Saw a guy painting this sign on the sidewalk outside Mercury

What a Mess on Dundas West!

My definition of chaotic beauty

Colour me Beautiful

I'm looking for a good opportunity to use these beautiful pastels from my mom. It will not involve drawing on the sidewalk, unless it's a very special sidewalk.

R2 New Signage

There is a new chalkboard outside of R2 beside the 668A apartment door that lists daily specials ($1 muffin with purchase of an americano or drip coffee before 10AM) and specialty drinks (Orange Mocha, developed by yours truly and my fellow baristas). I had the privilege of writing on it!

Curb Alert Toronto #1

I've wanted to do Curb Alerts for a while now, and this is my first one! My Curb Alerts are of interesting pieces that I see lining the streets of Toronto, which are up for grabs. I post the location and a picture within a couple hours of sighting, and it's first come first serve!

Here we have a small table or nightstand, about 24" x 8" and 24" tall. Made of real wood, it has some water damage but would be wonderfully restored with a quick sanding and application of stain and tung oil. It's located at 149 Euclid Ave. Good luck!

Captured Flames

I love how the flames leap around.

Meet Samuel Lamp

I found Samuel on October 22, 2011, somewhere between Harbord/Markham and Dundas/Crawford. I don't generally name inanimate objects, but Samuel Lamp spoke to me. He is a beautiful retro style desk lamp in the perfect shade of mustard. I can picture the lamp in a hypothetical home sitting on a stained wooden sideboard with umbrellas inside in a white painted front hallway with fine wainscotting and hardwood floors, of course. It would illuminate an old cork board with postcards, grocery lists, and movies to watch. See the listing for Samuel Lamp on Etsy.com! 

New family member to the Art Dept!

Welcome to the Canon EOS XSi DSLR! Complete with a "nifty fifty" lens. It feels great and liberating to be able to record things that inspire me, that I create, which are beautiful, and which I think are noteworthy. I only had about forty minutes to play around with the camera today but it's very exciting! I've wanted to join a photography meetup group ever since I got to Toronto but only lacked a camera with which to take photos. Next steps will include taking full advantage of the Nifty Fifty, and in the future getting wide angle and zoom lenses. I leave you with a few of my first shots from this afternoon. 

Decorated doorknob

Windowsill and self-made curtains

Dried orchid flower from RSquared Cafe

My door and shabby-chic ceiling

Antique iron meant to be placed in the fireplace to be heated up. Found on the side of the road while biking home

Sisal Wrapped Balls

I've seen these trendy-looking balls used as lampshades countless times, and found several tutorials on how to make them. Here is my result. When I find lamp parts, this will metamorphose into a lamp.

Bird Collage

This collage is another old creation from Famous magasine, and one I've been consistently proud of. There was no real prompt in making it. I just started cutting out interesting shapes from the magasine and it turned into this fantastical bird. I would like to get into collaging again. Maybe I should go back to the movie theatre and start collecting free magasines!

Two pieces of wall candy

I worked on these projects during the winter, accompanied by some red wine. Outdoors was ugly, slushy, and grey, contrasting these colourful fun pieces. The stencilled damask one, done with acrylic and gloss medium, was an experimental foray into stencil work and the craquelure effect. I need to find a way to prevent the stencil from sticking to the painting as I'm workign on it. Perhaps make it out of something other than paper? The craquelure effect should have been done with a matte medium on top rather than gloss. Definitely will be doing this again. The other piece was a mixed-media collage incorporated surreal sort of space invaders thing, and I am quite happy with it.

Outdated Opinion of Emilio Sosa's Signature Print Dress

So this is my opinion of Emilio Sosa's signature print from Season 7 of Project Runway. I know, I know that was so last year, but I've only just watched it. I have to disagree with the judges' oohing and aahing over the print and the dress. The print looks like those bags that tourists buy upon leaving a new city. Oh and I didn't notice this but apparently it resembles a Louis Vuitton print as well, but I doubt it was intentional, and I don't think they really are that similar.

Tacky destination bag print

Art from the Recycling

Here is a little treat I finally put together today after those garlands of paper beads have been sitting around for at least eight years. The beads were made from the pages of Famous magasine. In middle and high school, I used to pick up the Famous magasine every time I went to a movie theatre. They sat around and got used for collages and this. I took the IKEA frame from the recycling room in my apartment building. Voila, the result is a rearrangeable piece of wall decor.