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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Party of Lights


Yesterday afternoon, my dear friend Arlene Travnik phoned me up to say her son Josh was planning an impromptu birthday party for her which would begin at 9 p.m. Could we come?

Although 9 p.m. is pretty much past our bedtime (just kidding), and the Travnik's live a half hour down the highway, my boys and I decided to head down to join in on the festivities.

Josh strung up some white twinkle lights in the backyard and lit numerous tea lights all over the garden creating a beautiful luminescent effect.

Of course, if you are going to a such a festivity, you must have a gift to take for the dear one having a birthday. Being those who always think ahead (not always, I'm afraid), we were a little unprepared for the occasion. However, Zach had received a gift from his wise older brother, David. It was a Thomas Kinkade Paint-by-Number painting set. (Read a New Yorker article on Thomas Kinkade here)
Now you must understand that Thomas Kinkade is not a favourite of Zach's ~ to state it mildly, so he was over-joyed by the opportunity to re-gift the Paint-by-Number to Arlene.

Arlene is not a Kinkade enthusiast either, so she was amused by the gag gift (her son Nialle was rolling with laughter as he saw what was in the pretty pink wrapping paper.

For all of Kinkade's glow-y,
homey, "charm", he has a darker side ~ dark clouds have gathered over him which has been coming to the surface in recent years.

By 11 p.m. the rowdy neighbours had started up a fire of their own; (the marijuana was wafting over the fence our way), and by midnight I was starting to yawn. Knowing that we had to drive home yet, we said our thanks yous and good byes.

A good time was had by all at the Party of Lights!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Talking ART

Zach and I went to Mandolin Books to have coffee with the very talented Maria Pace-Wynters. It's always inspiring to connect and and share with other artists ~ a real treat indeed.

Check out Maria's website to view her art. Buy some! I adore her work and would love to have one of her paintings on my living room gallery wall.

*sigh*

Saturday, June 06, 2009

A look back

Thought it would be fun to share some photos
of my sons from the 1990s.

They haven't changed much ~ well except for the fact that they were
much shorter than me in those days!
They both are wearing Aladdin outfits ~ Aladdin was the big Disney hit of the time ~ a foreshadowing of their enjoyment of animated film perhaps...

At the Valley Zoo with their daddy, looking rather spiffy decked out in their fluorescent threads which were very popular in the early 90s.

And finally a photo that shows the personalities of our sons quite profoundly.
Zach was in the stage of trying
to imitate some of the faces from Calvin & Hobbes ~ his favourite comic.
Today he owns The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection.


Thursday, June 04, 2009

Gnome love

My gnomes were beginning to look like gnome ghosties; appearing to be completely capable to scaring young children out of our backyard just with one look!

They used to look like this



So I decided it was time to take them into the house for a fresh coat of paint.

Now they look like this

and this

Much better!