Toronto the Good

We had a fabulous, fun time at the Queen/Adam Lambert concert the other night.  We took the Go Bus downtown to the Union Station terminal.  My niece took some fabulous photos (and I have asked permission to use them here), we had such great seats, well, we were able to stand by the barricades at the stage the whole time!  I've never been so close and it's a good thing, really adds to the experience.   We went to a dinner party before the show and a party after the show, as my sister had a bunch of Glambert friends from all over in attendance.

On the way home, we had to purchase Go Bus tickets from a machine.  It seemed to be only accepting change as opposed to even cash bills.  It also accepts credit cards.  Anyway, I was fumbling around in my purse in the dark and managed to find the correct change.  Then we joined the line waiting for the 12.40 am bus.  After a few minutes a young black man wearing nice headphones came up to us and asked if one of us might have dropped some money by the ticket machine.  I thanked him as I had been mysteriously missing 3 five dollar bills.  I was amazed at his honesty, thinking, here we are in the middle of the busy downtown area at a major bus station so late at night.  It still is 'Toronto the Good'!

Homemade Corn Dogs

I found a recipe for homemade corn dogs in a magazine, and decided to try making them this past weekend. This is what they looked like as they were about to go in the oven. They tasted pretty good with ketchup. I won't show you the 'after' picture because it didn't bake up as golden and pretty as in the magazine photo! 

Creative Tuesdays - Flight of the Red Balloon

For the current Creative Tuesdays theme, Michael has directed us to create a 'red balloon story in a picture'. He was inspired by the movie 'Flight of the Red Balloon' starring Juliette Binoche. I hope I have interpreted this correctly. It was fun doing it anyway.

I decided to depict my simple red balloon story with 4 ACEO art cards (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in acrylic. It's the story of 'A Nice Day'.



A sailboat sets out on a morning sail:

There is a lucky whale watch sighting:

Before you know it, the sun has set and it's time to go home:

The perfect day ends with a beautiful crescent moon under the stars:

The Weekend

Dandelion

Hope your weekend was a good one.  We had a thunderstorm with hail in our area last night!

Husband M and son K had really good (and free) tickets to a big soccer game downtown on Saturday night. M had 4 tickets and invited a good friend and his son along. It called for rain but they were lucky that night. And the game was fun and exciting apparently.

 I've been watching more TV since our digital channel problem got resolved. This program Chopped Canada has been on for awhile and I enjoyed it. They have well-known, knowledgeable judges (different ones per episode) and the competing, accomplished chefs are presented with 4 mystery ingredients from which they have to create a dish in 30 minutes. They have to do this for 3 different courses.  It's quite a challenge because there are always one or two ingredients (like mangosteen, or rabbit) which would stump the average person.  There is a ten thousand dollar prize for the winner.

My sister from Florida flew into town again with a friend.  We will attend the final 2014 North American Queen/Adam Lambert concert tonight.  That's what groupies do after all, attend several concerts of their idol!  Then she will take my mom south with her for about a month.  My mom (who lives with another sister nearby) has some dementia which is getting worse, as she repeats herself more and more. 

Sunday Sketches - Double Moon

For Sunday Sketches, this ACEO (2 1/2"w x 3 1/2"h) is done in acrylic and finepoint marker. I called it 'Supermoon', a phenomena which occurred a couple of weeks ago.

A mostly happy day

Spinach Pear Blue Cheese

This past Thursday morning I woke up and started getting ready for my day.  At 9 am the phone rang, it was a good friend from Florida.  I was initially alarmed, thinking something was wrong with her family.  She apologized for the early call but her daughter had seen this message on Facebook that a former dance teacher had passed away the night before.  My daughter L had attended her dance school as a little girl for many years as well.  She wouldn't have been more than 50 years old, with 2 university aged daughters.  L told me she had noticed this teacher's Facebook statuses making mention of heart problems she had been having for months prior to her death.

I went to the local drug store as it was senior Thursday.  I got 3 bags of milk at the discounted price, as we drink a lot of milk.  The cashier asked 'are you 55?'  I thanked her for asking and assured her that I was.  It was the beginning of a good day!

