Wonderful Weekend

Martin and I spent a wonderful weekend in Toronto. We had beautiful weather there, and spring was much further advanced than here in Nova Scotia, as you can see from the picture above - a typical downtown Toronto house with a beautiful garden. We did some shopping - the highlight of which for me was Queen Street West in Toronto. It's the Fashion District, and has loads of bead button and trimming shops. It also has the most fantastic ribbon shop - Mokuba - beautiful ribbons from fifty cents to fifty dollars per metre. It was like a chapel of ribbon in there, everyone spoke in reverential hushed tones. I wanted to buy loads, but restrained myself a bit. I did, however, get a sample book for future orders. We also went to the Paper Place - loads of wonderful Japanese papers, including my favorite - chiyogami. Again, I practiced restraint but couldn't leave without a few little purchases! We also had a lurvely brunch at a cafe called Fressen. It was a vegan feast, with tofu, roast potatoes, tempeh "bacon", black beans, fruit, and lots more - yum!

I also did a bit of clothes shopping at H&M. We don't have one in my hometown, so shopping there is quite a treat for me! I got a printed wrap dress, and a kimono top - hurray!

Another thing I did on the trip was approach some shops about carrying my books.Pulp kindly bought a few, so now Double Happiness has gone national! It was great to meet the shop's owner, Laura - a fellow book artist, and browse in her fantastic shop which has a range of beautiful papers and cards.

Oh, and how could I forget - Mr Verg's Theatre of the Absurd! A very strange, but very entertaining little puppet show. Another nice thing about cities, they're full of creativity and expression, of all kinds, including crazy potato sack puppet shows!

Finally, the nicest thing that we did was catch up with my oldest friend Mishka and her partner "D". They showed us a fantastic time, and took us to some wonderful restaurants and places that we wouldn't have found on our own. We hope to return the favor here in Nova Scotia - soon!