It seems that this year I was unable to walk past a vetran selling poppies without buying one. I also started picking up the ones that I found on my outings in the past few weeks. I now have 11, some found, some bought.
Colour, more
I am in painting mode. Painting, painting and more painting. But look at all the lovely colours.
Cookies
I almost bought oatmeal cookies the other day, and then I remembered that I can make them. Yummy!
Links
Feeling tired after a much needed weekend, today's post is to look at these blogs I found. Lots of inspiration for making things with recycled stuff at http://www.housewife.splinder.com and from there, lots of eye candy images of more interseting art at: http://www.gallerylombardi.com/exhibits/08exhibit.html. Its good for some getting lost on the internet and finding cool stuff!
Soup Bowl
The one of a Kind Show is having a soup bowl contest. This is my entry. I call it Essence of Chicken Noodle, as it is made with all the colours that are in a bowl of chicken noodle soup: Orange (carrots) Light Brown (white meat) Dark Brown (Dark Meat) Green (celery) Yellow (onions). One of the prizes is to win a supply of soup for a year. That would be great!
If it doesn't work out as a bowl, it also doubles as an interesting hat.
Grey and Tea
It was such a grey day today. It may even snow a little in Ottawa tonight and tomorow. It has gotten dark so early this afternoon, I feel like its 10pm and time for bed at 3:30pm. Welcome to pre-winter. If that's enough to make me feel down, I did have something to cheer me up. I had the tastiest tea last night. Its Almond Sunset. With a splash of milk and a shot of amaretto, its the perfect hot-toddie.
Animals
On the weekend, I was doing some cleaning out of boxes that have been hiding in the closet for a year (I moved to Ottawa exactly a year ago yesterday.) It turns out that I still have an embarrassingly large collection of stuffed animals. I think they have been dispersed in various boxes in the past years and they all came together on Sunday. Here are my very favorites:
Bunny:
Skunky(a skunk) and Mattie(a beaver, Note: I gave him new teeth when his original teeth wore off)
Snake-Dog (never had a real name): Isn't this the kind of toy that throws a child off-kilter?
Photography
It seems that its not just making the art, but doing all the other stuff that goes along with it. Today I spent some time doing some photodocumentation of my sculptures. It was a good time to do them now, as if I left it to the last minute, I'd be overwhelmed with tasks. You can't do too much photography in a small space as the lights get really hot. Everything in small doses, I say. And yay for something pretty!
November
Ah, November. What an often dreary month. Rain, cold, blah. At least I've planned to envelop myself with colour and more colour as I continue making like-madness for the One Of a Kind, for which there are now only 4 weeks left before the show.
Instead of talking about work, I'd posted a picture of my friend Emily from a Hallowe'en party I went to. She was the woman from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Those birds are attacking her. She's a funny gal. I laughed the whole night. Also the lovely party host Sylvia had some stylin napkins that I thought were just fabulous. What would we do without Ikea? This is a good lesson to always bring my digital camera with me everywhere.
I also came a cross the coolest industrial designer, my new hero. I will soon put it in the more permanent listing: Karim Rashid
Public Art
Last weekend, I had to get out of the house and went for a lovely urban fall walk. I must say there is almost nothing better than a afternoon long walk around the city I live (whichever city that happens to be). I discovered some interesting public art around the City of Ottawa city hall building. I don't kow who made these pieces, but they sure were fun. The first one are these 5 globby, aliens. The tallest one has a motion sensor and the 4 small ones have speakers. When you go by, there's a tingly, wierd alien sound coming from all around. Very funto play with. The second one is a living room-type setting, complete with Dr. Seuss-like door and window, goofy chairs, and a TV. (I'm not sure if you're supposed to get inside it, but I did).
I'd love to know the artists who created these peices. How much more would it cost to put up a little plaque to tell everyone who made this art?
Desk
I liked Tania's posting on Oct 21 of an image of her desk. This is the state that mine is in: shapes, wire, wire cutters, a ruler, paint and the requisiste newspaper to the keep the table 'clean'. It always seems to be a state of disarray, but that is part of the creative process. Maybe I'll clean it up someday.
New Work
!
Here it is, my newest biggest sculpture. Its not quite finished, as I still have to put the foam adhesive on the shapes at the back, but from an asthetic point of view, its done. Its about 5' 6" high and 3' 6" across, and very light, as it is made from a high density foam. I have 7 more to finish. Its so nice to see that what I've had in my head for so long is coming to life. Gotta' get back to work!
Socks
I had to buy new socks today. All my socks were either thin summer socks or had holes in them. Now I have a bunch of new wolly cozy socks for a chilly winter to come. My sock-designer friend Lisa will be upset that I bought socks, but I just couldn't wait another moment. I especially like the pink socks as they are very soft and fluffy.
I have recently come across a flurry of lost mitten related sites. Alexandra Horowitz emailed me to tell me about her City of Lost Mittens, which was written about in the New Yorker. Through A mingling of Threads blog, I found that Jeff Younstrom has a photoblog of all the lostmittens and gloves he comes across. It nice to see that other people are very concerned with this phenomena of losing a mitten or glove. Perhaps with all this care and attention, people will be more mindful for their mittens and gloves.
Wire
I have spent the past 2 (?) days wrapping wire around wire and then today I got to the soldering part. These are the little hooks that all the shapes are going to be stuck on. I made about 300 of these little pieces and soldered them. Phewff, that is a lot of work. I was doing the soldering outside and it was pretty chilly. I think I may have inhaled too many lead solder fumes, as my head feels a bit funny. I am going to take a bath to warm up, which is funny because that was yesterday's post. But this bath will be with water.
Tub
I just remembered I had this funny picture taken of me in a tub a few weeks ago at a flea market. Its important to try out a tub before you buy and this one was quite comfortable. However, I'm not about to tackle installaling a new tub. This one was especially nice, as it was deep and had feet.
Shapes
I think I may have passed my stress mid-point in making pieces for this One of A Kind. Or atleast, I'm hoping that my better spirits this week are indicative of that. Once I start in on all the paintings, I may think otherwise. However, today, things are moving right along. I may not be making quite as much as I had planned, but I always try to over-acheive and then end up with what I can do.
Here's a picture of one of the small sculptures and a wee painting. More pictures will come along once I get more made.
Dessert
I made a Banana Pudding dessert today. It was Maya Angelou's recipy in the October issue of Oprah magazine (I bought on my BC trip). I have never made a custard before. And I love making meringue and it looks so cute when you bake it. All toasted. It was enjoyble to mix all the ingredients and make this lovely thing. I think Jason might have to take some to work tomorow because there's no way the two of us could eat it all. Its hard to tell how much a recipy is going make.
RV show
It has been a busy weekend with a flurry of activities. I went to check out the RV show today. I took a bunch of picutures of myself "sleeping" in the RV beds, just to get a feel for the bed and the space that one might sleep in. I think I made one of the sales ladies nervous. It was fun. These RV's were HUGE!!! bigger than my apartment, some of them. Isn't going on a trip a reason to get away from all your stuff?
Mynch
I went to my friends Emily and Mike's party on Sat night and they have the cutest cat Mynch. He is so big and friendly. Mynch is the best cat ever. He deserves a picture on my blog just because HE'S SO CUTE!!!!
Hot dogs
It was 99 cent hot dogs and drinks at the hockey game. The consessions were busy with many hot-dog-a-roasting.