Paint PartyFriday - A coordinated outfit

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I did a greeting card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") in permanent marker, outlined with a PITT fine point marker. It is a girl with a coordinated outfit, inspired by a lady I saw recently who was very well put together.  

Gift idea

One of my sisters was out shopping in northern California where she lives and saw these neat 'introvert' socks. It is perfect if you have any introverts on your list! Wouldn't that be a fun gift!

Scribble Picnic - Goodbye Autumn

Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic. The current theme is 'Goodbye Autumn'. My piece is a greeting card (5 1/2" x 4 1/4") in permanent markers, inspired by the scene I woke up to on the morning of November 16th! I thought, what better way to say 'Goodbye Autumn', albeit a bit early...sheesh.

An unexpected Result

my scrambled egg breakfast

I was doing some gift shopping the other day and at the checkout, I noticed one of the assistants wearing a pretty jeweled necklace in burgundy tones.  I told her I loved her necklace and noticed how perfectly it coordinated with her burgundy undershirt and burgundy patterned sweater. She thanked me and went on to admire my purchase, telling me it was a good deal, admiring the weight of the fabric in the duvet cover. In fact, some ladies walking by asked if there were any more of those.

My compliment was sincere, but look at the unexpected, equally complimentary result!

Mall Decoration

Here is a pretty mall decoration all lit up, it is cute to see the kids run through, it must seem magical to the little ones.

Christmas Tree

Here is the tree at the mall, they have since had the lighting ceremony! We have started our Christmas shopping, there have been some good deals that we couldn't resist.

Christmas Spirit

I snapped these Christmas sweater photos for you while shopping at the mall. I decided to wait until after US Thanksgiving to respectfully post them, haha.  Are you in the Christmas spirit?

Paint Party Friday - Apple

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I did an ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") on canvas of an apple, it is an overhead view and I decided to put it on a green background for more of a festive theme.  It is coloured with Sharpie oil paint markers.

No printing required

Happy Thanksgiving to our American family and friends!

We recently saw a couple of movies, one was 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which we really enjoyed and 'A Star is Born'.  Lady Gaga is very talented but I would say we preferred Bohemian Rhapsody.  The movie theatres don't require us to print our tickets anymore, we can just purchase them online and have the tickets scanned from our phone.

A hit toy

I was watching the Toronto Santa Claus Parade on the weekend, some young girls were asked what they wanted for Christmas.  They said they wanted an LOL Surprise doll.  I had never heard of these so I went googling and found this article.

Lol surprise stands for 'Little Outrageous Little Surprise'.  It is a hit toy that debuted last year.  It is a dome shaped plastic case with dolls, accessories, clothing and charms that must be unwrapped individually.  The surprise and appeal is in the slow reveal which can take hours.  It is a toy for the snapchat, instagram, youtube generation.

Colonoscopy

I have an upcoming routine colonoscopy. In preparation I bought this package of Pico-Salax laxative. My brother told me that was TMI (too much information) for him. However, this preparation was very mild on my system when I used it for my last colonoscopy over 5 years ago. My husband used something different when he did his around the same time and it was brutal in comparison.

So if you are a certain age, I hope this information will be useful to you.

Simple Pleasures

I am excited about my new Ralph Lauren kitchen towels that I found at Costco recently. They were under $15 for 5 cotton towels. My old ones badly needed replacing. I love the subtle pattern and colour. This is what I call a simple pleasure!

Fermented black garlic appetizers

I picked up some havarti cheese and we made some fermented black garlic appetizers as pictured above. You can also see the black cloves in the head of garlic.  They were delicious, the garlic has a milder taste, slightly sweet and of course cheese is always good.

The Hospital Gala

fermented black garlic

shortbread cookies

Last weekend I persuaded my friend S to accompany me to an annual hospital gala held at a nice hotel. It was open to the public.  She ended up having a great time as she enjoys chatting to all the vendors and looking at their wares. In fact she bought some interesting dehydrated garlic scapes, fine mustard and salsa verde for hostess gifts. I got a box of shortbread cookies and some fermented black garlic. The mild garlic will be good on appetizers atop some brie cheese perhaps. They had a complimentary coffee bar, free Santa photos (which we declined), and I sampled some ice wine from a local winery.

S complimented this man we saw wearing a sparkly pink jacket. He thanked her and said he got it in Paris and named some designer whose brand it was. We also perused some beautiful scarves and coats, deciding we didn't really need anything.  I saw these snow baby ornaments which caught my attention, again, I didn't need any ornaments.

Paint Party Friday - Dog

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! This is a greeting card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") based on a photo of my nephew's dog. It is done in permanent markers outlined with a PITT pen.

When in doubt

morning shadows in my living room

Throw it out.

I read an interesting article in the newspaper on the weekend on the topic of Waste Management.  The author advised being careful about what you flush down the toilet.  Disposable wipes, dental floss, contact lenses, medications are not candidates.  Many don't realize that facial tissues and paper towels don't belong in the toilet.  They are treated with chemicals and are not toilet paper.

Scribble Picnic - Forest

Welcome to Scribble Picnic's 'Forest' theme! I did a little canvas ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") forest using Sharpie oil paint markers.

