unsolicited opinions on random things
Last week I ordered a signed print of the above illustration by Marc Johns, and it arrived today. I’m collecting a bunch of cool illustrations and prints to hang in my office. This is definitely going there. If you like it, you can get your own here.
I’m working on compiling a Leslieville (and possibly East Toronto) baby activity guide that I plan on sharing with you all via Stuff Avery Likes and my blog on the Leslieviller. I’m looking for content to add to the guide.
Please share any and all FREE programs you might know about for babies (and parents of babies). I’m trying to make it baby-specific, so if there’s an age limit to the activity, then I guess it should be for kids under 2.
Any tips you have are greatly appreciated, and like I said, I’ll be sharing the results with you soon.
We had some friends over for dinner the other night, and Michael brought a dozen mini cupcakes from Prairie Girl Bakery. OMG those cupcakes were good. There are a few bakeries in Leslieville that I love, so I don’t often stray too far out of the neighbourhood for baked goods. But next time I find myself near King and Yonge, I’ll just have to pop in and have a treat. And see that wall of cupcake drawers!
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed some of the recent changes, and you may have heard that there are even more coming. One of the more nifty changes is the “timeline” that you can enable on your Facebook profile. It will be available to most users in the next couple of weeks, so you can wait to see what it’s all about, or you can get a sneak peak now. There’s a screen shot of mine, above.
To enable the new Facebook timeline feature, follow these steps as outlined over at Mashable. It’s really not that hard or technical. The most difficult part is signing up for Facebook mobile, which you can promptly disable after you’re done playing with Timeline.
Feist’s crazy-anticipated new album, Metals, doesn’t come out until next Tuesday. But you can hear it now if you give her your email address. I’ve had a listen – it’s fantastic. Enter your deets below, or if that doesn’t work for you, click here to go to the site.
Lately I’ve really been wanting to sew… must be the post-partum nesting hormones. I took 4 years of costuming courses in university (I knew that theatre school training would come in handy some day), so I think I’m a pretty competent stitcher. I’m just a bit rusty… it’s been a while since those collegiate days.
Last year my sister picked up a basic Singer sewing machine at Walmart, and took a few classes at The Sewing Studio in Toronto. I think I might follow her lead, buy a machine, and get my sew on. I can’t wait to head over to MacFab (a fantastic fabric store in my neighbourhood) and pick up some funky fabrics. They have textiles by Amy Butler and Dwell Studio. Now the only question is… what project to start with?
[image above: old-timey Singer ad via Millie Motts]
Wow, what a whirlwind 2 months we’ve had. After visiting family, cottaging, and seeing what it would be like to live in Brooklyn, we’re back home in Toronto. We’ve had a wonderful time away, but missed our family and friends, our house and our neighbourhood. It’s nice to be home.
[photo of Ian and Little C, reuniting with Isabel the dog]
Pink Olive calls itself a “whimsical gift shop”, which is a pretty good description. It’s a teeny tiny little store in Park Slope, Brooklyn, filled with baby things, paper things, and random lovely giftie things.
Pink Olive just started stocking Uppercase Magazine (cool), sells prints by Anna Bond/Rifle Paper Co (cooler), and Maggie Gyllenhaal shops there (coolest). I know because we saw her there this afternoon. She’s as beautiful in person as she is on the screen.
I couldn’t resist buying this “Better Days” 2-print set by Rifle Paper Co. Pretty sweet, no?
Pink Olive ships to Canada through their website if you see anything you just have to have…
Ian and I (and most of our friends) love Modern Family, the sitcom on ABC. It just cleaned up at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night, and the Season 3 Premiere is on tonight at 9pm. It’s a special 1-hour episode.
Also on tonight – Up All Night. Did you watch the pilot last week? What did you think? What are some of your fave TV shows?
Just around the corner from our apartment rental in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, is Cake Man Raven Confectionary. You know that saying, “do one thing, and do it really well”? That’s Cake Man Raven. This guy (whose real name is Raven Patrick De’Sean Dennis III) makes red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and makes it better than anyone else. He’s won numerous awards, made his cakes for many celebrities, has appeared on various TV shows, etc etc etc. Read his Wikipedia entry here – it’s quite entertaining!
My favourite part of the Cake Man Raven shop is how simple it is. Two counters with refrigerated display cases, holding nothing but slices of red velvet cake. No need to be paralyzed by choice in this place. And at $6 per slice (and the slice is huge), it’s a deal.
Cake Man Raven shared his Southern Red Velvet Cake recipe with the Food Network, and you can view it here. I guess I could try and make it, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be as good. I’ll just have to keep visiting the Cake Man Raven shop when I visit NYC.
[photos of Cake Man Raven Confectionary taken by me]