DIY Buttons! Acid-wash Planets.

In honour of my attendance to see Handmade Nation (at The Mercury Lounge) tomorrow (Tuesday) night, I will just make a quick post about a really easy DIY recycling project. They are by no means done (I still want to exact-o up a cool stencil appliqué, and need to purchase some spray glue or lacquer to add in tiny collage pieces), but I think they look pretty cool the way they are. Maybe I will leave some of them the way they are, and work on the rest. I've taken some old activist and election buttons and spiced them up. This isn't a new concept- it just involves a bit of spray paint, and maybe some further design elements.

I have limited spray paint supplies right now, and craft supplies in general, it seems. I have an exact-o knife, but no suitable stencil making material, and no clear spray paint or glue... and also a missing glue gun!!! But, with the paint colours I do have, I decided to go with an Acid-wash planet inspired theme.

I'll be sure to post any updates in design, but until then, you can have a look that the photos so far. I wasn't wearing my glasses when taking them or choosing the best edits, by the way, and I think some of them are a tiny bit out of focus. Poor lighting...

Two Good Soups

I have a giant soup pot at my place--the kind big enough to boil a whole turkey in, if you had to. These soup recipes are enough to fill the pot. I love making big pots of soup because I live with a lot of people, so it gets eaten really quicky. In fact, I put the soup in individual jars so that people can just grab it and go. Alternatively, a mason jar with a ribbon on it, full of tasty soup, makes a nice little present/treat for a friend. These soups also freeze really well. And they make really nice potluck treats. So, here are 2 really hearty good soups:

"v8" Soup.

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large onion, diced

2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled

3 medium-largish potatoes

6-7 carrots

4-5 large beets

1 bunch of green kale, chopped

2 cans of white beans

2 cans of crushed tomatoes

3 litres of unsalted vegetable broth or water (as needed)

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

Thyme, or whatever herb you like

1/2+ tsp of chipotle chili powder

1. Cube the potatoes, peeled sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots. In a bowl, rub in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast in the oven at 350, for about 45 minutes, or however long it takes your oven to roast them...

2. In a large pot, sautée the onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil at medium heat. Add the garlic, chipotle chili powder, some thyme or other herb (if you'd like), and a bit of black pepper. Continue sautéeing.

3. Once the onions are "done," add the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes and the two cans of white beans. Let it simmer to a boil.

4. Once the start of your broth is boiling, add the kale and 1 1/2 litres of vegetable broth. Cover the pot and steam the kale in your broth. This should take 5-10 minutes. Once the kale is steamed, use a hand blender to completely blend the broth, kale and all. If you want to make the kale chunks as small as possible, you can use a food processor, but if you don't mind a bit of texture, the hand blender is a lot easier and less messy.

5. Finally, add your finished roasted veggies. Let them simmer in your mashed up broth for 20 minutes. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

6. Once the roasted flavour has simmered into the broth, use a hand blender to blend in the roasted veggies. Add liquid (broth or water) and seasoning as desired.

White Bean, Kale, Potato, Roasted Garlic Soup

1 bag of white beans (about 2 1/2 cups dried), soaked for 24 hours.

2 onions, sliced

16 small-medium potatoes, diced

1 bunch of kale, chopped

6 large cloves of garlic (unpeeled)

Fresh rosemary, about 5-6 "branches"

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

4 tbsp Lemon juice

2 cubes of unsalted vegetable bouillon

1. Rub the diced potatoes in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Rub the unpeeled garlic cloves in olive oil. On a cookie sheet, roast them in the oven. About 40-45 minutes, or less- depending on your oven.

2. Sautée the onions in a large pot. At 2 tbsps fresh rosemary, chopped, and pepper.

3. In a separate smaller pot, boil the white beans until cooked. You can add a bit of bouillon so that they absorb the flavour. When they're done (about 20 mins on high), add them to the pot with the onions.

4. Once you've added the white beans to the onions, add 2 cups of boiling water with 1 cube of vegetable bouillon dissolved in it. Then add the chopped kale and cover the pot with a lid. Steam the kale for about 10 minutes.

