A Present from Kathie

My friend Kathie sent me this awesome metal tin.  She said when she saw it, it had my name all over it.  As a vintage loving Canadian, I have to agree!

The sides have maple leaves and the provincial crests.

Here's a closeup of the crest on the top. 

I really like the picture of Niagara Falls, complete with the Maid of the Mist boat!

My favourite, though, is the Mountie.

Thank you, Kathie, I love it!

NaNoJouMo - Days 2 to 5

As promised, here are my first few pages from NaNoJouMo.

This was my two page spread for November 2nd, created on what would have been my dad's 80th birthday. I used a photo of him as a baby with my grandfather and painted the background of my page in a fashion similar to that used in the prompt provided by Dawn Sokol for day 2.

November 3rd - the prompt was the tag with the words "I'm really not".  We have had such a lovely weather week, I had to journal about it!  The prompt for November 4th was stars, so I added several to this journal page to help finish it off.  Just doing a little bit each day, as much as I feel like.  So far, not having any trouble keeping up and really enjoying the process. Luckily, I've had time to spend on making art most days, for which I am quite grateful.

Dawn's prompt for November 5th can be found here.  I loved the little house she made and wanted to copy it but I kept thinking of the John Mellencamp song, "Little Pink Houses" so I made myself a few of them.  I used two pages with the pink and purple background you can see in the image below.  It was pretty wild looking so I add the blue, white and green paint with a spatula and tried to give the paint some texture, which didn't work as well as I would have liked (probably should have used some modelling paste, perhaps mixed it with the paint).  The result seems a little bold to me but I also kind of like the simplicity of it, as if a child had created it.  I also think it seems as if it is a bit of a blustery day, with the wind chasing the clouds across the sky - rather like today was here in Toronto!

Must go, got to go get started on day 6!

It's My Sister's Birthday

HaPpY BirTHdaY to my sister, Janine!!

She was such a cutie when she was young, and nothing has changed much over the years!

NaNoJouMo 2015

If I have learned anything these past two months, it is that I really shouldn't commit to daily art projects.

In September, I signed up for 30 Days of Lists.  Really enjoyed it except I haven't quite completed all of my pages yet, partly because I headed off to Mexico for a week long workshop in the middle of it and fell behind and ended up with several scraps of paper with lists on them that are waiting to be made into finished pages.  It's not that I'm not going to finish putting my little book together, it's just that I haven't done so yet (and I'm relieved to learn that I'm not the only one!).

In October, I thought I'd do #inkOctober.  And I did do a sketch a day...some days.  I currently have several blank pages in my sketchbook in between the daily sketches I did complete and little post-its to remind me what I intended to draw on those days.  I am definitely going to finish these two projects but first, I signed up to do NaNoJouMo for the month of November.

NaNoJouMo is a creation of Dawn Devries Sokol, the author of several books about doodling and art journaling, including "Art Doodle Love", and the creator of the compilation books entitled "1000 Artist Journal Pages" (a copy of which I was thrilled to find recently at my local thrift shop - score!) and "A World of Artist Journal Pages". For the month of November, Dawn provides daily prompts in an effort to promote art journaling on a daily basis. She describes it best here, where you can also see the prompt for day one (which was my inspiration for the journal page in the photo above).

I wasn't going to sign up for this challenge, especially since I already have two consecutive months of unfinished projects behind me.  But I got hooked by this line:  "Even if you just draw a line in your journal one day, that’s art journaling."  I figured, worst case scenario, if I was in a rush or just didn't feel motivated on a certain day, I could just draw a line on a page in my journal and call it done.

To make it even easier on myself, I thought it would be a great time to make use of my "Leftover Journal".

This is a blank journal I've been keeping for a couple of years now. It's full of half-finished pages made using paint and inks and stenciled patterns "left over" from other projects.  If I paint something and end up with wet paint left on my brush, I clean off the brush in this journal.  If I have a puddle of ink left on my craft sheet, I mop it up with a page from this book.  As a result, some of the pages look like this:

I really like how this page looks, just as it is!

and some are a bit of an unholy mess, like this one:

At best, these half-started pages will be the beginning of a new journal page, if I should be so inspired this month.  Or maybe I'll just add a bit more bits and pieces here and there throughout the month. There are several blank pages left in the book as well.  Whatever I decide to do, there are no rules, so anything goes.

Stay tuned and see if I can do this every day, all month.  Better yet, feel free to play along!! (Did I mention, it's free to join?)  Tomorrow On Friday, I'll show you what I've been doing so far.

Saving Daylight

I'm not too thrilled about the fact that the hours of sunlight are getting shorter and that we've had to adjust our clocks accordingly (for that means winter is coming).  However, one thing that I do enjoy about this season is being awake to watch the sun coming up. The combination of light and clouds is often quite magical.

I really do have a lovely morning view of the city's skyline (except for the ugly brown building that blocks my sight line of the CN Tower).  Some days, the colours are dark blue greys.  Other days, it's a fiery combination of reds and oranges.  Sometimes it's both on the same day!

October 26, 2015  7:26 am

October 26, 2015 - 7:45 am

I'm so used to seeing the sun come up in the morning that I almost didn't notice the light on downtown Toronto this past Sunday. It was late afternoon as the sun was going down and I noticed a silvery glow on the south-western side of the buildings.

November 1, 2015 - 5:05 pm

Which became more of a golden glow as time went on.

November 1, 2015 - 5:40 pm

We may have less sunlight to look forward to in the days ahead, but it's no less beautiful to behold.

80 Years Ago Today

It's hard to imagine that my dad would've been 80 years old today, if he were still with us.  Harder still to look at these old photos and imagine him as a young boy.  Wouldn't it be fascinating to be able to travel back in time and meet the youngsters our parents once were?

"Jimmy" in 1936 - love the car in this photo
and wonder at the contraption the toddler is driving!

With his father, my grandpa, in 1936

My grandparents, my uncle and my dad - love the grin
on his face and the way his eyes are scrunched up!

Visiting my great-grandmother's home, date unknown

As a teenager, with a cute puppy!

Happy Birthday, Dad, wherever you may be! xo

Hallowe'en 2015

I hope you had a Happy Hallowe'en. I had planned to spend the weekend at home (probably in my pyjamas for most of it!) and instead, I was invited to my cousin's house last night to celebrate the occasion with them.  She had done a great job decorating their home, both inside and out on the front porch.  Lots of scary items on display.  The bloody knives hanging above the door didn't bother me but the big, hairy, fake spiders? Gross!

Of course, being invited out to take part in the Hallowe'en festivities involved pulling together a last minute costume. Luckily, I have this fantastic hat that I used two years ago when I dressed up as a catarina while celebrating the Day of the Dead in Mexico - here's a photo from back then:

All I needed was a black outfit to go with it which was easy to do.  Since I didn't have any costume makeup on hand and wasn't about to go out to join the last minute, panicked hordes at the mall to get some, I decided I would be a not-yet-dead catarina and not worry about painting my face. I did find a black wig in my box of Hallowe'en goodies so I put that on as well.  Here's a picture of my sister (an emoji/emoticon), my aunt (a gypsy) and myself.

It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and lucky for me, my two young cousins who went out trick-or-treating very kindly shared some of their loot with us adults who had stayed indoors.  A great evening was had by all!