Day 198 :: Monday July 16 :: Ottawa

Diagram a new dance step and teach it to others.

Back from holidays and into the routine... a bit bittersweet really. This made-up dance sequence is an effort to bring back a bit of silliness to my day. I didn't teach it to anyone, but feel free to picture me wiggling away in my living room :)

Day 197 :: Sunday July 15 :: Woodstock, NB

Make something inspired by and/or that goes over a mouth (yours or someone else's).

Unfortunately, all good trips must come to an end, and we're on our way home... Our first pit stop is in Woodstock for gas and a snack! I'm bending the prompt a bit by making something that will go in a mouth instead of over it – this raspberry glazed Timbit stuffed into the centre hole of a double chocolate donut was very, very delicious indeed!

Day 196 :: Saturday July 14 :: St-Edouard, NB

Make something that is supposed to be walked on, and walk on it! It could be a type of floor covering, something that attaches to your feet, or...?

Remember the story of the maze? Well, given that I'm at the cottage and this assignment is perfect... it's time to break my self-imposed rule of not doing the same thing twice. I was awake bright and early today, and walked down to the beach to create this large maze while everyone else was still asleep. It took about 45 minutes to create... but the gulls and waves were a great soundtrack, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Once finished, I walked back to the cottage to find some volunteers to try my maze. Soon, mom, dad, sis, dog, aunt and friend were making their way through, hoping to find the way to the middle of the star and the seashell treasure inside. Fun was had by all... what a great morning. :)


My parents walking the maze:

And my sister, having made it to the star centre!

Day 195 :: Friday July 13 :: St-Edouard, NB

Write a ten-word fantasy story. Bonus: illustrate it!

After 13 hours on the road, we finally made it to my family's cottage! With my toes in the sand, this one was easy to write... "Time warp makes New Brunswick beach road trip last forever." If only such a thing was possible...

Day 194 :: Thursday July 12 :: Somewhere along Highway 20, QC

Create a monster that has never existed before.

I'm on the move today! A friend and I are currently driving from Ottawa to Shediac, NB. Yup, that's two provinces that way and 12 hours or so! But we've got good music, lots of snacks, and are both pretty excited at the premise of soon dipping our toes into the Atlantic ocean. So far, it feels like we go from construction zone to construction zone, inspiring me to doodle this 'construction cone monster'... a greedy little bugger making a fortune by peddling those cones along Quebec highways :)

Day 193 :: Wednesday July 11 :: Ottawa

Build a puppet (sock puppet, paper-bag puppet, marionette, stick puppet, shadow puppet, etc.). Bonus: Create a performance with the puppet... Maybe even get your friends to make other puppets and join in!

Hmmm... my first choice would have been a paper bag puppet, but I made one of those less than a week ago... Thankfully, a backup plan came to mind while folding laundry! When we were young, my sister and I would often be tasked with folding laundry. Our favorite part was pairing socks, and we came up with this game called 'sock wedding'. We would each take half the socks, then one of us would secretly select a sock while the other would suggest possible mates. It sounds a bit silly, but was hilarious every time! And in that spirit, here are my sock newlyweds :)

Day 192 :: Tuesday July 10 :: Ottawa

Make a family crest for your own family. If you already have one, make one for a friend's family or even a fictional one.

My family does indeed have its own crest, so I decided to make my own personal GStar version instead. The main part is divided into three parts – top left is an acadian flag, representing my roots; the  diagonal shows waves since i grew up by the ocean; the bottom right... circle... is open to interpretation: it could be either a frisbee, a 'poutine râpée' (traditional acadian meal made of a small ball of salted pork wrapped in shredded potatoes), a 'ploye' (more tradional food, this time a thin buckweat pancake)... or any number of other fun round things :) Last but not least, the crown on top is because i'm a rock star! :D

Day 191 :: Monday July 9 :: Ottawa

Be sweet! Use sugar as your medium or inspiration today. It could be loose, in cubes, in packets, or even used as glue when a bit or water is added. Bonus: Eat what you've made!

I realized this morning that i had no sugar at home, so detoured via Tim Hortons on my way home to pick up some sugar packets. The nice counter person wouldn't part with more than five, but it turned out to be more than enough. Since it's quite late and i'm still fairly exhausted from the weekend (being outside all day running after a circular piece of plastic will do that to you), all i can think about is my bed... so here it is! Unfortunately, there was no way i was eating this much sugar before going to bed :P

Day 190 :: Sunday July 8 :: North Bay, ON

Work with newspaper to make the biggest thing you can.

Ontario Ultimate Championships update: We started this morning as the eighth seed in the top 8, facing the top seed of the tournament... and... we pulled off the upset! It was a very hard-fought, intense game. So on we go to semi-finals, win again and end up in finals. Crazy. The finals were a rematch of the team we played on our first game Saturday morning; unfortunately things didn't quite go our way and we lost 13-11. But second place is still quite the achievement, and we earned a spot at the Canadian Ultimate Championships! Yay! To celebrate, here's a giant number 2 :) That's one of my teammates lying in it to give an idea of size – and we had to put rocks on the newspaper pieces to keep them from flying away!