5. Once the kale is steamed, use a hand blender to blend the broth.

6. Add the roasted potatoes, and blend. Dissolve the second cube of bouillon in another 2 cups of water, and add as needed. Peel the roasted garlic cloves and add them as well.

7. Chop the rest of the rosemary, and it along with the lemon juice and more salt and pepper to taste. Simmer the soup for about 20 minutes and it's ready to eat.

*I also added broccoli stalks to this soup. I Chopped them and boiled them in with the onions before I added the kale. I found them to be very "woody," but if you want to use broccoli, or broccoli stalks, it works well in this soup.

Daal Meets Chili Stew

This is a super quick and easy dish to make that requires very little attention. You can add spinach and other veggies to it beside the leeks, as well.

3-4 cups of dried red lentils

1 small onion, diced

1 cup (or one whole bunch) of leeks, chopped

1 can of crushed tomatoes

1 can white beans

2 cans kidney beans

2 heaping tbsps low salt vegetable bullion

2 tbsps garlic powder

2 heaping tbsps chipotle chili powder

2 heaping tbsps cumin

1/4 cup of red pepper flakes

3 tbsps lemon juice

2 tbsps olive oil

2-4 cups water

1. Rinse the red lentils and soak them for approximately three hours. Rinse and drain.

2. In a large pot, heat 2 tbsps olive oil on medium-high heat. Begin to sautée the diced onion and chopped leeks. Once they have softened up a bit, add 1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice to the pot and finish sautéeing until tender.

3. In a measuring cup, mix two cups of hot tap water with the vegetable bullion and 1 heaping tablespoon each of the garlic powder, cumin, and chipotle chili powder. Reserve the other 1 heaping tablespoon of each to add later.

4. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the lentils and water-spice mixture to the pot. Allow to simmer until the lentils begin to thicken and cook a bit. Add the tomatoes and continue to simmer.

*** You can totally stop here and eat the lentils like this with rice... super yummy! ***

5. Once the lentils are soft, add the three cans of beans and the remaining amount of spices. Add more or no water depending on how much water the lentils soak up. I added about another cup with the rest of the spices.

This dish is great when served with rice cooked with a little bit of tumeric. The cumin and red lentils give it a kind of daal feel while the chipotle, lemon juice, and kidney beans give it a chili feel. You can try adding TVP for extra texture and more of a chili feel.

Sexy Pasta Salad

1 900g bag of rotini (or any other pasta)

1 8oz bag of spinach (or frozen, thawed)

1 bunch of asparagus, blanched & sliced into 1 " pieces

1 cup of blanched peas (or frozen peas, thawed)

1 large tomato, diced

1 large avocado, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsps of fresh basil, chopped

Dressing:

1 1/2 cups pesto (if you are vegan, make sure you get a cheese free pesto)

1/4 cup milk, soymilk, olive oil, or vegannaise (I used milk)

6 tbsps lime juice

1 tsp of chipotle chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1 clove of fresh garlic, minced

A dash of salt

Optional (i.e. if you're feeling ritzy)

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan

1. Cook the pasta. When you are finished, rinse it in a strainer with cold water to cool it down quickly, and also to keep it from sticking.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sautée pan on medium-high heat. Add the four cloves of garlic and cook for a minute. Once they are starting to brown, add the entire 8 oz. bag of spinach. Cook until just wilted. It helps if you put a lid on the pan, once you've stirred it around for a bit.

3. Once the spinach is done, transfer it into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to cool it down quickly.

4. While your pasta is cooking, you will blanch the peas and asparagus. (You can even use the same pan that you just cooked the spinach in). Just add an inch and a half of water, put in the veggies, and put on medium heat. Cook until just bright green, so that they are cooked but still have a bit of a crunch (about 3-4 minutes). Then, drain them and rinse them with ice cold water.

5. Toss every thing in a large mixing bowl and stir together, including the chopped basil, and diced avocado and tomatoes.

6. Stir in the dressing, a little bit at a time. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep in mind that pesto is quite salty. If you are going to add fresh parmesan and pine nuts, add them bit by bit with the dressing.

For a super healthy option, use vegan pesto, omit the milk and go for olive oil cut with extra lemon juice and a bit of water (or apple cidar vinegar). For the pasta, use brown rice pasta, and put in 2 tbsps of flax seed into your dressing.

