graffiti

graffiti, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Reading a great book on Basquiat and his brief life in NY. I remembered I took this photo of a message scrawled on a wall. I've seen a few others by the same author on Flickr and the web. Basquiat started writing cryptic messages and poetry on walls around Manhatten, tagging them Samo.

I wonder who ADIII is?

twinkletoes

twinkletoes, originally uploaded by smoooch.

crayons for the journey ahead

Hi.. while I'll be away on my annual vacation, should YOU, intrepid follower of More Kisses Please, get bored I thought I'd pack you a little coloring book to keep you from acting up. Except this coloring book has no pictures but is endless.

Just drop your cursor and go crazy. Click to change colors.

Here's a little inspiration from the man himself.

See you in a couple of weeks.

xxx
Jill

people will be..people

exodus, originally uploaded by smoooch.

My neighborhood had a party the other day. A day to leave the car at home and enjoy the neighborhood. Wander around and look at lots of people doing people things.

walking on stilts
drinking openly on sidewalk patios that stretched out into the middle of the road
spinning a hoop trance like
chanting
hanging around
riding recreated and reconstructed bicycle sculptures
using the road as a giant chalkboard
performing random acts of massage thereapy

and so on..

Despite the general infamy of Vansterdam and particularly Commercial Drive as being havens for open marijuana smoking, narry a pot cloud was to be sniffed and nor a copper to be seen.

handle bar cowboy

cowboy, originally uploaded by smoooch.

curious bike bell found downtown.

tiny

tiny, originally uploaded by smoooch.

How to make a lantern #2- a visual lesson

You need lots of glue to make lots of lanterns. I have a caraffe. Water it down to 3:1 glue to water ratio. Blow up a balloon to about the size of your lantern. Paint the balloon with the watery glue.
Cover the lantern with squares of tissue paper.
With the paint brush, flatten down the tissue paper around the balloon.
Add another of tissue paper and smooth down with your paint brush again.
Continue to repeat tissue paper and glue steps until you have 4-5 layers.
Decorate the balloon with cut out tissue shapes ect..
Hang to dry.
When dry, pop ballon and pull gently from the sides of lantern. using a hole punch, punch two holes on opposite sides. String a ribbon through each hole and tie. Hang on a stick or carry and illuminate with a small tea light.

Jack's on Duty

Look closely.. that's a cat watching the tree'd bear. A 15lb cat named Jack, to be exact. Apparently, "When the bear first came into the yard Jack went after him and scared him up a tree. After fifteen minutes the bear finally got the balls to come back down, only to be chased up another tree minutes later. Finally, worried for the safety of their 15-pound-pussy Jack's owners called him back into the house and the bear went away."

Talk about a tough cat! Now if I could just get Ruby to take down a crow..

Story originally nabbed on Gothamist

Happy Birthday Mom

So, the other day, I got curious and searched for you, Anita Thomas, on the internet. What I found was surprising and a little unusual. I couldn't really believe the amount of images that came up for your name on google.

A Christian singer, a jazz musician, a middle aged black woman working in a cotton mill or a consultant physician in acute internal medicine, the internet provided me an Anita Thomas in many forms but none came close to the one I know.

You've been my mother first and foremost, of course, and an extrodainary one at that. Always there when I was young to wash my scraped knees and soothe my hurt feelings. Walking me to the school bus in your nightgown when I was too scared to get on by myself. Reading me bedtime stories until I got too old. A childhood filled with Tooth Fairies, Easter Bunnies, and Santa Claus. Bandaids, Angel Food birthday cakes, new school clothes and family vacations and Grandma's and Grandpa's. Always making sure I was safe.

You were there when I was an angry adolescent too. Keeping your distance from me, understandably. But there for me nonetheless when I needed a ride home late at night or ran myself into trouble. Countless hours listening to me gripe about endless sources of anger, trying to be supportive and wanting to help. I appreciate that now, more than ever, the solid constant parent you have been in my life. Providing support, a hand up, but rarely a hand out, and a constant and steady stream of love that has pretty much been as unconditional as you could get.

And now, still my mother, but more so my friend. Someone I can share the fun things that happen, the challenges, and the difficuties. Someone whom, I can talk with much more than my phone bill would like and whom I wish I could have coffee or lunch with. I enjoy hearing about the things you're doing, trying out new, or planning. I'm extremely proud to know you as my friend, and I'm so appreciative of the accomplishments you've made in your life as a nurse, a teacher, a loyal friend, a wife and as a human being. Most of all, I'm glad you are my remarkable, incredible, and extrodainary mother.

The one that's willing to get in a photobooth with her 2 grown daughters!

Happy Birthady Mom. I love you very much.

Jill

How to build a lantern

Materials needed:

Balloons
White glue
Paint brush
Lots of tissue paper in light colors cut into squares, strips, stars
Other paper materials: confetti, paper cutouts etc
box of paperclips
hole punch
ribbon or string
garden sticks

1. Dilute glue until watery and no longer pastey.

2. Blow up a balloon until it is a small round orb, not too small, not too big.

2. Paint on glue, and add first layer of tissue paper.

3. Wet balloon again with glue, and add more layers.

4. Continue to repeat #3 until you have 4-5 layers of tissue paper. Get creative with different pattrens, colors etc.

5. Hang on a clothes line with paper clip to dry, preferably overnight.

6. Pop balloon, pull gently away from lantern, punch holes and hang with string or ribbon. Small cutouts can be made with a shrap exacto knife to enhance appearance.

7. Attach to garden stick, put a little tea light inside and there you go.

Tips..