Day 189 :: Saturday July 7 :: North Bay, ON

Write a limerick about yourself or your hometown ("There was a young fellow from Richmond...").

I'm in North Bay this weekend for the Ontario Ultimate Championships! This is where 13 Ontario teams battle it out for a chance to attend the Canadian Ultimate Championships next month in Victoria. Today unfortunately didn't go so well for my team, BFC... which inspired this limerick:

There was a team called BFC
Playing Provincials intensly
Saturday two-two
Sunday start anew
Top five finish will be the key

And for fun, here's a bonus limerick about yours truly:

There was an acadian gal
Liked to throw frisbees with her pal
Flew over her head
Completely misread
All she could think of was 'brutal'!  (<--- fine... it's not a perfect rhyme... but it's almost midnight and i'm half asleep!)

Day 188 :: Friday July 6 :: Ottawa

Make something with your lunch before you eat it. 

Lunch today is chicken chow mein leftovers... yum! It was hard to delay eating the steaming hot, delicious-smelling noodles long enough to make this noodly star.

Day 187 :: Thurday July 5 :: Ottawa

Use a paper bag to create something new today.

Aaaaaand another childhood throwback! I made so many of these paper bag puppets growing up, so couldn't resist making a new critter today.

Day 186 :: Wednesday July 4 :: Ottawa

Make something quiet today.

I was reading an online article on busyness yesterday, which really made me pause and think about how I schedule my life, and my use of the term 'busy'. And so, with back-to-back tournament weekend looming, I decided that today should be a quiet, 'me' night.

I started off by doing all the little chores right after work (dishes, folding laundry, etc) then went out for dinner at a favorite pizza place, ZaZaZa (no, really – if you're ever in Ottawa, you need to check them out!). My chicken/bacon/onion/barbecue sauce pizza was delicious! Back home, i took a quick shower and then applied a facial mask... which immediately brought back memories of me/mom/sister applying one while camping years ago, and dad teasing us as we sat there with cucumber on our faces! Then i read for a while. Ended the night by stitching a remembrance patch on my current team jersey, while listening to All Sons & Daughters' latest album... it was good, quiet reflexion time. I didn't go to bed as early as I would have liked, but this night was definitely a success.

Day 185 :: Tuesday July 3 :: Ottawa

Yellow magic. Work only with yellow materials today. Try working on a yellow surface for a real challenge.

By perfect coincidence, my dark yellow sleeping bag was still airing out after the weekend – and it made the perfect backdrop for this space invader alien made out of yellow post-its. It was a lot of fun to make!

Day 184 :: Monday July 2 :: Lac Vert, QC

Use a skyline of your hometown or another city as inspiration today.

I love long weekends... and as you can see, I'm still thinking about Canada Day! :) I was originally planning on doing this assignment once back to the city, but fellow camper Greg wouldn't hear any of it! He definitely deserves credit on this creation – I never would have thought to use pine needles as fireworks, especially not in the various colours – and he was very happy to lend a hand gathering supplies and putting the whole thing together. I think other people's enthusiasm is what makes the collaboration days so fun and successful; this one was no exception. Thank you, Rockstar!

And since Greg wanted to see his face on the interweb (aka my blog), here we both are posing with the creation (i'm the goof on the right)!

Day 183.5 :: Sunday July 1 :: Lac Vert, QC

It's Canada Day, and it's only fitting that i celebrate by adding a bonus entry! So it present: Be patriotic.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!! To celebrate, I made this maple leaf out of pieces of pine bark found on the ground while hiking. Photographed at sunset :)

Day 183 :: Sunday July 1 :: Lac Vert, QC

Make a hat and wear it for the rest of the day.

I realize this isn't much... I didn't really have materials to make a hat :/ so I stuck these two blue jay feathers, found on my midday hike (they struck me as I didn't recall ever seeing blue jays outside of winter in my native New Brunswick), in my favorite beat-up baseball cap. Happy to report that they have yet to fall off!

Day 182 :: Saturday June 30 :: Lac Vert, QC

Work with your hands... literally. You can decorate them with paint or henna, or even make a hand shadow. You might need a friend to lend you a hand. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

I'm out of town on a wilderness camping trip this weekend, but made sure to write down the prompts for each day where i'd be away. So today, after a full day of paddling, playing in the water, throwing frisbees, napping in hammocks, reading, roasting marshmallows... I explained today's assignment to my fellow campers, who quickly jumped on board to help.

These hand shadows were made with the help of Ian (extra set of hands, outside tent) and Draza (taking the pictures, inside tent). We used a headlamp for lighting, which worked wonderfully. It was a lot of fun and many silly pictures were taken – below are my favorites.

So far so good!

