Monday, October 27, 2008

costume preview

so bad it's good

Katie somehow whipped up an entire zine in past couple weeks. I don't quite know how she did it between work and school, but she managed to squeak it in just in time for Canzine this past weekend. The day before the event she needed me to design the cover from the cool illustration Blair drew and print it off for her. I started thinking about the table set-up at Canzine and pulled out light strings, made a quick banner and used a duvet cover as a table cloth. Here's how Katie's table turned out. Looked great, eh?
Katie's zine turned out fantastic - here's how to get a copy.

It was almost kind of nice how the Canzine
mayhem happened out of the blue to give me a bit of a break from halloween. Before Katie called for some help I was sewing my shirt for my costume. As I was pushing a sleeve through the machine I flipped the front of the shirt into my Saturday morning coffee. Then moments later the machine totally seized up on me. I felt so hopeless and called my mom for some sewing machine guidance. Luckily I fixed the sewing machine problem and rocked the shirt into completion, gave it a wash and it's good to go for iron-on decals now. That means my costume is completely done and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

glittered spiders

Now that Halloween is in full gear I'm finding it hard finding time to blog about it. The costumes are really taking shape and the house is all decked out in Halloween. I held back with the decor this year as we aren't holding any parties. Just the usual holiday decor of candles, mums, gourds and pumpkins.
When not working on costumes I've been spreading a new Halloween fashion trend - glittered spider rings. I made black, orange and silver rings and they seemed to get a lot of notice. So I've started a cottage industry and made some for family, co-worker and co-workers daughters.

Friday, October 10, 2008

the results...

A month ago I blogged about our immediate need for a retaining wall.

Our front lawn is much higher than our driveway and with all the rain we've been having it seemed like a good a time as any to have a retaining wall constructed.

We had a contractor come in an put in the retaining wall in the mid-September and we are really pleased with how it turned out.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Run for the Cure

Boy, I feel better after ragging on the Food Festival, hehe. So it's time for a more positive entry. Sunday was the CIBC Run for the Cure where our team "Miracles" walked 5km to help raise funds for breast cancer. The day was beautiful and, believe it or not, warm when the sun came out.
Hot Tot had a special pink ribbon bandana on, but there were so many other dog's way more dressed up for breast cancer awareness. One black lab had a pink crown, her own shirt with number, pink ribbon collar and pink ribbon leash. Tot made tons of dog friends during the walk. Here she is with Beans the Boston Terrier, another dog with just as much energy as Tot!
The run was so well organized compared to last year. Gotta love when things only get better with time.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Superstar Tot

Hot Tot is on Martha Stewart's pet costume contest. Please go vote 5 stars for her!!

Welland Food Festival is very... um, Welland

We've only heard good things about the annual Welland Food Festival. The Smokin' Buddha, who catered Karissa & Kevin's wedding, were scheduled to be sampling and Anna Olson was to be having a cooking demonstration so that pretty much sold us.
We decided to check it out on Saturday afternoon. After seeing Anna's demonstration on preparing celery soup, we went in for the food tastings. The set-up was not really easy to figure out, so we walked... and walked and circled several times looking for The Smokin' Buddha. We finally decided that they must have been a no-show. And nothing else looked even remotely appetizing. After feeling finicky, I finally chose the Rex, a Welland staple for Italian cuisine. I bought a sample of Gnocchi, tasted it and had an immediate reaction of being transported to childhood, "Tastes like Scarios." Which means they were really yucky.
It really ticks me off when I pay money for disappointing food. If I can make something yummier at home, why bother have someone else destroy my love for food?! Some of you may suggest that the simple luxury of not making it yourself is enough to justify it. Not the case here - it's just a real piss-off that a restaurant would think they should be making money off less than great food. It's not even a matter of personal taste here - there's just poor quality, lack of imagination and questionable taste buds.

Oh, and back to talkin' Scario's. I found a total 80's flashback ad for Scario's and UFO's on You Tube. I can just picture these cans on the shelves of Welland's old Valdi, Pupos or Bargain Harolds.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

annex beer is warm

Yesterday Tot joined Nuno and I to Olson's for lunch. The Ravine location is all decked out in fall, including their menu items.
This sandwich is a fresh turkey with a cranberry dressing. I brought back tarts for my coworkers, maple, pumpkin pie and apple crumble. I had to show my appreciation for their coolness for having Tot join us in the afternoon. She was very well behaved and did me proud. She was loving everyone up and cuddling like crazy.
Becky made the mistake of dropping her head too low and Tot took a dive right into her nose for a slimy kiss.
Tot just couldn't relax all afternoon with so many new and distracting sounds. A couple times she thought it was a good idea to bark and say, 'hello' while we were on the phone. Good thing she was pooped after a day at the office, so we put her into her room and headed to Toronto for the Wedding Present show.
It was awesome - just so spirited. I don't think it's possible for the band to disappoint live. Although the new album is a stinker, I would never give up on them.
See the set list didn't include our wedding's first dance? That's OK, David knows how much the oldies like Dalliance, Kennedy, Lovenest and Gonemean to his fans. Interstate 5 was pretty great live. I wish I could suspend time during songs like those.

After the show Nuno said that David 'shreds' on his guitar. I looked at him puzzled and giggled. I'm not sure who uses that term... but I guess I can picture Gedge shredding a carrot and his guitar is a box grater - so, um, it kinda works. After a while it made me die of laughter reminicing of the time my uncle took my cousin, sister and myself (we were going to see Jeff Buckley and Juliana Hatfield in grade 6) and he went nuts over the opening band, Cold Water Flat. After the show he went up to the lead guitarist/vocalist and proclaimed, "You guys wailed!". I don't know, we thought that might have been appropriate if he'd been cast in Wayne's World, but it was *so* not alternative rock of him to say. Last night I downloaded this song of Cold Water Flat's and now that I'm a bit older, I think my uncle wasn't so far off, wailed may just be appropriate.