A Question About Changing Mind and a Mess of a Sketch of an Oak

I often wonder what makes me change my mind about a drawing. I liked it on location (see photo). I really did not like it later to such a degree that I  tried to fix it. I did not like the results so much that I spent quite some time writing about all kinds of things about this sketch. And now I am kind of liking it. I know that changing your mind about work as time passes is a common situation - do you know why it happens to you? Click on the image to see my comments and questions. 

My New Ceramics Adventures: Glaze Drip!

Two recent glazing experiments turned out very pretty (I am a human with a soft spot for everything blue :) but this glaze is runny (meaning when it is going through high-temperature firing in a kiln it becomes more viscous than other glazes and might drip. And that is exactly what happened to my two vases! But since it was minimal, I consulted with my pottery team, donned safety glasses and a particle mask, and picked up a Dremel tool. Now I thought that dremel was a tool - like a hammer or pliers. But it is a Xerox! (meaning Dremel is a company name - one of the manufacturers of compact rotary tools!)

And in just a few minutes I got sharp edges sanded down and vases suitable for drawing, filling with flowers and sticks, and gifting :)

A Joy of Acrylic Markers: Two DIfferent Sets of Arrtx Reviewed

I've seen many people enjoy Arrtx Markers and I wanted to try them for some time. A month ago, my wish came true, and I got a package from Arrtx with two gigantic boxes of Arrtx markers - of two different types- to compare them! 

Let me introduce you to the two different sets and the differences that I found: the top marker in my sketch below is a more well-known type of Arrtx marker (I was sent a 90A Cotton-Core Acrylic Marker Set). And the bottom marker in my sketch below is 60-Color Direct Liquid Acrylic Marker Set.

After a month of experiments, my main thought is that having this brush tip dramatically widens my relationship to acrylic markers, which were dominated by bullet nibs or chisel nibs of Posca, Molotow, and Liquitex markers before. 

Quick drying speed is a new benefit for me, and I liked it a lot. Overlapping colors, materials, and techniques have never been this fast! I can fix an edge on a sketch and immediately go back to working with wet media or overlap it with dry without contaminating layers.

Some colors are very opaque, and some have transparency in them (layered, they become opaque) - but I personally really enjoyed this option of having a range of opacities to play with. 

I now did a whole bunch of experiments with these markers, shared these with various friends to broaden my horizons for how different people use markers, and am finding more and more options as I go. Now it is time to share some of the results!

My first challenge was: how do I choose which color to use when you have so many??!!

This is a great problem to have, of course, and I enjoyed having so many colors to capture all the colors I see! The images (and read notes) below are the result of "let me try everything" drawings! You will find layering examples, smudge tests and all sorts of notes on what I am enjoying and wishing for.

I will share my limited-color experiments separately. 

This is a three-blog-post story of my experiments with acrylic markers from Arrtx - this is part 1, and here are part 2 and part 3)

Essential Fall Cleanup Tasks in the Studio

For various reasons, I've been working "from a bag" for most of the summer. After some time, my tools become much more curated (which is a good thing), but they are getting a lot of use and not much care. Now that I am getting into the "fall projects" state of mind, I am on a mission to get my equipment in better order. 

1. Over the summer, I got a pencil sharpener, which simplified a situation with "100 dull blue pencils" - Henry works hard, has very few complaints: some unexpected sprays with watercolor, a couple of smudges with gouache, and one recent ink soak. 

2. I did a "big refill" on my fountain pens, did some cleaning, checked nibs on dip pens and such. And now I have them in two rotation boxes (I do this from time to time to make sure that I use my tools and not just have them sitting) 

3. And I recently took time to change blades on all my knives. There was a bit of pliers action to make some blades move, but all ended well. I cannot emphasize how nice it is to have a sharp knife. A gift! 

All images are clickable for larger size and reading my notes on inks and such. 

Pencil Sharpener Revolution: Introducing Henry

I've been using colored pencils and sharpening them with various sharpeners. (A search on this blog shows that I mentioned my favorite sharpeners several times). And I am sure you know that graphite pencils and color pencils need slightly different approaches to sharpening. 