Since i've now passed the halfway mark, i thought it might be fun to flip back through my book and pick my top five favorite creations/entries so far. Here they are, in no particular order of preference:

Day 29 – i love the little mask because i was sick as a dog that day, yet still found the courage to carry on the day's assignment.

Day 49 – Helvetica Rice. So perfectly pretty!

Day 52 – oh, the ambigram! I plan on revisiting this artwork to make it my digital signature.... soon!

Day 56 – snow shovelling! the first day where i didn't create something, and accepted that simply doing something that fit the assignment was sometimes even better.

Day 97 – Rumble in the Dome... my spring ultimate team was so! much! fun!, and this assignment still comes up in conversation regularly.

And i have to include a bonus day:
Day 173 – the star sign. I had nothing to do with it, but the encouragement i received through it couldn't have happened at a better time!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who's helped along the way – either with a word of encouragement, by suggesting ideas, helping out with the day's assignment or simply put up with my blog talk. Here's to the second half of the year!

gstar

PS. What are your personal favorites?

Day 181 :: Friday June 29 :: Ottawa

Use bones, skulls and/or skeletons as your inspiration today.

Today is a very special day: the halfway point of my year-long project!! How perfectly suitable that it should be skulled-themed, since the author of the book I'm using originally did a skull a day for a year! My contribution was to take a tasty red delicious apple and, using a paring knife, transform it into a little skull. It also made a tasty snack once the picture below was taken :)

Day 180 :: Thursday June 28 :: Ottawa via Peterborough

Be unseasonal. Create something that belongs to another season of the year and put it into the environment. Extra credit: Document what happens when others encounter it.

I didn't create anything tangible today... more an experience, a feeling really. Let me explain. Faithful readers may remember my close-friend-who-moved-away entry back in early May; yes, we have been keeping in touch, but emails, facebook notes and gmail chats can never replace a hug or that way we can look at each other and have a full conversation without saying a word. So far, busy schedules meant that our free weekends never lined up, and our respective ultimate teams have been attending different tournaments. The last month has been a bit rough on me due to my injury, and to top it off, i've been feeling sick for about a week.

In the past, something this friend and I would often do is what we called a 'Random Whatever'. We'd agree to hang out, then wing it from there – ending up at movies, parks, other friends' places, even in Montreal once. The beauty of the plan was that there was no plan; the two of us are rather impulsive people, so this was always fun.

So yesterday, about mid-morning, an idea came to mind: what if I drove down and surprised my friend? And I did. It was awesome. The look on my friend's face was so worth it. We got a chance to sit on a porch with our feet up, catch up, and throw a frisbee. I was even able to say hi to other mutual friends I hadn't seen in a while. I ended up staying overnight – which meant getting up at 4:30 this morning to drive back and more importantly, be at work on time.

All this to say... this whole thing left me feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning (see? Here's the 'unseasonal' link!!). It really cheered me up and left me feeling a lot better than I had in the past little while. The drive felt shorter coming back than it had going there. The feeling carried through the day and even through my evening acupuncture appointment (double round, grrr)... or maybe this is just how being on 5 hours of sleep and hyped up on coffee feels like. Either way... here's a picture of the sunrise, taken about 30 minutes into the drive back. 

Day 179 :: Wednesday June 27 :: Ottawa

Grow it. Use seeds to make something. You could plant them in a shape and document them growing, use the seeds themselves to make an image, or...?

Oops... I forgot to buy 'proper' seeds last night... so these sunflower seeds will have to do! I wrote my name because it was the weekly assignment from the creative Facebook group :)

Day 178 :: Tuesday June 26 :: Ottawa

Use the world of birds as your inspiration today.

I recently watched an online video about an artist who created a large portrait using only dots – it had taken him over 200 hours to finish the work!

Inspired by this, I thought I'd give the technique a try, but with my own twist of solid areas and lines to contrast the dots. This took about an hour to complete, and I must say that I love the final result. Thank you, fine-point Sharpie!

Day 177 :: Monday June 25 :: Ottawa

Make a robot out of everyday objects.

This little guy is made of a lunchbox, clip-in hair strands, a clothes hanger, plastic cones and newspaper. It took forever to make (mostly because I was never truly happy with the result), and I strongly debated scratching it and starting over. Yet after some more thought, I opted to keep it as a reminder that not everything will turn out perfect, and that's okay.

Day 176 :: Sunday June 24 :: Ottawa

Make somewhere indoors seem like it is outdoors.

I brought in more bit of grass from my back yard to create this little farm scene in the middle of my living room :) 

And a zoomed out shot to show the full setup:

Day 175 :: Saturday June 23 :: Ottawa

Miniaturize. Create a tiny version of something that would normally be much bigger.

Procrastinated all day... actually, did some studying, watched the Spain-France Euro game with friends, went to RibFest with another friend... so once again it's late and I'm not sure what to do for this assignment. Rooting through my art supplies and looking for inspiration, I came across this printed cut-and-assemble sheet of a little Heidelberg press. Funny thing is i've had that sheet for ages – so tonight it was finally time to do something with it!