Audrey Hayes Art - Canadian Artist

sean's restaurant review

Sean spent the first half of spring break at the BCTF's AGM.  Usually it is in Vancouver, but this year it was held in Victoria which was nice because Sean got to stay in town yet feel like a tourist.  We don't spend a lot of time downtown, so it is nice to have four days having to eat every meal out and getting to try many of the restaurants that we just don't get a chance to try.  

Here are some of the restaurants that Sean tried & liked:  (click on images to link to restaurant websites)

 

Pulled Pork goodness.  Pulled Pork Poutine...OMG!!

 

    

Tasty Italian fare.

 

  

Asian street food.  Vietnamese Ginger Caramel Chicken...delicious!

 

 

Shiki Sushi - Love Boat...best sushi he's ever eaten!!

 

DAIDACO - Japanese Deli-Style soups, salads, & seafood.  Simple. Tucked out of the way. Very, very nice.

PIZZERIA PRIMA STRADA - Exquisite, wood oven, artisan pizza.  So good.

 

The girls and I joined Sean over night on Tuesday and we spent the following morning at the Royal BC Museum where we took in the Behinds the Scenes & Emily Carr exhibits. After the museum we made a stop at the Roger's Chocolates Soda Shoppe for lunch before heading to Market Square for a Wannawafel (as seen on Dragon's Den).  Super YUM!! 

There were so many other place he/we wanted to go.  Ulla was top on our list to try but it wasn't open the night I was downtown.  

I'd love to go back to Brasserie L'Ecole.  We went there last year and it was so good.

What are your favourite places to eat, in or out of town?

i heart ted + ken

I love TED.  A few years ago I saw Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talks video.  If you've never seen it, do, you will enjoy it.  

 

I was lucky enough to see Sir Ken yesterday at the British Columbia Teachers' Federation's Annual General Meeting which was being held here in Victoria at the Conference Centre.  He did not disappoint.  Now I really want to read his book "The Element". 

    

Of course, Sean has been at the AGM for the past couple of days, so not only did I get to see SKR, but I also spent the night at the Chateau Victoria.  Most of the delegates are staying at one of Victoria's finest, the Empress. But after major earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, I am much happier not staying there. The Chateau is nice enough.  We had a one bedroom suite with a nice view of the Empress, the convention centre, and the Parliament Buildings.

In other news:  One of Macy's good friends' dad is an Olympic rower.  He won the silver in Bejing in 2008 and is now looking forward to London 2012 and going for the GOLD!  As we all know, Canada does not really support their athletes financially.  Despite that, they still manage to bring home many medals.  Imagine how well Canada would do if our athletes were taken care of.

So in support of Dave Calder's road to the Gold, a fundraiser is being held the evening of March 31.  See the following poster for details if you are interested in tickets. (Click on the poster to enlarge.)  We will be there. Should be a great night.

Good luck, Dave!

Hope you are all having a fabulous Spring Break.

breaks

It's been a while.  I seem to have taken a bloggy break and didn't even realize I was doing it.  I've been busy working, but I also needed to get my house in order.  While trying to get ready for my art shows I totally neglected my house and it got out of control.  My bedroom became a dumping ground for everything.  So last week I stopped painting, stopped blogging and took back control.  I got all of our rooms in order.  Now we have a new family plan to keep things tidy.  The girls look forward to cleaning up their rooms and the living room every night before bed.  Emmy actually asked me tonight if she could go clean up her room...like she has to ask.  And they are really proud of themselves for keeping things so tidy for a week now.  It is amazing how stressful clutter and mess can make you feel.  You don't realize until everything is in order how much better you feel walking into your room.  Aaahhhh.

And now another much needed break is upon us...Spring Break.  It was finally a lovely spring day.  A nice start to the spring break.  I had almost forgotten what it felt like to feel the sun on my face.  

Welcome, Spring!  

p.s.  I just added that photo of myself because Sean thinks blogs are boring when they don't have any photos or graphics.  I happen to agree.  So for a lack of a more exciting photo I grabbed one from my photo booth.  Weird, I know.

three-zero-zero

WOW! This is my 300^th blog post. Before I started this blog two years ago, I would read other blogs that made it look so easy.  Then I started my own, but had no idea how much effort it would take.  What I didn't think about was that I actually had to write the posts and make them interesting, which was/is really hard.  After my first post I thought, OMG, how am I going to keep this up.  But somehow I have.  Not as often as I would like.  Not as interesting as I'd like.  

After 2 years, 300 blog posts, and almost 20,000 page hits, I will keep on posting.  To those of you who keep coming back...THANK YOU!

MY ART:  I recently finished this larger canvas, part of my little buildings series. 

24 x 24. Acrylic on Canvas.

Just finishing up a commissioned tulips painting and its companion piece which I'll post next week.  

3-0-1, here I come.

the show's over

Well, both of my art shows have finally come to a close.  I would consider them a great success.  Not only did I sell a painting, but it gave me a lot of exposure and I now have future sales on the horizon.  

I just found this video on Youtube of the opening reception of the LOOK Art Show.  If you didn't have a chance to make it to the Bay Centre to see the show, this gives you a look at what was there.  I don't expect you to watch the whole 14 minute video, but you can see TULIPS at 2 minutes 22 seconds in.  CINQ POIRES is at 4 minutes 20 seconds. And my FIL, Mike, even makes an appearance at 45 seconds (behind the artist who is speaking).  

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to the shows.  Hope you enjoyed them.

More paintings to come.  I have a new one to post, I just need to photograph it first.

Happy weekend!