Food for thought... thought for food?

I initially wanted this blog to be primarily recipes again, but I have only posted two recipes so far. This is unacceptable! So, here are a couple more veggie/vegan friendly recipes that I have up my sleeve. The first recipe just sort of happened a couple months ago. I was making a grilled cheese sandwich and I had some extra tomato left over, so I just fried it up, put it on top of my sandwich, and ate it with a fork and knife. With a little thinking, it turned into this:

Black Tomato Open-Face Sandwich

2-4 Slices of bread (halved ciabiatta buns, crumpets, french loaf), toasted

1-2 Large Beefsteak Tomato(es)

1+ Avocado(es) OR Fresh Mozzarella cheese

Fresh basil leaves or dried basil

Oil

Salt and Pepper

1. You can do this on a grill or in a pan, if on the grill, heat it to high flame. If you are doing it in a frying pan, heat it on med-high heat with about a teaspoon of oil.

2. Slice the avocado or mozzarella and set aside. If you're using mozzarella, you can put it on top of the bread under the broiler for a minute to melt it.

3. Slice the tomatoes into 1 cm thick rounds, so they look like tomato steaks. If you're cooking them on the grill, brush them with oil and pepper (and dried basil if you're using it dry). Grill for 5+ minutes until soft and grill-marks appear, with golden brown/black edges. If you're pan-frying the tomatoes, fry for about 5+ minutes until golden brown with black edges. Season with pepper and dried basil while cooking, or just pepper.

4. Assemble the sandwiches, open-faced style with the bread and cheese/avocado on the bottom, followed by fresh basil if you have it, and then topped with your grilled tomato and some salt, and perhaps some extra pepper.

The vegan avocado version of this sandwich is amazing! I ate it for breakfast this morning on the Wild Oat's potato sage sourdough bread. I really like using avocado as a substitute for fresh mozzarella because it provides the same creamy freshness. It's also amazing what a little grilling does to bring out the flavour of tomatoes. I never used to like cooked tomatoes, but I think it's because they have always been over-cooked. By the way- you can definitely make this sandwich english-muffin/eggs bennie style and use egg instead of avocado, and add cheese too. I think it would be really delicious.

Now that grill season is almost upon us, I think I'm going to bust out a little portobello mushroom burger action! Since, I can't leave you with just one recipe, I'll leave you with this one too:

Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers

4 Ciabatta buns

4 Large Portobello mushroom caps

4 slices of smoked provolone or smoked gouda OR avocado AND/OR carmellized onions

1 Bunch of fresh, washed arugala

2-3 Cloves of Garlic, minced

Dried Thyme (optional)

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

1. Heat the grill to medium-high heat. If you have a top rack for toasting things, makes sure you put it on.

2. Slice the buns in half and brush each side with olive oil and garlic. You can sprinkle a bit of salt to. The first time I made this I made a sort of garlic butter and used it on each side, which is amazing, but if you want a vegan version, go for the olive oil, and sprinkle a bit of salt for flavour, if you'd like.

3. Brush the mushroom caps with olive oil, any leftover garlic from the bread and lots of pepper. You can also season them with thyme if you'd like.

4. Grill the mushrooms 3-5 minutes on each side, until soft and juicy, but still meaty. Toast the buns until golden brown.

5. If you're making "cheeseburgers" add the provolone or gouda on top of the caps a few minutes before they are done to melt the cheese. And season with Salt.

6. Assemble the burgers, adding the arugala (and avocado or onion if you're going for the vegan version).

These are absolutely heavenly. When served with some fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumber, or a nice salad, they make a really great backyard meal.

Fixed life.

Saturday was host to a sort of fixed gear circle jerk known as March Madness. It was put on by my friend Jason and some of his friends/roommates. It was a trackstanding, sprinting, and skidding (worst stopper) competition. Mostly it was just a place for people to all meet up and do the thing they love to do. I am not really a competitive person, nor do I like to "show off" my skills (or lack thereof), so I treated it like a party more than anything. It was awesome to just joke around and have a good time. I really liked how down to earth and fun this event was. Everyone was just there to have a good time. No one talked smack, no one was intimidating or sized anyone up. It was really welcoming. This was the first time that my friends and I wore our "crew" hats, which we made last summer as a sort of joke. Originally, they were a silly jab at fixed gear hipsters and their mutated cycling cap style involving baseball caps with turned up brims. Now I just like to think of them as ridiculously awesome.

