cyclic time

I have been feeling this sense of déja vu, what with getting to see my high school friends so much of late. This was brought home to me today, going to see the Toronto Comic Art Festival at the Reference Library (where I spent a lot of my teenage years) with Reynardin & Faunalia" (we missed Someotherathena who was working behind the scenes, dealing with celebrities, of course) and listening to Faunalia talk about band practice.

Yesterday, I got to see Blythechild, Someotherathena, Reynardin & Faunalia for dinner at Sushi Time (mmmmm.... sushi), and all but B. continued to the Narwhal gallery to see the Tara McPherson show. She looks somewhat like the women she depicts. We ran into R.'s friend Theo & his wife Alex, so we ended up chatting until they closed the gallery. Our host was complaining about the shoe prints on the wall (were the filthy hipsters kicking the wall or posing with their feet up? We will never know.). (The image struck me as a peculiar hommage in the Sushi Time ladies' room. Maybe dumpsters need love too.)

Today, I went out to get some nice things for Mom and found some sort of festival on Roncesvalles. Many shops and restaurants were giving away free samples. A local restauranteur seemed very dismayed when I turned down spare ribs, but I felt stuffed with sushi from the night before. (Friends! Future reference: Please, do not let me polish off B.'s spare sushi after eating a plate of my own!). Then I went to the TCAF and met up with R. & F. I am glad that the comics community is so huge in Toronto, but I felt a little claustrophobic. I bought Kate Beaton's book (and she drew me a little Tesla and remarked on the unusualness of my name) and a few other items. We continued randomly eastward and ended up near Christie and St. Clair, thus had to indulge in some serious ice cream, despite the windy, changeable, overcast weather.


We followed this by a trip to High Park with the dog. Sadly though, the temperature had plunged. So we warmed up with tea and plans for the future... Really a delightful day. Looking forward to seeing friends Monday too at the kid koala music to draw to event.

Walrus dreams of dinner...

I made a new pillow:

This is the front with a patchwork of my "Winter Walrus" lino block, printed in brown and blue on striped white-on-white canvas, with a sushi print cotton, corduroy in lime and blue fabric.

The reverse shows a blue whale lino block print on lavender cotton, green cotton print and grey pin-striped fabric, with the minouette label block printed on a goldfish-print cotton (care of Reynardin - thanks R.!).



And in a new and creative entry in the "Injuries Which Only Happen to minouette" file, I managed to cut myself while photographing this pillow. Yes, I know. You have never heard of someone injuring themselves while photographing a pillow. This is how it's done: I wanted more light, so I detached my angle-lamp from my craft table and held it while photographing. Then I propped it up to use two hands on the camera. Then it fell over, shattering the lightbulb. I unplugged it and picked up the pieces. Then I noticed the blood. Clearly my fear of electrocution is stronger than my foresight about gravity and the dangers of cut glass. I'm telling you, not everyone can injure themselves with such creativity and regularity as I. It's an acquired skill, but I can't recommend it.