In a previous job, everyday when I arrived to work it was Christmas. Literally the showroom always had a Christmas section, there was no 'off season'. During that phase, I purchased a lot of cheap ornaments and baubles for decorating the house.

This year, due to some personal shifts and generalized busy-ness, I'm not doing a full-sized Christmas tree. That means my collection of red, white and silver do-dads is staying in the storage unit and I'm only "putting up" my mini Barbie themed tree. It's about 2 feet tall and is decorated with mini disco balls and vintage Barbie doll ornaments. Each year Hallmark releases two different collectible ornaments, the yearly release, which is usually in a horridly large and gross princess dress, and then a historically popular Barbie from the archives.

It's those ones I love best. My mom usually buys me one on Boxing day for half price, that's how I started collecting them! I've got a great series of them and it's almost as much fun unpacking them and putting them on my mini tree as it was playing with Barbies as a kid.

As an aside, I'll mention that I think Barbie has really started sucking lately. Why must all new Barbie toys be pink? Why doesn't she get to wear other colours? As demonstrated by the image at right, this was not always the case. I'm irritated this year by girls toys and how pink they all are, as if little girls shouldn't be allowed to even touch anything navy blue. Don't even get me started on the Disney Princesses! That's another blog post...

This post is about the pink Barbie tree being the centrepiece of my holiday decor this year, and how it's gotten me to thinking about different holiday colour schemes.

The traditional colours of green and red have a long history, and though many theories about why they are the Christmas colours are out there, it's likely because of the use of "Paradise Trees" used in Miracle Plays which were popular in the 15th Century. The plays were used to tell the story of Adam and Eve, and the trees were often pine trees decorated with apples. Evergreens were used because they could be sourced year 'round and kept their lustrous green colour.

image source

Non-traditional colour palettes are so pretty though! Using non-traditional colours isn't really new either, as evidenced by those lovely vintage glass ornaments finding themselves desirable again.

To me the best way to do a non-traditional holiday theme is to include one traditional colour and then go wild from there. Designers use this rule as well, because the traditional colours always sell better than the wild ones at retail. For this reason, collections have a 'safe' base colour and this helps them sell the more wild, contemporary looks.

Use Silver, Gold, Red or Green or White and then have some fun. In my case, I'm using pink and silver!

The hottest trend in decor, fashion and jewellery is definitely still Peacock. A holiday peacock theme uses green, and in this image also uses gold and silver.

My goodness, did I ever love Halifax!! I really wanted to stay for a longer stretch but I did manage to jam pack my weekend. And, I achieved my goal of eating seafood for every meal (if you count that bloody caesar I had with brunch as "seafood", which I do, because it includes clams!).

My trip started out as most do at the airport. I realized while waiting that it was my first trip on a plane where I wasn't leaving the country. It's so much better when you don't have to go through all that security! I'm taking this under consideration for my next planned trip. I flew into Halifax airport around lunch time and unfortunately didn't have the window seat. Oh well. I picked up my rental car and drove into Halifax. It was pouring rain and freezing cold, a typical November day. I was headed that way because one of my best friends has joined the Navy and is stationed in Halifax, so I stayed with her.

view of halifax harbour from outside stayner's wharf

After finding her place and getting quickly changed, we headed back out to the Historic Properties neighbourhood for some grub. I wanted something warm and cuddly, and somewhere we could sit for quite a while and catch up. We went to Stayner's Wharf. We each had a local cider and split the fishcakes as an appetizer. They were delightful with a curry flair and a zesty sauce for dipping. An interesting spin. After that I had a yummy Chicken and Shrimp Hot Pot noodle soup. As it turns out shrimp taste different in Nova Scotia. Different good!

We walked around the neighbourhood afterwards, and peeked in and out of some local shops like Christmas by the Sea  which had every sort of holiday ornament you could ever imagine. Even a Santa Claus praying over the baby jesus. Odd.

"Kneeling Santa"

The evening grew dark quickly, and the rain kept coming down. After discussing our plans for the whole weekend, and an inspiring trip to the DeSerres art supply store, we decided to have a night in with a bottle of red wine, loads of white paper, and some Christmas movies. Our friday night was spent giggling over making paper snowflakes (a veritable blizzard of them no less!), watching Rudolph, Elf and Charlie Brown's Christmas Special, and eating loads of pasta. It was very joyful and afterwards her apartment looked so festive.

Rocks at Peggy's Cove

Saturday morning was beautiful and sunny and we woke up fairly early to head out on our planned day trip. First up was Peggy's Cove. The cove is the biggest tourist draw in the area, and it really is beautiful.

Peggy's Cove

The day was a bit blustery and dark when we arrived, but the sun started to break through the clouds as we stood on the massive rocks.



I have to admit, I was a little bit scared. I kept thinking to myself "they just let people walk out here, all alone? People must die all the time!"




And then I saw this sign:

Don't fall on the rocks at Peggy's Cove or you will die.

