Paint Party Friday - Mountain Ash

Welcome to Paint Party Friday, thanks to Kristin and Eva for hosting!

I was inspired by a recent photo of a mountain ash tree in bloom that I took while on a walk.
It's done in acrylic on cardstock (8.5" x 5.5").  It's a greeting card.

I just found this interesting article where this 84 year old woman did her own portrait on an Ipad...it looks fantastic! Go have a look!

Friends

I took this photo in a store at the mall. I really don't need to buy anymore flowers. But I liked this one, it made me think of my bloggie friends, I wish I could give you all one of these!

I seem to have gained a few unwanted pounds over the summer, they have stealthily crept on!  That's my bad news for today!  This time last year I was down 10 pounds due to some surgery I had.  Sigh!

Dkzody has put this exercise for sciatica on her blog.  It's really simple and feels great even though I don't have sciatica.  I thought it might be helpful for some.

Lovely Weekend

This past weekend was lovely with great weather. We finished moving L into her university dwelling (finally). She won't actually be there until just before school starts next week as she will be with her boyfriend and his family over the upcoming long Labour Day weekend. We'll say our sad goodbyes tomorrow. There are so many families doing the same thing, some of them will be first year students and I feel their pain. On the one hand you are happy for them but on the other... A friend of mine told me she cried every single year of her son's 4 years away at school! It doesn't get any easier. L is entering her 3rd year. Then I was reading a lovely article in the newspaper where this TV personality Jeanne Beker is really sad because it seems that after university, then they can really move on (away)! It's something to consider.  L is always out even when she's home anyway.

At any rate, life does go on.  L was busy so M, K and I  decided to attend the Toronto Buskerfest 2012 downtown this past Sunday.  It was being held over the entire weekend and they closed a couple of streets.  It was colourful and entertaining and we had a great time although it was very crowded as the day wore on.  They only asked for a voluntary donation as you enter, to fund epilepsy.  Here are a few photos I took for you:

We caught this great act above. The girl atop the man on the unicycle was actually just picked out of the crowd! The performer was very entertaining, funny and even charismatic.  He even had her boyfriend come out of the audience with a surprise act. We ended up dropping some money into his basket.

They had a lot of shopping and food carts with all kinds of wonderful food.  There was even a Hawaiian shave ice stand, but unfortunately it was closed at the time.  I would have loved to try it.  We did some sampling and finished with a yummy funnel cake, icing sugar only.

In this recent article about the buskers,  most of them say the best part of their job is making people happy!

Creative Tuesdays - Curly

Creative Tuesdays' theme this week is 'Curly'. This 'curly tree' is an acrylic on cardstock (6.5" x 4.5") inspired by a piece I just did for Sunday Sketches which in turn was inspired by a photo I saw in the newspaper!  I chose to colour the tree in a red/brown mixture tinged with gold, hinting of the upcoming fall season perhaps!

IKEA breakfast

M and I went to breakfast at Ikea on a recent weekend. It was so crowded because they advertise breakfast for $1.  (And it was also the weekend.) This deal includes scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, and hash brown potatoes. Optionally, you can add 3 slices of bacon, or additional sausage for an extra dollar. Then you can add 2 pancakes or 1 thick slice of French toast for and extra dollar. Then coffee with refills included would be another dollar. So we ended up spending $4.50 each including tax for our breakfasts. We decided it's still a good deal and the coffee is quite good. Smart marketing don't you think? Oh, the pancake syrup is included, one packet per pancake I think.

There was a recent article in the newspaper saying that Ikea is the 2nd wealthiest company in the world with a net worth estimated at 39 billion. And it's a privately owned company! (The first wealthiest is a Spanish retailer.) It's been announced that Ikea will be getting into the budget hotel business.

Sunday Sketches - The Old Tree

I saw this photo of a beautiful old tree in the newspaper and knew I had to paint it! It's acrylic on cardstock, (11" x 8.5").

Please visit the other Sunday Sketches participants, and thanks to Alexandra for hosting!

Senior Moment

I got this in an email and wanted to share it with you, so funny!

The very first senior moment on record:

And that’s what happened to the dinosaurs.

Paint Party Friday - A Colourful Bird

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I hope you'll visit some of the other talented participants in this fun blog hop hosted by Eva and Kristin!

This is a notecard on cardstock, (3" x 4.5") in acrylic. I received a photo of colourful birds in an email and decided to try painting one of them. Yes, it's based on a real bird. Unfortunately I don't know where it's from.

