It's Hallowe'en!

I hope everyone has a ghoulishly good day!

(Above photograph taken onboard the Disney Magic on October 31/07; last year and the year prior we were cruising on Hallowe'en. A great time to be aboard a Disney ship!)

Quick-stepping around Ottawa

Never before have I participated in an organized bus tour and, honestly, I don't know if I ever will again. Most of your time is spent on the bus, not at your destinations. And I do not take kindly to being herded around like cattle; the rebel comes flying out of me and I instantly break away from the pack. Often, I want to do my own thing. And it's great to travel with a group of ladies who are understanding of this and don't feel that I'm being rude as I frequently head off down the street, by myself.

Such was the case in Ottawa last weekend. The bus parked on Wellington just west of Parliament Hill; we were told we had to be back at the bus by 2:30. I took my first photo as I stepped off the bus at 1:56 p.m. and my last photo at 2:25 p.m.

For those 29 minutes I quick-stepped my way over to Bank, down to the Sparks Street pedestrian mall, over to Metcalf and back up to Wellington and then made my way back to the bus. In the rain. And then.......my big adventure of the weekend. The bus wasn't there! Much cursing ensued (I knew I was early, not late), a moment of panic (not huge panic as I knew the bus was headed to the Museum of Civilization and it would be easy to catch up with it there, but still........), I attempted to reach my friends by cell (no luck) and finally....finally!...I spotted what I thought was our bus a couple of blocks down.

Yes, the bus changed its pick-up point, but the tour guide did not think it important to station himself back at the original drop-off location to tell people this. Yeesh! The bus moved due to a police request -- there was a large demonstration on Parliament Hill at the time (that's one of the protesters, below) -- but I still can't believe the tour guide did not think the location change was important!

Anyway, in my 29-minute walkabout, I managed to capture a slew of photographs -- despite the rain, despite the hurry. These are but a few.

More photographs from my getaway to come in the days ahead!

Pumpkin carving?

A little pumpkin carving, courtesy of Photoshop. I decided to take a seasonal approach to this week's vintage image over at Art Creations Friday and carve her into a pumpkin. I wasn't all that happy with the selection of pumpkin photographs I had to work with but, in the end, I'm pleased with the results.

Happy Hallowe'en to all the creative participants enjoying these ACF challenges!

31 wonderful years

..........STILL GOING STRONG..........

Back home

I'm home and I'm exhausted.

I arrived back in Toronto last night after a fun-filled long weekend with 11 wonderful women. Lots of activity and very little sleep.

Today found me mostly in a foggy daze but I'm sure I'll be back to my old self soon. I'd better be, the captain and I are celebrating our 31st anniversary tomorrow!

Lots of pictures to come of my getaway, but the above photo will have to suffice for now. It's the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill. But you knew that, right?

Offline for a few days

A spontaneous getaway has me off to see eastern Ontario and Quebec while the captain tackles his "honeydew" list here on the homefront. Be back next week!

I heart kitsch

It's Wednesday again and you know what that means: time for my weekly contribution to the A-Z Wednesday Challenge. We're up to the letter K and this week I have a fun book to share -- Kitschy Crafts, written by Jo Packham and Matt Shay. I haven't read it yet, but I've requested it from the library and it should be in my hot little hands in a day or two. When I discovered it online, I just knew I had to have a look!

Along with the great retro cover art, it was this description of the book that captured my attention: "It's fun, it's retro—and it's back in style. Take a fond look back at the kitschy crafts of the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, from crocheted doilies to shell-art nightlights. All these nostalgic creations appear in appropriately fashioned period settings that will captivate browsers, and come with instructions for those who just can’t resist creating their own string-art pictures, pink flamingo items, far-out tie dyes, kooky candles, macramé plant hangers, and the one-time must-have on every coffee table: a resin-cast grape cluster. And, of course, who can live without the hottest toy of all? The Sock Monkey Doll. Everyone will have a blast poring over these—even those who have never made a craft in their lives."

Doesn't that sound amazing? Tie dye, macramé, sock monkeys! I can't wait to read this one.