But recently I realized that if I need to sharpen a bunch pf pencils at the same time, the strain on my wrist is getting to a point of concern. Granted, this is a reason to work on my wrist strength - but on the other hand, having a backup that sharpens various thicknesses of color pencils well and does not send me to the icepack is a sensible parallel solution. Hence - recent purchase - introducing Henry the Pencil Sharpener. 

p.s. I am aware that my pencils might live longer if I skip the electric sharpener, but part of that long life comes from the fact that I would use them less, and my goal is to use them more - and enjoy it. 

My Running Watercolor Kit Fell Apart!

I took my tiny pocket watercolor kit on a trail, and when I was midway through my sketch, it fell apart! My search for a replacement turned up some results, and I can also fix this one with some duck tape (but the cute image on the cover will not be visible) or go towards a luxury option of demi part toolkit palette.

On My Table: Beginning of March 2026

February is a short month! And I am still ironing out details for my printmaking toolkit for all the participants of my workshops at the 14th International Urban Sketchers Symposium which will be happening in July of 2026 in Toulouse, France.

I am also:

1. Using my favorite brush pen together with the pen that I am not sure about (love /hate) 

2. Use a little vial of ink to draw with a dip pen on location

3. Using oil brushes with my watercolor+gouache palette

4. Admiring dry oak leaf hydrangea flower

5. Considering taking an enamel tray as a palette to paint on location (it is heavy though)

6. Fuming about scotch changing the packaging for their tape (it is made of less plastic but is extremely flimsy - I could refill the previous holder with tape for over 10 years, but this one broke within months! (my old tape dispenser lost its sharpness for cutting the tape, and had to go to the recycling bin). And the amount of tape inside it is significantly smaller. 

On My Table: Beginning of February 2026

I am excited to be one of the teachers at the 14th International Urban Sketchers Symposium which will be happening in July of 2026 in Toulouse, France! (click on the image to see a short video with a description of my workshop) and here is a link to the program where you can see all the details and an amazing collection of sketchers and teachers from around the world. 

And one of the things I am working on this month is finalizing the contents of the toolkit that each of the participants of my workshop in Toulouse will receive! 

What I Packed For A Trip (Underwater Sketching Kit)

I already shared what I used for my surface sketching on a recent trip, and this is a story of what I took with me to sketch underwater. 

Now, normally, I would start with a photo of my setup with some written comments. However, this time the sea took somewhat more of my tools than usual, so I cannot show you all of them - but I have older photos and some stories as to how this happened, and, hopefully, how to prevent this from happening in the future are at the end of this post. 

So here is what is in my basic kit for sketching underwater:

A. support board (8.5" x 6", thickness 1/16" , made out larger of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) board, available at any construction or plastic store) 

B. water-resistant paper (this time I used GAK stone paper notebook cut to the size of my board)

C. binder clip to hold A to B

D. elastic band to make sure that pages are not "flying" (the movement of water when you are scuba diving is quite like a wind since you are in constant motion, not to mention that oftentimes you will have a current, which means a strong wind).

E. Pencil with a lanyard so that it can be attached either to my hand or to the board.

I have a variety of pencils - from a regular drawing pencil to which a nylon string was attached with superglue, to several chisel or flat pencils (to vary my line), to some pencils that were marketed as specifically created for scuba diving - you can see them all below. My favorite ones are listed in this post: https://blog.apple-pine.com/2025/01/underwater-sketching-kit.html.

And I also take some colored pencils with me often. Having multiple colors in one tool is a big win, as everything that I take with me underwater needs to be attached to my body, and having too many things is not realistic to manage. So I use double-sided red and blue pencils or multi-color (aka rainbow) pencils and stick them in my wrist band (which I made out of a wide elastic band myself).

During this trip, I also took oil pastels with me. Since this was effectively a test run for this setup, I took pastels from as many manufacturers as I could find in my studio and used a little plastic bag with a lanyard to carry them. Every time I wanted to use one of these colors, I would open the bag, get one color out, and close the bag. Fortunately, pastels themselves are negatively buoyant, which means that they would not shoot to the surface the moment I opened my little bag.

Here is an image of my tools and how my set-up looked like:

Oil Pastel Manufacturers I used were:
Faber-Castell Grip Oil Pastels
Mungyo Gallery Artists' Soft Oil Pastels
Sennelier Oil Pastels
Caran d’Ache Neoart 6901 Wax Oil Pastels

(I took only one of each with me underwater to start). 

