On Microbeads

Friend S and I crashed a Children's Festival in the city on the weekend. (It's because they always have a booth serving free McDonald's coffee). We stopped at a booth displaying microbead products. It was to raise awareness of the environmental danger these small plastic beads cause. They are used in certain toothpastes and soaps and are being phased out in Canada. You can see the blue beads in the toothpaste cap in the photo above, along with some other products that contain these microbeads. The young man at the booth said these beads can get caught in your teeth and go into your body and cause harm. They go into the waters and harm fish, etc. Look for polyethylene or polypropylene on the labels. Were you aware of this problem?

Scribble Picnic - Curly

It's time for Michael's Scribble Picnic! My 'curly' piece is done on a heavy white piece of paper in permanent marker (8 1/2" x 11"). She looks like a curly haired Cinderella doesn't she?

A good movie

Park Bench with Roses

Have you seen the movie 'The Imitation Game' (2014 Biography/Drama). It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. 'During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.' Turing was a genius, called the father of the modern computer. He was also homosexual at a time when they would be put in jail or given chemicals in Great Britain. I really enjoyed this movie but I woke up the next morning thinking how much Turing did for the world only
to suffer so much afterward for being homosexual.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Daughter L shared these photos of some blueberry muffins with streusel/crumble on top that she made the other day, don't they look good?

Paper Agenda

So I got my annual paper agenda for 2018, it's that time of year for me. Do you still use a paper agenda? These days I get mine at the dollar store for a fraction of the cost.

Happiness Is

A summer walk in the neighbourhood snapping flowers, just a short time left, sigh.

crabapple

Paint Party Friday - Wedding Cake

Welcome to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday. My piece today was inspired by the recent wedding of my nephew. It's done on a greeting card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")in acrylic and permanent marker outlined with a fine point black marker. I am also showing a photo which picks up the silver I used on the 'icing' and cake stand.

Pappasito's

Fajitas and Shrimp

Tres Leches

My travelling sister (who lives in Florida) was in Dallas recently.  She feasted at Pappasito's in Dallas, Texas.  Filet mignon fajitas and crab encrusted shrimp in the first photo and a Tres Leches dessert in the second photo.  From what I can google, Tres Leches is 'a light, airy sponge cake soaked with a mixture of three milks: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream' thought to have originated from Nicaragua.  She was actually attending the final set of Queen/Adam Lambert concerts with her friends.  They are Adam Lambert groupies.

In other good news, my sister no longer has diabetes, she thinks it was all the walking and exercise she did on all those Baltic cruise excursions.  It made her lose 5 pounds.

Scribble Picnic - Fill in the Blank

Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic. It's a 'Fill in the Blank' week and we have to have at least one square with an 'X' in our piece. My entry is done
on coloured cardstock (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") in permanent marker and acrylic.

Solar Eclipse

My brother who lives in Arizona took this cloudy eclipse photo yesterday with his phone.  Luckily it was cloudy as he did not protect his phone.

In Toronto, we experienced 70% coverage which was so much fun. We used our solar eclipse glasses and I also made use of my cereal box viewer. There was a lot of excitement in the city.

Morning Walk

Well the solar eclipse is all the rage in North America today.  Here is a link to see how the eclipse will look from anywhere in the US.

Anyway, I thought I would just share a few photos from a morning walk with you!

Sunday Scribbles - Pathway

Welcome to Jennifer's Sunday Scribbles! My piece is a 'Pathway' based on a photo I took. It's done on cardstock in acrylic (4 1/2" x 6 1/2"). Please feel free to join us at this new art co-op.

Solar Eclipse Glasses

I bought these ISO certified 12312-2 solar eclipse glasses from Amazon about a month ago in preparation for viewing the Aug 21st solar eclipse. It should be partially visible from Toronto. There have been such dire warnings against looking at the eclipse directly I am now scared to use these. I am thinking about making a simple pinhole projector from a cereal box.  Here is a one minute video showing you how to do that.

According to this article, the eclipse will be partially visible in Toronto from 1.10 pm - 3.49 pm peaking at 2.30 pm with 70% of the sun covered.

Paint Party Friday - Gone Weeding

Welcome to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday! This piece sums me up for the summer, it's called 'Gone Weeding' and it's what I've been doing every day since about May. It's a great excuse to spend time outdoors! This is done with permanent markers on good quality coloured cardstock (6" x 6").

A book

I noticed this book on sale at my local drugstore and decided to buy it. I had watched the Genius series on National Geographic a few months ago and really enjoyed it, it was based on this very book. It will be a pleasure it read it after the fact. Do you prefer to read the book and then see the movie?

Scribble Picnic - Flower Bed

Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic! This is my flower bed for this week's theme. It's done with permanent marker, acrylic, watercolour crayon and outlined with a black fine point marker on coloured cardstock (6" x 6"). It's based on a photo of a garden bed that I took.