They even have glow-in-the-dark paint around the cogs and lettering. The best part is that not only do we have a crew named "Crew" with a font logo of DIY-style lettering on top of a cog stencil, we also have a "symbol" that is fluorescent orange. It is essentially two circles with a triangle in between them in the style of the triangle that is formed by the top-tube, seat-tube and down-tube on a bicycle frame. As you can tell from the photo above, things got pretty silly. There was a good ten-minute photo session of trying to look ridiculous and hardcore. Here are some of the gems:

And, just in case you were wondering, a good time was indeed had by all. In fact, the photo below serves as proof to this, as much as it also proves that some of us did indeed wear helmets!

It was also the place that I unveiled my new "whip" to all who were there to see. Anyone who knows me knows well that I am not a "ballin'" person. Having really nice things makes me feel uncomfortable. If took me practically a million years to get an iPod, and it was only after I saw how practical they were for treeplanters and people who travel and love music. And, well, once I had an iPod and Mac software, and then started to see Mac OS's and how well they work and my computer started to die... well, it was only logical to get a Mac. And... well, yeah I have a cellphone, but it's not an iPhone or a razor or a krazor or anything like that. Anyway. I like to think I am practical. I like good quality things that will last me forever. If I had the money, I would totally be one of those yuppies with all sorts of outerwear and technical fabrics. I love technical layering. I think it's because I cycle through the winter and tree-planted. Tree-planting made me appreciate dry warmth in only a few layers that I could take on and off throughout the day with the weather, and cycling made me appreciate the compact ness of the layers. A wool sweater, hoodie, and jacket provide nice layered warmth, but they make you look like a damn marshmallow!

So, in that sense, having a nice, sturdy bike is a practical thing. In the past I have been all about "whatever works" in terms of cheapness and quality. However, I was lucky enough to have a KHS track frame practically fall into my lap for $40 bucks cash and a dinner date. Sweet! How could I say no?! After the hell I put my first fixie through with working as a messenger bike full-time, being my sole source of transportation, and riding through the shittiest winter days, I figured it was time for a frame that was less tired. Plus, it's great to have a spare bike to ride on balmy days, and also to have a spare bike for friends to ride, and also to have something to put on the road while I overhaul my first bike. I was also lucky enough to have gone into Phat Moose Cycles on the right day. Kent had built a set of 48 spoke wheels with Velocity Deep V's around a set of Steelwool hubs that had been ridden for a few miles and were being resold at $250 for the set. When it was going to cost me around $180 for a Velocity Deep V around a Miche hub... and then find another front wheel in the garbage somewhere, how could I say no to a set?! So, I have a practically brand new set of amazing wheels... with radial lacing in the front. 48-spoke radial. All I needed to do to the frame was repack and re-grease the headset. I had a pair of Nitto track drops given to me for Valentine's day by a special someone, which fit beautifully on the frame. That special someone was also nice enough to lend me his Miche Advanced track crank, with a beautiful, buttery Italian bottom bracket. I am saving up to buy it from him or get another cheaper crank, as it is much to nice of a piece of art to just have given to me, so, it is on loan to me indefinitely. And, I must say, it is the most beautiful piece of equipment I have ever ridden upon. I finally understand the difference between "whatever works" and "high class rollin'." This is what makes me want to buy the crank in installments rather than give it up one day. Of course, the bike still has a bit of my character added to it- an "I like to ride on top" sticker, and hideous yellow bar tape. Okay, the yellow bar tape was what I had laying around in my drawer. Originally it was so offensive and hideous to me (beautiful bars like that should not be wrapped fully like that, especially with matching-but-not-quite-exactly-to-the-frame-coloured tape). However, now I think it just adds a bit of humour, to go along with the silly sticker and mad spoke cards (which I will definitely take out soon, once I've rolled with them for awhile). You must be curious, after all this textual-oogling I've done, what my bicycle (who is yet to be named, but is definitely female) looks like. Here she is in all her against-a-tree-photo-shoot glory:

And, just in case you were wondering, I am indeed rolling brakeless for the first time ever. It's sweet! And it looks really sexy too! See:

I haven't been so glowing with joy since my first build. The second time around is even better than the first!