Peggy's Cove is 43kms from downtown Halifax. It's a very old settlement of German fishermen, and their families. I was actually surprised at how small the community has remained, being the tourist destination that it is. Wikipedia lists the population at under 50 still. The lighthouse on Peggy's Cove was our first stop on the Lighthouse Trail scenic route along the coast from Halifax to Yarmouth.

a panoramic shot of Peggy's cove

After we narrowly avoided our deaths at the cove, we continued onwards along the trail to Mahone Bay. Mahone Bay's slogan is "Pretty as a Picture" and wow, is it ever. When we arrived however, it was snowing large heavy wet flakes, and was very dark. It looked beautiful, but my pictures are terrible! So here's a picture from the internet.

Mahone Bay

When you drive into the area the first thing you see are three churches, all lined up like soldiers along the bay. There's an Anglican, United and Lutheran church, and the view of of the bay of the three churches has become an iconic image for Nova Scotia, used often on tourist memorabilia and calendars and such. The shopping area is situated around the curve of the bay, and it was busy even in bad weather. The bay itself is apparently very busy with boats all summer and Mahone Bay is known for wooden boat building, its original industry.


Pretty, huh? We stopped for a bit and did some shopping at this great little boutique called the Teazer. I can't say what I bought just yet, because it's a gift, I think. Unless I decide to keep it. I'm still thinking on that one! We were getting hungry and it was getting late, so we continued onwards to our next destination, the equally picturesque Lunenburg.

Lunenburg

Lunenburg is a world heritage site. It was established in 1753 as the first British Colonial Settlement in NS outside of Halifax. The settlers though were mostly from Germany, Switzerland and the Montbeliard region of France. The area became a trading post, farming town and fishing village. Today High Liner foods is there and the seafood industry still dominates. Perfect for a gal wanting to survive on a seafood-only diet while travelling! We walked around to explore the shops, and found a great vintage clothing and antique shop called Charlotte's Web. Though things were mostly out of my price range, they had fantastic real vintage corsets, hats and dresses from the 1920's, a selection of antique folk art crafts and loads of neat home decor items. Definitely worth a browse.

Lunenburg

On the plane I flipped through the EnRoute magazine and it happened to have a feature on Lunenburg, and it highlighted the Salt Shaker Deli, so we went there. It was delicious! So So So good. I had a lobster roll on brioche, which was so good I wouldn't even share one bite. The lobster salad was tender and  the celery in it just the right size and still crisp. I basically inhaled it. Meanwhile Rose had the Tomato and Parmesean Soup, which was so good she ordered a second bowl. Not to be outdone, I decided to try their Smoked Seafood Chowder, which had the most incredible scallops in it. I shared one bite. We both paired our meals with a locally-made Propeller beverage; I had their cream soda and Rosie their root beer.

Afterwards we did some real-estate browsing, and a little bit of Christmas shopping before heading back to Halifax. Though a nap was in order, we decided to have a redbull instead and get ready to go out on the town. Though local favourites, east-coast punk legends the Mahones were playing (for only $10) we decided that deciding on only one thing to do wasn't nearly enough, and that we'd have to hit a number of spots that evening.

First up, we headed to a local dive bar and sang Karaoke. Rose sang Cher and then we sang a New Kids on the Block song together. It was a beautiful thing and drinks were cheap. Then we headed downtown and went to Tribeca, a cool-kids bar having a rock night. It was pretty fun but also was the sort of place where a drunk girl in a mini dress spills her drink on you and doesn't apologize, and we wanted to dance to actual dance music, so we headed out again after a round or two. We planned to go to the safe-bet for dancing The Dome, but  ended up walking past Reflections Cabaret (the gay bar, aka "Where Halifax Goes Dancing") and got talking to the bouncer. They were hosting a DJ idol night to determine who would be the house DJ that season, and who could resist that? So we headed in and were not disappointed to find a packed dance floor and pounding music to let loose to. Good times!


 On Sunday we slept in late and then had the hang-over brunch at Brooklyn Warehouse. I really, really liked the hang-over brunch. The meal included a tomato-based cocktail (I had the wasabi caesar) and coffee and the first thing they did was to bring a large bottle of ice water to the table. Plus the ambiance and food was great. I'd highly recommend it.

After brunch we walked downtown to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. I wanted to take in the Alex Colville  exhibition. I was generally surprised at how large the gallery was. It had a really interesting and diverse collection and numerous exhibitions ongoing at the same time so there was a lot to see.

I learned about Maud Lewis, who is a local hero of sorts. She is a famous Nova Scotian folk artist who created truly lovely and charmingly simple folk art. The gallery has a huge permanent exhibition of her works and even her home moved inside the gallery. I've since learned that she is widely forged and even her husband forged works of hers once she got popular!

I guess her style would be easy to forge and this certainly isn't limited to Maud  Lewis. You can find Maud Lewis stuff in just about every gift shop and store in the area. Funny how things like that are so regional.

I found a lot of the folk art at the NS Gallery really fun and interesting. One specific work that sticks out was a large wood carving of the Obama Family. It made me smile and I thought it was a pretty cool work. I giggled a lot in the folk arts section.