Naturally, the most expensive one (Sennelier) I lost right away, so I cannot say how well it would work.

Out of the remaining three brands, the Faber-Castell Grip Oil Pastels were the ones most affected by the pressure at the depth - they lost more of their ability for smooth application and did not give out color willingly, mostly creating uneven coverage, which felt like catching on the surface. 

Mungyo Gallery was amazingly malleable and retained its quality of drawing both when used at the edge to make a line and at the side to cover a large surface. But they also shed quite a bit of pigment onto other pastel sticks. And the highest level of control, clearness of line, and texture of application on a side were achieved with Caran d’Ache Neoart 6901 Wax Oil Pastels.

And here are some notes on what I lost and learned from this trip:

First, I lost my binder clip, which connected my board and paper pad. Then I found it, but then I lost it again. This is a moment to remember that two is one and one is none - I should have two clips.

Then I lost my support board. It was positively buoyant and shot to the surface when I spent too much time looking at a tiny cleaning shrimp that was sitting inside a beautiful sea anemone. I was trying to move as little as possible to get closer to the creature, and accidentally let go of my drawing setup and caught only the paper pad when it started floating away. I also lost a few pencils - some fell apart due to salt and pressure exposure (not much to do with this 0 just bring more spares), and one I took with me to a dusk dive and put it away in my pouch when it got dark, but it was not there when I surfaced. You will see that some of my materials have hairbands on a string, and I carried them on my wrist. However, hairbands become really tight at the depth, and while they work great to attach things to things like my webbing or clip, they are not suitable for my wrist - my hand-made pencil holder made out of a wide elastic band is still the best - but it is coming apart, and I should make a new one for the next trip. Carrying pastels in one would not be possible, as they get quite soft and would be hard to push in, and might lose a lot of their body. The current plastic baggie is a workable solution, but it takes some time to rummage through to get the right color out. 

 

Actual sketches (with some comments on the materials) are coming soon - I made over 50 pages of sketches underwater and sorting through them proved to be a bit of herculean task :)

Here is a link to my previous post on this subject - from a previous scuba diving trip:

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2025/01/underwater-sketching-kit.html

All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:

1. What I Packed for a Trip (An Interesting New Brush)

2. What I Packed For A Trip (Underwater Sketching Kit)

3. Trip to Bonaire: Plants
4. Trip to Bonaire: Underwater Sketching - Turtle City

5. Trip to Bonaire: Almost Domestic Animals

6. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Oil Pastels and Salt Water Mix Nicely

7. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Remainder Sketches and a SURPRISE

8. Trip to Bonaire: Sketchbook Video (Flip Through) and Additional Sketches - from the "On the Spot" Article

What I Packed for a Trip (An Interesting New Brush)

For a vacation to a warm sea, I packed two separate drawing bags: one for an underwater sketching kit (I will make a separate post about it and link it here) and a surface sketching kit. This is a quick overview of what went into my surface sketching kit. Not pictured here are my water container, little water spraying bottle, towel, and a backup watercolor set, which I basically did not unpack. I made separate photos of what I thought I would actually use and what not, and got it pretty accurately. A new brush is a R24 Eradicator which I borrowed from Suhita Shirodkar for testing and ended up taking with me - it is a brush that is supposed to "lift out brights or soften hard edges in your watercolor painting" - basically for lifting. But because it holds very little water, it was an interesting tool to use with gouache, as water control is one of the things that is especially tricky when using a dry palette. Basically, it allows me to get more pigment because I can scrub on the dry well very well with it, and the only water I use in this case is some spraying of the palette. Having several pads of paper to take on location was very useful. Though now I need to combine this all into my main sketchbook :)

All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:

1. What I Packed for a Trip (An Interesting New Brush)

2. What I Packed For A Trip (Underwater Sketching Kit)

3. Trip to Bonaire: Plants
4. Trip to Bonaire: Underwater Sketching - Turtle City

5. Trip to Bonaire: Almost Domestic Animals

6. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Oil Pastels and Salt Water Mix Nicely

7. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Remainder Sketches and a SURPRISE

8. Trip to Bonaire: Sketchbook Video (Flip Through) and Additional Sketches - from the "On the Spot" Article

On My Table: Beginning of Dovember 2025

Today is actually December first - and this mess needs to be sorted out before I start my "first day of the month" list of things, so I'd better post this quickly! 

