I wanted to send big THANK YOU to PoppyTalk for featuring us in their Toronto City Guide today and Jen at Toronto Craft Alert who was so kind to come in last Friday to take some pics of the shop!
For those of you following the news lately, it's all been gloom and doom lately. I've been on the edge of my seat, watching the CDN$ plummet, predictions of a downturn in the retail sales for the holidays. And I can't stop reading. But for some lighter fare...
My fashion sense is molded by the pages of Lucky, for shopping ideas and Nylon, to keep me somewhat current, and I've always liked their art direction, fun and frivolous, like how fashion should be, but still witty and relevant. I stopped reading publications like Vogue after I read one particular article. It was about planning your next season's wardrobe during tough financial times, whether one should splurge on that $20,000 coat, or put that $20,000 towards on your entire wardrobe for the season. Well, that pretty much nipped that bad habit in the bud. I'll pick up an odd copy if there is something that piques my interest.
It's that time of year again for ghosts and goblins. We've been carving pumpkins, hanging bats and spiders all week long.
Don't get scared at the mention of Christmas...I like to test some products before the holidays. I was so happy to receive my shipment of these lovely gift items from Agnes & Hoss...
These lovely compact mirrors covered in Agnes & Hoss' beautiful silk fabrics.
We found this relic of a building (above) on the wrong side of the tracks on our way to the Distillery District (below) where Alice scored this Koziol "Alice" bag...
And we had these delicious treats at Soma Chocolates...mmm...sea salt and caramel...
And memories of the calm before the storm, one pinky-hued evening after a quick meal in Korea Town...
One of the many reasons why we need to go and vote and have our voices heard in this upcoming federal election. I am by no means a "political" person, but this issue has me incensed. Maybe Prime Minister Harper should have chosen his words more carefully, but making the broad statement that "ordinary" Canadians don't care about the arts is an insult to all of us "ordinary" folk. But I digress...
On a recent visit to MOMA, I attended the Salvador Dali exhibit. It was fascinating, to say the least. His world of surrealism was incorporated into the 1945 Alfred Hitchcock Spellbound. His set design was so concise in conveying the dream sequences for the film, both fantastical and surreal. Walt Disney (the man, not the corporation) was fascinated with Dali. He commissioned Dali to work on an animated piece, which never came to fruition after Disney's death. But the original piece was completed in 2007 by animators who wanted to see the work through to its completion.
And what was the point...oh, yes, art not being relevant to us ordinary folk. We need art and it's funding and advocacy in this country. "Art" is not only for the rich who attend "...a gala all subsidized by taxpayers...", as Mr. Harper put it.
I am fortunate to live and work in a community where art is what we live and breathe. But it's the art that is infiltrated into our everyday lives that will suffer too. Art is all around, from the ads on our billboards, to the displays in the shop windows to the crayon renderings made by our little ones.
I never had the chance to visit the now defunct Children's Own Museum, which was housed in the also now defunct Planetarium, soon to be condo development. But I wish someone would take the initiative to improve our children's attractions, because, in my opinion, all the attractions we attended this summer were a huge disappointment and unfortunately, expensive. But if everything was measured by its economic impact, I'm sure Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, themselves, would tell you that funding the arts is good for the books.
Alice enjoying "Art" outside the CBC building.
Yesterday, Alice started her first day of Junior Kindergarten. It was not the momentous occasion we had long anticipated because she has been at the daycare that is situated in her school for awhile now. And she's been ready for a long time. But still...it was bittersweet, as Mondays were our special days to do things together as mother and daughter.
