Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The wayward blogger returns!

Lack of news or anything of interest to blog about 
caused me to skip a weekend and then I came 
down with an annoying cold (with special
thanks to my DH for sharing) that is hanging
on into it's third week now and left me with
little energy or inclination to do much of 
anything for a second weekend.
But last week I had my first week of vacation for
this year and crammed a lot of paper crafting
and talk radio listening into that time whilst
also entertaining my cold.

Sooooo.....

I have so much to write about now but want 
to try and space out the tales of my adventures
of the past two weeks so I don't overwhelm you
all at once.


A new mandala from my doodle book.
I just realized that it's showing here on
it's side but since it's a circle design
I guess that really doesn't matter ... so
.... never mind.


This bird I made out of scrap papers and my
own hand drawn design plus lovely metalic
markers and a jewel for it's eye.   It's not 
stuck to the white background you see here.
It's a free range bird that fits in my hand
(edge of palm to finger tips in length).
I had fun making her and plan to make 
more with my paper scraps.   Why?
Because it's FUN!!!!!


I made a double sided collage page
as well last week, taking a picture
from one of my old Victoria 
magazines as a start and adding 
stamping, a bit of washi tape, 
scrapbooking embelishments,
a cut up and inked paper doily
and lots of adhesive.  


On the flip side I went with a blue 
theme and used all of the same 
sorts of stuff as was used on the
pink page.

I have a large pile of Victoria 
magazines that I want to go 
through and cut apart to 
remove any articles and pictures
that appeal to me to be saved in
some form or other.   Then I'll
recycle the parts that I don't 
want ... or do more collage
with them.

I did other crafty stuff too
last week since I was housebound
with my cold and the usual 
round of nasty weather that
seems to be making up the 
majority of this never ending
winter ... and that's all I'm
going to say about the weather 
in this post!!!!!

Will show more of my crafty
stuff next post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last weekend was our third
annual "Girls Weekend" in
Toronto.   My friend Darlene
and I have made this a yearly
tradition that we look forward
to with great anticipation during
the dull days of mid winter.

We had tickets to a show,
and we planned to do touristy
stuff and eat out a lot during 
our two days in the big city.

Yes sir,  we were two wild
and crazy gals being footloose
and fancy free, kicking up our
heels ... and all kinds of other
inane phrases like that.


We stayed at the Eaton Chelsea hotel in the
heart of downtown Toronto.   Within walking
distance of theatres, shopping, The World's
Biggest Bookstore, restaurants etc.

Sound like a commercial, don't I?

Anyways .... our room was on the 16th
floor and we had a great deal for our
two night stay.   That's our room
above.   The beds were really
comfy.



A bit of the view from our room's little balcony.
I did use the zoom lens on my camera to take
this picture of a side street next to the hotel.


Both Friday night and Saturday night
we had dinner at Swiss Chalet.  Why?
Because we love Swiss Chalet.   Great
food, great prices ... and their chicken
Spring rolls are to die for!!!!

Uh, sorry.  Another commercial.



After dinner we strolled around the
downtown and visited The World's
Biggest Bookstore which, sadly,
will be closing in March after 
close to 30 or more years in business.
Two floors of books and magazines
to browse through for as long as
you can spare the time.   I could kill
half a day in here no problem.

I came here about 30 years ago to
have my copy of Shirley Temple's
autobiography signed by the author
herself ... Shirley Temple.  That was
pretty cool.    She was a nice lady.

Ah, memories.


We admired a few  of the old buildings
that are scattered around downtown
including the Elgin & Winter Garden
threatres ... which I'll be writing more
about next time.   So stay tuned.
Okay ... no more commercial 
breaks.   I promise.


Well, except for this one.   Before
heading back to our hotel room at
the end of the night we stopped at
the Pickle Barrel for desert.

This is mine.

Frozen vanilla yogurt, whipped
cream, oreo cookies, a brownie,
chocolate sauce and a cherry on
top.   Tasty!!!!!


Then we returned to our hotel
room and rented a movie.  We'd
been wanting to see Frozen 
ever since it came out and so
when we saw it being offered on
the hotel's movies to rent site
we grabbed it.

It was fabulous!!!!!

And that'll do it for now.  
I'll be back with more of the
"Incredible adventures of
Darlene and Judy in the
BIG city" next time.

Cheers!!!

7 comments:

Stitching Noni said...

How lucky you are to have met Shirley Temple (even if it was 30 years ago!!) Looks like you had a lovely time away :o)
I love your paper bird - so sweet
Hope the cold is finally starting to leave you alone!

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

First of all, I love your collages and doodles, and wonderful bird :) You are multi-talented for sure! i could never do stuff like that. Ever.
And I love that you had a weekend away! What excitement! I love those type of weekends! :) FUN!!!

Judy S. said...

Sounds like you're keeping busy despite the cold. There is a nasty one going around, so hope you shake it soon! Stay warm!

stitcherw said...

Love your papercrafting, and the little bird you made was very cute, a couple of them flying on a wall corner (or door) would be adorable. Looks like a wonderful time was had on your girls outing, a perfect place to stay with lots of fun stuff to do near by, I'm envious :)
Hope you get rid of the cold soon, they can make you sooo tired.
Sue

Andrea said...

Love seeing your doodles and papercrafting bits and bobs. Amazing. Glad you had a good weekend away, always nice to have a break from the norm.

Brigitte said...

I could drool over your papercrafting. There are certainly some similarities between crafting with paper and crafting with textiles, it seems. Very elaborate, your pages, and this little bird is so beautifully made.

It seems that you were having a lot of fun at Toronto. That bookstore would be my downfall, I think I'd spend my whole stay in there, lol. So sad that it's poing to close.

I hope you are feeling a lot better by now.

Sonda said...

I love your little bird and your mandala doodles are so intricate and lovely. Your trip sounds like it was a lot of fun. Hope you're feeling lots better.