Paint Party Friday - Tequila

For Paint Party Friday, I drew this bottle of Tequila I saw in the liquor store magazine. Apparently this brand is quite expensive! I'm not a drinker so I wouldn't know! I liked the shape of the bottle and I love the way the cork turned out!  It's acrylic on cardstock (4.5" x 6.5").

Please visit some of the other talented participants.

A Big Hit

I finally got around to making the Dark and Delicious Chocolate Velvet cake from the 2013 Milk Calendar. It was a big hit with us all. It's nutritious and contains one large beet and uses cocoa powder, all good stuff.  The recipe makes 8 servings at 281 calories per serving.  It's cake after all.  My picture is half a serving.

I've been learning that low fat food products are not necessarily better for you.  A lot of these products replace fat with sugar, for example in light peanut butter.  So you are better off buying real peanut butter and eating a couple of tablespoons of it.  It will make you feel more satisfied.  Did you know that? 

A fun morning

Lion Dance

My friend S and I attended the official grand opening of a local bank branch on the weekend. We were looking forward to all the freebies to be honest, being frugal people! So we entered a draw, drank coffee, got free reusable bags and little piggy banks. Then we had roast beef sliders, and some lovely cake at the end topped with berries. Oh, we met the local politicians who had been invited to make speeches and participate in the ribbon cutting. They also had a professional lion dance, as the area has a large Chinese community. We also had hot chocolate from a truck specially parked outside.

We discussed the sports arena and cultural centre that is currently under debate with the local councillor. He is against it, as we are, largely because it makes no financial sense. The mayor is in favour of it.  M sees an advantage for hockey players. We also discussed the looming teacher's strike which we don't support. It's sounding a bit like the NHL Hockey lockout. 

Anyway, it was a fun morning for S and me, did I mention we were stuffed?

Ikea Food Products

We were at Ikea recently and I was browsing through some of their food products. I came across these jars of orange and elderberry marmalade, and gooseberry preserves. Maybe I will try them sometime. They also had this Christmas Drink which I've never tried.

FreeStyle Fountain

Have you seen one of these Coco-cola Freestyle Fountains? I saw one recently. If you are a soda fan, it seems like a neat innovation.  You can mix your own flavours of Coke using touch screen technology, with a choice of 100 combinations.

I went to church yesterday on a rainy Sunday morning. I had to drive over as it was too wet to really walk comfortably. I entered the church and it sounded like they had piped Christmas-sounding music reverberating through the halls, it was really cheerful and joyous, something new, I thought. When the mass started, a Filipino priest visiting from Jamaica gave a moving sermon. It seems he is newly ordained, 3 weeks. Towards the end of mass that joyous singing started up again. Then I realized it wasn't a recording, it was an ebony-skinned young man (from Jamaica) singing effortlessly beside the choir. His lovely voice reverberated high into the ceiling, without being loud. The congregation applauded after the song. I'm saying, he could win X-factor no problem. I didn't recognize the beautiful song. The candle was lit for the first week of Advent. What a treat we had that day!

I happened to be sitting nearby a woman and her son. Her daughter had attended pre-school with my daughter L, so we were able to quickly catch up on what the girls were doing before mass started. The son is now 11 years old, how quickly time flies. Then later on, I turned to shake 'the hands of peace', another couple I knew happened to be sitting behind me. I was able to share with them my amazement at the talented singer!

My friend S was supposed to meet me for a walk afterward, but we cancelled due to the rain.

Sunday Sketches - Birds

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! This is an acrylic on cardstock (6.5" x 4.5"). It's inspired by a photo I took of some birds twittering in the trees, except that they weren't red.

Please visit the other talented participants!

Shazam

It's December!

So  yesterday K and I were driving the the car, and we hear this song playing on the radio.  We wondered who it was and he whipped out his ever present Iphone.  He used an app called Shazam that told him in seconds the name of the song and the singer!  It 'listened' to a few notes of the tune on the radio and 'shazam'!  There it was.  Yes, we are living in a different world these days.

M, K and I were out shopping at a packed mall last weekend, looking for a special gift.  Isn't it funny how you always find stuff for yourself while out Christmas shopping?

I took these photos of the Chrismas decorations at that mall for you. Santa was there taking photos with people.

Xmas Deco

Santa's Chair