When it comes to canapés, simple, retro bites are best. Think cheese straws and dainty little sandwiches.

We love Avril Loreti’s witty cocktail napkins ($26) covered in smooch marks and wine stains. They’re a fun conversation starter just in case you’ve got the odd bashful guest.

Mwa, mwa, darling.

Available at Good Egg Industries.

If a trip to Buenos Aires is nowhere in your tarots, may we suggest inviting the indigenous flavours of South American cooking into your home instead?

For just a few weeks, Argentine chef, Diego Felix will be in Toronto whipping up traditional Paraguayan corn cakes, halibut ceviche and avocado and lime pies in kitchens across the city. 

The 34-year-old BA native has garnered considerable buzz since setting up his ‘secret’ supperclub, Casa Felix, a few years ago. Much like the food he is known for at home, the meals he offers on his North American tour take local and indigenous products and combine them with South American cooking methods, techniques and recipes.

In Toronto he might bake bread using Red Fife wheat while in Chicago he might prepare a Peruvian inspired Tacu Tacu with Anishinaabeg hand harvested wild rice.

He’ll cook, he’ll serve, and he’ll even do the washing up!

"Buen Appetito!"

Felix will be in Toronto from May 20-June 2. A four course tasting menu with cocktails and wine pairings prepared in your home costs approx $90 per person. For more info contact Felix, diego@diegofelix.com

Need to channel your kids’ creative energy? Have them paint on someone else’s walls for a change at the 4Cats Arts Academy (now with 10 locations).

Its Jackson Pollack birthday parties get the kids splattering stylishly on massive canvases, and this fall’s Georgia O’Keefe classes will have them turning up roses.

Think your kid really has talent? Before you stick a $3,000 price tag on their chef d’oeuvre and send it to Monte Clark, watch the fantastic documentary, My Kid Could Paint That about the rise and fall of a 4-year-old New York artist.

Ah, fleeting fame.

View art classes and locations at www.4catsartsacademy.com