blog - right here - NOW. It will be a "pdf file" that you will receive via email within a few hours of purchasing the garland. All you have to do is print it off in colour on card stock or heavier paper or photo paper (your choice) and then string it up with the ribbon or string of your choice. Voila! A lovely decoration for your upcoming holiday week! I am selling it via paypal and it is priced at a 'Recession-Gratitude-Thankful-$2' !!!!! Please let all your friends know...to visit Liberty Post on tonight to get their own Thanksgiving Garland. ONLY $2. (What a thankful deal...I think) LPxo

UPDATE: I've added an extra gift! A placecard image for your tablescape! Included with the 16 card garland pdf - all for ONLY $2.

BUY BUTTON located directly to your right at top of blog side bar! Thanks!

HANUKKAH + CHRISTMAS PDF PATTERNS ARE IN THE STUDIO!!!! (they will be available in 1 week!)

It's Surreal

To actually see my novel in someone else's home. A real book. Humbling. I would love more photos of my book in homes around the world. That would be a dream come true. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For reading me. LPxo

Babylove By Jackie

Close your eyes. Imagine a county highway about 1/2 hour outside of a small town. The road twists and turns; goes up, goes down and winds around a big hill. You drive about another 1/2 hour and reach a non-descript 4-way flashing amber light. It's hard to decide which way to turn, but you turn anyway. You drive another 1/2 hour down a road where nobody seems to live. Every 15 minutes you pass a massive working farm; perhaps a multi-million dollar farm. (pause for a moment...take a deep breath...can you imagine this drive in the dead of a Canadian winter?) Finally you reach a drive-way to one of these farms. You turn right. The beautiful woman inside sees you turn in. The driveway is so long that she is able to clean her entire house, fix a hot pot of tea, make egg salad sandwiches and apply her makeup to her lovely face before you knock at her door. This is the head office of 'Babylove By Jackie'. Alright. Now open your eyes and see their product line. (I am the proud owner of the orange medallion bloom coffee cozy. Lucky me!) Owner, Designer and Chief Creative Officer is Jackie. As gorgeous as she is talented. I just wanted you to know the future 'Martha Stewart' before she gets too famous.

Suzanne Dimma's Cottage Wedding

PHOTO CREDIT: Andreas Avdoulos

This epitome of romance, besides Austria in November and Paris in December, is getting married at a Canadian cottage. I can assure you. Nothing trumps this location. Canadian House & Home Editor, Suzanne Dimma graciously shared her wedding day with all of us. Charming perfection.
The photographs were taken by a TOP Toronto wedding photographer named Andreas.
His site is online at http://www.andreasphoto.ca

BEHIND THE SCENES HERE
AND
HERE

How To Save A Magazine

We've all witnessed it this past year. We've all shed a tear or two and shrugged our shoulders in complete and utter disbelief. A 'Domino Effect' has hit our beloved shelter magazines like a media pandemic on a rampage. So how can the remaining publications stay afloat; printing our monthly fixes? They get smart. Real smart. They don't fight the paradigm shift. They go with it. Case in point. Canadian House and Home. (business brilliance by Lynda Reeves and Suzanne Dimma) Their strategies are right on trend; an online TV channel - with the pages of the magazine coming to life in HD - slick production values too - and albeit, new ad revenues to boost their bottom line. If I were you...and you know who you are out there...and I'm not you...but...I'm just sayin'.....this is 'How To Save A Magazine'. (You can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine too!) Be sure to bookmark this new 2.0 shelter magazine TV Channel. It's online. It's FREE and it's as sweet as it comes. Hold on...you're gonna love this: Turn the Canadian House and Home TV channel on HERE. (and if you have a monitor or laptop near the tub, all the better..heavenly..Canadian.)

FREE and 'Almost FREE' Christmas Cards

I love unique, one-of-a-kind holiday cards. I think In Style magazine features greeting cards that celebrities create and send out. Most of them are so 'off-the-wall' incredible. Have you ever thought about designing your own Christmas cards? The above image is a free gift from me. Feel free to use it as cards, mini-posters or gift tags. The other option is to try Vistaprint. I got my blog business cards from them. I also have designed postcards with them. I find the site to be so easy. So there you go. 2 options. One from me that's free (just click on it to enlarge/save/print etc.), the other that's almost free. At Vistaprint: Save up to 90% + get FREE Shipping

Live In Full Color

Designers, Artists, Crafters, Creatives, Business Owners, Consumers, Students: If you don't subscribe to the wonderful 'Live in Full Color' newsletter, visit it now and enjoy! I love all the 'color topics' - I learn something new every issue! (See their blog HERE) Thank You to Julie of LIFC for the 'Blue' mention in this issue. Live in Full Color is an incredible blog of Sensational Color) Go now. Scoot. HERE.

Leftovers

I need a few extra helpings.

Greentree Gardens and Emporium

Another reminder and review of 'Retail Rule #1'. Never judge a book by its cover. Or in shopping lingo: Never judge a shop by its facade. I must confess that I have driven by this store at least 1000 times. I'm not kidding. I usually glanced over and thought. 'hmmm..I should stop in some time', but never did, until yesterday when I took my Mother out for a sunshine-filled November afternoon. (we Canadians will do anything to boost our Vit. D levels this time of year) I decided to drop in to 'check it out' and WOW !!! Do I need to say more? And look-see-look...!!!...I was finally able to see Papaya products in person. Needless to say, this is a wonderful and interesting emporium; filled in every corner with incredible vignettes. Do drop in - the first time you see it. It's on Hwy 26 just west of Collingwood beside Pretty River Academy Private School. Their Holiday Open is Nov. 21 & 22. 705 444 2146