Crocheted Flowers to Brighten Up the Grey Days

It is the time of year that a little yarn flower pinned to a hat or the lapel of a coat goes a long way to cheer up the dreariness. So I set about crocheting some using this pattern. I went an extra step and added a button detail in the center.

I have some much anticipated lady-dates coming up and I plan to give some away to friends. In fact, the burgundy one with the big black button is already in the hands of my pal Julie B, because we met for dinner last night. (I will post about that next week and show you a shot of her modeling her flower.)

Street Style : House Party Version

On Saturday night we went to a house party hosted by my sister. There were so many old friends there and a bunch of lovely new people to meet. It was a great party and everyone seemed to be having a really good time.

As the self-proclaimed Official Photographer, I documented the event for my sis. In doing so I got some shots of the great outfits people were wearing. This is Toronto in the middle of the winter that will go down as the one with the iciest coldest weather. It's the first time we heard term 'Polar Vortex'.

Given how cold it was, I was impressed by the number of ladies who wore dresses and skirts.

I, on the other hand, did not, having changed my outfit at the very last minute to one that included jeans and a two-sweater layering combo. We were taking public transportation to and from the party and would be outside for who-knows-how-long waiting for our connections, so nothing really made sense to me but pants. But then when I arrived to see the nice things people had on I regretted whimping out.

In no particular order I give you some Well Dressed Party People ...

Art and the Alleyways

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/alleyway-south-of-queen-st-west.jpg" alt="alleyway-south-of-queen-st-west" width="640" height="426" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21883 blk-brdr">Do I have you thinking that this post is going to be about some new band fronted by a guy called Arthur, or Art for short? haha, too funny, right? Wrong? Oh ok.Today I'm actually going to show a very small bit of an interesting back alley in Toronto, known as Graffiti Alley, but correctly identified on maps as Rush Lane. Running behind the buildings on the south side of Queen Street West, from Portland Street to Spadina, the whole length of the lane is about a quarter of a mile long (or almost half of a kilometer) and it is totally covered, on both sides of the alley, with extraordinary street art. The paintings also extend up to Queen Street between the buildings in many spots too, such as the Playing Cards piece which is on the side of a building.While street art, and particularly tagging, is not legal in the city, an exception has been made in this alley, where beautiful paintings are not only allowed to be created on the back walls of the shops and apartments along there, they are welcomed.And from what I understand, when a piece of graffiti is more like a painting, there is a pact among other graffiti artists and taggers to leave the art alone, and not deface it or paint over it.As I said, my photos are just a tiny snippit of the full length of the street, and cover the length from Portland to one building west of Augusta. But it goes on and on and is really the most colourful place I've seen in the whole city.

Recent Thrift Store Finds

I only found a few things to bring home on this trip to the Thrift Store (Value Village), but each piece is very useful and immediately entered the realm of 'frequently used' around here.

I'll start with my favourite find of the day ... these glasses. These are Anchor Hocking Boopie Glasses, and I practically dove on them when I saw them. Especially when I saw they were only $2 each. The thing that makes them a Boopie is the beads of glass around the base.

It was funny when I was taking these pictures Nick offered me some wine, so I gave him the glasses to use after I'd photographed them. Then I realized that I'd forgotten to take the pictures of the whole set of things together, so I had to get them back, but he had already poured the wine. He didn't see me take his back and ended up looking all over the place, thinking that he had set it down somewhere and forgotten where. Finally he thought to ask me if I'd seen his glass of wine anywhere. Umm, yes, actually, I had.

House Plants and a Magical Watering Can

I have had house plants for as long as I've been old enough to make the decision to have them. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, because you see the big one with the red leaves in the pictures? I started that plant while just entering high school, from a cutting that I bought at the annual exhibition we have here in Toronto. It's like a fair but really big ... big enough to have a whole building dedicated to plants, called the Horticultural Building. I was always the only one in my family who ever wanted to waste precious fair-time going into that building. (You can see pictures of our visit to the Ex a couple of years ago here if you'd like.)

The cutting came 3 for 2 dollars, but only one took root. And take root it did, beginning its life on a little table in the small bedroom I shared with my sister, then coming with me to university for four years, and back to the city every summer, and then being there in every home I've lived in since then.

It actually almost died once, after a move in the middle of a very cold January, when the doors were left wide open as furniture was moved out and in again. All of its leaves fell off and I was resigned to letting it go. Actually, to be honest, I was welcoming the cessation of responsibility involved in keeping it alive.

But it is still going strong today, and every year I have to cut off huge sections so that it doesn't just take over the place.