imperfect ritz!

 Ritz crackers, the perfect cracker, are always exactly the same until today. Found two partially burnt crackers in the package. Mind blown. 

William picks charcoal back up

 William got an idea for a drawing he'd like to do with charcoal and chalk (although he doesn't know how they mix). While it's not for a class (and he has homework most days), he started it. The drawing is unlike what I expected. More as he progresses. 

cupcakes

 Margaret made more of these amazing cupcakes. Trying not to binge on them. Tis a binging year I realized as I plow through more Netflix, Disney, and Prime shows. 

Wrong pink for Barbie

I mixed up my colours wrong and couldn't get the right pink for this Baywatch Barbie camera. Later I realized the colour I needed was in my kit but by this time it might be too difficult to correct. I think I started to get the bent cardboard all right though. 
 

Back in painting groove

Painted with my sister today. After feeling rather miserable about painting a plastic toy camera the other day, I felt far more focused painting this early-20s camera that Gerda lent to me.  

cupcakes

 Fighting the mid-winter despair, Margaret made some of the best chocolate cupcakes ever. William was in class and then in a game afterwards so Margaret and I dove deep into "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". 

Fish, the continuing saga

 

I keep (over) feeding the fish so that they don't each other. The babies are getting bigger. I sometimes count ten of them (there are at least 9 babies). 

Painting toys

 Painted this plastic toy that is sort of a canteen with a cup for a lens. Didn't get it right. Wondering if I need to, or should, invest the same effort into every painting. 

Fell on my back. Feeling crummy. 

Getting tired of eating

 Part of staying home all the time is the constant presence of the kitchen. Cooking and eating happens far too regularly. Even our favourite meals are becoming humdrum. Made Mickey Mouse pancakes. The whipped cream was sour so we just had some syrup. 

Painting class resumes

 First time seeing my sister in a couple months. Painting class resumed. Less people, more space. Nice to get out a bit. 

Graphic Novel collection

 In an amazing act of generosity, Margaret became the recipient of three boxes of graphic novels from artist Martha Cole who is apparently downsizing. There is a huge sampling of different artists and styles. Wow. We'll be reading them for quite some time. 

Fish population

 

As the baby fish that have survived get bigger, they are learning that when the light turns on, food comes. They are also hiding less. I believe there might be nine of them. 

Sunday at home

 I guess it is no longer unusual to spend the whole day, especially a weekend day, at home. Weather is nice but I'm still not drawn to go out. Subscribed to Disney Plus on Friday. Tons of good movies but I've seen most of them. Watched WandaVision, some Clone Wars (we've seen seasons 1-6 already so there are only 12 new episodes) and began The Mandalorian. Also watched Return to Oz with William because it's always been regarded as the most bizarrely scary Oz version with its electro-shock therapy which will allow her to never be bothered by memories of Oz again. 

New influx of cameras to paint

 I painted the Betacam again (third time I think) as I was low on cameras. Gerda then arrived with a bag of new ones, although three of them are toys shaped like cameras. I still enjoy that as a challenge. New colours. 

Working with Sandra

 Met with Sandra for a while today. Zoom can sometimes be good for going through details of a video. I gave her notes as we moved through it slowly. At the end, I realized that I needed to create a bit of a "how to" video to help her through some discrete aspects of After Effects so I based everything around this drawing I did. Don't know why this person is smiling so much. I just wanted some tones and soft edges and clear contrasts. I also wanted the image to be photographed poorly, and thus the shadow of my hand across the image. 

Cat is a dog

 When Margaret goes out, Sylvie sits and watched the door for her to return, waiting for food. 

Tree down

 Christmas tree stayed up for slightly over a month. By the end, it wasn't even dry and hadn't begun dropping all its needles. I guess the extra cost paid off. It was smaller than usual so here are all the ornaments. I took it all down, put all the ornaments and lights away, cleaned the space, and put everything back into pre-Christmas mode by myself. 

Baby fish

 Last night there was apparently a cloud of new fish in the tank. I didn't see them but I was told. Today there are about 8 small ones. I think the white fish is the mother. She's getting very aggressive, butting the darker fish whenever she sees him. I think he is eating the babies. 

Margaret collage with a collective

 Margaret joined her collage collective at the Balkwill Centre to work on a touring book show. They have been sent books that each collective around the world has a member do a different page within. Everyone was masked and so on of course. 

flue shot

 Got my flu shot. The demand has dropped so there was no need for reserving a spot online. I just asked while I was at the pharmacy and I got one. This is my band-aid. 

Second Trifle

 Still had ingredients from last week's trifle so we made another. Bit less booze this time. 

Rebuild of Lego Crystal Reaper

 12 years ago I bought William the Lego set from the Mars Mission series called "The Crystal Reaper". A cool space machine but the images of it in the instructions really bothered me. I wrote an article about it (rather flimsy, but just a freebee thing for a now defunct online mag) but I could not include any images with the article because by that time the set had been disassembled. 

Over the past few days William and I searched out (most of) the pieces and he started re-assembling it. More later. 

Below: from Calgary on November 30, 2008

William looks at new glasses

 William and Fred both had eye check-ups. William needs an adjustment to his prescription and was looking at glasses. Fred's search took quite a while so William opted out of looking further. He's only had his for two years and one of those years has been spent at home. 

Another nice day to be out

 William and I went for a walk. Picked up a camera from Sandra and Brad, then dropped in to the candy store (no soft serve). Found some remnants of a snow sculpture from a lost civilization. Later we went to a fire pit session Gerda hosted in her yard. Joanne and Michael were there. Talked philosophy. 

Fire pit

 Temperature up to 4 degrees today. In anticipation, William had Emma over (home for the holidays) to walk and talk and hang out beside our first fire pit of the year. 

New year's day with new roles?

 William opened the champagne last night. Getting the feel for it. Today the cats seem to be weirder the usual. Sylvie basically sat on Nick while William and I watched some Dark Shadows.