Textile exhibits in Toronto

It's funny how we learn things from our parents, and what we learn is to be the OPPOSITE of what they are! My mom is overweight, and I vowed very early on not to let myself go. She had loads of knickknacks, and I've tried hard not to let my house become like hers. I didn't quite make that one, but I'm overcoming it in spades. Her personality? Yes—I'm the complete opposite of my mother. 

If you read Elle's comment from yesterday, it sounds like she did the same thing. But as she mentioned, if you don't take the decluttering thing to heart, your children are going to resent you. Well, they will certainly not be happy if they are regulated to clean up your mess, and if the time is short, it will be even worse. 

Yesterday was a big adventure. Technically, I was supposed to do that last week with a friend, but I'm glad we had to change our plans. I went alone, and it all worked out much better. You'll see. 

Instead of driving, I took the train. This is the way to get downtown. It took 40 minutes, it's quiet, and the train is clean. I would never think of driving downtown. And when you get there, no worries about parking a car, which can take forever! 

The train

I had four places on my list, but on Friday, I only had one. So, having to postpone was a good thing. You know what they say: things happen for a reason! I'm not happy my friend was sick, but over the weekend, I discovered three more shows to visit. 

I also walked everywhere, and it was a lot of walking, but only a little more than I would usually walk in a day. On my walk, I spotted this sculpture. The perspective looks strange. 

A sculpture

I walked up to see the name of the sculpture. 

The credits for the sculpture

And then I realized that it was very thin! I'm sure that people walk by and no longer notice this, but I was like a tourist yesterday and stopped and looked at many things. I'm glad I had my orange jacket on, as it was cold. There is very little sun in the downtown area, and those tall buildings are like wind tunnels. 

The sculpture is THIN

I walked through Nathan Phillips Square, where the Toronto sign is. If you don't know, that's City Hall in the background. Soon, the water in front will become a skating rink. Doesn't every city have a sign now? 

The TORONTO sign

My first (technically second—more on that in a minute) stop was the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). It is a grand old building with this bizarre modern structure built on the side. It looks like minerals are exploding out the side of it. 

The ROM

But this is the entrance I went into. I want to see another show coming up, so I bought an annual membership. The memberships were discounted, so I got a great deal on it! 

The main entrance to the ROM

I don't get out much; this was my first experience with the "All-Gender " washroom. 

All Gender Washroom

It was kind of neat, as all washrooms had their own toilet and sink. And look at the sink. The center tap is for water. The two wings on the side? Those are the Dyson hand dryers! How cool is that?!! I want one in my house—no more towels! All are activated by motion sensors. 

The tap in the bathroom

This is the exhibit I went to see: Quilts Made in Canada. I took loads of pictures, but I'm not posting them as many museums are allowing us to take non-flash photos for personal use only. And that means no posting online. The quilts were varied, and some of them were insane in their work. One older quilt was made of 1/2" finished half-square triangles. Now, who had the leisure time to do that? 

Quilts Made in Canada

Thanks to another friend of mine who is a member of the ROM, I went to see another exhibit—an immersive view of the Earth. This was amazing, as you stood or sat in various rooms and saw the inside of a rain forest, life about two feet under the ground, close-ups of insects as they go about their daily lives and the ocean. When I say close-ups of the insects, I mean CLOSE-UP. It was fascinating!

Then, I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) to see another exhibit. 

The AGO

These were not quilts, but the artist called them trapunto paintings. They were huge, with lots of painting, embellishments, and thousands of hand stitches through the canvas! How the heck did her hands survive that? This woman had an interesting life as she traveled to more than 60 countries and was very involved in textiles throughout that entire journey! 

There were other shows to see at the Textile Museum, but there was no way I was going. My feet were getting tired at this point. But I stopped at City Hall. There was to be another show of quilts there, and it was supposed to be open at 9 AM. But when I arrived, after waiting to go through the metal detector, nothing was set up. So I decided to come back on my way to the train. 

They were JUST finishing up. I guess there was a mistake in the advertising as the show technically started with their reception at 5 PM that day. So I got VERY LUCKY that I was able to see the quilts. 

These were quilts made in Canada and sent to England during the war as part of the Red Cross's effort to provide "blankets" to soldiers and people who had lost everything in the blitzes. 

Amazingly, some of the quilts survived, and thanks to a group, some were repatriated back to Canada. As best as the group could identify the makers, the quilts were sent to the Canadian provinces where the makers resided. 

The quilts are held with the Toronto Metropolitain University (formerly Ryerson). I had a chat with the curator and will provide more information later. I have to get to the gym this morning. But it was a great show, and I'm happy I could see it. The quilts are on display for TWO days only. So you see -- I got fortunate in being able to see them. 

As I left City Hall, they were putting up their Christmas tree!!!!

Toronto's Christmas Tree

And yes, there are some sunny spots in the city, but it's very shady and cold compared to what I see every day in the suburbs. There's the CN Tower. 

The CN Tower

I made it back to catch the 3:40 train home. All was good until I reached my station, and NO RESPONSE from DH, who was supposed to pick me up. So I walked most of the way home before he came to rescue me, and I was kind of mad he did. I was close to the grocery store and had to stop to get groceries. But all is good. It was a 15 KM day, which isn't really out of the ordinary for me. 

Having had a late night the previous night, I went to bed early and slept like a log for TEN hours. But now I'm on my way to spin class. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Is it art or junk?