I am in the process of sending a whole bunch of holiday greetings out. They are printed in a batch, but then each card gets a custom layer of paint - in addition to the hand-written greeting on the back. That is a big part of what is going on here. I am also planning a trip, so there are quite a few tools for pen and palette refills.

Trip to The East Coast - Part 5: Materials After Returning

As I mentioned in my original materials post for this trip, I did my best to note what I was missing during the trip, what I used most, and what I did not touch at all, and here are some results:

1. This was a very short trip, so this amount of gouache was enough, but if I were traveling for a longer time, I would definitely take some tubes to both refill my palette and also to have access, for some "just out of the tube" thick paint that is needed, at the finishing touches, often. I had five different blues so I was fine - but yellows were 

2. I really enjoyed my first-ever posca pencil (ivory) - it was doing a really good job covering over other materials.

3. Little gouache sticks are amazing - I wish they were more widely spread - but access to this instant color with the possibility of texture is for me a difference between starting a sketch or not - if I feel like I do not have enough time. 

4. I missed yellow. I have a favorite yellow marker at the moment, it is semi-transparent and layers over other colors in such a luminous way that I can use it with just one other color and still call it a full-color sketch. 

5. I missed some purple. I had a violet-gray from Luminance but needed something brighter. And I missed some brown, which I tried to figure out at the end of my sketchbooks, going over all the browns I could find, but I did not pinpoint what exactly was missing. This is something to remember for the next time: to write a little more about the color that I am missing - brown is not enough! After all, when I am teaching, I always ask people to use at least 3, between 4 and 5 words to describe color - why didn't I do it myself and just scribbled "missing brown"?

6. I missed my Pilot Parallel pen - I had a great substitute (zig calligraphy), but this beauty is capable of making such an expressive line that the sheer prospect of seeing it glide on the page can be a motivation enough for me to take a little sketching break. I guess rule number one of packing for a trip is "take your favorite tool" :) 

here are some color-swatching pages on which I was trying to figure out what exact color I was missing:

Trip to The East Coast 2025:
Part 1: Packing My Sketch Tools
Part 2: People, Bids, Animals and Apples
Part 3: Landscapes
Part 4: More Landscapes
Part 5: What Materials worked and what I missed
Video of the Sketchbook Flip-Through.

Trip to The East Coast - Part 1 (Slow Road to Trimming My Tools: Part 2)

When I got my tickets to visit New York and Pennsylvania in late October, I knew that I would like to apply my "let's trim my tools" mindset to choosing what would go with me. In preparation, I looked at the sketches I did during my last year's trip, and also remembered that neither a temperamental flex nib fountain pen nor bottles of acrylic ink are good ideas. But my experience with acrylic inks gave me an idea to think about some tools to make large shapes super quickly and simply - for this, I took some highlighters and a couple of markers. And experience with the pen I love gave me an idea to bring only writing instruments that I know well and that bring me joy by sheer use of them (pentel pocket brush pen and zig calligraphy marker).  And for adding texture and details, I decided to select some pencils. My choice of colors was heavily influenced by the colors I saw in my last year's photos, and also the idea that I will need to have something that would work on a wet surface as well as on dry, be able to work as a super dark color, but also be able to cover something else to make it lighter. Neocolor II crayons in this set were playing the same role of "have to be able to cover marks made by other tools to transform them into something very different". A little gelatti gouache stick from Faber Castell was something that I recently picked up, and it worked in the same capacity (instant sky). Here is how my kit looked like:

and packed:

I wanted to have a gouache set with me, and it proved to be a source of joy on many occasions - both for making large shapes, being super quick, and also for bringing textures and layering colors. Two waterbrushes were enough for this particular trip - one flat, one round, both capable of many marks, especially if you control the flow of water (for those little packable towels that Uma Kelkar got me into are invaluable!). My minimal gouache palette lives in a Pocket Palette from Art Tool-Kit and here are colors (addition of lilac was last minute and somehow I did not use it) 

I was also in a rare position when I was about to finish my sketchbook number 161 - so what do I want from my next sketchbook was a question I asked myself first. I knew that I would not have time for a proper watercolor painting, so paper had to be something that would work with a wide range of materials but would withstand some rough treatment. And since I knew that I wanted to pack light, I thought about making this a special sketchbook - about this trip only. In my collection of sketchbooks, there are a few hand-made, and this particular one I made under the guidance of my friend Gay Kraeger some time ago. Embarrassingly long ago, if I am honest. I liked it so so much that I frequently opened it up and considered, but was never sure what would be a good enough occasion to start it... I am working on transforming the "it is too good to be used" mindset, so this was a perfect moment to have something special for this trip.

