1940s

Stay The Fuck Home Support Local Bars, Restaurants and Small Businesses Edition

When we are finally at the end of this Twilight Zone episode, I am going out as much as I can and I am going to be supporting all of my favourite restaurants, bars and small businesses. I live in the west end of Toronto and the list are my favs. I highly recommend you get out to yours as well. If any of your fav bars and restaurants are offering take out, please order from them and often. It is helping them survive!

Apiecalypse Now Best pizza in the city! http://www.apiecalypsenow.com

Bloomers Every once in a while I will venture out of the Junction for my coffeeshop writing and go to Bloomers for writing and lunch!
https://www.facebook.com/bloomersto/

Disgraceland Punk rock and delicious, greasy comfort food!!! I’m really missing the Poutine Supreme right now!
https://www.facebook.com/disgracelandtoronto/

D&Y Sushi This place is amazing and the staff are gems. We’ve had many family dinners there and they go out of their way for us. My father-in-law is in a wheelchair and my mother-in-law uses a walker. They make sure we are comfortable and my in-laws are served first.
https://www.facebook.com/dandysushijunction/

Fabric stores on Queen Street! Not even kidding here. The second I’m out of isolation, I’m coming at you. I need fabric and all of the notions. By the time we are out of this, I will have sewn through my stash.

FullStop Another coffeeshop writing haunt for me.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Full-Stop/471732279583814

Glory Hole Donuts Ashley and her team and wonderful and their donuts delish! They even have vegan options! I go to the Parkdale location, but they also have a location in the east end.
https://www.facebook.com/GloryHoleDoughnuts/

Hannah’s I spend a lot of time coffeeshop writing here. I really, really miss coffeeshop writing. I have extra love for this coffeeshop because it is right across from High Park. When I need a break from my laptop, I can stare out into the beauty.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hannahs/1612218942405850

Machino Donuts These are the best vegan donuts in Toronto! Sooooooooooo goooooood! They are open for take-out!
https://www.facebook.com/machinodonuts/

Micro Cinema Toonie Tuesday, Squishy Freak Frolic Film Nite, Low Life Cinema, Rad & Bad Cinema, plus so many more and of course running our own Killer B Cinema.

Music Venues! There will be no excuses. I need to get my rockabilly, surf music fix! Music venues such as The Baby G, The Dakota, The Piston, The Horseshoe, See-Scape and so, so many more are going to need you to get out, buy several drinks and dance!

See-Scape This is one of our absolutely favourite places. We host Killer B Cinema there and everyone who works there are truly amazing. They made us feel at home right away. They are open for take-out right now. Please make sure you order from them.
https://www.facebook.com/SeeScapeToronto/

The Shameful Tiki Room Not only am I going to get my Tiki on as soon as this is over, I’m going to have a Tiki dress made and ready to go! I. Cannot. Wait! https://shamefultikiroom.com

Skyline When you walk into the Skyline, you feel like you’ve walked into a restaurant from the 1940s/50. It is a beautiful and fun place to go for lunch or dinner. When we go to The Revue for a silent or classic movie, we always head over to Parkdale for a meal at Skyline. It always completes our night out. https://www.facebook.com/Skyline-Restaurant-121249527918931/

The Revue We have spent many a Sunday here for the Silent Revue, Designing The Movies, and The Toronto Silent Film Festival. We are really missing our time there. We will be first in line when they reopen.
https://revuecinema.ca/revue-series/

Killer B Cinema

Hello! In light of the times we are living in and since we are unable to show our movies at See-Scape at the moment, Zed Dulac and I will be launching a YouTube Channel for Killer B Cinema soon! Please subscribe to our channel as well as please share this far and wide!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBL1yTgfQduQheeYGu_MTwg

Stay The Fuck Home The Cooking Edition

Thanks to all of the people who did panic shopping when this all went down a little over a week ago, many of us are struggling to find staples on the grocery shelves and are resorting to making meals with what ever is in our cupboard, fridge and freezer. This isn’t completely a bad thing, you finally get to use that can of heart of palm you bought a year ago. Why did I buy that again?

I’ve always had to be resourceful when it comes to cooking. I’ve been on my own since I was 18 and money has been hard to come by on many occasions, so I’ve had to be creative with food. I always managed and never went hungry thankfully. There have been a few times in our history where we were going through wars or The Great Depression and putting food in your cupboards was beyond desperate times. During those times, homemakers had to make due with what they could get their hands on. I’ve been researching some of these recipes and below is some of what I found.

If you have kids, this might be a fun thing to do with them!

This one has a recipe for poor man’s stew. Sounds like something I ate as a kid.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85597/8-curious-recipes-depression-era

Most of these look ok. Not too sure about the grape pie. https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/depression-era-recipes/

I’ve watched quite a few videos from this channel.

I’m pretty sure I remember my Grandma making Hot Water Pie. https://soyummy.com/great-depression-food/

Glen and Friends does a lot of Depression Era Cooking.

