What Mama Scored

How did it get to be Wednesday already? I could have sworn it was just the weekend seconds ago. Was there time travel? I suspect time travel. Or maybe aliens.

Anyway. Did all the (non- European) mama types have a lovely mothers day? Mine was pretty awesome, stinky weather notwithstanding.

Sunday I got presents delivered to me in bed.
"MUMmeeeeeeee parcel mum-mee ope parcel mum-mee. MUMMMMMeeeeeee parcels!"
And the bear was gracious enough to let me open them myself. I knew what I was getting as I had helped choose it, but it was my sweetie's idea so that totally counts.
I got a hat. Just like Teddy's. See:


And a little red watch. Both inexpensive little presents that my sweetie thought about. I LOVE them.
Then we had a spot of breakfast, English bacon sammiches, made by my sweetie.
Then we went back to TCAF, the Toronto Comics Art Festival, (it's fairly indie so think Ghost World or Jellaby as opposed to superhero-giant-boobs-guys-in-tiny-pants).
I wandered around, talked to some folks and had a really nice moment with Joey Comeau (AND I totally managed to not choke and say something creepy. So yay for me.)
My sweetie took Teddy home when it was his nap time and left me with a crisp shiny $20 bill. Which was a brilliant present.

Does that sound stupid? It wasn't, it was AWESOME. In a couple of ways. Firstly, who doesn't love a shiny new bill, all ready to be spent on nothing but silliness; not boring old stuff that you need or even something useful-but-fun like lunch, but just plain old life gravy (you know, the extra stuff that goes on top and makes life more delicious?).
And also $20 is just enough to get something nice but not enough to feel guilty about.
That's not just me right?
Anyway. Here's what my $20 of gravy money bought me:


The two big ones are Rice Boy posters. Rice Boy is a blisteringly brilliant online comic that is by turns funny, achingly sweet and heart-scaldingly tragic. You can read the whole thing here; in one sitting, while your bottom gets completely numb and 3 or 4 cups of coffee go cold if you like.

And the frogs! See the frogs? Frogs are a bit special for me. And these ones are a letter-pressed, limited edition card by David Huyck. He does really great stuff, and I think you should check it out (but only if you have eyeballs and are into awesomeness!).

So that was the weekend. It was super. The week has been little suckier on account of rain and politics and grumpiness but this weekend is looking like a trip to the zoo. SQUEE!

Who doesn't love...

...placemats you can colour in? Surely the answer is NOBODY!
My washable, reusable version of the family restaurant staple is up now over at weebabystuff.

And I'm fairly happy with how they turned out. The next version will totally be on a floppy silicone cookie sheet liner and may feature dinosaurs. Or dog in clothes. Or pin-up girls. Or tattoos. Or ferrets. Or Andy Wharhol's kids book illustrations. Or ferrets.
What I'm saying is there are POSSIBILITIES here people!

It's ART baby! ART!

OK. Time for something funner than that last post. Like... one of these maybe:



It's a magnetic picture frame for the fridge. So Teddy's abstract art can be properly appreciated! This one is called "Blue Dog Reclining With Grapefruit".
The full tute is over at weebabystuff if'n you want to take a look.

Kid art slays me, I like the random scribbles that Teddy does a LOT but I LOVE LOVE LOVE drawings by kids who are a bit older (the other one on the fridge is by my little brother David) It's like being given a glimpse of how they see the world and it's magic.

Castle Awesome Update

As promised, the update on Castle Awesome.
So far I have got the inside all sewn up, some plastic cut up and a drawbridge made.
And Ivy, I have some ivy.
Interesting fact, my sister has the baddest embroidery skills in town. She totally totally does.

ME? Not so muchly, my embroidery has a touch of the maximum security prison about it; actually, maybe cons are awesome at the embroidery on account of all that free time. Who knows.
Anyway, here's the progress:

Felt? It'll Never Withstand the MIGHTY Trebuchet!*

You guys can keep a secret right?
Want a sneak preview of what I'm making my bear for Christmas? O do say yes! 'cause A'ly I'm dying to tell someone and two'ly if you have any super-clever ideas now would be the time to pony them up.

I'm making a felt castle. With a drawbridge and turrets! I snaffled the idea from here (isn't she clever? Yay for her!)

My version is a bit bigger, and instead of using cardboard I'll be using plastic, (because I hate the environment, though ironically, the felt is made of recycled plastic bottles).

I'm basing the basic shape on Bolton Castle, which I have renamed CASTLE AWESOME in my head. It's a late 14th century stone quadrangle fortress and it looks just like a castle should.
See:


So far mine looks like this:
Um, if you squint you can think of it as a post-siege castle. Heh.
But come back tomorrow, I'll be posting a picture a day as I go along. What I have made is THIS fellow:


He is Fred, the majestic charger. And he's MAJESTIC dammit and pose-able! He has a pipe cleaner skellington. Eventually he will also have tack. and eyeballs.
He's all my own design (could you tell, on accounta the bizarro?) and If you too have need of a majestic charger I'll be throwing together a tute over the next few days and if I'm feeling racy there will be a PDF.

*Such a nerd.

Super ! Awesome! Magic!

I have been making STUFF, after ages of not making ANYTHING.
Stuff like a ridiculous t-shirt for my bear.

Our Dollar Store had Lands End t-shirts for $2. They're all thick and lovely so I snaffled a couple with a view to doing some freezer pencil stenciling (heaven forbid my kid wear a plain t-shirt). But then I spotted some iron-on letter transfers. I was all "AH HA!" right there in the store, causing people to edge away from me slowly.

Wondering what his shirt says? It says:

SUPER
AWESOME
MAGIC

of course! Yes it's silly, but it cracks be up every time I see it. And dude, magic IS super awesome. Also it 's a nice time saver, when folks are all
"Hey guy! How you doing?"
Teddy can point to the applicable answer.

Two things happened this Saturday, the first was Nuit Blanche the second was our three year anniversary of moving to Toronto.

Nuit Blanche was awesometastical, it's a one-night-only, all-night art exhibition that covers the whole city. What you do is stomp around in your sensible shoes looking at lovely art things. (I salute you girl in Dundas Sq with the hooker heels on, though in retrospect it's possible you were in fact a hooker)
Lovely art things like this:
Which is a message I can really get behind! This was a huge light rig strung across city hall, and it would flick through random letters then settle on the words for a few minutes. We happened to be around for this sequence, which came complete with creepy jackboot-y sounds and was very 1984. Standing around with a 100 or so other people in the night, trying to find meaning in random letters was deliciously surreal, and kinda fun. I reckon that if we'd have got the Hope, Love, Life phase the experience might have been a little different (and suckier maybe?)

And this:

Run! Run from the giant silver bunny of awesome. Save yourselves, I'll stay here and loot the shoe shops of the Eaton center.

The night was just warm enough, it didn't honk down with rain and the atmosphere was completely Torontonian, as in friendly, cheerful and willing to be entertained. I really do love this city.

And you guys! It's been three years! We've lived in Toronto for three years! Sometimes it feels like they've gone gaspingly, blinkingly, crazily quick. Other times it seems like we've been here for ever.
And they've been three really big years. Big, life changey years, with the baking a baby and the HAVING a bear around and the head injuries. And the complete lifestyle changes and the career choices and the pooch acquiring and the adulthood finally arriving. They've been awesome for the most part. I really feel that our lives here are better and fuller and happier than they were in London.
A big part of that is our lovely chums, really we know some seriously awesome folks, this whole emigrating thing could have been lonely and hard and kinda poops without them. So big kisses right at y'all.