Cantaloupes in season

Look at the size of this cantaloupe melon I got at the grocery store last week.  It wasn't even the largest one. It was only 99 cents. I bought 3 of them. Two of them were markedly sweeter than the third, oh well.

In other food news, I read in the newspaper about (water) Buffalo Milk ice cream, apparently it's really thick and delicious due to 7 or 8% fat content. There is a cafe in Toronto that keeps selling out of the stuff. Do you think you'd give it a try?

Whale Culture

I recently took this photo of a mountain ash tree in bloom/fruit. Doesn't it look pretty enough to paint?

In the news lately, Marineland water park has been under fire.   It is located in Niagara Falls, Canada. They have been operating for many years but recently they have been exposed for keeping the animals under horrific conditions, in unclean poisonous water.  Sea lions have gone blind and recently a baby beluga whale was killed by the adult whales because it had gone sick with meningitis.  Apparently that is what the whales do in whale culture.  They knew the baby whale was in pain and that is their way of coping.  Did you have any idea of their culture?

Creative Tuesdays - Polka Dots

For Creative Tuesdays' Polka Dot theme, I've done a tall ship greeting card in acrylic on cardstock (8.5" x 5.5").  I had fun choosing the colours for this one, and decorating it with polka dots!

Please visit the other talented participants!  Don't you just love polka dots?

Richard Burton

The Toronto Star recently featured this article on Richard Burton's just released diary and
I thought you would enjoy this quote about Elizabeth Taylor  (don't you just love romantic stuff like this, although it seems he was far from a saint):

Burton wrote of his wife (you’re forgiven for swooning):
"I have been inordinately lucky all my life but the greatest luck of all has been Elizabeth. She has turned me into a model man but not a prig, she is a wildly exciting lover-mistress, she is shy and witty, she is nobody's fool. She is a brilliant actress, she is beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography, she can be arrogant and wilful, she is clement and loving. She is Sunday's child, she can tolerate my impossibilities and my drunkenness, she is an ache in the stomach when I am away from her and she loves me. She is the prospectus that can never be entirely catalogued, an almanac for poor Richard. And I shall love her forever."

On a change of topic, here are some sweet potato leaves that have been growing all summer in the city.  One year I planted some and when it was time to dig the pots up, I discovered wonderful purple sweet potatoes in the ground.  I actually cooked them up in some soup and they were fresh and delicious, kind of like growing one's own vegetables!  I lived to tell the tale!

Sunday Sketches - Tall Ship

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! This is a tall ship in acrylic on 8.5" x 5.5" cardstock. It's a greeting card. I seem to be doing a lot of these boats lately, I love their shape and structure.  It's fun colouring them in.

Please stop by the other talented participants!

8MM video tapes to DVD

L asked me to convert all of our old 8mm video camcorder tapes to DVD format.  She wants to preserve our memories and have an easier way to watch and share them, besides the fact that these tapes are degrading with time.

We found out that Costco has a service to do this.  It's $27.99 per 2 hour tape.  We have a bunch of tapes made over the years, but I think it will be a worthwhile investment. 

In other tech news, M and I think our next phones will be something like the Samsung Galaxy running Google's Android system.  A lot of our friends seem to be getting these as they are apparently a lot cheaper than Iphones and they have or will soon have just as many apps or more.

Paint Party Friday - The Best Things

The weather's been so beautiful lately, yesterday was a perfect sunny day, with a hint of fall in the air.

Hello and welcome to another Paint Party Friday. This is an acrylic on 8.5" x 5.5 " cardstock. Isn't the quote just so true?  I thought it would go well against a sunrise.

Please stop by the other talented participants! And thanks to Kristin and Eva for hosting.

Sensible Saving

L told me her friend at university is very careful with her money, as a student should be. In fact, she never goes to McDonald's for a meal without first printing out a coupon. You see, she saves her McDonald's receipts, and on the back of them, there is usually an opportunity to participate in their survey of your recent visit. Upon completion, you will be able to print out a coupon for a free medium fries or side salad and a medium soft drink with the purchase of a large sandwich! How neat is that? Of course, I tried it with my receipt as I'm a regular customer anyway. Guess what K got for dinner that night!  We were just having leftovers, so that came in handy for him.  You know, I don't normally check the back of my receipts, do you?

Pickles

My friend S gave me these homemade bread and butter pickles.  Well, her sister makes them. They are more sweet and sour in taste and I love them enough to eat them plain.  Are you a pickle lover?

