enjoy yourself

these old things hang in the doorway of of my office:

i bought this "birthday shot" for a friend at a local pub last night. i let the bar tender decide what to make and she made this with outright-devilish-glee. she called it a "bleeding brain" (though i can think of a few other gross names for it).

i think it could be the answer to both of the statements on the wooden panels above.

...i've already looked up the ingredients and plan to buy them for my home-bar so i can inflict this monstrosity on all who visit.

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one more frame

I framed one other thing...

Husband had this very ugly door-to-nowhere in his new office (actually, it goes into the next office but is permanently closed and has insulation shoved behind it). He was able to ignore but I could not abide with it when I visited so I extended my compulsion to decorate beyond the borders of my own apartment and spilled over into the government's territory.

This project is literally 100% remixed from trash and stuff around the house. It's not perfect but considering it cost zero dollars it's pretty good I think...

The map is from an old (but not antique) Reader's Digest Atlas I had (which was already falling apart). Since The Husband researches issues surrounding livestock waste, it is also thematic!

The large frame came from the secret give-away/trash spot in the basement of my building. The only problem is that it doesn't have glass so I'm worried about how well the framed contents will hold up... but for the price of free it'll cover the ugly pink insulation well enough - at least for a little while.

framing frenzy

I mashed up some random frames, old posters and new mats to get some new stuff to hang on the walls.

Started with this frame:

(which housed this print of "Peasant Wedding Procession" by Peiter Brueghel The Younger, a.k.a "Hell Brueghel")

And this frame (the sultry lady came with the used frame.)


I put a print from Hatch Show Prints in the wooden frame. I've had this for about 8 years, a misprinted souvenir from my visit there.

Oh. I also redid my previous take on this letter-pressed poem. The last version was too.... "something-ish"... Now it's more... "something-else-ish"

Breughels' Peasant wedding was cropped and edited.

I now call it, "A boy, a dog, and his codpiece walking in Holland".

(It's worth knowing more about codpieces by the way. Click here.)

I felt slightly weird about editing the old master's work but I didn't like the glumness of the sulking bridegroom being forced to his wedding. Not a fun sentiment for in the house... and it's only a print anyways... and Brueghel is a long-time dead.

Sorry, the pictures aren't the greatest but you get the idea.

photo drop

Here's a bunch of recent photos taken with my point-n-click (a.k.a. the only camera I own).

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This really happened at my house. My cohabitant (a.k.a. my husband) got two bulls-eyes AND a "bulls-eyelid" in ONE turn!

Shortly after this I became very bored of losing to him and gave that shitty old dart board away...

A moth that was probably dying - wouldn't get off my sleeve. Pretty though.

The grave of two children (little lambs) at an old cemetery where former slaves are buried near Alliston, ON.

A "BMW dealership" in Peterborough, ON.

In the laboratory I've been cleaning up.

From the car somewhere on Highway 7.

The rest are from a trading post, also on Highway 7. Had to stop in to check out the deerskin bikinis. Didn't buy.

man can he piss!

This is one of my favourite pieces of statuary in the world (I don't have a list of favourite statuary but if anyone were to ask, this would probably be my answer...)

It's "Manneken Pis" (translation: Little Man Pee) and he lives in Brussels. I've never actually seen him in person but I've known of him since I was a small thing due to one of my older sister's charm bracelets. Seeing a little boy peeing off my sister's wrist was a wee wonder to me.

Anyway, this cheeky little man has been pissing all over the place for over 500 years.

And also, I just learned from Wikipedia, that people dress him up in all sorts of costumes! What Euro-fun!

"I vant to drain my vein..."

So, you won't be surprised to learn that when I saw a Manneken Pis Drink Dispenser at a thrift store one day, it immediately went into my basket!!

Here he is on my bar, along with an ash tray from Expo '58 featuring his same self.

(One might assume from this picture that I'm a big drinker and a smoker. I'm neither but I think it's nice to have a bar in the house. Very civilized-like.

Sadly, he was a little "blocked" when I rescued him from obscurity on the thrift-store-shelf. Couldn't perform his proper function if you know what I mean...

I dutifully checked his prostate and found the source of his problem. The issue was solved by ordering a new toy-sized motor from a surplus store in Nebraska.

...of course I only went online after visiting my local hobby shop dealing in model planes, trains, and automobiles. I think I made a big impression on the guys there - not only because they rarely have a woman grace their mantel but because I'm 100% sure they've never had a young, tattooed woman there looking for a small motor for a naked child that passes alcoholic pee.

Look at him dribble!

Anyway, my mini-maaneken can piss like the best of them now.

(And I have to say, I'm feeling pretty proud that I figured out how to get his motor runnin'... and I now own a soldering iron to boot!)

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pictures i took while making dinner

* Dramatically-Lit Popcorn

(Back story: we got this bag of free, leftover popcorn (which used to be twice as big) after the seeing the Conan O'Brien movie at The Mayfair last night. The Mayfair is a cool, old movie theater near our place where shows only cost 6 bucks! They must have known I love both free stuff and stale popcorn. I love that place.) (...the movie was good too!)

* Dramatically-Lit Colander

(Just bought it at Sally Anne today.)

* Dramatically-Lit Magazine Rack

(Also from Sally Anne today - only ONE dollar!)

* Dramatically-Lit Bowls

* A set of nesting Pyrex bowls in beautiful shades of green (from, you guessed it, Sally Anne). I've long wanted a set and the green is a bonus as I loves me some green!

oh peas!

I adore my peas...

Last year I kept a whole blog about my "balcony farm". This year I moved to a new, smaller balcony so my garden was drastically reduced. Still, I got a bunch of lettuce, lots of green onions, and several herbs are "on the grow". There's also a sweet potato and two "volunteer" tomato plants (that sprung up from last year's compost I guess). Next year I think shall just grow a shit-tonne of peas. Peas are what make me the happiest out there.

OK. Maybe some cilantro too... oh... and a couple of sweet potatoes (just because they are pretty).

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* The peas surpassed my make-shift lattice and went up the screen. That's probably going to be annoying to clean up...

* Today's harvest. More to come.

* Lung-like.

* Two peas. A pod. You know the deal.

not dead yet

I'm back from the realm of the busy - where most people manage to live most of their lives (and blog meanwhile). Being of simple mind and low energy, I can only visit that realm from time to time and must then retreat into silence.

But this blog is not dead and now continues...

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This is what the ever-evolving-sideboard looks like today. Not everything has changed but I had to free up some room for books that are currently new and/or being read. Our "bar" was briefly stationed on the sideboard but I didn't take a picture and it has since found another home. Books outrank booze.

Another new addition is this collage-y thing I put together this morning. The poem fragment (from Langston Hughes*) and bird picture has literally spent 8 years on my fridge (a friend letterpressed it back at Sheridan). Suddenly it felt like time to do something else with it...

So I put together some old things I had lying around my studio and framed it. I also added a button/pin of my baby-self (which I've had since... well... birth I guess**). Anyway, I've never been sure what to do with this button of myself... but it kind of fits in with the idea of holding fast to youthful dreams and pursuing them with the purity and innocence of a fresh-faced babe.

(I'm 100% certain that my dreams are less socially significant and far more self-centered than what Langston was talking about.)

So here it is:

In other newness, I got a neat book of weird old photos off the discount rack when I visited the National Gallery recently. It's like having the website Black and WTF in the palm of your hand - but NOT on an iPhone - haha!

The rocks are from various travels across Canada. The black lava-looking ones come from an island off British Columbia and the lump of coal is from Nova Scotia. The rest are from locales in between.

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*Here's the whole poem, Dreams, by Langston Hughes (but I don't agree with him that frozen fields are barren or a bad thing...)

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

** I'm not sure WHY my family put my face on a pin. I guess I was cute as a button?

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