Another day - another city! I'm in Sudbury now. The drive from North Bay to Sudbury was uneventful, and yesterday was a day to just hang out. 

I almost didn't have to scrap the windows on my car. Just missed the sun doing that job for me by a couple of feet. However, the weather here is stunning! I ran around all day without a jacket, and the sun was out for most of the day! And while they did have snow, as you can see a few remnants here and there, the weather gods were in my favor this week. 

The sun is "scraping" the windows

Before leaving North Bay, I stopped at a house I'd heard about and seen pictures of, but the photos do NOT do justice to this house. Have you heard of the JUNK HOUSE --- that's where I went. 

I took an overall picture of the house, but it doesn't do justice. The house is on a corner, so the owner has the entire side of the house and the front to display his "art." There is everything and anything mixed in here. 

The side of the house

He definitely has a favorite color - red, as many things have been painted red. Every time you look, you spot something else. There were full-sized traffic lights, a railway crossing, tractors, rakes, hoes, flowers, antique toys, bicycles, and the list goes on and on. 

There's the railway crossing. 

Railway crossing sign

There's a bus stop right in front of the house, and I had to wait for the bus to come to admire the art in solitude. While the side of the house appears to be just junk, the front of the house is kind of creepy, as I think he decorated it for Halloween. 

YES -- that is a clown in that little scooter thing. And there were skulls and other Halloween decorations around. He also has lights hooked up, which probably glows quite eerily at night! 

A clown in a scooter!

He bought the house next door to him and is spreading his wealth between the two houses. This is the back attic window on the second house. Why is that like that? A fire escape? 

OH -- the ventilation system?

The city has tried numerous times to clean up the mess or get the owner to clean it up, but that has failed. I don't know the entire story, but it's a fascinating place to stop by if you are in North Bay. There is only one entrance into the house from the front, but that path is clogged. Did I mention the rabbit hutch in the front with two rabbits? Maybe the people at the bus stop give them lettuce! But they had a nice heat lamp and a nice house amongst the "art." 

I walked around the houses and into the back alley. Yep -- the backyards of both houses are chock a block filled with junk. There's a long green awning sign in one backyard, and the fence is exploding from the weight of stuff against it. 

The house beside the second house is pristine - it's a fine line between normal and not normal on that street. But I see a BIG problem. The roof on the original art house doesn't look too good. How would roofers get to the roof to fix it? And the minute anything was removed to fix the roof, the city would say NO to putting it back. 

And it's not like it's a junk pile because it is not. Everything is somewhat (albeit haphazardly) attached to the roof or the porch, the side of the house, or in a display. But it's NOT a pile of junk. 

On my drive, I spotted some barn quilt blocks, so I had to stop to take pictures. I spotted four - the first one was on a barn, and I didn't stop. But this one was on the porch of a house. 

Barn block on a porch

This one was on a municipal building in a small community called Verner. 

Barn block on a community center

And this was on another building - I've forgotten what it was. But that was nice to see. 

One more barn block

Once I arrived in Sudbury, I had a couple of stops to make, which drove my GPS crazy. Hey --- I had been looking for a Dollar Tree, which was close to Best Buy. Then, I ended up at the community center where I'm doing my events today. WOW -- it's on Ramsey Lake, and the setting is stunning. 

Ramsey Lake

I buckled down, did some writing in the afternoon, and then went for a walk. Part of the TransCanada trail is here. 

Trans Canada Trail

There is a trail along the lake, so walking was pleasant, and no worries about traffic. Although the path went along the side of the road opposite the lake. 

The Ramsey Lake Trail

Even had time to do a geocache, so that was fun. Although can you tell me why every time there are people around. One of the caches was on a busy street corner, and I didn't feel like poking among the rocks, so I walked on to another one that was in a quiet neighborhood. Except that, as I had to pop into the forested area, three people were standing around talking. I didn't care -- I plunged into the woods anyway. 

The geocache

It's a weird little residential area that juts into the lake. Mostly, it was quiet, but idiots were driving along the road at great speeds. Seriously??? And some houses had been there for eons just because of the style. Others were obviously new builds, with large black and white boxy shapes. They just didn't seem to suit the style of the community.

But what I noticed is this -- look at their address signs. Now, not all of them were like this. Interesting. I need a new house number sign -- perhaps I'll figure out how to split it! I think this is fun. 

A house number sign

OH -- should I say that I tempted fate yesterday. I arrived in town, and after my shopping, I headed off to the hotel. Sorry -- we are booked. What? It was barely noon. Yep -- some big hockey tournament in town, and they said I would be lucky to find a room. Hmmm -- I may be sleeping in the car. But I stopped at the next hotel - it's more of a motel, and I got a room. No big deal!!!!

So, I watched that event on the Red Cross World War II quilts last night. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. Hmm -- I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe I was tired or bored, but I had a hard time staying awake, so thankfully, they recorded it. 

Watching a webinar

Anyway -- I guess I needed more backstory into the whole thing, and perhaps it was at that time I nodded off. Anyway -- I'll watch the recording to see if I missed something. I had a couple of questions, but the chat box was disabled? Sigh. Sometimes, the errors are totally operator errors!

I have to laugh because so many people recognize me, maybe from my name, but more from those darn flowers I wear on my headband! I've worn them for years, and it's time to make a new one. These guys are looking sad. I know Margaret will be jumping up and down when she reads this because she made me NEW orange flowers; alas, I've done nothing with them!

Perhaps a December project!

And that wraps up another exciting day! 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!