Category: Good things

An Advent Calendar Of Our Very Own

Just in time for December I got my act together and achieved a long held desire to have an lovely advent calendar for Boris and I. As a child my mom would put up an advent calendar strung with chocolate treats for my sister and I to countdown our way to Christmas. It was made by one of my aunts and featured cross-stitched elves on it with plastic rings to attach the treats.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

I bought this Christmas-tree-with-drawers version at DeSerres a few weeks ago and decided I would customize it with my own designs. It comes in plain wood, is pretty roughly made, and needs a fair amount of sanding before you paint.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

I painted with red acrylic, and gave the entire piece one coat with two coats of paint on the front of the drawers and the outside of the tree. I asked Boris to help do some of the painting so things would go faster. I drew on each drawer with metallic silver gel pen, and made each drawing unique. This was the part I found most challenging and fun. It’s awkward to draw on such a small surface, but I loved coming up with twenty-four different designs.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

Our brand new Advent calendar.

Boris and I each need to select twenty-four tiny treats to put into the drawers for one another. I think this is going to be the best part.

On Taking a Year Off From Exhibiting at Culture Crawl

Last year at the end of Culture Crawl weekend I made the decision to take 2015 as a year off from exhibiting. I’d been taking part for five years in a row, and with the extension of the event from three to four days, I felt it was time to take a step back and experience things from the perspective of a visitor.

I exhibit from our apartment for the Crawl, which means storing half of our furniture in a back room and transforming the living and dining room area into more of a gallery. It’s fine to live this way temporarily but the addition of the fourth day felt like an unbearable disruption to our lives. I worried about missing out on this opportunity to exhibit and sell a bit of work, but in all the years I’ve participated I have never made enough to cover the amount of time and work that goes into doing the Crawl.

Laser cut commission - detail

This past weekend it was exhilarating to wander the streets for four days visiting other artists’ studio during the Crawl. I went out every single day, and covered a whole lot of ground. I did not make it everywhere, but I did make it to all the locations I’d hoped to see, and visited with many friends. I had the experience a few times where an artist I was meeting for the first time knew who I was and gushed over my work. I had this feeling of wonder and excitement about getting to experience this event from the other side. It reminded me of going door-to-door trick or treating as a kid, but there was nothing but treats for the eyes and soul.

Over the past few months I’ve been struggling with focusing on creating new work and planning for future goals in my art career. After this weekend I feel recharged, inspired, and have a renewed sense of purpose. Thank goodness I took this time for me because it was absolutely the right decision.

My intension going forward with Culture Crawl is to no longer exhibit from our apartment, and there is a possibility I may not exhibit at all. I’m going to think about my options and let you know in time for next year.

Day Trip to Squamish

In a rare turn of events Boris and I took the day off mid-week and got ourselves out of town. We decided to drive to Squamish to do some exploring, as neither of us have been there in years. We stopped at Shannon Falls along the way, visited the estuary trail for a walk, then lunch at Fergies, and a longish hike through Alice Lake Provincial Park.

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Squamish Estuary

Mushrooms

Turkey Tail Mushrooms

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We had perfect weather before the rain returned the next day.

Fall Colours

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Even on those rainy days, when it’s pouring outside and I know I’m going to get drenched, I drag myself out for a walk. It’s worth it to see all of the colourful leaves, which seem even brighter on a dull day.

Rabbit Mask From Wintercroft

Last week I shared the Raven mask I made from paper using a template purchased from Wintercroft. I also made this rabbit mask for Boris to wear to an event we attended on Halloween.

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The rabbit mask was a bit of a collaborative process between Boris and me. He cut the pieces and I took over from there. I drew the designs using silver gel pen before scoring the folds and putting it together. I loved doing the drawings on this one.

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I didn’t get around to doing an elaborate photo shoot of us wearing the masks, but here we are for a quick photo with the shower curtain as the background. The masks brought out the crazy eyes in both of us.

Raven Mask from Wintercroft

In preparation for Halloween night I decided to make myself a paper mask using a template purchased from Wintercroft. They are a couple based in the UK that design geometric paper masks of animals, devils, dragons, etc. and sell the templates online for people to make themselves. I bought the Woodland Animal set because I wanted to make something for Boris as well.

Of course I made the bird for myself. I used black card and decorated the pieces with metallic gel pen before putting it all together. It looks really cool.

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I’ll share a photo of myself in the mask once I get some elastic to strap it to my head.

Gravity & Other Myths

I saw a wonderful show at the York Theatre yesterday evening, A Simple Space by Gravity & Other Myths. They are a circus troupe from Australia, and they performed amazing feats of human strength and agility on the tiny stage in East Van. It was the highlight of my week.

A Simple Space Promo 2015 from Gravity & Other Myths on Vimeo.

Their promo video is a terrific look at the crazy things they did last night. Tickets are still available to see Gravity & Other Myths, and they’re in residence at the York Theatre until October 24th.

Making Apple Rose Pastries

A video featuring the step-by-step instructions on how to make rose shaped apple tarts was going around the internet last week, just in time for Thanksgiving. So of course I decided to make them for our dinner with friends. They look beautiful, are extremely easy to make, and taste delicious.

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Watch the video here.

The original recipe uses lemon juice, and apricot preserves. I substituted the lemon with fresh squeezed orange (because I realized too late we were out of lemons), and used strawberry rhubarb jam instead of apricot.

Getting Inside at Doors Open Vancouver

Doors Open Vancouver is an annual event put on by the City of Vancouver allowing people to visit city owned buildings and get a behind-the-scenes look. There are about eighteen locations involved for the day, ranging from theatres, to the public works yard, to the Stanley Park miniature train.

I visited two locations with my friend, Kai. We went for quality visits at two locations rather than trying to make it everywhere. We chose the Queen Elizabeth and Orpheum Theatres for our visits. Both theatres were set up for evening performances, which meant we got to see the set for Rigoletto at QE. Our timing was perfect to take part in a backstage tour as well and see the set up close.

Doors Open Vancouver
Lighting by Propellor Design

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The view from the stage

Doors Open Vancouver
The set for Rigoletto

Doors Open Vancouver

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is modern while the Orpheum is more classic and full of ornate details from floor to ceiling. We chatting with an usher who has been working at the Orpheum for seventeen years, and knew much of the history of the place. She told us it was originally built as a vaudeville theatre in the 1920s.

Doors Open Vancouver
The spectacular view from the top tier seating

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Doors Open Vancouver
Plaster details along the walls near the stage

Doors Open Vancouver

Doors Open Vancouver
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Ornate patterned ceilings in the lobbies

I’ve visited both theatres for performances but it was nice to visit each location to see the building for its own sake. Next year I intend to go again and see other locations. I can’t wait.

My Completed Colourful Braided Rug From T-shirt Yarn

This is the second braided rug I’ve worked on and completed this summer. The first one is in greys and black, and you can see it here. Working with colour made it more challenging to come up with a colour scheme and make it look good. I had many more colours of t-shirt yarn available to me but I decided to stick with blues, oranges and reds.

For the grey rug I managed to only use materials made from Boris’ collection of startup/tech conference shirts, but for this one I used a few shirts sources from Value Village because I wanted specific colours. If you’re going to buy second-hand shirts to make yarn, I highly recommend mens extra large shirts to maximize material.

Completed Braided Rug

Completed braided rug - detail

I made this over a three week period, which included making four or five additional balls of yarn. It was a great project to work on in the evenings while binging on Netflix.

The tutorials I used to learn how to make t-shirt yarn and the braided rug can be found in this previous blog post.