Next, I went to the grocery store.  The sweet cherries were on sale.  I picked a bag out only to be stopped by an Asian man.  He said 'they are putting fresh ones out, get those!'  I thanked him as I am not observant in that way, and made sure to get a fresh bag.

Finishing my groceries, I looked up into a blue summer sky and noticed a plane flying high above the puffy white clouds.  Then I saw a bird flying up into the pretty picture.

Then I went home and made a spinach pear blue cheese (Roquefort) salad as part of my lunch! I had forgotten how delicious this classic combination is.

Some days are like that, mostly happy!

Paint Party Friday - Sunflower Field

This piece is done in my art journal in watercolour pencils (5"h x 7"w). It was inspired by a photo I saw in the newspaper. I thought it was pretty. It was only after I painted this that I read the caption under the photo. It described the photo as some miners in the Ukraine searching the field for missing body parts from the recently doomed Malaysian airlines jet. Something seemingly beautiful became horrible.

Linking to Paint Party Friday. Thanking Eva and Kristin for always hosting for so many years.

End of Summer Thoughts

These are some flowers from my garden, the purple coneflowers seeded themselves into a pretty mass.

Are your thoughts turning to August and September?  Soon it will be time for kids to return to school, son K will have to register for his fall semester at College.  Keith (Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer) had an interesting post a couple of days ago about living in the present.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but there always seems to be things to plan!

I took my mom to the doctor yesterday for our annual physicals. I understand that healthy people are now allowed physicals every 2 years as the government tries to curb health costs. We can go every year because we are on medication for various things, me with my blood pressure tablets. Everything went well, we are reasonably healthy. He downplayed my arthritic wrist symptoms saying it might've been a bout of tendonitis. It seems the doctor's computer and fax machine haven't been working for the past week. The poor secretary said she was back to doing things manually. It sounds as if the doctor needs computer help!

Digital TV

I thought this was an interesting type of tree, especially seeing it in flower.  It looks like some type of evergreen.


Our cable TV company made us switch over to digital TV converters awhile back.  Our TVs never seemed to pick up a lot of the channels after that so we just took the converter off and went back to analog.  We thought our TVs were too old or something.  When the painters came, we had to unplug everything while they did their job.  When we plugged everything back in, lo and behold the digital converters started working, showing all the channels!  So it had nothing to do with older TVs, maybe things got fixed on their end!

First Birthday

I took this photo outside the mall the other day, love the combination of blue and green.


Happy 1st Birthday Prince George!  Have you seen this cute photo of him already walking?

I was at the dentist yesterday for a routine checkup.  The dental assistant was telling me that hygienists make a lot of money, like $50 an hour.  However, the assistants make about half of that.  Furthermore, a full time job for assistants these days is a rarity.  Most work several days at one place, several days at another in order to get full time hours.  It seems a full time job in any profession is hard to find these days.

Archie

Here are some pretty roses to brighten your day!

And did you hear that Archie Andrews of the Archie comic strip is being killed off? I was an avid reader of this comic strip as an older child. It was when Archie was a teenager and had neighbourhood friends Veronica and Betty who vied for his affections.  Veronica the spoiled, rich brunette always seemed to win out over sweet, blonde Betty.  I felt sad at the passing of an era.   Did or do you read this comic strip?  Archie will die saving the life of a gay friend.  Times have changed.

Sunday Sketches - Peeking Through

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches! This piece is an ACEO artist card (2 1/2"h x 3 1/2"w) in acrylic.  I really have fun creating these understated pieces.  Husband M had no trouble guessing what it was, so I think you will see it too!

Okay, it is the moon peeking through the clouds!

Natural Arrangements

The great news around here is that the painters finished painting the whole house on Wednesday (YAY!)  We have been slowly putting things back where they belong and trying to purge some clutter at the same time.  The purging could go better but husband M is a hoarder.  It may be better if I don't ask before I purge.  The painters did a good job, repairing walls, taking down bits of wallpaper here and there.  It feels like a new house.  I am loath to lean anything against the walls right now.

This is the time of year when the weeds look their best.  I spotted these natural arrangements around town these past few weeks:

Please excuse my shadow on this one, just lazy to crop it out. I've noticed how these wildflowers often gather around a drain, where it is wet:

Raspberry, Tangerine and a Splash of Lemon

This is a (6" x 6") piece on good quality tangerine cardstock.  I painted it with acrylics and outlined it with a fine point marker.

