Christmas sneaked up on me again this year. I didn’t even get a chance to bake all the yummy cakes and cookies as of yet! Well there’s still a week left until the new year. So to all of you out there reading this post: Merry Chrismas and Happy Holidays to you! Best wishes this season and I hope that the wonderful spirit of the holidays fills you all. :)
Yesterday I took advantage of one of the free workshops offered at my school this month. Kingston artist Dave Gordon, who has had his works displayed in galleries across Canada, taught the various workshops which included watercolour painting, drawing, and acrylic painting. I took the drawing one last week, which refreshed some of the techniques I remember using in my grade 9 art class (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the ‘vase’, upside down etc.). The acrylic painting workshop is one that I really looked forward to (I even have a large supply of painting materials at home, just waiting to be used… teacher’s college doesn’t leave much free time though. :P ).
The workshop was an eye opener. Beginning with painting a colour wheel, we then got the opportunity to choose a scenic photograph, project it onto canvas, and then (with the colour-mixing techniques we learned at the beginning of the session), paint our own work of art. The workshop was about 2.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to finish my painting and I was rushing near the end just to get all of the canvas saturated (there still are some missing ‘land masses’ and a water buoy), but now that I have a lot of the basic materials needed (that I purchased from Wallack’s here in town), I’ll be able to finish it up later. :)
From what I can remember, I think this is actually my first painting on a large canvas (that’s why it looks like a 6-year old did it :D ). The one I used yesterday was about 16″ x 20″. I don’t think we did much canvas painting back when I was in high school, and I worked with acrylics on a small canvas on my own (it was a gift for Mommy) years ago. So I can’t wait to tackle more styles and different projects. Practice makes perfect… :P
Remember that Budweiser commercial that aired eight years ago with that group of friends who greeted each other with a long, drawn out “Wazzup”?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L38wthA4Ld0[/youtube]
Well here’s a clip of them all together again, but this time their lives are a tad different and politics come into play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE[/youtube]
Funny stuff… yet something to think about with the upcoming election in the U.S.A.
As usual, promised myself last Halloween that I’ll get started on my costume early enough so that I wouldn’t be rushing around at the last minute putting something together. Did that happen? Of course not. My procrastination came to the forefront again.
After Googling costume ideas yesterday, I came across an interesting one: Cat Burglar! And it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. I just went to the dollar store and picked up some ‘theif gear’ (binoculars, flashlight, toy tools), I already have black fitted clothing, I remembered picking up a free black toque from work last year, and I have a pair of black Nike sneakers. The only thing missing was the cats. Since I can’t trust my own cat to stay cooped up in a backpack for a couple of hours, I picked up a couple of life-sized Ty stuffed animals (Carlton Cards had buy one, get one 50% off). So my entire Halloween costume ended up costing me less than $25 (the darn cats were the chunk of it… too bad I didn’t have a thrift store near me at the time… but they’re soooo soft!).
Be safe tonight and try to pace yourself with the candy. :)
This morning I woke up extra early and headed out with a friend of mine to Evergreen Brick Works Farmers’ Market. I never heard of this place before this year, much less realized that Toronto had so much ‘greenery’ in the mid-town area. Now I’m not much of an outdoorsy person, but seeing nature in Moore Park Ravine touched by the colourful paints of autumn gave me a change of heart.
As for the actual Brick Works building which can be accessed through several trails in Toronto, the architecture seemed to be remarkably stuck in time. It’s wonderful seeing a piece of Toronto in this nature.
We reached around 9:15am and it was already filled with people making their stops at all the different booths at the Farmer’s Market. I picked up a nice, fresh baguette (delicious… I just ate a toasted slice with some garlic butter). I was tempted to purchase some organic veggies and cheese, but I’m trying to watch my spending habits. My friend bought some tasty apples and a dozen organic eggs.
The Farmers’ Market will be housed at Brick Works every Saturday until November 8th.