A recipe, but not for disaster

So, for my mother's birthday we ended up going to Play, Stephen Beckta's new restaurant at the corner of York and Sussex. It's a kind of tapas concept, with wine pairings. One of the starters we had there was grilled romaine hearts served with prosciutto, gorgonzola and crushed pistachio. We had it without the prosciutto of course, but considering they had the most amazing fine cheese selection there, I opted for a little cheese action. Shitty cheese is a no-no, but fine, local, artisanal cheese is something I just cannot resist. I think it's important to support ethical farming, after all! Anyway, the richness of this dish is an absolutely amazing appetizer that will have you thinking you just ate the meatiest cheeseburger ever in terms of satisfaction! Romaine hearts were on the 50% off rack at the grocery store so there was no better time than to try it at home!

Grilled Romaine Hearts

3+ romaine hearts

3 tbsp+ olive oil

1+ clove of garlic, crushed

Salt & Pepper

Dried basil or fresh basil, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup Pistachios, crushed

1/8 cup crumbled strong cheese OR nutritional yeast (vegan)

1. Preheat the barbeque to full flame. Charcoal barbeques add a great flavour (or charcoal chunks in the bottom of your propane bbq), but without it works too.

2. Chop the stems off the romaine hearts and separate them into leaves. Leave the smaller interiors together as one piece so they don't fall through the bbq grates.

3. Drizzle the leaves with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic, and basil (optional). You can also do this while they're on the grill, which works well.

4. Toss the leaves on the grill. Agitate every once and a while with tongs. There is no need to flip them. It takes 5+ minutes to cook them- just until they are still crunchy, but with blackened and browned edges and are a tad wilted.

5. Top with pistachios & cheese while still hot, or nutritional yeast.

Enjoy!

Mangoes and strawberries were on special so for desert I made an amazing fruit salad too:

Strawberry Mango Salad

2 mangoes, cubed

2 handfuls of strawberries, quartered

1/2 lime

1/8 cup poppyseeds

10 mint leaves, chopped finely

2 tbsp sugar or maple syrup to taste

1. Mix the mangoes and strawberries together in relatively equal parts.

2. Sprinkle in the mint, poppyseeds, sugar/syrup and mix well.

3. Squeeze the juice of half a lime over top and mix again.

Enjoy!

In the lack of an empowered labour movement, there's always thoughts about kitchens to hold onto.

So, for a seminar presentation the professor suggested a debate-style, two-sided kind of thing which discusses how Canadian identity [sic] has gotten to where it is and where it's going or what are issues for concern in the future. My group is the future group, and, as theoretically po-mo (post-modern) as we are, we came the title to “Evolution? Of Identit(ies) in Canada.” I won't get into how worn thin I feel past/future arguments are, and it doesn't really need to be re-iterated that these type of arguments simply further normalize the already dominant eurocentric Hegelian understanding of history. Our group is working under the understanding that there is not and cannot be one coherent Canadian identity and that dividing identity struggles between present and future implies that certain struggles have been addressed. Yes! gains have been made, yes! Battles have been won. However, the more we look at it this way, the more likely movements are to fade and we are to lose ground. Whatever happened to solidarity? Okay, so maybe you've won a battle, turn your efforts in solidarity with others. Imagine how much levelling power there would be if every struggle banded together. Mind you, this is problematic because oppression, just as identity, is intersectional and sometimes the oppressed can be the oppressor.