Linking to Paint Party Friday and Summer of Color.

Summerlicious 2014

Creme Brulee Dessert

On the weekend, husband M and I went to the Queen + Adam Lambert concert held at the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto. It was a fantastic experience. Here is a great video of Adam doing 'Somebody to Love'.

My sister who lives in Miami is also a big Adam Lambert fan, a groupie in fact. She flew in specially for the concert. Over the years we have kept in touch with a bunch of other fans by email and we were able to meet up with some of them over a Summerlicious lunch at the Bier Market. My favourite was the creme brulee dessert pictured, as I am not a beer drinker. They have a very large selection of every kind of beer however. We walked around the Toronto Harbourfront after lunch, then the group had an even bigger gathering/meetup at dinnertime. I'm not a part of that group.

A wake-up call

Neighbourhood Clematis

So my dominant left hand, half of the wrist, in fact was suddenly and severely inflamed last week, arthritis my sister says. It affected everything fortunately just for a couple of days. This is the most clear symptom I've had of this disease, I can stop denying it now and hope it won't happen too often.  Yes, it's a wake-up call.

Creative Tuesdays - Bread and Jam

Creative Tuesdays' current theme is 'Bread and Jam'. I did an ACEO in acrylic (2 1/2"h x 3 1/2"w) on cardstock. It's a scone with lots of clotted cream and strawberry jam, with Michael in mind. It must be one of his favourite things, as I have come to know him over the years! So saying, I have never had this, it must go on my bucket list!

At the blood lab

My kids really like getting this 'dippin dots' ice cream:

Dippin Dots

I was at the blood lab with my mom last week, both of us doing routine tests.  I've noticed this summer that the lines haven't been as long and attributed that to people being away on vacation or that they don't tend to come in the summer.  I was talking to the attendant and she mentioned to me that they have changed their process.  It used to be that each worker was assigned an individual task, so one would take the blood, one would type, one would do ECG's etc.  The new process is that one worker is assigned to one patient and sees him through from start to finish.  And it is much faster!  I asked her if she was more tired, and she said initially it was but now it is fine, it is just always busy.  From a patient point of view, we are all much happier!  Well, except for these two little kids who were screaming for a long time after getting their needles.

Sunday Sketches - Sour Cherries and Hibiscus

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches! This is a greeting card (5 1/2"h x 4 1/4"w) done in watercolour pencils. The piece is entitled 'Sour Cherries and Hibiscus'.

Joys of Summer

My friend S dropped by with these jars of sour cherry compote that she made with her family. She also brought me fresh beets and kohlrabi from her sister's farm, so fresh I had to wash the grime off the roots!   Any simple recipe ideas? It would be great to use those large beet leaves.

Paint Party Friday - Bonfire

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! Today's piece is entitled 'Bonfire', a tribute to summers at the cottage toasting marshmallows, that is if you have a cottage! (I don't). It's done on textured cardstock (8 1/2"h x 11"w).  It was inspired by a beautiful photo I saw in the newspaper (see below).  Can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!

Summer of Color - Nightscape

I decided to do this nightscape for Summer of Color this week. It's an ACEO in acrylic (2 1/2w x 3 1/2"h) on textured cardstock. It seemed to suit the colours for the challenge which were royal blue, red and a smudge of light blue. Thanks to Kristin for hosting!

Annual Summer Ribfest

The ribfest was in town this past weekend. Son K went with a friend Friday evening and husband M and I went the next day. Daughter L was out of town at her boyfriend's family's cottage. Of course we lined up in the longest line to get our ribs as K had told us they were good. Then some people at our table were eating ribs from the shortest line and proclaimed them to be excellent. So we took a rack of those home and indeed they were delicious! It just goes to show you that the longest line doesn't always mean the best ribs!  We later found out that yet another team had won the competition.  Apparently they even look at things such as signage, how attractive your sign is.

Cute

Son K took this photo last week, look what was blocking traffic!  I've warned him not to even touch his phone while driving, but he was lucky this time.  He said traffic was stopped.  Even so...