This is messy business. Wear appropriate clothes.
Drying lanterns drip glue sometimes, please hang them outside if its warm and sunny or inside and lay down newspaper.
Try and leave a large enough opening to be able to easily place a tea light inside.
Lighter colors of tissue paper allow the light to move through better making for a brighter lantern. Avoid dark colors unless sparsley.
Confetti is a fun last layer than can have great 'color bleeding' affects. Make sure its paper confetti
Anything less than 4 layers of tissue paper and glue and your lantern will have trouble keeping its form.

Illuminares Lantern Procession:

Public Dreams Society celebrates the light of the summer season with its 18th annual Illuminares Lantern Procession on Saturday, July 29, 2006. The event lights up Trout Lake Park from 7 - 11pm with magnificent lanterns, artistry, music, and magic. This year, Illuminares has a theme: “What grows in your garden? Real or Imagined”. Donations are gratefully accepted for this free of charge event. For more information on Illuminares, contact Creative Director, Mercedes Baines, at 604 879 8611 Ext. 111.

http://www.publicdreams.org/index.html

so dark the con of man

Oh my. My entire foundation of Christian beliefs has come crumbling down. Mom.. all those years of forced Sunday school have been wasted. Dad.. I know you're reading so it's safe to say those sermons delivered by Rev. Schmidt that I had to attend..all forgotten. All I can think about now is the dark con of man, the cover up of the true power of God Almighty. It was a WOMAN. In fact, my angst ridden teenage years could have been spared had I known that there was hope that I as member of the female species could have come out on top.

Oh but really I jest. It was a clever movie and entertaining. Did it need a disclaimer? No, I could tell it was fiction, or have they dug up the Louvre yet. I mean is Mary Mag down there?!! I'll tell you, it did want me to go back to Paris and well..I'm crazy for locations. What I do know is I wish I was clever enough to come up with the spoof that ends with the Holy Grail being at the new Apple Store on 5th Ave, NYC. I can see it. The orb that fell from the sky, the number 5..come on..it hasn't happened yet that I know of, but I can feel it brewing in the collective unconscious..24/7/365/12..

luscious

luscious, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Strawberries are in season. They're cheap like borsht right now. I bought 7 lbs for $10 today. I cut the tops, washed them and bagged them for future berry enjoyment. My mother will be pleased.

wheat

wheat, originally uploaded by smoooch.

the next best thing

I just arranged over the internet to have prints made from my photographs. I went to my favorite Photoshop's website, dowloaded their order software, uploaded my files and info and clicked done. I can even have them mailed to my home. I'll be picking them up in a few days to check it out and if the results are positive it's how I'll have my photos printed. Electronically.

All my photos shown on my webpage that were photographed by myself or shown on my personal Flickr site are able to be purchased. You can contact me at justajill@hotmail.com, if interested.

the best thing

The best thing about living where I do is Trout Lake. And the best thing to do at Trout Lake on Saturdays and Sundays is go to the Farmer's Market! Every weekend I can trundle across the parking lot in my PJ's and buy a fresh brewed organic coffee. I can peruse the samples of fresh organic cheeses and homemade jams. Wander through the displays of barley eye pillows, ceramic candle holders, hemp baby clothes and other down to earth wares until I feel its time to get some fresh greeens and potatoes pretty much picked and dug up that day. Get myself another organic coffee and wander back across the parking lot.

By the way.. I'm moving, but not far enough away to endanger my weekend visits to mother earth.

Also.. I didn't find that rock pictured below, or photograph it. I found it on Flickr and had to share it onwards.

written in stone

written in stone, originally uploaded by omnia.

a little less than usual

I came home sick from Tofino. Achey and feverish and down right sick. So sick I didn't go to work on Wednesday, which is rare. What I did instead is spend the whole day in bed. While I enjoy sleeping the whole day away, the opportunities to watch day time TV are few and far between. So while I was meandering in and out of feverish consciousness, I struggled to keep my eyes awake for various day time talk shows. What's on Oprah?! A mild excitement rolls over me and for a moment it feels like an important task to partake in. I drift away vagually feeling bad that I can't make more of an effort to prop myself up for Ellen, only to awake when I would have returned home anyways. The childish opportunity to indulge in what's often denied, slips away.

In other news.. a steadfast program to keep my work life from permeating and taking over aspects of my other regular life has begun. It's crazy how insipid it is. How if i don't take care my conversations begin to be overshadowed by conversations on THAT topic.

sand hearts found

found sand heart 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

dreamcatcher

dreamcatcher detail 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

pictures of the recent camping trip to Tofino are up in My Flickr site.

camper van's-not

The boyfriend and I took off on Saturday, in the wee morning hours in a rented mini van in search of other sites and sounds. It's a long weekend. Need I say more. No, but I will. Off we went at 4 am to make the 5:15 ferry sailing to Nanaimo. Being the one who slept the most, I became the designated driver.

A quick stop at the first Timmy Ho's and we were off in the direction to Port something or other which would lead us further towards our destination of Tofino and Long Beach. We arrived safely and chose a campsite just outside of Tofino. It's very conveneient with free hot showers and firewood. And an internet connnection. I think you really have to get remote to 'rough it' these days. I mean, we're surrounded with people who are travelling with a little house aka, the campervan and the travelodge.

We spent our first night in a too small tent equipt with shitty 'self-inflate' mattresses that have clearly forgot to uphold their end of the bargain. My back feel like I slept on a boulder. I have just heard the rumblings of 'free' coffee. I must retreive some and continue on with my 'holiday'.

More words and hopefully pictures to follow.