A peek into Tippi's life

Tippi likes to show off her, um, toys. Toys that were, not too long ago, practical outdoor items.

This is where I duck out of the way, lest the pipe smash into my camera.

This photography stuff can be dangerous.

This is where I went back into the house. But then I got suspicious.

It was too quiet. What was Tippi up to now?

What? Why are you laughing?

If you'll look back up at the first photo here, in the top-left corner, you'll see this pot.

It was about to be demolished. Who knew?

In case you're wondering what she's doing now, as I post this.......she's sleeping.

Building up her energy, I'm sure.

This is not a talisman tree

Actually, this is not a lot of things. It's not Talisman Tree #12. It's not an autumn photograph; it was taken last year, in April. It's not local; it was photographed at my sister-in-law's home in Indiana. It's not even a colour photograph, not anymore. I converted the original to sepia. The colour you see comes only from the textures I used, one I found online and one of my own.

Yes, another texture from me, for you to use. You can find it in my Freebies set on Flickr; I called it "amber background". I hope you find it both attractive and useful. I'd love to see anything you create with it!

A thief among us

Oh, I know what you're thinking. Look at that sweet face. Surely this is not a thief.

Do not be fooled. Yes, she's sweet. Yes, she's cute and adorable. And yes, she is a paper thief.

Paper products in my home are not safe from Tippi's larcenous jaws. If you have a paperback novel in your hands, she will try to get a grip, have a nibble. Receipts, notes....she thinks they're delicious. You know that old saying, the dog ate my homework? If we had young children, I'm sure their teacher would be hearing it. And every word would be true.

Her favourite -- I mean, what she absolutely loves -- are tissues. Kleenex. Nothing is as attractive as a tissue. If I set one down in my lap, she instantly appears out of nowhere and, in a flash, she is off with her purloined prize. The captain and I have fished innumerable soggy tissues out of her mouth.

Tippi is always on the alert for the opportunity to obtain yet another tissue. She can have her head in my lap while I am petting her with one hand, but if a kleenex is in my other hand, her eyes never leave it. She plots her next move. She is very observant.

Speaking of observations, did you notice the similarity between the background in Tippi's image and the one in yesterday's creation? It's basically the same; I monkeyed around with it and came up with something I really like:

This background is now in my Freebies set on Flickr and I hope you wander over there to download it and then create something wonderful. Let me know if you do; I'd love to see it!

The right folder, the right time

Is it luck, coincidence, good timing, the karma gods smiling down, or none of that? I downloaded the Art Creations Friday image (a beautiful girl) last night and was yet again stumped as to what I would create. Putting her aside, I started looking through old photoshop files, searching for projects that I'd started but hadn't completed. This has been an ongoing task for me, one I find very enjoyable.

As I browsed, I came across a work-in-progress collage featuring a monument I photographed in one of Savannah's many squares. It was okay, nothing I'd want to share though. But when I turned off the layer featuring the main image, I realized I'd created quite an attractive background.

Inspiration then took hold and I knew I should use this background along with the ACF image. So the project began, many alterations were made, and the final product is what you see here. I'm so glad I found the old collage when I did ... definitely a case of good timing!

J is for Jamaica Inn

I had five books on my short list for this week's A-Z Wednesday Challenge: one of my favourite Canadian novels, Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, Peter Benchley's Jaws, and the three "joys", Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, Joy of Cooking and The Joy of Sex. Wondering if I'd overlooked a book or two, I browsed around the Toronto Public Library's web site. There I saw it. Jamaica Inn. This classic by Daphne du Maurier should definitely make my short list, I thought.

Then it dawned on me. I had no idea if I had read this book or not. Still don't. Here's the plot summary according to the library: "The coachman tried to warn her away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother's dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn's dark power. But never did Mary dream that she would become hopelessly ensnared in the vile, villainous schemes being hatched within its crumbling walls -- or that a handsome, mysterious stranger would so incite her passions ... tempting her to love a man whom she dares not trust."

