March 30th, 2007

My next blog entry will be Monday unless something urgent comes up. In the mean time please checkout my latest oil painting that I have listed at auction. I'll start a new page for the first week of April. Soon I hope to add a search feature so you'll be able to find entries that interest you most. You can also bookmark this page, please do! 

It's a great opportunity to own an original. I started it at such a low price that I am taking a chance of giving it away, but I hope that you will place a bit and bring it up to a fair price. The painting is sensationally in person. Rich thick oil painting, vibrant colors and ready to hang. 

I don't often list larger oil for such a low price but I want to start spring out with a colorful bang and a "Thank You" to my collectors.

Here is the painting. Click on the picture to go to the auction and bid... bid... bid...

March 29th, 2007

People often ask me "What else do you do besides painting, do you have other interests?" 

Of course I do. I love animals and at this point I have four cats. I'd love to add a little dog and if I could have it my way I would want a Horse and at least one fainting goat.

My busy schedule does not allow me to have all these animals I would love to have. Hopefully some day we'll move to a new house with more land and my dream will come true.

Another thing I love to do is "Cook and Bake"

I always loved to cook. My background is in French, Italian and German cuisine.  I often combine the three. 

I enjoy the process and I also love to eat. Oh DEAR! :-)

Since I am a full time artist and marketing person not to mention all the other things I do, I have developed as style of cooking that is quick, but you would not know it

Tonight I fixed my famous meat patties in gravy and popcorn rice.

Here is the recipe 

Start off with about 2 pounds of ground meat. I use 1 pound beef and one pound pork or turkey (that is up to you) 
Depending on the combination of types of ground meat you can get different flavor results in your patties. That makes a lot of meat mixture and I usually freeze part of it for a later date.

Use a big bowl:

Add 2 eggs, about 1 Tbsp salt (to taste), 1 Tbsp black pepper, 
2 Tbsp Herb de Provence, 1 Tesp Celery Seeds, 1 Tesp ground bay leaves, a dash of lemon pepper, 

1 medium size finely shopped onion, 1/2 finely chopped bell pepper, parsley to taste ( optional)
1 cup of bread crumbs and 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

I always put on a surgical gloves and knead the whole thing thoroughly, until everything is well mixed.

Heat on medium to high heat a large non stick skillet with 1/2 cup of olive oil. You want the oil to get hot so your patties will sear, after you form your patties about 1/2 cup meat per patty, you want to put them in the skillet and turn the heat to medium.

After they have browned on one side turn them over, brown for about 2 minutes and then cover your skillet. Let cook until the patties are firm to the touch.

Uncover skillet and let brown for another five minutes. 
Watch the heat you may have to turn it down some.
You want to end up with nicely brown patties. 
Take them out and set them aside.

Drain most of the oil but leave the brown crusty meat stuff  in the skillet because we'll make a gravy now.

Add about two cups of water and bring to boil. Take 2 envelopes of Brown gray mix, dissolve in "cold" water (less lumps) and add to boiling mix, let boil to thicken and reduce.
Now, this is the basic gravy mix.

Today I added some mushrooms and finely chopped bell pepper to the gravy. You can also add an ounce of wine for a nice wild game flavor. You could even use ground game meat for your patties. Deer would probably work mixed with beef, I never tried that though.

After the boil reduction about 4 minutes, add about 1/3 a cup heavy cream. Turn down the heat add your patties back in to the gravy and let rest on warm till ready to eat.

That sounds like a lot of work but really is not.
They go well with rice, pasta, polenta or crusty fresh French bread and a nice salad.

Bon Appetite!!!

Let me know how you like them 

March 27, 2007

I spend all morning working in my garden cleaning up for spring. Mostly though I was "washing" everything that is covered in yellow Pine Pollen.

Spring in Georgia is beautiful but also for about four weeks the pine pollen is an absolute menace.

I would dare say Pine Trees are the worst "pollenuters"|

For people with allergies it's really tuff. I have to knock on wood, I do not suffer from such allergies.

Still having the pollen virtually everywhere, is no fun at all.

Every time my cats go outside and come back in I have to wipe them clean. Everything you touch leaves your hands yellow.

If you never been in Georgia and would like to visit,maybe you want to see the new Aquarium, or go to the great Atlanta High Museum of Art, I suggest to come after mid April, better wait till May, especially if you suffer from allergies.

Well enough of that!

My day was pretty much garden, cleaning the "Chalet"
(my cat enclosure outside) washing all their toys,
blankets and pillows.

Working on my web site.Marketing and such.

It's been a busy day. I also snapped some more photos.
When I get the time to process them I'll post some more.

Maybe tomorrow.

March 26th, 2007

I would like to tell you a true story.

In 1996 I was the victim of an armed robbery.

One evening as I was at a friends place and I went outside to get something out of my van, I was attacked by a masked man.
He came running out from the shadows, pushing a gun into my face, demanding money. He yelled a lot of expletives at me, while waving the gun in to my face, pushing it in to my ribs and so on.
I was totally caught by surprise and in disbelieve.

My purse was inside, since I was only going to get something else out of my van and then go back inside.

I was wedged between the open passenger door of my van and the gunman blocking my way.

I tried to explain (yes believe it or not I was trying to "talk" to the guy) that I did not have any money and that my purse was inside.

I said: "Lets's go inside that is where they money is!" I knew that my friend inside had a gun himself and my hope was to get his attention and help.

My friend inside did not even know what was going on outside and during my ordeal I knew I would be dead if I did not produce something of value for this guy.
His eyes were bulging out from his black knit mask, as he was cussing at me. I could tell he was out of control.

As I kept seeing the gun waving in front of me I thought 'the trigger was going to go off any second'. It all seemed like an eternity.

