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.