This sounds soooo familiar. And it makes me curious. Here's a book I might have read, but I'm not sure. Has this ever happened to you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, it's Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada. At the eatwritecreate household, we had a small family gathering yesterday so today is a day of rest, relaxation.....and recovering from the big dinner! With the captain acting as a wonderful sous chef, we piled the food on the table last night for a feast befitting a harvest holiday: turkey, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, brussels sprouts topped with bacon, broccoli topped with cheddar, roasted rutabaga, baked sweet potato and raw baby carrots. Cranberry-orange relish and dill pickles on the side, as well as a nice bottle of riesling. And the required desserts: pumpkin pie and apple pie. We were all as stuffed as the turkey!

Whether your dinner was last night or tonight, with a huge family gathering or a modest one, here's hoping you have a great holiday weekend and pause for a moment to realize that while we all have troubles, we also all have a lot to give thanks for!

This project has got me thinking

When I saw the lovely lady with such a beautiful smile featured in this week's Art Creations Friday challenge, I wondered what I could do with her image that would be different. After some thought, I decided to crop her square and create a calendar page for November (having already done an October calendar page here on my blog late last month). Just click on her to see the full-size version, perfect for downloading if you wish.

This is different than the typical card or collage I would do for ACF and I'm happy I tried it. It also got me thinking....wouldn't a calendar of vintage images be terrific? Something else to add to my ever-growing list of projects!

Dipping into forgotten files

Time for another trip down memory lane, photoshoppically speaking. (I made up a new word! Yay me.)

Anyway. A couple of days ago I started looking through a folder on my computer, 2008 Projects. Sounds straightforward, right? It is, but it's a folder that's jampacked with files, all photoshop projects I started in 2008. Many of them are finished projects but in browsing through the contents, I discovered several pieces of art that had been started and then abandoned. Forgotten. Poor things. I completed four of them to my satisfaction and posted them up at Flickr (a beach scene, a downtown Toronto church, Savannah's Johnson Square and S&P shakers I spied at my local A&W), but the above piece of art has just flat-out been eluding me. Everything I did to her, didn't work.

Finally, today, this afternoon, I made a couple of minor adjustments and those two little tweaks seemed to make it work for me, at last. The original photograph, unrecognizable now, was of a stone statue in a Buffalo cemetery, photographed in June, 2007. Just goes to show...no matter how long ago I took a photo, I'll get to it eventually.

I feel bad about my neck

Okay, I actually don't feel too bad about my neck. Not yet, anyway. But after reading Nora Ephron's thoughtful (and funny!) collection of essays/opinions on getting older, I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts On Being a Woman, I suspect that soon enough, I'll be worrying about my own neck and likely other body parts as well. At least I'll be able to laugh about it all.

This favourite of mine was the first book I thought of when I realized that we were already up to the letter I in the A-Z Wednesday Challenge. It's a book packed with Ephron's witty outlook on life, on being a woman, particularly an older woman. With her dry humour at the ready, she touches on topics recognizable to many -- how she can't read the instructions on pill bottles, how much she appreciates hair dye. How she hates her purse. Some chapters have been previously published as magazine articles, so when reading the book, you might get a flush of recognition.

Her commentary throughout the book is a delight to read. For example, this little piece about lunching with friends. "Sometimes I go out to lunch with my girlfriends -- I got that far into the sentence and caught myself. I suppose I mean my women friends. We are no longer girls and have not been girls for forty years. Anyway, sometimes we go to lunch and I look around the table and realize we're all wearing turtleneck sweaters. Sometimes, instead, we're all wearing scarves, like Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond. Sometimes we're all wearing mandarin collars and look like a white ladies' version of the Joy Luck Club."

If you're over 40, you'll read this book and laugh a lot, and some topics will be familiar to you already. If you're over 50, the familiary factor will dramatically increase. And I suspect that if you're over 60 you're going to recognize Ephron as a true kindred spirit. This is a book you'll be tempted to give to all your girlfriends, er, women friends.

