Boiler Room and Yellow House

Oh my my,  where has the month of August gone???? swimming, working, reading, playing, biking, more swimming, friend visits, camping, working, eating, enjoying.... So here's a pic of some cool boiler room 'art' at one of the job sites I've been sculking around.  I had no idea it was someone's job to put plaster bandage on the boiler room appliances? machines?  It looks so cute and sculptural.

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I applaud the person who thought it would be fun to paint this building yellow before the demolition crew come by.  This could only be remotely better if it had been painted pink.  But yellow is pretty good and cheerful.

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Wondrous Beastie

This is the piece I have at the Dale Smith Gallery exhibition "Harbinger". It is called Wondrous Beatie and is a continuation of the organisms and creatures art I am working on. I tried to make it a little friendly and a little scary all at once. If you give it a hug, it might bite you back...

Wondrous Beastie

The Hazy and Not-So-Lazy-Days of Summer

I have a wall piece/fibre sculpture at Dale Smith Gallery group show entiled HARBINGER.  It opens on Thurs evening, hope you can make it!

HARBINGER evite

Last week, I met met some friends of friends who are artists from Vancouver installing a public art sculpture in Ottawa's Cancer Park (corner of Industrial and Riverside).  Since I have been working on a construction site, I thought it would be a great opportunity to watch them at their installation site.   (The art and construction collide :).  Their company IE CREATIVE has won many public art projects, and it was cool to see their work going up.

Imstallation 1

I had a soul cleansing time at Wakefeild's RomperStomp Barn party on Saturday night.  The music was terrific and I danced up a storm until the wee hours and fell into the tent in the feild nearby.  The camp fire was pretty impressive too.

Barn band

Camp fire 2

Man Succumbs to Alphabet

There was an incident at the campsite last weekend in which the alphabet attacked a grown man.  It got ugly.  We are lucky to report that the man in question sustained no serious injuries, although he has had several re-occuring dreams about dualling with with a pointy W and X at the same time. 

J under letters

CAMP and CANOE at Crotch

We had a lovely long weekend with some friends at Crotch Lake.  I brought along the word pillows (which is turning into a summer project of making the whole alphabet...only D, V, Q, G, and N to go).  It was fun to see where words looked best in the quiet of the forest.  And such a great weekend of swimming, sleeping, eating and camp fire good times...oh summer!

CAMP pillows



CANOE pillows

Angel Food Cake and Pastry Dough Recepies

By popular demand from the party, I am posting the crowd pleasing recepies of angel food cake and my pie crust. Both are so nice for summer berry consumption.  Enjoy!

 

 

ANGEL Food Cake

 

                  1 ¼ cups icing sugar

2.                  1 cup of flour

3.                  1 ½ cups of egg white, approx 1 dozen eggs (room temperature)

(make sure not to get ANY yoke in the whites, as it won’t fluff properly)

4.                  1 ½ tsp crème of tartar

5.                  1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

6.                  ¼ tsp salt

7.                  ¼ tsp almond extract

8.                  1 cup of sugar

 

1. Sift icing sugar and flour together, set aside

2. Combine egg whites, crème of tartar, vanilla and almond extracts, salt

     Beat at high speed until fluffy

3. Add sugar, 2 tbps at a time, and continue to bear until sugar dissolves and egg whites     shiny and fluffy.

4. Fold in flour and icing sugar mixture

5. Pour into tube pan (ungreased).  Cut through batter with a knife to release air pocket

6. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes

7. Invert pan and cool

 

My favorite is to serve this cake with fresh strawberries and whip cream. YUM!

 

 

 

Ellen’s Never Fail Pastry

 

Makes 4 pie shells

 

4 cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 lb (454g package) shortening

1 egg beaten in a measuring cup, top up with cold water to 1 cup level

 

Cute shortening into flour and salt mixture.

Add egg and water mixture all at once until ball forms.

Do not need the dough.