At a snail's pace

My friend S told me to be careful as I walked towards her one morning. This snail pictured above was crossing the pavement at a snail's pace. There were a lot of them out and about that day.

A nice breakfast

Husband M and I went for a nice breakfast last week. It was a gorgeous summer day under blue skies. This place is a bit of a dive but we enjoy their food. We split the large breakfast between us. This is my half pictured above. I forgot to take a photo of the large pancake and slice of French toast that we also split.

Sunday Scribbles - Some Xmas Cards

Jennifer has decided to kindly host a new Sunday Scribbles art co-op for us and I am pleased to join her today.  I will have a new sketch ready in time for next Sunday.  For today I am sharing these Christmas cards of my art that I just had printed.

I had an offer of free cards from Shutterfly and I decided to take advantage of it. It's always a fun feeling when they arrive in the mail!

3 1/2" x 5"

5" x 7"

Bank Machine Changes

I thought this 21st century alphabet was certainly a sign of the times.

Speaking of change, I went to my bank machine recently and it is now dispensing cash
in 10's and 5's as well as the 20's it used to give out.  It was my first time using this new feature
when I needed some 5's.  You have to punch in the total amount you want, then the denominations you want.  So 5 x however many 5's you need and it should add up to the total amount of cash you
requested.  I hope I can remember what I did last time, I guess there is always the teller.

Then I was at the lab getting some routine blood tests done.  The technician mentioned to me that they have a new app that I can install on my phone which allows you to see how busy the lab is and in fact you can check yourself in ahead of time.  In this manner, you won't have to wait anymore. When I hesitated, she told me I could get my kids to help me with it if necessary.  When I got home I decided to install it on my own, thank you! 

Paint Party Friday - Snake

Welcome to Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. I did a snake based on a photo I saw on Adam's blog. It's done on coloured cardstock (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") using washi tape and outlined with a black permanent marker.

From Garden to Table

My sister in California is enjoying the bounty of her garden this year.  I am quite pleased with the produce in our own grocery stores at this time of year at great prices.  Peaches, watermelon, berries, cherries, zucchini, peppers....all so fresh and delicious.

basil, parsley, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes

watermelon, squash

My sister used some of the tomatoes for her own tomato sauce that she paired with her meatballs. From garden to table as we would say, surely one of life's real pleasures!

grated asiago

Scribble Picnic - Buttoned

Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic! This week's theme is 'Buttoned' and here is my interpretation of it done on heavy white paper (8 1/2" x 11") coloured with permanent markers.

Moose or Reindeer

This is one of the photos my sister who lives in Florida shared from her recent Baltic Cruise trip. This is from her Helsinki Finland stop. Would you eat moose and or reindeer? I would pass for now.  I can't even get my mind around rabbit.

On fighting iron deficiency

I came across this inspiring article about a week ago and wanted to share it with you.  A young Canadian volunteer in an African refugee camp pondered long term solutions to the world's problems, being deeply affected by the suffering he experienced there.  He started his company  'Lucky Iron Fish' 5 years ago.  He developed a cast iron fish boiled in water for 10 minutes a day to give users a low dose of iron.  It is good for 5 years.  Now 29 years old, he has won humanitarian and social entrepreneur awards.  Iron deficiency affects 2 billion people, a third of the world.

We are on the Civic holiday long weekend, many people have today,  Monday off.

Cake Pops

Daughter L made some cake pops the other day because she wanted to. We ate some and she gave some away to her friends. They were delicious, tasted like little bites of birthday cake on mini ice cream cones. 

After forming her crumbled cake mixture into rounded balls, she dipped the edges of the mini cones into melted white chocolate.  Then she stuck the cake balls onto the cones and lay them upside down so the balls would bind to the cone.  Next, she dipped the newly formed cake pops into more of the melted white chocolate and turned them right side up to decorate them with sprinkles.  Once the cake pops were hardened, it was time to wrap some of them into little gifts.  I hope that makes sense.

A lucky senior

Pathway

This is a photo of a pathway that I took recently and am thinking about painting it.

I ran into the mom of one of my daughter's friends the other day at the grocery store.  We had a nice chat.  I asked how her dad was faring, since her mom had passed away several years ago.   He is still living on his own at 92.  However, they have made some changes.  They moved him downstairs so he can live on one floor and minimize his trips upstairs and thus his risk of falling.  She is such a good daughter.  She spoke of taking him with the family on a cottage getaway up north for a week.  She encouraged him to eat steak and more meat that week, as he loves barbecued food.  His regular diet is now quite plain and simple.  This organized lady thought of moving his summer clothes downstairs and is very attentive.  Her other siblings are at a very busy time in their lives and she understands that.  He is a lucky senior.

Paint Party Friday - Coneflower

It's time for Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday! This 'Coneflower' piece is based on a photo I took a few weeks ago, done with my permanent markers and watercolour pencils. It is a greeting card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").