I was walking to church on Sunday morning, feeling a bit stressed about this and that, thinking the walk would do me good.  This Chinese lady approached me asking for directions.  She didn't speak much English and I got the impression she was looking for the church, so I told her to follow me.  In the pathway, a man warned us that he saw a skunk which had by this time disappeared through the hedges.  We all hurried through.  The lady told me she had just moved to the area from Niagara Falls, I think she said.  She had 2 sons and was living with one of them.  I noticed she was smartly dressed.  Then she told me she was 80 years old!  What good shape she was in, she said she walked every day.  Almost at the church I understood that she was in fact looking for the grocery store.  So I pointed her in the right direction and she ran off.  I said 'ran'!  I hope to be in good shape like her when/if I get to 80!  I think she was a bit lost when I met her because she wasn't going in the direction of the grocery store.

The church had a new associate pastor with a pronounced Scottish accent.  He gave a good sermon, the bit I listened to.  He said not to be so focussed on your own day to day problems, I guess, to think more of others.  I think that's what he said.

Summer Flowers

On the weekend I spent a few hours getting all the artwork off the walls, in preparation for the house painters.  It was tiring work, I didn't realize I had so much stuff on the walls, accumulated over the years.  They said I could put some tape on the holes I want to keep and they will fill everything else.

It is a good time to declutter, so I took piles of old magazines to the recyle depot as well.  Looking at the dates of the magazines, it had been about 3 years since my last declutter.  I gave some of the more recent ones to a friend.

Then we got around to moving the big furniture pieces away from the walls...I feel so disoriented, it is unsettling!  Well, husband M misplaced his keys in the middle of it all.  Then he located them, whew!  We still have to do the upstairs!

And one of our cars is giving trouble, something is draining the battery mysteriously. It may be the bluetooth connection. It is a 7 year old car.

I've been snapping pretty flowers around the neighbourhood for you:

Sunday Sketches - more dark teal and coral

This ACEO (2 1/2"h x 3 1/3"w) is done in acrylic.  I had been experimenting with dark teal and coral for Summer of Color some weeks ago and actually did two different pieces.  I'm showing the other one here today.

Linking to Sunday Sketches.

Summer of Color - pink, apple green and dark green

I did an ACEO artist card  (2 1/2"h x 3 1/2"w) for Summer of Color this week. The colors are pink, apple green and dark green.

Paint Party Friday - Graduation Card

I made this simple graduation card to go with a gift we had for daughter L's boyfriend. It's acrylic on textured cardstock (5 1/2" h x 4 1/4"w).  Happy PPF and 4th of July to our American friends.

Wild Strawberries

I was out walking with my girlfriend S on a perfect summer day this past weekend.  She pointed out these wild strawberries growing by the roadside and assured me I could taste one which I did!  It was delicious, maybe a bit on the tart side.

Yesterday morning, daughter L was eating her breakfast in the kitchen and heard a strange, loud thud coming from the family room.  Then this bird hit the ground hard, landing on the patio stones outside.  It had obviously crashed into a window.  L said its body shuddered for a few seconds then it was dead.   I was quite upset when husband M pointed out the body.  It must have happened so quickly.  I found some small suction hooks at the dollar store and hung these snowflake ornaments I had onto them and pressed one onto each window.  It should warn the birds that is a glass window.

A Good One

Here is a good one I want to share today:



Senior Trying To Set a Password



WINDOWS: Please enter your new password.



USER: cabbage



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters.



USER: boiled cabbage



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain 1 numerical character.



USER: 1 boiled cabbage



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces.



USER: 50bloodyboiledcabbages



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character.



USER: 50BLOODYboiledcabbages



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively.



USER: 50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessNow!



WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation.



USER:ReallyPissedOff50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontGiveMeAccessNow



WINDOWS: Sorry, that password is already in use.

Creative Tuesdays - Pig

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians!  It's a public holiday here, celebrating Canada's 147th birthday.  It's a 'young' country.

It's time for Creative Tuesdays' 'Pig' theme! I bought this pad of textured cardstock on sale and am very pleased with it. Here is my first piece using this paper. There are about 5 different coloured textured backgrounds I can choose from. The pigs are coloured with acrylic paint.