S and I  went for a chat and a coffee on the weekend.  She summed it up really well when she said her 20 year old daughter is 'there but not really there' when she is at home.  It must be normal as they get busy with their own lives, especially now that L has a steady boyfriend.  Even my 17 year old son plans his own activities now.  My friend has been having a busy summer to the point where her shoulder was aching that day.  She decided to stop by a sports massage clinic on the way home.  She had been having a ladies weekend at a friend's cottage and suspects the friend has anorexia nervosa.  It doesn't seem that she is getting or wants help with it, such is life.

We've been having a lot of rain, perfect for weeding!  I swear weeding is therapeutic, very satisfying when the ground is soft and the weather is overcast and cooler.  For some strange reason, my bones/back have not been aching in that arthritis way for well over a week.  It's great to feel young again!  (Wonder if all the weeding is making me more limber?  Lol)

The Library Card

Here is a nice shot of the local pond for you. I took it on an overcast, rainy day.  Those are reflections on the water.

I had gone for a long walk, running errands at the same time. When I got home, I realized my library card was missing, and thought that I must have left it at the library. I went back there, but it was gone, so I decided to get a new one at a cost of $2. It caused my old card to be blocked from further use and no one had used it since the time that I lost it. It wasn't as stressful as losing a credit card, but I've had my old card for over 10 years so I was a bit mad at my carelessness.

Then after all that, four days later, I'm leafing through my wallet and find the old library card stuck behind another card! Oh well! It's very thin if that's any excuse!

Interesting and Delicious

My mom, niece and nephew were recently in Florida visiting one of my sisters. They brought back these alligator avocados, which I've never seen before.

This one was perfectly ripe when I cut into it. It was absolutely delicious, tasted just like an avocado.

Polka Dots

 I've done an acrylic greeting card (5.5" x 8.5").  I suppose the pink sun there counts as one big polka dot as well as the little ones on the sailboat!

Linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.

Please visit the other talented contributors in this fun art co-op!

Successful Weeding

This looks like a crabapple tree. It reminds me of why it's not fun to have any kind of apple tree...unless you like apple picking!

With the recent wet weather, it's been good for weeding as the earth becomes soft.  I've realized the only successful way to weed is to dig really deep and ensure you extract the whole root of the plant.  I may have heard this many times over, but finally realized I've been doing it wrong.  It's almost like planting in reverse.  This means you have to be patient and not be in a hurry to get as many weeds as you can.  Do you pull weeds and if so do you think you do it correctly?

M and I saw the new Batman movie this week (The Dark Knight Rises).  We went on half price Tuesdays at the Cineplex.  For all the hype, I thought the movie was okay, but maybe I preferred Spiderman.  From the previews, there is a new movie coming out next summer that looked interesting called 'Man of Steel' (Superman).  I'm all caught up on the movies I wanted to see for now.

L is getting ready to leave for university once again.  It never gets easier and every year she becomes more adult, spreading her wings and ever ready to move on, looking forward to new opportunities.  Her new rental house is older, she will be sharing with a number of schoolmates.  It seems we have to buy more stuff every year.  Her bathroom needs new mats, shower curtains, extra storage.  I got her an over the door towel rack and some extra shelves.

K will start a new school year and I hope his lessons will go well.  He will try to keep his part time job, if school work will allow.

We've been enjoying the Olympics, especially Usain Bolt and the Jamaican team's success.

Tall Ship

For Paint Party Friday, I've done a Tall Ship in acrylic on cardstock. I was inspired by a photo I saw in the newspaper.  I've actually made this into a card, so I can give it away. (8.5" x 5.5")

Please visit the other talented participants!

Crabapples

It's the time of year when you notice all the fruit on the trees are ripening.  I noticed these crabapples lying on a boulder and thought the scene looked very artistic, what do you think?  Good enough to paint, beautiful texture on the rocks!

McDonald's Canada has free coffee all this week until Sunday. I found out when I was at the grocery store and some McDonald's employees were walking through the parking lot with a large tray filled with small coffees. They asked me if I wanted one and then asked if they could have a photo taken with me. The guy said 'Don't worry, it's for internal use only'. I was already imagining my photo appearing in the local newspaper! Do you know that seniors over 60 get a 10% discount at McDonald's (well, the coffee anyway).