Suddenly from out of nowhere from my right side rear, another masked individual flew up on me and punched me in the face, right in to my right eye as I was turning to see what was coming.

I went down by the blow, but that moment I knew it was up to me now to get out of this, before I would be shot.

Going down put me in to a position where I could dive under the gun arm of the first guy. It happened very fast. I dove under his gun arm and started running toward the door (A glass door leading in to the hall of the building.)
I had a bit of the advantage of the surprise, since I'm sure they did not expect me to run after I got hit.

I remember thinking, 'please door open'
I was almost at the door when a shot rang out. I was still running so I knew I must not have been hit. (later the police found that the shot hit the frame of the door about a foot above my head. The dent in the metal was clearly visible.)

As soon as I was inside I started to scream as loud as I could
"Get The Gun... Get the Gun!"

My friend came running, his gun in hand, but luckily the two armed robbers did not follow me inside.

We took cover until the police arrived. I gave my statement etc. etc. The paremetics put ice on my eye but I did not want to go to the hospital. I had a cut under my eye where the police said, the guy probaly was wearing a ring that hit me. I never had been hit like this and I never had a black eye. I was afraid that I may have lost my eye. I could not open it for a long time. It took weeks for the swelling to go down and the pain was fearce.

The armed robbers cleaned out my van including my briefcase and that is where part two of my nighmare started.

Even though I tried to remember everything I had in my briefcase I couldn't. Turns out, they must have gotten hold of papers with my personal information, because after the armed robbery, I became the victim of identity theft.

People were opening up credit cards in my name and I did not even find out until I was contacted by those credit card companies due to failure to pay for the charges. I began to learn about checking my credit report and found the identity theft. I got zero help from the police, they said it's not something they could do anyhting about. I realized that they did not even know where to start when it comes to identity theft.

Long story short, since then I watch my credit report, I have Fraud Alert on my credit report and now I do everything I can to protect myself

I was able to clean off all the bad stuff that came from the identity thefts, after providing signature samples, police reports and affidavits and such. It was a super hassle and I don't wish it to anyone.

That is why I recently signed up with Lifelock which seems to be a step up from just checking your credit report through Equifax which is what I have been doing. My identity theft experience was such a nightmare that I want all the protection I can get.

Also as a side note: Nobody was ever arrested, charged or convicted of the armed robbery or the identity theft

I hope this story is not too depressing, but it's a true story.

My advise from personal experience is "Get Protection"
Check out the Lifelock Banner to the left.

Self Defense For Women

General Self Defense

March 25th, 2007

I am very excited to announce my art Books & DVD's Store is up and running on this web site.

I will search for great books and DVDs that I feel are worthwhile reading and watching. Some of which I own myself.

If you would like to check out my new store. CLICK HERE

I the future you will find as always my original art works here but I will also add other related products that I personally select.

I myself have a huge library of books. Some of them I brought over from Europe. I was literally addicted to books, I still love them but I have slowed down and don't buy them by the dozen anymore. I have books about Horses, Cats, Dogs, Greek Philosophy, Medicine, Art of course, some Politics but they give me a headache, Cooking, Cuisine, Travel, Italy, France, Germany you name it I probably have it.

I hope you will find my "Ginette Book Club" inviting and I hope you will come to see me first when spending your hard earned money. I always am open to suggestion so feel free to drop me a line.

The selection for now contains art books and DVD's but I will expand it to include Home, Garden and Lifestyle as well.

Oh... if you are wondering about the slice to the left. It's a part of one of my latest mixed media painting
" Candy Boats of Vernazza ".

I have a few auctions that you may want to check out:

Go direct to Ginette's Auctions

Latest Oil Painting listed:

For those that received a newsletter today.
The link to this painting was wrong. My apologies!

I also listed a new mini watercolor

CLICK HERE to see it

March 24th, 2007

The little Squirrel was back today and my boy Josi was staring it down through the window pane.

It was very funny how the squirrel seemed unperturbed by that cat looking out from the other side. I guess the sunflower seeds were just too good to worry about cats, especially one behind glass.

If you are a pet owner you know that Spring means shedding.

I have four cats
(used to have six, two have recently past away)

I've been giving them their daily shedding tool treatment and believe me I have to do this outside.

Luckily we have a super nice and large outdoor run. We call it "The Chalet" where I give them their daily beauty treatment and where they spend time outside without getting to run away

My babies names are Josi he is boy, O'Mally is a girl, Orio is a girl and Mama, naturally their Mama is a girl.

I will post pictures as I go along here. The one to the right befriending a squirrel is Josi.

He is a Japanese Manx,and has no tail. He makes it all up with personality!

Naturally in Spring you and I are thinking of getting in shape.
I have started my yearly regimen and I hope you will too!

You will find the right equipment here. From heart rate monitors, to exercise equipment, to magazines and how to books. Click to get started.

I don't know about you, but Spring makes me want to do some shopping. A few new cloth, brighten up my kitchen and bath, gardening ...

I can't tell you how happy I am that Spring has arrived. Today was a warm, wonderful day here in Georgia. I was able to snap some great photos of Cardinals feeding in front of my painting window and resting in the branches of a tree, by baiting them with bird seeds.

A week ago the tree was covered in white blossoms that are now falling like flakes of snow covering the ground with little white dots. Everything has come alive. I am really energized for painting.

I've already redecorated my kitchen for spring. Soon I will be able to cut some Daffodils to bring inside.

In about 4 weeks I will do my new plantings of flowers and I can't wait to plant my new Tomatoes. Last year I had such a fantastic crop of Cocktail Tomatoes that I will plant them again this year.

I had another visitor:

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Celebrate Spring with Daffodils!

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