Blythe Halloween party

Another Blythe meetup at Sweet Lulu. Some of the little grrlz came in Halloween costumes! Magnolia was a radical cheerleader.











Judy knit a pumpkin hat for Magnolia, isn't that the cutest thing! And she made friends with a Petite who has the same hat.

FO: knitted kool aid dying test

One of my knitting friends hosted a yarn dying party last week. So generous of her to let a gang of gigglers drink wine AND handle hot water spiked with kool aid in her home!

I dyed Mission Falls 1824 cotton, which, FYI doesn't take the kool aid the same way wool does. I followed the usual recipe though, and used 4 packets of lime green kool aid. Looks like noodles:

It came out bright green:

But after I wrang it out and it dried a bit, it faded to a minty hue. Another gal did the same amount of green kool aid as me, except on wool, and hers came out brighter. I'd planned for electric lime, but I'm really happy with the mint. Any ideas? I dyed enough yarn for a tea pot cozy, but that could still change by the time I get to it...

Blythe Brunch + Nuit Blanche

Yesterday there was another Toronto Blythe Gathering, what fun! We met at Sweet Lulu and had the whole upstairs to ourselves, great spot! Magnolia got to meet another Prima Dolly Violet and many more spectacular dolls:


And last night was the 2nd annual Nuit Blanche. I didn't take many photos, but I saw lots of neat stuff. Better time management needed for next year, plus I should've taken an afternoon nap. But we managed to stay out 'til a little after 4am, after a picnic of Fresh take out in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Here are some of the pom poms at Knit Cafe, snipped in the wee hours:

There was so much branding from a certain bank you know, and some of my student loans are with them. Glad to see they're using the interest I'm paying to fund some artsy things!

Norwegian faux-queer death punk saved me

A spell was cast on me in June, I had the perfect rock show experience with epiphany-ous elements. I've seen about 60 bands since them, but none have really-really-really moved me. I apologize if anyone in any of the other bands saw me looking incredibly bored in the audience. Some of them were really great, like Stars and Eric's Trip! They just didn't get me in the zone. But Turbonegro broke the spell last night! The campy theatrics, the slutty, kitschy aggression and absolute love of the hard rock:



I have a soft spot for scrawny lead guitar players, this one with the added bonuses of being Scandinavian and wearing lipstick:




"Who shall receive this holy shroud of Turbonegro?" The guys had an endless supply of fresh white towels, and threw them to the audience when they were done sopping the sweat off their faces. Hank wiped his butt-crack and crotch with one one them, he's like that. Some of the towels had more makeup on them than others:


Retox is their new album, the opposite of "detox." I don't encourage or admire substance abuse, violence. military clothing or mean-spirited lyrics, but somehow I can dig it in the Turbonegro context. Can't explain it, what's gotten into me? (I still don't dig that they use animals on set for some of their videos though, tsk tsk.) It's like in You've Got Mail when Kathleen teases Frank for falling for a Republican, he says "I can't help myself."


Hey sailor. The fanboys were out in various hats, helmets and makeup, and especially sailor caps.

seeing stars

Happy 25th birthday today to the emoticon! Do you know who said "there is no emoticon for what I am feeling" ....? Hint: he's on The Simpsons.

:-) @(*-*)@ //o-o\\ >^..^<

I want to keep up my blog but I don't know what to post about anymore, so I'll just ramble. I work v. close to Roy Thompson Hall so I was in the thick of TIFF for awhile, but I didn't see any stars out and about. I went to a screening of The Stone Angel and some of the actors were in attendance, including the fabulous Ellen Burstyn!


But I saw other Stars *three* times that week! They played a welcome week show at UofT, then V-Fest, then I creeped out of work for a few hours to see them at MTV (Canada) Live. That was a good week for my seeing-bands statistics (22 in 5 days!).


The UofT show was so great, everyone was singing along and the band seemed to be having a nice time. It took me a few listens to get into the new album, but then I didn't like SYoF right away either and it turned out to be my favourite for a long time. The new album is a bit rock-ier. There's a non-Stars-like, but awesome lead guitar solo at the end of Window Bird. And I love the falsetto in The Ghost of Genova Heights! And the drumming! My Favourite Book is super-sweet and cheery. This new album doesn't have as much of the strings and the horns that SYoF does.


The CD is around at shows, and the tracks are on iTunes. The physical album is officially in stores on Sep 25. They're touring with the new album so watch for them (3 Toronto shows in November at the Phoenix).

And just for the sake of it, I took a picture of this sweet little doggie waiting for someone at Shopper's. Cutie!

let's go to the Ex (oh baby)

I didn't grow up in Toronto, so I don't have the strong feelings for the Canadian National Exhibition that some have, but it's tradition for the end of summer here. I've only gone twice ever. I thought there wouldn't be much for me to eat, but they have a Lick's counter in the Food Building so I got a Nature Burger!! (yes vegans think about food all the time!)

Lookie, The Princess Gates were in this version of The Soft City. There were lots of CNE spots in it, like ferris wheel and Tiny Tom donut stand.