Is the customer always right

Last visit, my hairdresser recommended that I go to a darker shade of hair colouring, that it might do a better job of covering my advancing grey hair.  He was right, this shade lasted a lot longer.  The problem was that at this latest visit,  I couldn't remember what shade it was.  They keep records but it didn't indicate a recent change.  So I went with dark brown and as I was leaving I noticed I had medium brown written on a sticky note next to the date I wanted for my next appointment.  I will decide next time what shade I will stick with.

There was some drama at the hairdresser this visit.  I asked the assistant how she was doing and she said the previous day was a nightmare.  These 2 sisters came in with their screaming babies, took an hour to decide what one of the sisters wanted to do with her hair and stayed for 4 hours.  One sister left midway but one baby was left behind with continued screaming.

Would you believe it, the sisters returned with one baby the next morning while I was there.  They complained that they couldn't see the highlights that were put into the sister's hair and wanted it redone.  The assistant refused, said there was no problem as far as she could see.  My hairdresser, always wanting to please the customer agreed they could come back the next morning to have it redone.  The assistant was very upset and said she would not be doing it. 

As I left I told the hairdresser that I understood how important it is to please the customer, but that he should make it clear that he would do it again this one time only, regardless of whether they were happy or not.  After all, they would not be paying again.  He is my hairdresser for the past 30 years, so more of a friend, as is the assistant.  I hope this made sense to him.

At some point, the customer is not always right, in my mind.  

Picky Eaters

So are you a picky eater? Which of these would you not eat or enjoy? I am not picky, I will eat them all, maybe I would not enjoy the snails.

Lest We Forget

Flowering Kale

You will see a lot of these beautiful flowering kale displays around here at this time of year. They are often paired with chrysanthemums, another fall flower. I have never had luck growing either of them, maybe it is better to just have planters filled with them just for the season.

Paint Party Friday - Window

Welcome to Paint Party Friday. I did this window with my sharpie oil paint markers, on a sheet of canvas pad paper. It is 14" x 18", I framed it in a 16" x 20" frame.  Wouldn't it be great hung in a room without windows?  I think I will stick to doing canvas ACEOs with this markers, I prefer them for smaller pieces.

Poke Bowls

Daughter L and I were out shopping one day and ended up grabbing a quick dinner at a small restaurant called Aloha Poke. It was more of an ordering counter with a few tables set up inside. You had the option of taking your food out too. I chose purple rice with my dish, it might be the first time I ever had that. It is more nutritious than white rice apparently, sort of like quinoa I think.

purple rice 

On Typing Skills

At the store purchasing a new pencil sharpener, I noticed the cashier was typing in my information very quickly and I remarked on it. She said she is also an author so it is very handy having good typing skills. I told her that typing class in high school was one of the most useful courses I ever took. As I left, I was sorry I didn't think of asking her what she wrote, she looked like a student.

Here are some more recent fall photos I took for you:

Falling Leaves

The leaves have really started to fall now, it was sunny and quite pretty as I walked to church early Sunday morning although it was -2C or 28F.  The church bake and Christmas sale now has a date, it is that time of year.  Are you thinking about any Christmas shopping?

Irl

So I have a new one for  you.  My sister was talking about these 2 sisters who look alike in their photographs but not 'irl'.  I had to ask what 'irl' might mean.  She said it means 'in real life', she thought I was up on all these new things.  Daughter L knew what it meant.  I told my sister she caught me by surprise as I expect my brother to talk like that, not her!

Also it is strange to think that you can see a resemblance in two sisters in photos but not in real life don't you think?

A new appetizer

Gouda stuffed bacon wrapped dates

It may not look like much from the photo, but daughter L's friend made these delicious appetizers for a party and we got to try some. They are called gouda stuffed bacon wrapped dates. L said her friend just made a cut in the date, stuffed it with a small cube of gouda, wrapped a slice of bacon around it, fastened it with a toothpick, and baked it in the oven until the bacon was done. It has a delicious, salty sweetness. I had to have two!

This might be perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

Still Pretty

It is still pretty outside. I am grateful to my friend S for pulling me out of the house early in the morning for a walk.  These photos were taken last weekend.

Paint Party Friday - The Shed

For Paint Party Friday, I did a seasonal piece of the garden shed in my back yard, inspired by the colours of fall.  Well, I don't have all those red leaves on the ground.  It is an ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") on primed canvas done with my new Sharpie Oil Paint markers. I love the brilliant rich colours, although I found the markers tricky to work with.

To get them started you have to turn each marker upright, press on the nib, cap it, shake hard for a few minutes.  Then press down on the nib several times to get the ink started. It is easy to have a spill if you are pressing too many times on the nib.  The colours cannot be blended by mixing the paints together of course.  So to achieve the brown on the shed walls, I painted them pink then went over the pink with a lime green.   I think the markers are good for smaller pieces such as ACEOs as opposed to larger pieces.    Also these markers are not forgiving as say acrylic paint is, where you can easily paint over your mistakes, as the colours just blend in.

Serena asked if the markers are smelly, only the silver one so far.

Some snow

Welcome to November! I woke up to some snow last Sunday morning as pictured below.

frosty marigolds in the neighbourhood

snow on fallen maple leaves

water droplets on leaves