This website has quite a few WW2 recipes. Another time in our history were there was food rationing.
http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/index-20-world-war-2.html

More WW2 recipes. A lot of these look pretty ok! I’m going to see if I can Veganize a few.
https://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/

Here are a bunch of Canadian Wartime recipe books you can download. https://wartimecanada.ca/archive-categories/recipes

Back To Basics

Once upon a time, in days of the past, there was a woman who made her own clothing, made do and mended, was a thrift queen and lived a happy, not contributing to landfill life. Oh hold on! That’s not actually a fairytale… that’s me!

Imagine living in a world where you lived garbage free, everything was made from recycled materials and you never had to worry about your fast fashion ending up in landfill. Take a moment. Let that sink in. Ok. Ready? Open your eyes. Tada! It can happen. It has happened before and it wasn’t that long ago before it stopped happening. In the last few decades, we’ve gotten lazy, we stopped making our own clothing and rather than repair something, even with the tiniest repair needed, it would be tossed into the garbage and a new garment bought. Then off to the landfill, that pile of garbage that grows into mountains of clothing that could have been repaired and worn another day.

Before you start yelling at me, I know it’s not EVERYONE who does this. I grew up in a household that was all about creating your own garments, make do and mend and thrifting. My Mamasita is the thrift queen to this day. Between her and my Grandma Betty, I learned to knit and sew. Later in life, I taught myself to crochet (thank you Carlin for the encouragement and YouTube for the videos). I’ve never really been in a position to run out and buy myself a spanking never wardrobe, not that I would, so I’ve either depended on thrift shops or making my own clothing. The only things I actually buy brand new are undergarments, leggings, and stockings. At some point I’m going to learn how to make my own undergarments and leggings, so the only thing left is stockings and trust me, I wear those until they are literally falling apart. The 1930s/40s mentality of making do with what you have was taught to me at a very early age and I’m thankful for it. I’m also thankful to see a large number of others who do this or are beginning to do this. As a matter of fact there is a huge movement, which I am proud to be part of, of people who sew, knit, crochet, refashion, thrift, buy vintage and make do and mend. Let’s follow with their lead! We don’t need to buy fast fashion!

There is nothing more satisfying than creating your own garment or refashioning something you found in a thrift store. For those who think they can’t do it, you actually can. You don’t need a fancy sewing machine. You can find machines for a few hundred dollars that have the basic stitches, because basic is all you need! Don’t know how to sew, YouTube has a BAJILLION that’s right BAJILLION videos for beginners. All you need to be able to do is sew a basic stitch. I don’t own a serger or a fancy machine with embroidery stitches. I have a basic Kenmore sewing machine. It’s amazing the things you can make with a straight stitch! One of my favourite channels to watch is Evelyn Wood. She is a refashion genius!

If you don’t want to learn how to knit, sew or crochet, you can still help stop the contribution of adding to landfill. There is still make do and mend AND go clothing thrifting. Clothing thrifting is a lot of fun! You can make it an adventure either by doing it yourself or with friends. Do a show and tell together once you are done or take the items you found and refashion them! Anything you can do to help keep landfill from growing is a way to help Mother Nature out and trust me, she needs our help!

Today is going to be a sewing and writing day. I try to set aside one day a week to sew garments and I do my mending while watching a great classic movie or cooking shows on YouTube. I find it very therapeutic.
If you do one of these things (sew, knit, crochet, mend, refashion, thrift) you are helping. Please stop buying fast fashion and let’s get back to the basics!

Day 30

Day 30! Today was a really challenging workout and I loved it! It was also done without Adriene talking. She wanted us to use our 30 days of practice and it was a great way to show me how far I’ve progressed! I was actually able to grab my toes in the seated position (legs stretched out). Couldn’t do that day 1. Also further proof my belly is shrinking!


When I was a teenager, my Grandma Betty gave me an old Instamatic camera and an 8 mm movie camera. Neither worked, but both intrigued me. Eventually, my parents gave me a working camera for my birthday and I went photo taking crazy.


Fast forward a few years, after graduating college for Graphic Design, I felt like something was missing, so I took a college course for photography. For a while, I worked in both fields, but I didn’t feel either stretched my mind creatively. Photography then became more of a hobby.


Fast forward a few more years and I did something I still regret to this day. In a desperate situation and between that fine line of being evicted and living on the streets, I sold all of my photography equipment so I could pay rent. Doing so kept me off the streets, but it took something away from me that I cherished. For years after that, I considered buying a new camera to restart photography, but could never afford a camera or at least the one I wanted.


Fast forward to a few years ago, my husband and family I created Cate and Laurie all went in together to buy me a camera. Even to this day, I can’t even begin to explain how much it meant to me. Though I don’t get out as much as I want. I have been and this year (once winter passes) I plan on getting out even more. It brings me so much joy. More than I will ever be able to express.