The very hot day

Isn't this a pretty weed? I spotted it while I was out walking. It was a hot walk that day. It was the kind of day where you find a real relief under the shade of the trees. Trickles of sweat stung my eyes and I felt some hitting my bare collarbone. And I don't normally even sweat a lot. I made a mental note to remember this sticky day in the dead of winter when I'm freezing!

Fresh Beets

On the weekend my friend S dropped off about ten pounds of fresh beets at my doorstep. I guess she had a lot. That would be 30 plus beets. I asked a few friends if they would like some but they were not interested. Now, I've never made pickled beets and was not about to start.  They came clean and trimmed.  I decided to just boil them up in batches of 10 with celery salt, cloves, allspice, vinegar, nutmeg and dried tarragon.  They tasted really fresh and good. I peeled and sliced them, packaged them in ziplocs and froze them. I guess I can use them whenever I need frozen vegetables (borscht perhaps?) It was an unexpected, perhaps domesticated way to spend an afternoon!

Here they are all sliced up:

Light reading

I just borrowed these books from the library. I enjoyed the first one in the series and rather than buying, I decided to check the library.  One of them is in Large Print, I don't have a problem with that, in fact it is a great idea.   I noticed you can now borrow e-books from the library somehow. I don't even have an e-reader, maybe if/when I get an Ipad!

It's a long weekend here in the province of Ontario, the Civic holiday. L and K are up north at friends' cottages so M and I have had the weekend to ourselves. We had a lovely dinner at a nice restaurant downtown with another couple on Saturday night.

Spy

For MMm's Creative Tuesdays the theme this week is 'Spy'.  I've done this piece in acrylic on
cardstock (4.5" x 6.5").  I hope he looks furtive enough!

Also linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.

Please visit the other participants in these wonderful art co-ops!

To a good owner

This is what I saw for free on a recent summer walk. It looks attractive doesn't it? It seemed to be a media cabinet. It's a good idea to put free stuff out a couple of days before garbage day, and it can go to a good owner instead of to the garbage. No, I didn't take it!

I was finally able to see the movie 'The best exotic marigold hotel' this week. It had been highly recommended and it did not disappoint. I even took a message away from it 'you cannot reclaim your past you can move on and build new lives' or something to that effect.

Pink Sunrise

For Paint Party Friday I did a 'Pink Sunrise' on 8.5 x 5.5 inch cardstock.  It was inspired by a Jim Steele photo.

Thursday Brain Flex

I got this in an email and enjoyed it, hope you will too:

KEEPING THE GRAY MATTER ACTIVE

1. Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name? 2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is six feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly? 6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible? 7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not? 8. What was the President's name in 1975? 9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"? 11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?

Here are the Answers

1. Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name?
Answer: Johnny of course
2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is six feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?
Answer: Meat.
3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mt. Everest ; it just wasn't discovered yet. [You're not very good at this are you?]
4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?
Answer: There is no dirt in a hole.
5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly
6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?
Answer: Billy lives in the Southern Hemisphere

7. In California , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
Answer: You can't take pictures with a wooden leg. You need a camera to take pictures.
8. What was the President's name in 1975?
Answer: Barack Obama. Same as is it now - 

[Oh, come on who read you the questions? ....]
9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?
Answer: You would be in 2nd. Well, you passed the person in second place, not first.
10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?
Answer: Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow
11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?
Answer: One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big stack.

Granola Thins

Welcome to August!

Some friends are in town and we went to a sushi restaurant a couple of nights ago with a gathering of 13 people.  It is always great to see how much the teenagers, young adults have grown and changed.

I went for a haircut yesterday.  My hairdresser was telling me he enjoys the Olympic volleyball, ping pong and swimming sports.  L will join her university health and dental group plan this year.  When she turns 21 next April, she will no longer be covered under M's work plan.  (Thanks to comments from Gigi and Laurie, I checked and she is actually covered until age 25 as long as she is a student.  So we will get the paperwork in place. )  We also have to get our passports renewed at some point this year.  I'm not one to wait for the last minute.

M and I saw the new Spiderman movie.  K told us what time the movie was playing, but maybe didn't notice it was the 3D version.  Anyway I didn't get a headache and it worked well for this movie I thought.  Spiderman is very cute as is his girlfriend.  Oh, I remember reading they are seeing each other in real life.  We enjoyed the movie although it does have a lot of destruction, what else would you expect right?

I had a coupon to redeem these Granola Thins for free. They turned out to be amazingly delicious and only 90 calories per thin: