tweetchirp

a day with sweetpea and being blonder

Last night I was discussing with Don the lameness of vanity blogs and I agreed with him. Forgetting that I have one myself. Whatever. Anyway. A few weeks ago I dyed my hair blonde...er. I remember a blonde aquaintance telling me once that when a blonde girl walks in the room she gets noticed. She had dyed her hair brown for a time and noticed the attention she once commanded had dissolved, so immediately returned her hair to the blonde it was meant to be. I decided to put this to the test. Doesn't work for me.

Yesterday I spent the day with Mike and Sweetpea. We decided she doesn't seem like a Sweetpea, so renamed her Marie-Pierre. We called her that all day. Then she pooped on Mike's rug.

urban exploration

Urban exploration used to be one of my favorite, misunderstood hobbies. Illegally entering into the calm, beautiful underbelly of the city to explore and document forbidden spaces. It isn't about "breaking in"; it's about appreciating the architecture, the disconnected history, and the overlooked aspects of the urban environment. It's the best way to feel completely alone when you live in a city of 1+ million people. I haven't been exploring for quite a while as I lost my UE partner to love. I suppose love saves you from wanting to see lonely places.

So I recently bought this book to remind me why I love it and to inspire me to continuing to search for abandoned structures. Written by Toronto explorer "Ninjalicious" who ran UE website and zine Infiltration and recently died of cancer.

patterns

I love patterns. Wallpaper, upholstery, rugs, patterns on plates, teacups, cutlery. Mostly of the vintage variety. And I've recently started noticing how I love the randomness of "patterns" on maps and sewing patterns. So when I found these vintage sewing patterns at my favorite neighborhood thrift store I fell in love. I heart the illustrations. Makes me wish I knew how to sew.

Also, I found this jewlery box. I love how a needle was left in the fabric. Used as a sewing box.

This weekend I saw Control as part of Mason's birthday. It was good. Everyone had the same complaint: "Boring. Another movie about a tortured rock star that ends up killing himself." Yeah so what. At least they told the story stylishly.

Bijou gets a new home

After seeing Pam and Emily at Lido and filling up on the best war wonton, Matt took me to the Kensington flea market. It's probibly the best flea market in Calgary and I always seem to find something there (the vintage valentine's day card framed in my bedroom, and a 70's cruiser that I've been criticized to have only ridden once). After only being there for minutes and rummaging through vintage children's books, Matt stated "Don't freak out. I want you to remain calm, but have you seen the bird cage?" I freaked out and bought it immediately. 20 bucks. 5 times more expensive than Bijou's previous home.

I adore the obvious art deco design and beautiful graphic ornament on the front glass. *swoon* It gives Bijou soooo much more room to flutter and freak out. It took me a while to get him in it, considering the fact that he absolutely hates me. I left the cage door open to his previous cage (also a thrift store find, but much smaller and designed 2 decades later than his new one). He eventually flew around the apartment manically until landing in Leroy's bowls, getting trapped AGAIN in the blinds and eventually letting me scoop him up into a tea towel to transfer him to his new home. He currently investigates his new perches and toys.

Bijou pictured in his old home, nervously awaiting his transfer.

Apart from the new bird cage I received a new painting from Isreali artist Julie Avisar that I've hung beside Chelsea's piece in my "den". It's a gorgeous red/fuscia on wood, part of her tree series.

reunion tour

I spent the afternoon with Ruzz making photos after a 1 year, 2 month hiatus. And Leroy came over to watch.

Ruzz broke my house down to the ground. Like last time. Reunion tour '07.

leg decorations, hot turkey sandwich

I love tights. I think my affinity for them developed when I realized I hated jeans. Either too tight in the bum, too baggy in the bum, too long in the leg, too tight in the waist. And paying $300+ for the mental anguish of finally finding the right pair that doesn't give you muffin-top is a total rip-off. But tights. They come in a kaleidescope of textures, colours, thicknesses. The permutations and combinations of boots-skirts-tights is quite delightful. However, my favorites are overused and I'm fully pushing the boundaries of their life expectancies, so I turned to the internet to replace/add to my collection. This is when I found www.sock-dreams.com. Hello. Where has this been all my life? I wait eagerly for the package to arrive.

 

On a completely non-"stupid-girl-stuff" related note, I finally checked out Lion's Den last night after walking past it multiple times for the past 3 or so years that I have worked near it. It ruled. It was the magical diner from a dream. A Ma and Pa place that seemed to be decorated in 1977, the jukebox was skipping, the owner spoke to us about scientific principles and a weird guy sat silently licking a chocolate ice cream cone the entire time we were there. Hot turkey sandwiches with peas and mashed potatoes filled our bellies. Definately a gem hidden in the dirty landscape on the cusp of the east village and a downtown construction zone. A return visit to photographically document the character is in order.

Vandalized Vintage and Space

Today I bought some art from New Zealand artist trixie delicious. I've had an eye on her stuff since I first came into contact with it on flickr.

So Mike and I have been working on a collaborative art project together for a show in December at Art Central. We were super gung-ho about it at the beginning, loads of concepts and excited to start on it. However, Mike and are are the same personality type, we love creating ideas and starting projects, but as time wears on, we lose interest. Both of us are a little afraid, because in 4 weeks we have to have a body of work to present in a glass gallery. Yikes. Our concept revolves around the idea to create images completely without glass, the entire process. This presented a huge challenge to both of us, as we are hugely involved in digital photography, relying on glass to capture our images, and then relying on digital tools to heavily process them, making them as beautiful as we wanted and creating them exactly as seen in our heads. We decided to make the content of our photos about the dependant nature of space and objects. About withrawing attention from the objects in space and becoming aware of space itself. Today we climbed on the roof of ACAD and shot the open landscape of the dark sky setting over West Hillhurst.

Here's the camera we're using to shoot it and a gallery of the kind of images it creates:

empty hallway

So after months of unassembled bits and pieces of an Ikea wardrobe have been left unassembled and sadly sitting in my hallway, I decided that organizing my clothes was a priority. Matt reluctantly agreed to be my assistant assembler and our efforts failed. Blood, sweat and pouting ensued and it was agreed that a professional needed to be called in. I called "Steve" and he showed up with his miniature wife and her mom. A worthwhile $150 and an hour and a half later they put us to shame. It's an enormous piece of furniture, but I can now see what skirts I have and I no longer need to rummage for tights.

On another note, Matt joined the army last week. Congrats! He says he is shamed by his haircut.

popcorn paws

New thriftstore finds:

After spending the morning with 4 children, a dog, an ex-boyfriend and some watercolours, the ex-boyfriend brought me to Toys R Us to buy Alicia a skipping rope. It was during this time we discovered a hidden Goodwill. Lately I'm in love with patterns on plates.

Then I was lucky enough to spend a lovely afternoon with Leroy "Popcorn Paws" Olah during which time we played dress up.

Holy Fuck

My new pretend boyfriend is the keyboardist/knob turner in Holy Fuck which Mike and i witnessed live on Thursday night. He used a miniature Barbie piano he found at the Value Village in Regina to make one song.

Also, in my quest and obsession for new art, I rececently received in the mail 2 beautiful prints from ohmycavalier. They're prints of pencil drawings on beautiful printmaking paper. *swoon*