The gallery didn't have a huge contemporary section but did have some nice works, and the space was interesting too, it was spread over two buildings connected underground.

After the gallery I was hell-bent on fresh oysters, as they say  you should eat them in months ending in the letter "R". We went to the Five Fishermen Restaurant & Grill for their Oyster Happy hour and I was delighted to have two varieties of local raw oysters. Divine. I couldn't talk Rose into them though. Perhaps next time. I also ate their seafood cobb salad, which had the best scallops in it ever. Also a nice stilton cheese and avacado and lobster...it was delicious.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of what I saw and ate and did in  Halifax. I really enjoyed the city and wish I could have had more time to explore. I found it just large enough not to feel like a small town and just small enough not to feel too large and busy. I can't think of another way to say it, really. I hope to visit again soon.

I am a day late posting my Illustrator of the Month. This seems to be becoming a  pattern! No good, no good. In any case, I'm doing a joint post for IotM and my Oshawa Express Column about making creative spaces in Oshawa, and thought it might be an appropriate time to highlight some of the talent in this community.

(as always, but especially in this post, please click to see images full size)


Dani Crosby is an illustrator who lives and works in Oshawa, Ontario. She is a freelance illustrator, and a part time professor at Durham College in the School of Media Art and Design, and was educated in Oakville at Sheridan College in their Illustration BAA program, the only one of its kind in Canada.

Dani's work is lyrical, expressive and interpretive. Capable of communicating ideas clearly, her work is illustrative in the purest sense.



I'm pretty much in awe of her talent.


Her work varies from the deliciously grotesque to the simply sublime, capable of suiting a number of themes and styles, but still manages to have her own distinct flavour, especially the line work.

Her work has included editorial, concept development, creative product development and fine art. Clients have included How Magazine, Bitch Magazine, The National Post, Protest the Hero, 66Thieves, Happy Worker Toy Company and many more awesome projects.

Seemingly never short on energy or ideas, Dani's work finds unique ways of expressing ideas that will lead you to think, "why didn't I think of that?"


Dani is also the co-founder of a new organization called United Arts of Durham. The basis of the org/website is to provide a networking tool to the arts community in Durham Region. Often disjointed, this community is vibrant and full of energy, but we seem to have trouble connecting to one another. The website offers a tool where creative types of any kind can find one another, as well as clients could find potential creatives. Check it out and register yourself here.

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Dani's site has loads of images to check out. Be sure to do so by clicking here.















It is appropriate to talk about a local illustrator this month because my article this week is about the arts community coming together to help create a space in the city for artists, designers, and other creatives to congregate. It's a space that is desperately needed here. I'm sprinkling my article with a couple more of Dani's illustrations.

Community collaboration makes for creative spaces

By Jacquie Severs/Columnist Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Creative Spacemaking Workshop hosted by the City of Oshawa and an organization called Artscape. What is a Creative Spacemaking Workshop you might ask? Well, that would be a fair question, because when I first heard about it, I felt a little confused. How is it possible to make space? In essence, however the concept is quite simple, it isn’t about making space, it is about thinking creatively about existing spaces, to reinvent them. Artscape presents a model for old and underused spaces to be remade into something new that will in turn help to improve the community in which it is based. Artists, if given opportunity in the form of affordable, accessible space, contribute to communities and improve neighbourhoods with their creative energy. Artscape has facilitated the development of a number of successful projects of this kind, such as the Distillery District in Toronto. Another example is the Wychwood Barns project in the neighbourhood of St. Clair and Christie Streets in Toronto. The long-abandoned TTC streetcar repair barns were re-imagined and dramatically renovated to provide a multifaceted community centre. The five barns and surrounding parks house artist studios, community groups, retail gallery spaces, an organic farmer’s market and provides event space for rent. These spaces take a long time to bring to reality, as well as the vision and grassroots efforts of community members, artists and neighbourhood residents to bring it to life. The workshop was attended by a number of members of the local community who share a desire to create such a space in Oshawa. Diverse groups all seemed to have the same message to bring, and that is the need for a community hub for artists, designers, craftspeople, students, not-for-profit organizations, musicians, theatre groups and other members of the creative class to congregate, share and learn from one another. One interesting suggestion was the former Honest-Way department store in the downtown core. This space is currently unoccupied and offers a number of benefits; centralized location, diverse interior space including small offices and large open areas, proximity to performance and fine art tourist destinations, and a highly visible storefront that could offer retail gallery space. The sharing of space provides a stable base of funding to support the project and in turn helps area businesses by offering events, culture and endless energy to the lifestyle of downtown Oshawa. It’s a winning combination to diversify our city. From what I learned at the workshop, I believe it is a concept that would work in our community, if scaled to suit the needs of arts groups that have been crying out for a venue of this kind. As with any project, there are sure to be challenges. There will surely be diverse opinions about how the space should be operated, who should offer leadership (and financing). What the workshop highlighted to me most of all, however, was not the impossibilities, but instead the opportunity to create a fantastic space for the community to share.