Going, going, gone

It's yesterday's headline, but I just heard the news a few minutes ago. Gourmet Magazine will soon cease to exist. Gourmet! It's a magazine I thought would be around, well, forever. I was just saying to Leslie, yesterday, when I don't think either of us knew, that I struggled earlier this year with relinquishing my vast collection of Gourmet magazines -- all part of an ongoing purge of things. I finally sent them off to a new home at the B&B run by a friend of the captain. I kept only the issues I had from the 1970s.

I went through many stages with Gourmet, alternating between thinking it pretentious and thinking it perfect. I'm surprised they've had such a hard time with advertising sales given today's foodie culture, but I know from experience how hard it can be to keep a magazine viable and healthy. But yet.....we're talking Gourmet here! I'm very, very surprised.

Finally, Susan

Yesterday, I was in the car. A lot. I'm not complaining; I like being out and about. The day started with a road trip from Scarborough out to Brampton and back again, and ended with a trip out to Ajax with the captain for a yummy Mexican meal at Mexico Lindo.

The day started grey and dull. I picked up Nancy in the morning and off we went, driving through a bit of rain as we made our way west. First stop, Michaels. Nancy bought wool, I bought a circle punch. Next stop, a quest for lunch. We searched for dim sum but settled for Montana's. Then, finally, the sun came out and we reached our destination, the reason for the trip: Susan Williamson's solo art exhibit at the Whitney Community Gallery in Brampton. YES! I finally met Susan.

I am so delighted to have finally met, in person, a woman I have long admired, a woman I considered a friend even though I had never seen her face-to-face. Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing?

If you are anywhere within driving distance of Brampton, please get yourself to the Whitney Gallery so you can enjoy Susan's artwork, which will be on display until November 15th.

Her art is stunning, both multimedia and assemblage as well as digital art. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at her displays and absolutely love Creating From the Inside Out, her new book. It's very inspirational and packed with Susan's black-and-white digital art. I spent a lot of time reading it this morning and highly recommend it.

So yesterday I spent the day with a good friend, finally met a new friend, and had dinner with my best friend. All in all, a good day.

The streets of Paris

When I saw the image for this week's Art Creations Friday challenge, I admit I had no clue as to what to do with it. This saucy mademoiselle had me stumped.

After some consideration I decided I was going to remove her from her setting and plunk her down on the streets of Paris. Thanks to Leslie's generosity, I have some Parisian photographs and permission to alter them as I wish, so the hunt was on for a suitable street photograph. I narrowed it down, tried to use a couple with little success, then finally hit paydirt. A little texture, a little edging, and finally I called it done.

This one turned out to be quite a challenge for me but then, isn't that the point?

Autumn Colour Week: red

Autumn Colour Week has now come to a close; I'd like to offer a big THANK YOU to Poppytalk for the inspiration! Today is red day and after perusing oodles of photographs, I went with a picture of some very colourful tea towels I captured last October in Mickey's Pantry, a wonderful kitchen-supply store at Downtown Disney at DisneyWorld. I now wish I'd bought those towels instead of just taking their picture; they're so cheery!

Autumn Colour Week: brown

Poppytalk's Autumn Colour Week is drawing to a close; today is brown day, tomorrow, red. I have tried to be very faithful to the theme, choosing not only photographs that feature the specified colour-of-the-day but also using photographs taken only in September, October or November. Monday's yellow sunflowers were photographed last September; Tuesday's spiderweb with green trees as well as yesterday's orange pumpkin were both photographed in September of this year. Today's brown table and chairs were photographed last September as well. Hmmmm. It seems October and November -- the two true autumn months -- have yet to be represented. I shall try to correct that tomorrow.

These brown chairs caught my eye when we visited Port Dalhousie last September, on a visit to Anna Olson's bakery, located in a small indoor shopping area across the road from this street-side seating. The captain had family visiting from the Yukon who were delighted to tour the Niagara-on-the-Lake area and didn't want to miss this Food Network star's bakery and store. I haven't been back to the area since and this photograph now has me thinking that, since it's harvest time, a return visit is in order. I think a wee road trip is in my future!