Put dough in fridge to chill before rolling

Separate dough into equal portions and dough can be frozen until neede

Pie, Pandora and Party

Its is Canada Day and we are having a little party.  I finished  a 'P' this week so I could make 'Party' and it seems that my cat Pandora is ready to Party.

Party cat

This weekend, I got my bake-on and made a strawberry rhubarb pie.  So delish.  I have made a few more pies for the party day.  I think I may have to start doing a 'pie of the week' now that all the lovely berries are in season.  Sounds like a good way to spend time on a summer's weekend.

Pie

Smash Up Spectacular

My friend Kim and I attended the Smash Up Derby in Petawawa on Sunday.  It is part of the family-fun good times of Petawawa's Civic Centre Days, which amounts to a fair, some antique cars, greasy consessions and the crowd favorite, the Smash Up Derby.  We started out the day at the Antrim Truck stop for a delish breakfast.

Derby 1 Breakfast

I had never been a smash up derby before.  I was surprised at how downright entertaining it was to witness cars smash into each other.  To thoroughly enjoy a smash up derby, I had to check all my environmental concerns at the door (oh, the exaust, the fuel leaks, the fires ! )  For a $5 entry fee, we watched round after round of cars smash into each other. 

Derby 3, smash up

Video of round 2, or was it 3 or 4?  In fact the derby last a whole 5 hrs, and we stuck it out for the entire afternoon.  It sure was a cultural experience.   Also interesting people watching:  it seems to really fit in at one of these, one must chain smoke and have a minimum of 3 tattoos.

Car fixing between rounds:

 

Derby 5, fixing sm

The size of the winning car:

Derby 6 winner sm

After a long day in the sun, we headed back to the Antrim Truck stop for a hot turkey sandwich.  What a way to end a day.

Derby 7, dinner sm

How to Caulk a Big Joint

Here is the jist of my new job as a caulker:  to fill the gaps in between the concrete.  This is on a balcony between two patio doors. 

First, look at the gap:

Step 1

Stuff it with stuffing:

Step 2

Use the big gun get some caulking on there:

Step 3

Add more and more:

Step 4

Smooth it out with high tech equipment like cedar shims (cut to size) and some watered down dish soap (it keeps the caulking from sticking to the shims...who knews???!!!)

Step 5

And keep smoothing until it is an impermiable masterpiece!

Step 6

Then enjoy the view from the 25th floor and knowing that someone has bought this condo/balcony for $750,000 and I get to be in this spot for a few moments and get a good view of things.  (the joint I was working on is in the lower right corner)...and they are not all this nice a view, or easy...

Step 7, enjoy the view

Up and Down

I have taken on yet another interesting job.  From the sweeping job I was doing for a few weeks on a condo construction site, I got recruited to work as a caulker.  Now,  I thought it was going to be easy-peasy stuff like kitchens and bathrooms, but it turns out it is caulking OUTSIDE, like windows and sealing the joints in the construction.  What I have gotten myself into?  Sometimes this involves the swing stage, safety harness and all.  I am a tad afraid of heights, but this exploration is too good to forgo over a little vertigo.  Today, the work was on balconies.  I like how some things will catch my eye when looking down or up.

This was the DOWN.  It seemed to me that this was some kind of bicycle-beer-bottle rally.  I like how the yellow shirted man is trying to see if the beer store is open.  I think this was rather early in the morning.

Beer store bike rally

this is was the building across the street from where I was working. 

Window washer building  

Here is a zoom-in on the window washers at the very top.  At least I don't have their job :)   !!!!!!

Window washer crop

Monster Track Madness

I attended my first Monster Truck Rally with my friend Kim this weekend.  It was an obcene amount of engines, tires, mud and mayham.  What great mindless fun...Its always nice to go to new events and see how the beer swilling, cigarette smoking folks have fun on a sunday afternoon.  Rumour has it there's a smash up derby in Petawawa in a few weeks.  I might need to investigate that event too.

