Tree Trimming Party

Last week our friend Nancy invited us over to help trim her Christmas tree.

 She has a beautiful place and every year she does an amazing tree.

She is also a wonderful cook and hostess so her parties are always memorable.

 This year's tree is particularly amazing.

SO much fun to decorate! 

When we finished decorating Nancy gave us a rare compliment.

"I don't have to move any of the ornaments."

Clockwise from top left -- Nancy, Shelley, Rebecca, Cathy, Bill. 

 Cal and Michelle

A Merry Christmas to all!

Nancy Makes an Old Fashioned

 Nancy's son Cal has developed a taste for Mad Men era drinks.

 For this Christmas party his mother is going to make him a cocktail called an Old Fashioned.

Nancy likes to start with a slice of orange and some sugar water. 

She said, "It's not every mother who keeps a jar of sugar water in her fridge for her son's cocktails." 

 After adding the sugar water, empty the bottle of whiskey into the glass. OK -- there was just a bit left in the bottle.

 Add a dash or three of Angostura Bitters and the best maraschino cherries you can afford.

Ta da -- the Old Fashioned. Best enjoyed in formal wear.

Art on Queen West Today

 Bill and I and our friend Shelley Savor went to look at some art on Queen West today.

We had a relaxed lunch at The Beaver, then hit the Michael Harrington show at Mulherin.

A new body of work from this year. 

 We're big Harrington fans. Winter no. 1, oil on canvas, 24 x 48 inches

 Winter no. 1 (detail) 

Nice depth in Meeting the Cowboy no 1, 9 x 12 inches.

 Mulherin tried to sell Bill the picture below after he told her how much he wanted it.

Red Man Wading in Water, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches

 In her other gallery Mulherin and Penelope Smart were showing great art by Sarah Burwash including these clay works.

We walked past the Starbucks.

Paul Petro is showing new paintings by Carol Wainio, also painted this year. Weather Events, acrylic on canvas, 78 x 120 inches.

 Bill and Shelley and I found her work very inspiring. Les Cailloux Blancs, 72 x 120 inches.

 

One Evening, 60 x 120 inches

 One Evening (details)

One last nice Wainio.

 We carried on along Queen Street to MOCCA

  and a installation of Vera Frenkel. Here's Shelley and Bill watching Frenkel's Once Near Water: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive, 2008.

By now we were close to Type Books so had to go in and see what was new. I liked this Steven Klein portrait of Colton Hanes in VMAN magazine.

 It had been a dark, damp afternoon but we had one inspiration after another.

How we love our Queen Street West!

Metropolitan Skyline

John and I love the views from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Nothing matches the view of Central Park and the New York skyline.

There's usually an art installation happening up there.

This time Dan Graham and Swiss landscape architect, Günther Vogt, created a piece called Hedge Two-way Mirror Walkabout, 2014.

We loved how the artists astro-turfed the Met roof. It made it a place to gather and sit.

Try not to miss the rooftop next time you visit the Met.