What brings you joy? Who made it to day 30 or are you still going. Tomorrow I am starting to go through her other videos. I also will stop posting daily about yoga. I will post from time to time about my progress.

Day 24

Day 24! I can’t believe I’m on day 24 already! I honestly look forward to waking up and doing yoga every day. They say it takes 28 days to break or start a new habit. I’m 4 days away from 28, but I already feel this is now a daily habit. A healthy habit.


I LOVE B MOVIES! All kinds, from all eras. It’s why Zed Dulac and I started Killer B Cinema. We both grew up watching them. Though I loved them then, I don’t think I really started to appreciate them until I was older. The plots, the costumes, the badly written scripts! One of my all-time favourites that I NEVER get bored watching is Plan 9 From Outer Space. I love Ed Wood Jr. for not just this movie, but for his motivation to live out his dream of making movies. He was a fascinating person with an inspiring drive. When I want to give up on a creative project I will say to myself, would Ed Wood have given up. NO! So I don’t either.


Do you have a favourite b movie? A favourite genre? Who is still doing the Yoga Challenge?

Day 19

Day 19! I’m feeling stronger and stronger every day, but that last move… it wasn’t happening today. Instead, I sat and watched to see how to do it properly and one day, when my body is stronger, I will do it! Just not today. Yoga With Adriene’s mantra is “Do what you can. You will get there eventually.” And I will.


Film Noir! Another one of my favourite movie genres! I love watching them on a rainy afternoon, but heck, I’ll watch them anytime! I especially love those sassy ladies. Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Grahame, Gene Tierney, Ida Lupino, Joan Bennett, Shelley Winters, Veronica Lake, Lizabeth Scott, Dolores del Rio and so many more. Writing this, I think I need to throw on some Film Noir and melt into the shadows with the leading ladies.


What is your favourite genre of movie? Who is doing the 30 day challenge with me still or have you finished it? If you have are you still doing yoga?

Day 15

Day 15! Halfway there! I plan to keep on with daily yoga after this. It’s good for me in so many ways! I will stop posting about it once I’m done day 30. One thing it did help with is getting back into the process of blogging again.


Now onto the picture and why I chose it.


Every single time I watch a classic movie, I am drooling over all of the clothing and dreaming about making them. Look at the gorgeous outfit Joan Crawford is wearing. Back on day 3, I mentioned that I make my own clothing. I wanted to talk a little bit more about that because making my own clothing and thrifting makes me happy. I also want to talk a little about bullying.


In High School, our Home Ec teacher was treated with a lot of disrespect and bullied by a group of girls. Many times they tormented her to the point of making her cry. Those girls still live in my small hometown and have literally done nothing with their lives. Being bullies got them nowhere. More about bullies in a moment.


There was also a small group of us who loved our Home Ec teacher. We benefited from that. She went off the lesson plan with us and taught us how to finish garments, fancy seams and how to self-draft. To this day I still self-draft many of my garments and when I do I remember that wonderful woman.


I find the process of making my own clothing therapeutic and rewarding. This year I am going to fully learn how to use drafting systems and I want to learn how to grade patterns by hand and on the computer.


Back to bullying. Yesterday I shared a post (in my feed) about walking away from people who make fun of or put you down over your successes. When someone belittles your hard work and makes fun of it trying to make you look foolish for being proud of your work, that is a type of bullying. If you work hard for something, and someone tries to diminish that success, tell them to go away. Never be afraid to stand up to bullies. Never be afraid to walk away from friends who do that to you because and here’s a little tidbit for you, those people aren’t friends. Be proud and celebrate your successes. Do not let anyone take that away from you!

Day 6

Day 6 was harder and WTH happened to my core strength! Belly fat is not my friend. Begone belly fat!

I’ve been thinking a lot about being grateful. Grateful that I get to fulfill a creative life. Grateful for my family, the family I created and friends. Grateful to live in Canada. Grateful to find the love of my life. I know I go on a lot about it and many of you are making the barfy sound right now, but I am grateful that Zed Dulac came into my life. He encourages and inspires me. He gets me and most of all he willingly goes along with my mad plans.

Who joined in today? What are you grateful for right now?

Day 3

Day 3! This morning was about doing things that are hard. Yuppers. There are still a few moves that I realize I’m not quite strong enough to do fully yet, but I will get there. But, that’s been my life. Do things that are hard until they aren’t.

Who joined in this morning or is doing the yoga challenge later today?

Today’s photo is sewing. I make many of my own clothing. Sew, knit, crochet. I also prefer to thrift instead of buying fast fashion. AND most importantly, make due and mend. I grew up with a mother and grandmother’s who promoted this. My mother taught me how to sew on a treadle sewing machine. The machine was built in 1898 and has been passed down from great-grandmother, grandmother to mother to me. My Grandma Betty taught me to knit and I taught myself to crochet.