Jananas

I found this super cute crochet pattern for a baby kimono wrap. I’ve tried to follow crochet patterns before and its always ended up as a complete mess. This is the first crochet pattern I’ve actually been able to read and have it turn out, so I’m stoked. It took me a couple of days to finish this, mostly because I was out of the province so when I finished the first ball of yarn I had to wait until I was home to finish it up. So cute!

I know that there’s already been a Caturday post today, but I thought that I’d update a second time in honour of this evening’s Torture Garden show. Allen Falkner (of Fade Fast) is in town to perform this evening at the Opera House. After grabbing dinner on Thursday, we ended up back at our place to hang out and watch some Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My cat Romeo developed a crush on Allen, as recorded for all of history in this photo taken by Samar.

If I could just get my head a little bit farther in…

I’ll start this off with a disclaimer. I’m not an artist. I was never terribly good at art during school. I’ve done a couple of paintings that very close friends have. But every once in a blue moon I get an idea stuck in my head. All this summer I’ve been seeing the rock at the cottage (Mazinaw Rock that is) in my head. In reds and pinks and bronzes.  I bought a canvas weeks ago and still the idea has been stewing in my head.

Today I was working on finishing up a knitting project (incidentally the first knitted Christmas present of the year). While the yarn was running through my fingers and the fabric pooling in my lap, I had an idea. An idea for a series of art pieces. I’m still a little unsure because I’ve never attempted anything like this before. But I’m optimistic that I can make this come to life. And if nothing else, I tried. I tried something new and something I was unsure about and something that opens me up to other’s opinions and criticism.

I spent some time online looking through photos of the Rock. I came across this one in Jack1962′s Flickr. I’ve used it as the basis for the initial outline.

Tonight I have the house to myself and I started. I painted. And I’m going to share it. This is the first iteration. I need to pick up some black paint and a fine lining brush tomorrow. I’m still not sure of the reflection of the rock in the water. I’ll sleep on it this evening and tackle it tomorrow. I’d like to have this finished up by end of day tomorrow. Even though it may not be perfect, I’d rather be done then continually try to fix perceived imperfections.

After our morning of wandering around Seb kept asking what else I wanted to do. I decided on heading over to the Biodome (cue Pauly Shore jokes). It was fun to get to wander around and see the different animals – like the capybara and the otter and the lynx and the beaver! But what I didn’t get was why there were often only one… Here’s a photo of the otter.

I also really liked the penguin exhibit. We got there right at feeding time, so it was fun to get to see them waddle around with their wings up asking for fish. I did manage to get a shot of a penguin on the nest. I love the mad scientist look.

When we bought our tickets to the Biodome, we bought the package that let us go up to the Observatory as well. I don’t like heights and after seeing my unsure face while up at the top of the church tower we both decided that the best thing was to go up the Observatory. Again, Seb had never seen it so we had to. We made the short walk between the two and had a super short wait before getting on the elevator. The elevator is weird on the way up because you’re in the tunnel for longer than you would think you would be. Once you’re out of the tunnel, the view is awesome.

The strange thing about the Observatory is that it isn’t really near much else. While this means you get a good view of Montreal it also means that you don’t get an up close view of anything looking small/ant-like. Gotta love the haze!

After all our wandering around, I was getting a little tired so we headed back to Seb’s for a little break. After hanging out and starting to watch Beetlejuice, I headed back out to meet up with some long time friends for dinner and drinks. My friend Ella (and her mister Kenneth) suggested that we meet at Else’s (156 Roy E) and I passed the word along to my friend Tim (who happened to be in the MTL for work that week and who is a part of the same community where I met Ella, even though they had never officially met before). We had fun talking about old times and catching up on each other’s lives. Around 11 we parted ways and Ella was kind enough to hail a cab for me. Back to Seb’s for a little bit more hanging out before I tucked in for the night.