Size: 5.5" x 7.5" Paper: hot press Fabriano Artistico 140 lbs.  

I also had my pocket printmaking toolset with a home-made sponge dauber and inks in a little tower, but I used both very little. Thinking back, I think I did not pack these tools into a separate bag that would be easy to locate in my backpack - something to think about in the future. 

I will make another post with some notes on what I missed and comments on some thinking behind my color choices to remember for the future and will add link here. UPDATE: here is a post and video of the whole sketchbook.

Trip to The East Coast 2025:
Part 1: Packing My Sketch Tools
Part 2: People, Bids, Animals and Apples
Part 3: Landscapes
Part 4: More Landscapes
Part 5: What Materials worked and what I missed
Video of the Sketchbook Flip-Through.

Slow Road to Trimming My Tools: Part 1

After some travels this summer, I made this sketch note to myself:

I've been there before and was usually able to remove extra stuff within one "re-packing" session. But this time, I noticed a resistance on many levels. I had so many things in my backpack I felt a need to separate different drawing tools into different themes/bags/boxes, and then I was not sure what was it what box and what exactly I liked or used the last time? And I kept getting some glimpses about "that great tool that once was amazing," where is it? After some time, I realized that I've spent more time looking at my tools and putting them from one bag into another than actually drawing, and that is when I knew that I was in real trouble. Because now I had more bags in front of me than before, and zero willpower to make any choices about what to use in my sketch. I ended up not drawing on that day (apart from the following doodle, which I did on my iPad after I upgraded to procreate, and saw all the new brushes, which did not help with the previous situation).

So I stopped and decided to look at what people are doing, talk to friends about this, give this transformation some time but make a log of what approaches I am trying, what is working and what is not and get myself out there sketching more. And I decided to share the process as I go - because I am sure I am not the only one and because this way I will have something to refer to.

First, I asked myself what are some of my favorite tools and what kinds of marks I am after in them. So I cleaned and refilled my Ackerman Pen. Here is a page created with it right after. 

This en is not an easy character to deal with - but I remembered that when I make it work, it brings me joy. Testing out what marks I can make and what I really liked, how different holds gave me different feels, was the most useful part of this experiment.

Next I took my Pilot Parallel Pen with a modified nib (I cannot believe I never made a post about making it! - not to self: make one!). So I took this pen to an outing and drew with it almost 100% blindly. I made a sketch I enjoy looking at even right now - because I remember looking at the scene without breaking eye contact for a longer than usual time and I remember this time and scene so vividly! 

And then a friend gave me a bunch of super bright acrylic inks, and I found one more to complement the trio, and I painted over this sketch - I had so much fun, I kept bringing those inks with me to a couple of outings after this. When I asked myself why, I realized that with these inks I can mix colors only by overlapping them on the page directly, and I can paint super fast, too. There are very few choices - I have only three bottles and a big brush.  

I tried overlapping these inks with other tools and made more notes:

I think the most useful part was actually writing down what I like and then trying to use that one particular thing on the next sketch I had a chance to do. I hoped to apply this thinking to my packing for the travel  but ended up with too many art supplies (as you can guess flying with acrylic inks or a leaky fountain pen in tow is a bit involved). So I took a different approach to choosing materials for the trip - and hope to tell you more about it in the next post!

On My Table: Beginning of November 2025

First of November found me at the table, sorting through my sketches done on a trip to the East Coast of the USA. We saw some amazing fall colors, had a chance to connect with dear family members, and met a porcupine. I am going to do a set of posts about the trip, but for now, all of this stuff was dominating my table, as you can see. 

I took a very reasonable set of tools with me on purpose (way more than I used to take at some point but compared to recent trends it was very reasonable) and I missed some things on the trip, so one of the first things I did after returning is I made a list of things that I was reaching for and now finding and tried to find exactly what would be "that" - hence the swatching of all the "browns" and search for grays and greens. 

