Top 5 Halloween Costumes

I was particularly impressed by this year's creative costumes and didn't see nearly as many Swine Flu, Balloon Boys, Lady Gaga's and Michael Jackson's as expected. The most creative costume I saw was definitely "The Blue Screen of Death". It was created by a young woman who was wearing a blue bristol board with the frightening white words you see when you own a PC and it's about to crash.

Here are some snapshots of my top 5 favourite costumes that I saw out this year:


"Ghetto Fabulous"





"Wanda", Waldo's photo taking girlfriend. Looks like she's searching for her man.




"Carlos" - the baby found in a hotel room from the movie "The Hangover"





"Trolls!" This was definitely a blast from the past and also a welcome surprise. The girls dressed as trolls used to play hockey with me at McGill and I hadn't seen them in a few years!






"The Last Supper" - Halloween Styles: Half as many attendees including The Invisible Man, a Cowboy, (me - Nat in a Hat) Jesus in the centre, DJ Johnny LaRue, Ghetto Fabulous and a Pinata ready to be smashed so that chocolate and candy can be eaten for dinner!





Photo credit to Julia Schneider for photos 1, 2 and 3.

Crawling Tecumseth (to come see)

Last month, the Canadian Friends of the Israel Museum Young Associates Toronto branch, held their 2nd annual art gallery crawl along Tecumseth Street just south of Queen West.

Like its predecessor, Crawling Nyood, this gallery crawl raised funds to send children of all religious backgrounds and ethnicities to the National Art Museum in Israel.





Participating galleries included: Susan Hobbs, Georgia Scherman Projects, Birch Libralato and Diaz Contemporary, where the crawl concluded with Kelly Mark's neon infused hues, DJ Will Munro's solid tunes, drinks and dessert.








Here are some pictures from the event: If you missed out, stay tuned for other upcoming art related parties.

Proud committee chairs and event organizers

Checking out the art embedded in the wall at Susan Hobbs

Georgia Scherman Projects

Sudoku?

Changing Chocolate Choices

The rise in popularity of dark chocolate continues to be more evident and ubiquitous. With Nestle offering its standard fare in 70% dark chocolate and my local convenience store carrying Green & Black's Organic 70% bars and Cote D'Or's 86%, life has just become a lot more sweeter!

I'll admit that I'm a chocolate snob and would never touch the sugary garbage contained in a Mars Bar, but with real dark chocolate appearing in common snacks, please break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!


Now that Halloween's over, I thought I'd cheer you up by recommending some delicious dark chocolate to increase your endorphins. Here's a list of some recent chocolate that I've been snacking on:



Light's out for this pumpkin




Nestle's 70% Aero Dark Chocolate Bar - $1 at convenience stores
Cote d'Or 86% Dark Chocolate Bar - $3.50 at Shoppers Drug Mart
Maestrani - swiss organic fair trade espresso 72% Cacao. $4.69 at Pusateri's


Here is a picture of the Maestrani chocolate:












Wish List:
* Peanut, Peanut Butter or Almond Dark Chocolate M&M's
* Reese Peanut Butter Cups with Dark Chocolate and fudge cookies in the middle. The fudge cookie Reese cups were around 10 years ago and added the perfect crunch to an otherwise too soft snack.


TIP: Sprinkle some cinnamon on your Reese Peanut Butter Cups for added flavour