However, it is this type of thinking that got me interested in my portion of the presentation. We've angled our presentation to essentially discuss how for the future, while there are new points of concern, movements that have petered out need to be reinvigorated and ones that have been silenced need to come to the forefront. I don't want to go on a rant here. Okay, I reaaaaaally do, but I don't have the time right this minute to come up with a completely well-thought-out argument, so maybe I can post it in the future. But, my topic is the labour movement. I say this because while the old unions are still going strong, they have also become heavily bureaucratic- forgetting the essence of what they represent. Moreover, it seems to me that young workers have become far more complacent. There's no sense of radical solidarity. I'm not saying we all have to occupy our coffee shop establishments or send threats of violent action to the pizza restaurants. But, whatever happened to demanding a living wage, and banding together? There's power in numbers. It makes me so sad to see that young workers (especially with manual labour jobs like treeplanting and bike couriering, that are particularly dependent on the economy) have little to no bargaining power. I am not blaming this on the workers. I am blaming this on the system. It's hard to stand up and fight for better circumstances when employers can full-well just fire you and hire some other chump eager to take your job. We as workers need to be less willing to put up with bullshit to give us bargaining power as a whole. But, sometimes a job is a job and a paycheque is a paycheque. But, oh how them union-busting assholes make me want to go on a path of guerilla worker warfare. It's hard to organize when you feel threatened of losing your job. But, something has to be done. They can't have all the power. We will fight and we will win, and we will support each other.

Okay, that was a little more of a political rant than I wanted to post here, especially since it is not at all engaging or intelligent. I apologize. Tomorrow, I promise to post a recipe. I will leave you with five fun kitchen thoughts though:

1. Filling the ice cube tray is the forever forgotten task.

2. The unlabelled jar is always the source of the smell.

3. The last coffee filter was always used in vain.

4. The pot you need is always the one that needs to be washed.

5. Spoons and Tupperware love are talented escape artists.

What are felines that live in laneways?

The past few days have been pretty crazy. I've been working like mad and am also in the process of getting organized in terms of finding work and thinking about summer plans. Not to mention school work and spending as much time on my bicycle as I can. The swimming pact that I made to go swimming every morning hasn't been too successful, but I will keep at it anyway.

People in the Treehouse Collective (my house) are also trying to organize more events for the community and such. Our last concert with Paper Beat Scissors was really amazing. There was a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a really great time. We know we have concerts down. We learned that from last summer, but we're wanting to branch out. My craft night, for example, has been fleeting, but the idea is gold, so it's something I want to keep working on. We've also made a pact to keep having house dinners on Thursday nights, and we're going to have a clothing/everything swap in April.

On Friday night a bunch of friends got together at my place to hang out and have a sleepover so that on Saturday we could head to MEC to take care of some business (more about that later), and then go for breakfast at Bramasole! Breakfast was awesome. We were expecting 6+ people, but ended up with 3, then four. This is us at Breakfast:

This is breakfast! I was soooo starving after our morning ride. I was also still a little hung over, and I had just loaded up with vitamins, so my stomach was turning and in great need of food. It didn't help that we wanted to arrive half an hour early to get a table, so I ended up sitting there with tasty food smells and nothing but coffee. Luckily, Rishi arrived and helped me feel better by giving me one of these:

I guess I should get to the point at tell you that this breakfast was only the precursor to a day of fun: my second ever Alleycat! The first one I did was when I was still a messenger. It was part of the annual North Side Polo Invitational. I got to do that one with my best friend Jesse. This one was a fundraiser for NSPI, so eeeeeveryone was invited, which was awesome.

I like going to more open events like this, that are more welcoming. I don't know why but for whatever reason I get really shy and reserved around the messengers. Anyone who knows me would know that I am by all means not a shy person- in fact I am quite loud and silly, and happy to get to know everyone. I know in the summer it was because I was intimidated. I knew I wasn't a "real" messenger; I hadn't ridden winters, I hadn't proved myself. So, hanging out with messengers and going to messenger events just made me feel uncomfortable. But, when people are friendly and invite me to things, I like to go.

And, this race was really fun. There were 40 people, which is huge for Ottawa standards. And, I did it with my friend Matt, which was awesome. Not only do our bikes looks happy together:

we also make a really good team! Matt was the iPhone photographer and speed demon and I was the sense of direction. If it weren't for Matt, I probably would have happily moseyed my way through, quite enjoying myself, and probably come in almost last. Big swarms of people all intense to get to places are a little much for me sometimes. I'd rather sit back and let everybody go ahead of me! But, thankfully I had Matt to light the fire under my butt. It was only when I was a messenger that I biked as fast as I possibly could, and I forgot what a great feeling that was!

