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!!!