Magnolia loved the Lego tower. It's 96 feet high and broke the World Record:

Someone's Bart was too tired to walk:

There were some nice vegetables on display:


Magnolia took a wee rest on the proposed new streetcars:

Labour Day is my vegetarian anniversary, today it makes 14 years!

quick trip to southern Ontario

I had to hit Welland for a wedding, so made sure to find some diversions there before I left. Farmer's market of course, because I have a one track mind and that's supposed to be Foodland Ontario:

I met a knitter from Welland on Ravelry and he gave me the lo-down. You should check out his podcast! He told me about a vegetarian vendor at the farmer's market, but it wasn't there this week. He also told me about knitting and crafty places all over the area, I wish I could've made it to all those little towns! I did get to Broadway Textiles, and the main LYS in Welland though:


Nancy the Librarian Action Figure liked the Welland Zine Library best:

Hit a yard sale and scored some Coronation Street loot, what great luck! Oh how I wish Spider would come back to the show with a good storyline. I wasn't watching it when he was a regular, so I only know him from when he came back to nurse Emily back to health after Richard Hillman twacked her over the head with a crowbar. He runs a juice bar in London and made her beet juice to replenish her.

Just for fun we went to Casino Niagara. I spent $5 and won $12!

Then we went to look at Niagara Falls, they're pretty.

And Magnolia climbed a tree:

Back home now, just in time to do some laundry and get to the Camera Obscura show tonight, yowza!!

take me to the riot

New Stars video for Take Me to the Riot. I bought the digital pre-release of their new album, thinking I'd be satisfied with that. It's great! But now they're saying the physical album will come with a DVD in September, so I guess I'll "have" to buy it again so I can watch the DVD. This quest to cut down on consuming plastic is really hard!

Did you hear that Propagandhi's record label went packaging-free!? Clever and daring vegan anarchists!



Speaking of riots, I actually spent a week at that resort in Montebello for a family reunion in the 1990s. There was no sense of politics there then.

Vegan Pal 2 - questionnaire

I thought I was waiting until partners get assigned to post this, but I just got a reminder to post. It was already done anyhow, so here goes.

I've been taking a break from swaps because I was late on the last few, but I couldn't resist signing up for Vegan Pal 2. One of the organizers is the fabulous Ellie, she was who I sent a package to last time. She's awesome: a vegan crafty librarian who likes cats. No wonder I like her so much, we have so much in common. The other organizer for this round is Cass, and she might have the best funniest blog name ever: Shut Up I'm Counting. The counting thing is the only drawback of SnB, it's hard to count stitches while you're shooting the breeze with friends.

So here's my Questionnaire:

1. What is/are your craft(s), & how long have you been doing it/them?

Knitting, cooking, sewing, whatever. I've been doing them all for a long while, but I'm still at the beginner-intermediate level.

2. Are you a vegan, vegetarian, veg-curious, veg-friendly or other?

Vegan

3. Is this your first swap, or have you done previous swaps before? What makes a swap enjoyable for you?

I’ve done loads of swaps, just because it’s fun to get a package together. Nice to get something surprising back and see what other people made or got.

4. What is/are your favorite color(s)? Do you particularly dislike any color(s)?

Pink, purple, black are my favourites. Don’t really dislike any colours, but I don't really like "camouflage" print.

5. Do you have any allergies (such as pets, foods, fibers or cigarette smoke)?

No allergies, no pets, non-smoker.

6. Do you have any companion animals? If so, name(s) and type(s)?*

No animals, but I have a Blythe doll called Magnolia!

7. Do you collect anything?

Zines, music, tiny little things for Blythe dolls.

8. Do you have a favorite vegan food, snack or dish? If no fav that's vegan (for those who aren't vegan), what's your favorite food? (Hopefully your pal can find a vegan version!)

Any vegan chocolate or candy would be nice. Wha Guru Chews, Green & Black chocolate bar with the soft mint centres, whatever.

9. What are some of your favorite/least favorite tastes/flavors? (e.g. sweet, salty, chocolate, crunchy, smooth, tart, sour, spicy, thai, whatever - Help your pal get a feel for what kind of recipes you might like and/or never ever make.)

All of the above! Not overly picky, as long as it’s vegan of course. I like rice bowls, pad thai, easy fruity recipes.

10. What tools/supplies/accessories for your craft(s) are you wishing you had but don't? Also, what do you have TOO many of? (basically a wish and anti-wish list)

I could use more 4.5 mm needles, because I have so many worsted weight UFOs!

11. Are you on Ravelry? What's your handle?

Got in last week! I'm "pinkvegan."

12. Is there anything else you would like your pal to know about you?

I'm an archivist / media librarian, big fan of Coronation Street, I like hearts (the cutesy kind and the anatomical kind)

13. What scents do you like/dislike?

I like the smells of coconut, vanilla and basil.


14. Do you prefer fall or Halloween or some other Autumn theme?

Halloween, but whatever!

15. Just for fun - tell your favorite Halloween or Autumn related memory.

No real memory, I just love going for walks on crisp fall days and having hot chocolate after that.

almost FO: painted ceramics

One of my crafty groups had an outing to a paint-your-own-ceramics studio. The pieces are already made, and are blank white. I chose a rice bowl with a hole for chop sticks. I painted the base in splotches of pink and purple:

Let that dry, then put green over top:


Before the green dried, I etched. The pink and purple were hardened enough that they stayed when I scratched the designs into the green:




Magnolia supervised:


Then I painted a little plate for her, with the same idea:

The studio is glazing and firing them, I'll pick them up next weekend and see the actual FOs. The colours always change with the finishing. In the mean time, let me know a nice rice bowl recipe!