the mystery seed that 'a' planted at the you grow girl book launch party was a sunflower. which is a funny coincidence b/c along w/ my cosmos seeds, i sowed sunflowers too. three out of the four are developing heads, so hopefully i will have 3 more nice sunflowers blossoming on my balcony.

although, i'm probably jinxing my sunflowers by assuming that they'll bloom. earlier in the summer i thought i would have a bountiful harvest of tomatoes, but instead i only have 2-3 tomatoes on each of the plants. booo

lessons learned from my first year of balcony gardening is that plants need bigger planters!

a nice weekend just chilling with friends, i think people find the temperatures a bit more bearable these days with the rains alleviating a lot of the humidity. last night we spent the evening talking and laughing on a balcony of the george weston house on historic palmerston blvd. the house, like many turn of the century houses in the annex district, has been converted into apartments, but has retained the beautiful foyer and main, wooden staircase. the lobby area even has a 'g' and 'w' monogram created out of tiles.

tonight i made a pretty successful attempt at hiyashi chuka (japanese style, cold chinese noodles). i think i did ok, but next time i'll have to add a bit more vinegar to the sauce (kakejiru). a friend brought sake and another couple brought daifuku for dessert. a very japanese evening indeed!

some cool canadian chicks:

• esthero's follow up album is finally released! a departure from the moody first album, with stronger social commentaries and colabos with sean lennon and andre 3000.
• i've been keeping my eye on jillian tamaki since i saw her illos in the applied arts illustration & photography annual last year. her illos always have so much detail and great colour schemes. you can see her illos in the arts & entertainment section of cbc.ca (i've been visiting almost daily to see if there are any new jillian illos) and magazines like bust and the new yorker. wow!
• ... and you can't get any cooler or cuter than metric, well unless you are feist.

i didn't make this guy up. he is a real person i encountered on the mean streets of toronto (actually, not really ... he was on queen street). i have no idea who had called him a meathead, but i just had to sketch him out for posterity.

illustration friday topic: aging

dear blog,

i'm sorry i've neglected you for the past several weeks. i wanted to write to you but my ideas always became very heavy and angry with no solutions to these thoughts.

so instead i will write about my long weekend - simcoe day for those living in ontario (i took tuesday off to make it an extra looOOong weekend).

my very nice weekend consisted of driving up to north bay with my friends from cali and philly, after some nerdy activities on saturday and sunday (which were fun as well, but nerdy nonetheless and will not be disclosed here). the highlight of my trip, 338kms north of toronto, was watching 'the tempest' right on the shores of lake nipissing. sitting on bleacher style seats, the audience surrounded an eliptical stage where the actors had to ensure that people sitting on both sides of the stage were able to hear their dialogue.

the play was set in a northern ontario island where the shipwrecked crew and captain met first nations people and spirits. this interpretation of shakespeare's play was very unique and quite clever. the lake was even used as part of the set at one point. great costumes and great performances by all the actors.

i was never a theatre person (i like the spectacle of musicals) but i think this play has sparked an interest in me.

yours ever so truly,
hyedie