And I kind of missed the sketch that ended up as a gift (I very rarely never tear pages from my sketchbooks - but this was a special occasion. And I am very happy that it ended up being a gift to this particular family member! But since I missed it and a story that it created - I drew it from a photo that I took :)

On My Table: Beginning of October 2025

October is here, and with it all the pumpkin-related things suddenly are legitimate! I suddenly find myself playing with neon colors and making list of experiments to run before the year is over and there are some new and really cool crayons from Caran d’Ache - they are called Neoart 6901 and are actually "Wax Oil Pastels" - to me the translation is "if you like Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils - these are leads from those pencils - on steroids! I got myself some colors to try: Violet Gray, Primerose, and Dark Indigo. They work as a stand-alone palette by the way (mid-tone, light tone, and dark). The indigo I am in love with in pencil form as well - it is so dark it is almost black - but with an undertone of blue that definitely makes it not black!
After hearing Uma Kelkar searching for a tool to make white lines over gouache painting during the Street View World Tour Demo, I decided to try a white-out pen - and (apart from a stink of it) it seems to work!

I am trying to limit the amount of stuff I am bringing on location, and there are some interesting plans in that line of thinking - we will see if the beginning of November table will look less messy!

An Ode to Gray

I've been thinking a lot about what we think we like and what, in truth, we do. For example, I have a collection of images that are grouped because I liked the colors in them. It is quite large, and I find it fascinating to open it from time to time and see how my color interests change and where I am at the moment (or was a year ago). Or what colors I buy or mix all the time - and then see if they end up in actual projects. And also to see some complete outliers or examples of I would never have guessed was my pick - but that is a story for another time. 

Recently, I noticed that the number of grays in the world around me has grown - there are more different types of gray cars on the highways, there are more grays in the house paint store and in designs that I see on paper and online. And in my sketchbook too! I am very interested in bringing textures and printmaking ideas into drawing on location, and I was tracking a particular texture in grays. It got exacerbated after I learned more about lithography and saw some amazing textures at the Ruth Asawa Retrospective this summer. So I ran a whole bunch of tiny experiments which involved lithographic crayons and tusche crayons, but also all sorts of grays that were lying around my studio. One of the things I was after was finding a solution that does not smudge, as graphite / liquid graphite does (think an alternative to tailor's art graph and possibly darker). I think I was able to reproduce the effect I was after, but it is probably too time-consuming for my preferred speed of working. Here are some of the experiments (click on the image to see it larger and read my notes):

Gouache Reconstitution Process

I've been working with a watercolor+gouache palette for some time now, and also kept a whole bunch of gouache colors - pre-mixed in various ways. The system is not really systematic - it is more of an "oh, I mixed a really cool color and I will carry it with me for some time" situation. So here is how it looks:

I wanted to adjust some of these mixes and realized that a couple of my gouache tubes are completely dry - as in brick dry. Below is a record of my experiment I did to reconstitute them back to life (successful, if a bit messy).

On My Table: Beginning of September 2025

I think August was a very full month, and I have no idea how it went so quickly! Which is something I say often but some months it is feels like it is way more so. I have piles and piles of things on my table: from projects I completed to projects that are about to start. Mementos, messages and little drawing gifts. Projects I thought about but never acted on, things I have to do, scraps of paper where I test materials or write down ideas, or doodle crazy faces to get some drawing steam out of my system before I tackle another non-drawing project. But I've been drawing! And I saw some amazing sunsets recently - so now I can go and clear all this mess away from my desk and hopefully connect my phone to make some videos of sketchbook flip-throughs!  

Summer Travel: Toronto. Small sketches and notes.

While in Toronto, I walked every day and fell in love with the city that I saw. I took some photos, and drew some things with a tiny set of tools that fits in my waist pack together with other essentials (see photo at the bottom of this post). 

My favorite things:
- little parks, many on little hills
- streets that curve so that you do not see the other end
- apples and sunflowers in the middle of the city
- an amazing cemetery that is actually a huge park
- so many Ukrainian flags
- almost in every window - Canadian flag - and how many versions! Large and small, stickers, made out of flowers, with lights, kids' drawings etc.