What's up Montreal - Food trucks

In the summer, on the first Friday of the month, that's July 6th and August 3rd starting at 4pm, the food trucks can be found at the Parc Olympique.

Picture from here

"First Friday events bring together the leading street restaurants in Montreal. On the first Friday of the month, the vans and trucks converted into mobile kitchens will meet in Secteur 300 to serve their food in the first part of this ofstreet food integrated initiative in Montreal."

More details on the  Parc Olympique site

Also, read the article on Montreal Buzz

Bingo!

I went, as I often do, to a thrift store recently to find some materials. I did come out of there with a few books and old comic books, but something else as well. Somehow I just couldn't leave this in the shop..

It's a vintage bingo set. And not just any bingo set, a Professional bingo set!

It is relatively small, so I should be able to find a place for it, not quite sure where yet.

The great thing about this was that the box was still completely sealed, which means it hadn't been opened before. This, then, means that all the pieces are there and the paper and cardboard pieces are in good condition and unused as well. The set has 36 bingo cards and an awesome orange "masterboard".

I think I'll keep some of the bingo cards myself, but put a few up for sale over at the materials shop. I don't know where the bingo machine will end up at, but I'm sure it'll look pretty cool. Maybe I should even try a round of bingo before breaking up the set.

So, have you found a good deal/something weird/anything you want to tell me about?

Transparent envelope tutorial

I wanted to share a tried and tested tutorial to make your own see through envelopes. I tried a couple of different methods and found this the easiest with the best results. In the spirit of upcycling I also used repurposed materials.

You'll need an envelope, scissors, some plastic (I used a sheet/page protector) and double sided tape. Well, that's what I used, I'm sure other adhesives would work as well. Just be careful if you're using regular glue as I imagine it won't dry very fast when used with plastic.

I picked the page protector since it actually makes cutting the envelopes shape much easier. So, start by opening your old envelope. You can use any one you have at hand and obviously you can make different sizes as needed. Insert the opened envelope into the plastic pocket.

Then cut around the envelope. I found it easiest to line one side of the envelope with the seam of the pocket and then cutting that part last. That way the two sides of the plastic pocket do not move around while you're still cutting them into shape.

Once you've cut it out, fold the four sides to form the flaps of the envelopes.

Once you've creased the folds, add the double sided tape (or whichever adhesive you're using) to the side flaps. Remove the backing and stick the bottom flap on the sides.

And that's it! It's super simple and if you're using the page protectors, you get two envelopes cut at the same time. You could easily use different coloured plastic and even used packaging.

So, are you going to try it out?

Do you have a flag?

I might have found a few more rolls of Washi tape, this time in green patterns.

I'm also trying to come up with different ways to use them. Here I have (quite impressively I might add) made a tiny flag. I hope you are most wonderfully impressed.

(there's better posts on their way, I promise! However, I'm proud to say, this post has been fully written and photographed on my new phone)

Fireworks

Every summer Saturday at 10pm there will be fireworks from the amusement park. There's a competition that goes on all summer and each participant shows their fireworks on one Saturday night. This only started yesterday and the first country to perform was Japan.

I've gone to the park to watch them once every summer I've lived in Montreal but last night was the first time I went to see them from the Jacques Cartier bridge. The bridge crosses almost over the amusement park, so for every Saturday, they close that bridge so people who are not in the park can go see the fireworks from there. It was fun to see them from a different angle.

Also, I've now learned that for every nice photo of fireworks you'll end up with, like, ten awful ones.