Motorcross

Weekend Fun

It was such a beautiful weather weekend.  Perfect for rummaging at the Great Glebe Garge Sale.  This is a neighbourhood in Ottawa that has big old houses and lots of birkenstock tree-hugger vegan types.  They put on a massive community sale, teasures are to be found at the end of each driveway.  I posted some more pics on Flikr. Enjoy!

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After a nice bike ride and picnic in Vincent Massey Park on Sunday,

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we spotted some duck with BABIES, so cute!! My favorite part of spring!

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Lily of the Valley Alley

Looks like this blog has been all about flowers lately...well, it is spring... :)  In the driveway in between the buildings where I live, there is a lovely patch of Lily of the Valley.  This must be my most favorite of flowers.  They are such tiny little flowers but have a wonderful SMELL!!!   I feel lucky to have proximity to this alley of my favorite little flower.   Too bad there is no scratch-and-sniff function on this blog...

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Flowers and Steel

I am nipping as many lilacs as I can...of course only from bushes that are clearly no-mans land.  They are so pretty and so fragrant and in bloom for such a short time.  Then, on the construction site this week, I scored a cool piece of welded I-beam.  It is quite heavy, but I still managed to take it home on my bicycle.  I think the two make nice display of my worlds these days: flowers vs steel.  Have a great long weekend!

Flowers_and_steel

Sprung spring

I know, I know, tulips are all over this city and you've seen one, you've seen them all, but they sure are PRETTY!!! and after the long and arduous winter, we've been starved of colour and foliage and anything to do with pollen.  So I got myself over to Dows Lake and did a little tiptoeing.  They have some interesting 'breeds' (is that what you call it?) and I was snap happy with the camera.  Plus, my Dutch genes may make me more suceptible to the lure of the tulip.

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Ode to Paris the dog

Our sugar-bushing friends have a super dog Paris, and I just wanted to give Paris some props.  He is a standard poodle and very friendly and affectionate and smart.  Here he is brandishing a stick. So cute!

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He also likes the water:

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and playing a lot:

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Sugar Bush

Last weekend we piled some friends in the car and headed out to a-late-in-season- sugar bush eating event.  I was impressed right off the bat with the Bowl of Bacon (which, in Quebec, are referred to as Oreille de Christ, or Christ's Ears) :

Bacon

Then came the eggs and other good stuff:

Plate_full

All gone:

Plate_empty

Time for Pancakes and Sugar Pie

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If that wasn't quite enough sugar, top it all off some maple syrop on snow.

Maple_syrop

I'm still full just thinking about this meal. 

View

Every once in a while I take on an odd job or two through a temp agency to aid with cash flow, gain new skills, meet new people and be in places that I wouldn't normally get to be in.  This week, I was sent to a condo development site in the Ottawa's byward market for a little industrial cleaning.  The 18th and 19th penthouse suites needed sweeping.  It was pretty interesting to be amid the contractors, labourers, and trades people.  The view was pretty good too.

Byward_market_from_90_george_st_3  

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xpress

The exhibition at Chrichton Community Centre was reviewed in the express a week ago.  The article (can be read online here)  was written by Dipna Horra, who also did a CBC radio review found here.  The show is on till the end of May, so there's lots of time to go see it..might make a nice spring bike ride out to Beechwood :)

Xpress_review

FAT madness

Its taken a few days to process the excitment, anxiety, distress and tons and tons of mad fun that was the Toronto Alternative Fashion Show.  I have made a galleries of the performances and of the pieces I installed there.  Also, view the video documentation of exhibition space.    Public Interventions included handing out dust masks to protect ourselves from the SARS satchel, 'Spilling my guts' from the Colon Carry-All, wearing my Heart-On-My-Sleeve, and wearing the newest in fashion accessies: Tumour Belt.  Thank you so much to my Hazmat Gals for being my posse for the night and my friends who came to the show to cheer me on!  YOU ROCK!

Karina_and_her_hazmat_gals

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0_xD1F1f6I&hl=en]