The Artisans, the Gold and the Transylvanians

"Now she's completely gone!" I can hear you whispering and averting your eyes from my blog title :)

No, I am not gone - or not completely at least, crazy I've been all my life at various levels :)

So what's with that title? It is the title of a well-known movie The Prophet, the Gold, and the Transylvanians and in Romanian my blog article title is translated into words that all start with 'A' (so it's a nice word-play on the original title). That still doesn't explain the title, does it?

A few years back I visited the One of a Kind Show in Toronto for the first time. When I entered the Exhibition Place (a 1 million sq ft place!) I felt like the 2 peasants from the movie: small and in awe. The place is a huge gathering of over 800 artisans in the winter (over 450 in the spring) and the Winter show is the brightest and bling-est I ever seen.

I came back from the show that year without knowing very well what universe I am in - and that was the year when I started considering my art side seriously. Partly because of the 'I can do that too!', partly because of the 'I want to get there one day too!' :)

I didn't go back until this spring - mostly because I have tried to go with someone and the timing has never been good. This year I decided to go no matter what and I even managed to get a friend to go with me :)

So last Friday we met in the Go train and we traveled to Toronto to enjoy a day of pure beauty.

The huge Direct Energy Centre is separated into 25 aisles (A to Y) and each aisle is home to a number of artists: from fashion to gourmet to jewelry to making cards and what not. You start browsing and you pay attention for the first 2, maybe 3 aisles... then you realize it will take you a week to finish and decide to not even stop at booths that hold no interest to you. But which are those?! I must admit - not too many for me :) I love everything beautiful, so I kept going and admiring almost everything (some things are beyond my level of understanding :) I am not one for modern cubist art for sure!).

Interestingly enough I stopped at pretty much the same booths as before (sometimes buying what I have missed for years now) - and still the ones that bring me the most happiness are the toy booths! There is one where they make 2- or 3-layers puzzles! The beauty of those 'toys' is beyond imagination and plays right into my deep love for carved wood.

All in all - I loved the adventure. What's next? I dream of the day when I can visit one of the huge Bead Shows... 2013 is probably not the year - maybe 2014? Tucson or Texas?

Now... back to cleaning and maybe start baking - do you realize there are 17 days left until Christmas?

May your Holidays be filled with joy and peace!



This is *the* Christmas tree @ the show!