I found that the start of the race was an interesting dynamic, as people were trying to scope each other out and see what was up. There was also a lot of standing around waiting for things to start happening:

(the early arrivals)

(a few more show up)

(everyone standing around waiting)

Then there was the end of the race, where the ranks were in and it was just time to celebrate. There was less shit-shooting to be done, and more talking and catching up, and just being friendly.

Since the big boss security people were hot at our feet, we had to be quick at the Whale, which was the finish line, and head right to Bug Guy's house for the real after party and prize ceremony. This wasn't such a bad thing. It gave us a space to drink and shoot the shit and wait for the prizes. Plus, bikes look a lot cooler in big piles outside of Chinatown houses:

In case you're wondering, this is what bike messengers, fixters, and--well--Alleycat racers in general look like when they're socializing. Notice the beer that is involved and what looks like standing around and talking:

And of course, you're probably just a little bit curious of what the rankings were. There were 40 people in total. Rankings 18-28 (or even 29?) all arrived seconds apart. Silly me, I wasn't in any rush to burst through the door and hand in my manifest, so I ranked 27th. But hey- what's a few seconds anyway? A certain gentleman friend of mine may or may not have done really well... top 3 maybe?

So for my second Alleycat ever, it was a pretty fun day. It was nice to talk to people that I hadn't seen in awhile. Unfortunately, I had to get going pretty quickly for a work party. Mmm free dinner at So Good! So, just as I was kind of getting in the mood to be more sociable, I had to get going. I guess there is always next time.

I've been busy.

So, my mother's forty-ninth birthday has absolutely crept up on me! Tomorrow night we're going out for dinner as soon as I finish work. So, after getting home tonight at 11:00, I had to get busy. Since I am building my new baby (more on that to come - perhaps in the next post), I am absolutely broke. Besides that, I don't usually like spending a lot of money on presents anyway- at least not on people that have a lot of money and can pretty much buy themselves anything they want. I feel terrible because my mother wanted some earrings, and I easily could have made her some, but I didn't have any good beads laying around and I didn't have the time/money to go out and find some. All the bead stores in Ottawa are severely overpriced. I used to have so many awesome beads to make jewellery, but I guess I slowly used them all. Luckily, I had some canvases laying around that I bought on sale at Wallacks for a dollar each. I really like the small, fat, cube canvases. They are really easy to paint and they stick out from the wall, which is cool.

So, here is what I have accomplished in the past hour or so:

I found this hilarious picture of a fabulous lady on the cover of National Geographic, so I decided to make a card out of it. Unfortunately, I only had sketchbook paper, so the card kind of curled and I had to tape the sides. It is a seriously ghetto looking card, but I think that's what makes it funny:

I also spent time on (one of) these paintings:

I had already painted the sunset a while ago at a craft night (more on the craft nights later). I know the sunset is an uncreative and easy cop-out, but it was fun to paint and I think my mom will like it... it's not so ugly that she won't actually hang it anywhere. I quickly painted the second one with just the clouds tonight. I think they make a cute pair, and I really like paintings that are a continuation on several canvases. Unfortunately, I only bought two of those size. I painted the clouds on the second one with highlights on the top so that they could hang like this:

Most of my acrylic paints are almost gone; I had to squeeze the yellow out of the tube like the last of the toothpaste. Unfortunately, I squeezed out a little too much and had some left over. I also had the last "artist trading card" in the pack. It was a pack of six little square watercolour papers. Thankfully it was on sale, so I think it was only 2.50 or something, but as soon as I bought it I realized what a stupid waste of money it was. I could have just cut up my own from watercolour paper. However, I don't own a paper cutter, nor do I own a book of watercolour paper because it is quite expensive and I don't usually paint with watercolours. I quickly flipped through a National Geographic to find a cool collage-worthy photo, and I made this:

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with this, but I think it will make a cute little tag or something for the bag that I made. I had some cool scrap fabric that I wanted to wrap the gift in. It wasn't quite wide enough to pin or tie at the ends--plus, it wasn't hemmed--so, I went to the sewing machine and made this cute bag, which I think will re-use quite nicely for anything, especially for gifting a bottle of wine:

And, that is all my DIY action wrapped up with a pretty red bow!