Last week, on Pinterest I pinned a photo from the local paper. 
I realised afterward how like an image from West Coast artist Sue Coleman it is. The title of Sue’s piece is Relief, which I think, says it all.
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I love the way her subjects and totems interact.
Do you like it?.
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Nicole Iff is a local artist that we have taken on at About Canada
We have taken on a range of Nichole’s prints, the originals are oil paintings.
I particularly like “Sleepy Bear”
It reminds me that it won’t be long until the bears around Banff start to wake up.
Do you like it?.
Share on Facebook This weekend it is Family Day, here in Alberta.
So I thought I would show the neat poster from Cori Ross
Let me know if you like it.
Family Day is observed in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan on the third Monday of February. It’s a holiday to celebrate the importance of families and family life to people and their communities. (Manitoba actually officially celebrates Louis Riel Day, but many people call it Family Day.)
Share on Facebook It is trade show time. The time that we go and meet new artists and find neat new things to bring in for you at About Canada.
However that means we have to find space to put things. We are solving this with a Blow-Out sale, starting this weekend.
Everything on sale has at least 50% off, a couple are reduced by 90%.
We only have a fraction of our products online, so far, but I have shown 6 sale items below. If you click on the Blow-Out Sale link then you can look through a whole range. (You can get the sale discounts online).
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Check out the other Blow-Out Sale items.
In the meantime have a lovely Valentine's Day
Jasyn Lucas is an artist that came to us last year. He uses acrylics in his lovely depictions of the Aurora Borealis.
We just received a delivery of new pieces from Jasyn and, as usual, I love them.
I think that if I had to choose my favourite is the one titled “From Here”
Do you like it?.
Share on Facebook I came across Pinterest recently and have become a bit addicted. Its a sort of social digital scrapbook, thats growing like crazy, if you haven’t heard of it.
It is simple in that images you like, across the web, you “pin” and others can like, comment or repin to their own interest boards. It’s quite compulsive!
Anyway I have become so taken with it that I have added a pin button to each product page. Feel free to pin your favourite products to your boards.
If you are on Pinterest, you can 
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Share on Facebook We have just refurbished the window at About Canada.
We were trying to create a brighter more spacious display area.
I took some video and photos:
I couldn’t film for long, it was -36!
Old look
New look
What do you think?
In a month it is Valentine’s Day. If you are looking for something other than just flowers or chocolate this year then, perhaps we, at About Canada, can help.
Save the flowers and chocolate for another day and have a look at our Valentine’s Day gifts ideas instead. There are some for her, some for him and some for either one of you.
All are available online, and now is a good time to allow for posting to leave you more time for primping and prepping for what should be the most romantic day of the year.
I have shown just 6 ideas. But if you click on the Valentine Gift Ideas link then you can look through a whole range.
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Check out the other Valentine Gift Ideas.
And if you are interested
This February is especially romantic as it is a Leap Year. Traditionally a leap year is the only time in four years when a lady can propose to a gentleman as, in the olden days, this would have been scorned upon. The day ladies can take their chances was on the actual Leap Day, the 29th of Feb.
Some believe this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.
While some say that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “christianize” celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine’s Day — should be a day for romance.
In Great Britain and North America, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.
Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) It is celebrated accross the world but of note are
On Christmas Day it is a tradition for a lot of local families to ski Norquay for an hour or two. (In the UK we would go to the pub, but this is more wholesome).
If if you know Norquay you will know the North American. At the top is a tea house, which reopened just this year. Some people think its crazy to attempt the North American at all. In 1966 Rudi must have had more than a few loose screws to hike up above the tea house to do a jump from the top, captured on film by Bruno Engler.
Do you like it?. All I can say is wow!, and have a good (and safe) Christmas.
Share on Facebook One of favourite artists, Faith Harckham always produces lovely work. The latest is Mother Grizzly And Cub. I love the sense of power and movement that comes from fairly simple lines and rich earthy colours.
Do you like it?.
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