Mexican Restaurant

Husband M and I went with some friends to a Mexican restaurant this past long weekend.  This was my entree...some hard steak tacos with pico de gallo.  It was good enough but my friend said her enchiladas were delicious.  It was a softer tortilla with more sauce.  Oh well, next time.  Everyone enjoyed their margarita cocktails.  I had Sangria which was also refreshing.

Greeting Cards

Mr and Mr

Mrs and Mrs

My friend S and I met for a walk this past Saturday morning.  We were both feeling a bit down, I guess it is August and we feel that the carefree summer is winding down.  Well, that is my problem anyway.  We browsed some stores, I was looking for place card holders, thinking it would be a good way to display my small art cards.  The dollar store or a party store may be a good place to find those.   I noticed some pretty greeting cards and S  pointed out the 'Mr and Mr' wedding cards, and the 'Mrs and Mrs' ones.  Have you noticed those?  S told me a girlfriend had recently informed her that her 18 year old daughter wanted to become a man.  Both parents are supporting her in this decision as it had come about from a long time of soul searching.

We stopped in at the bank and asked a few questions about credit cards and new accounts there.  We decided we could get more details online because everything is online these days, even application forms.

S ran into a friend at the grocery store.  I realized we had bought our new door locks from her locksmith business  a year ago when we replaced our windows and doors.  I remembered how smart she was and how much she had helped ease the process of us settling on locks and door handles.  It was a quick and efficient process.

On the way home, we saw some wild raspberry bushes and they looked exactly like the one that is growing in my garden!

Feed My Starving Children

Garrett Popcorn

Daughter L  returned late last week from  a 2 week training course in Chicago.  It was her first business trip!  Besides eating too much, she learned a lot and continues to enjoy her new job and co-workers.

 One day, there was an organized volunteer activity to Feed My Starving Children, an intelligent food bank.  It was not a part of her job, more of an opportunity to get to know her new team members.  Feed My Starving Children  has developed an easy to prepare food blend that is very inexpensive and nutritious. They ship it to starving countries worldwide. L and her co-workers had to help assemble the food pouches that day.  She was very impressed with that innovative non-profit organization.

L said Chicago is a big city like Toronto, but with many more large office buildings downtown and a lot more homeless people.

She brought us bag of Garrett Popcorn which is as good as they say it is.  This bag had caramel popcorn with cashews.

Snowflake Ice

This is a milk flavoured snowflake ice. When one of my sisters was visiting from Florida a few weeks ago, we went to one of the Chinese malls around here and went to this dessert place. With this particular 'snowflake ice' you choose 3 fruits to go on top of it. I chose coconut jelly, mango and watermelon. I loved it and will definitely go back there. It tasted like the Hawaiian shave ice.

Sunday Sketches - Simple Sunrise

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Sketches.  It's the Civic Holiday weekend with Monday off for many people.  The Civic Holiday is celebrated on the first Monday of August and it's a public holiday in some provinces and territories.

 I did a simple sunrise ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in acrylic.  I found this Maori Proverb to go with it:


                    Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you

At the hairdresser

I believe I have a wild raspberry plant growing in my garden! I can't wait to taste them if it comes to fruit this season. At first I thought it might be a wild rose plant because of the thorns it has.

I've started going to the hairdresser every 4 weeks now as my hair seems to get grey faster than ever. He had an interesting customer chatting to him this week. Hairdressers must hear all kinds of stories, sort of like being a therapist. Anyway this man would've been in his sixties and he was telling the hairdresser of his plans to move to England. They are off next week to find a house there. His wife is English, their kids are grown and live in places like Vancouver and Malaysia. It seems they have no close relatives in the Toronto area anymore. He spoke of the books he was reading, saying how history repeats itself. It made me think that we would learn from this wouldn't we?

As I waited my turn, I browsed some magazines. I saw this tube squeezer product in a catalogue. It seemed useful for those who make a mess of their toothpaste tubes, such as son K.

Paint Party Friday - All Occasion Card

Welcome to the month of August, time to turn those calendar pages.

This is all occasion greeting card in acrylic (5 1/2"h x 4 1/4"w) for Paint Party Friday.  I was looking for ideas of what to paint this week.  I settled on some kind of greeting card.  There were a couple of birthday cards on Pinterest with daisies on them that I liked.  But my daisy didn't look right, so I decided to make it a chrysanthemum!  I'm quite pleased with the way it evolved into something of my own.